Module 8: Graphics, Charts, & Visual Design
Technical Writing by Tiffani Tijerina is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International
Technical Writing by Tiffani Tijerina is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International
Apply the foundational design principles of Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity (CRAP) to create visually professional documents, establish clear visual hierarchies, and improve text readability for divers audiences.
Analyze, select, and integrate appropriate visual formats (such as photographs, technical drawings, and data visualizations) to construct persuasive visual arguments that assist stakeholders and clients in making informed decisions or taking specific actions.
Create user-friendly tables, charts, and graphs by avoiding overly dense "data monsters," applying clean column headers, formatting units appropriately, and ensuring proper text and numeric alignment (e.g., right-aligning data like an accountant).
Successfully contextualize visuals by explaining their significance in the preceding body text, and apply proper ethical and legal standards by accurately documenting and citing the sources of all borrowed tables, charts, and graphics.
Choose functional typefaces suited to the medium (e.g., utilizing serif fonts for printed body text and sans-serif fonts for digital headings/slides) while strategically managing margins, indentation, and white space to reinforce document structure.
*Explainer and knowledge check questions generated with Notebook LM, using Open TC 2e, Chapter 20 as the source content.
*Explainer and knowledge check questions generated with Notebook LM, using Open TC 2e, Chapter 20 as the source content.
More than Memos is a YouTube account with some really great analyses of different examples of technical communication. With each module, I'll assign you a video to watch with a different example. Enjoy!
You have likely heard the well-known expression that our visual argument reading draws its title from: "A picture is worth a thousand words." For this discussion, consider the following:
Consider the differences between how we interpret pictures (i.e. imagery and other visuals) and how we interpret words. What can images convey that words cannot and vice versa? Are these areas of overlap? What might these be?
Consider the interactive instructional guide you are working on for this class and determine what information you need to present in writing and what information would be most effectively presented visually. Share your reasoning.
Review your classmates' posts and respond to at least one. Try to support each other with ideas on how to display information visually in their instructional guides.