The little red writing book - Brandon Royal 2007
Employ readability tools
Readability
Principle #18: Make key words and phrases stand out.
Painters, sculptors, musicians, professional photographers, and poets are but a few individuals highly adept at judging what effect stylistic additions and deductions will have on an overall composition. Writing is also a balancing act. The writer seeks to retain those greater elements that most define a writing piece while looking for smaller adornments to bolster its appearance and readability. Such adornments might include boldface type, italics, dashes, bullets, enumerations, and shading.
BOLDS
Bolds (boldface type) may be used to emphasize keywords and help key ideas “jump out” at the reader. Bolds are especially useful for flyers, résumés, and other documents in which the reader may spend only a brief time reviewing. Italics or underlining can do the same job as bold type, though care must be exercised not to overdo it. For example, rarely do we want to see bolds and italics used in the same paragraph. One unwritten rule of writing and editing is to never use bolds, italics, and underlines together (ditto for bolds, italics, and full caps in combination). Be aware that if you use boldface type too liberally, you will dull the effect and perhaps patronize the reader.
ITALICS
There is artistry in the occasional use of italics. Italics, like bolds, serve similar purposes. Consider using italics to highlight certain key words, especially those that show contrast, or for small words, especially negative words such as not, no, and but. Be careful of overusing italics because they are tiring on the eye and can make the page look busy.
For stylistic purposes, many examples in this book appear in italics in order to distinguish them from explanatory text. Note that such text would not normally be italicized.
DASHES
Dashes can be used to vary the rhythm of a sentence and to place emphasis on words and phrases in a more dynamic manner than could be achieved through the use of a comma (or pair of commas) or semicolon.
The world’s oldest dated book — the Diamond Sutra — is an elaborately decorated book containing a beautiful cover piece. Written in 868 A.D., it was discovered in 1907 in a cave near Dunhuang, China.
Note how the dashes in the previous example make the book appear more dramatic than in the example below, which contains commas:
The world’s oldest dated book, the Diamond Sutra, is an elaborately decorated book containing a beautiful cover piece. Written in 868 A.D., it was discovered in 1907 in a cave near Dunhuang, China.
BULLETS
Bullets (•) are effective tools for paraphrasing information, especially for presenting information in short phrases when formal sentences are not required. Bullets are most commonly used when preparing résumés, slides, or flyers. Bullets are not, however, recommended for use in the main body of an essay or report unless they are included within a table. It is also not considered good practice in formal writing to use hyphens (-) or asterisks (*) in place of bullets.
ENUMERATIONS
Enumerations involve the numbering of points. Listing items by number is more formal but very useful for ordering ideas or data.
EXAMPLE 1
I feel that my greatest long-term contributions working in this field will be measured by (1) my ability to find ways to define and quantify, in dollars and cents, the benefits of ethics and corporate citizenship, and (2) my ability to sell corporations on the proactive benefits of these programs as a means to market their company, products, and employees.
EXAMPLE 2
Each letter in the word “s.u.c.c.e.s.s.” embodies a single action:
1. Super effort
2. Unusual drive
3. Copy what works.
4. Change what doesn’t.
5. Exercise now and cut out excess.
6. Save a little more, spend a little less.
7. Start all over again the very next day.
SHADING
Shading creates contrast on the page and can be a great device for formatting business reports. For example, you can highlight the start of each section of a report by using shaded section headings. Within the pages of a report, shading is often used to tint the top row (header row) of a table. Flyers also commonly use shading to call out information.
RÉSUMÉ EXAMPLE
The following is an excerpt from a résumé. Résumés provide a classic example of the use of readability tools, particularly in terms of bullets, bolds, and italics.
