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Hello! This is Krista Soria and I am going to talk with you about using templates for your technical writing document. And, as you'll see by
the title all my advice is to avoid using the templates when you're writing technical writing documents,
I'll describe way in the next upcoming slides. So, Microsoft templates, specifically
for resumes and for memos are poorly designed, generic and overused. They are also quite boring
with regard to their design and their style. My philosophy with templates is that they are sometimes a great place to start, but if you just don't
know how to design document, they are a great place to start but don't finish with them.
I'll demonstrate some of the many problems associated with relying upon templates in your writing.
I have a PowerPoint slide up here and I'm actually going to go through and show you some elements, so you'll see me clicking back and
forth here with some design elements and Microsoft word. One thing that you'll see up about this memo is
the tremendous amount of white space that's present.
You can see some white space at the top and white space and the sides; it can be problematic in my opinion. This big
orange box right here, especially,
you'll see that with it's taking up the looks like a really big portion of the page. White space is sometimes not a bad thing to use,
but in general you want to apply to having too much white space new documents because it
can sometimes look a little distracting. Additionally, look at this memo
well, it's obvious to us, isn't it, that it is a memo indeed. So, the word memo here, as you can see is
extremely large on an eight to shouts at us, MEMO! Below that,
looks as though we have a lot smaller font. One of the challenges of relying upon templates is that intend to give you a a predefined
format with regard to the fonts that are used and the type of fonts that are used. The font type that you see here is what's called a a sans serif
font. Sans means without
so sans serif means without a serif.
And examples of sans serif fonts include Arial on this one is Calibri I believe.
Serif fonts have nice a nice little foot
that appears in the bottom of your letters.
Calibri as a sans serif font and most of you, if you just have your of Microsoft word and it comes with its factory settings, you'll see be using
Calibri. which is typically the default. There are many ways of changing that which I'll show you in a minute.
This is example of the serif font. Times New Roman as one of the very best
serif font to use because there are feet at the top and the bottom. These feet connect the
letters connect the words, connect the words to sentences, sentences to paragraphs, paragraphs to the page.
Serif fonts are easier and faster to read. Many of you, when you look at your textbooks you'll see they tend to be serif fonts.
My recommendation is for use use a serif font and every aspect of technical writing. Not only for this class that also
off for your future professional work. So please use a serif font. And now that I've told you about it, should do that with all of your assignments. the only
exception is that sans serif ones are said to be quite good when of the online documents,
on such as web sites for online portfolios. That would be a definite exception. But you'll see here
that what Microsoft has done for the templates is automatically included.
Some fonts that are sans serif of the font is actually quite small. And the text is difficult to read because of the justification.
S0,o I encourage you to look at these basic elements and always be a little skeptical of what you're about to see
when you use templates. My recommendation is always use a serif font for all of the documents. Let me show you how to change that.
In Microsoft Word there's a little font tab, if you go there...
under the fonto tab, which you can see.
click on that. You can choose your font again as I 've mentioned, Times New Roman is a great serif font, choose regular and 12 point font.
The is actually Calibri, 11 point font.
Two strikes against that font: it's the sans serif want and 11 point font, which is usually good.
Change it for all documents.
One other problem that typically appears as other defaults in Microsoft word is double spacing or 1.5 facing. Some of the paragraphs
Choose the before to "0," after to "0," the line spacing the single and then
take that as well.
so I've done a few problems one additional problem that I will mention that is on pretty
obvious to me as I'm on sitting here sort of looking at the memo,
is this weird company name here. When you send a memo to me, you aren't required to
represent a company.
Going to our seond example: this one is also problematic,
There are distracting elements and I hope that you can point them out.
Here's a weird shape with no purpose.
I think what it primarily does is to serve as a distraction, I am sure you can see the other two way up at the top
and of three.
It's distracting. They serve no purpose.
There is some awfully odd use of spacing in this document. Let me point out to you some of the borders of the document.
On the left hand side that is taking up probably
2 inches on and it's just taking up way too much of the page. It sort of makes me think why do you need to fill up so much f your page with white space
when you could use that so much better. It looks like at the wasted piece of paper, in all honesty, and I will show you an example of a
a resume. I think that spacing in resumes is a bit more
a bit more serious than spacing in memos. This memo
on again this is a lot of problems you interoffice memorandum at the top. The font is something like a 9 point font, which is too difficulty and
tiny to read. Some of the visuals are distracting and are not necessarily to read.
Normally, think about templates again as a place to start but not where you want to stop.
Here's an example of the resume. I have had students actually submit this very resume on
to me, and a couple of problems one of right off the bat as I'm looking at this header: it's blue.
I really recommend avoiding the use of color in your resumes because often what will happen is people that you might submit your resume online
that's great, but somebody might print on a non-color printer me and I copy it, non-color copier
and I can benefit of the committee's where we have
a copy the actor copy of your copy and skull all they get is a copy of the copy the copying. It makes things look a little
funny especially for trying to use different colors on it. I really recommend
against using color. I see some really funky spacing.
Lots of white space in the corner on another example
of about 2 inches of thing in my little bit more maybe two and they have a just white space. I
think white space is sometimes a bit of a crime on a resume because
I think to myself, "you didn't have enough share about your job duties?" You didn't have enough to
to fill the page? You should really
share lots and lots of details of the work experiences. Here is another example of some weird spacing. One's eye really has to move from the
left hand side of the page to the right hand side of the page. This is distracting
and one thing that I've really recommend is avoid making your readers a little angry; instead, make things easier
for your readers and group items on together.
They also used a san serif font.
It is challenging with regard to white space for a lot of white space.
Again, with your reader, avoiding some of this distraction of putting your name over here and putting the
rest of your information over here as a going to the back and forth back and forth.
In addition to white space, resume what I also see sometimes are some challenges of the ordering of things. Objectives, for one, are very
difficult to write. Only write an objective if you can do it correctly.
The job title is first: it's great to start your resume with job title. The next piece of information is dates of employment. Truthfully the
order that in individual wants to read this type of information and
is job title, company, location, dates of employment.
And again we have a sans serif font, which I recommend against.
This resume the spacing is maybe a little more balanced than the prior resume,
but take a look and all this white space.
and I think on a resume again, the goal is to have a very balanced,
and not all overfilled, but nicely balanced in terms of spacing, in terms of style on it's very challenging to see all this white space because again I think
what if you have written a few have taken up that space. It is really this whole column,
I'm seeing some balance problems: I see a big block of text over here
and then we have a much smaller block of text in the upper left hand corner, which seems maybe just a little on balance to me. Perhaps it would
be better if this were more centered and higher at the top.
and maybe centering this so it is not shoved over.
Symmetry is really something to consider in your resume.
On this particular resume, the font seems pretty small. And again the idea of not making your reader mad by having to look here and
here and then
and having to move your eye all the way across the page. Keep things a little bit more close together and that will be a lot easier for your
readers. The bottom line is avoid using templates
for technical writing documents. As I've mentioned, they are a great place to start if you simply don't know how to start something for the
that a place to start of the image of their design elements in place. My final piece of advice is always use a serif font. And again, as I've
mentioned, there are a couple of exceptions. One is that when you're writing online,
another exception is, I wanted to wait to tell you this,
is PowerPoint presentations actually use
sans serif once pretty effectively. It is sometimes easier to read sometimes a sans serif font on a
screen or on a computer screen as you doing now.
the two exceptions are PowerPoint presentations and create online documents. So, if you have any questions about templates, please
let me know. At this stage, I would expect that you avoid using templates
and that you always use a serif font, a 12 point font, in your writing. Thanks so much. Have a great
night, good afternoon, or good morning whatever time of day it is. Thank you!