Writing That Works, 3e_ How to Communicate Effectively in Business - Kenneth Roman [14]
Whatever font you choose, stick with it throughout your document. You will not hurt the feelings of your computer if you don’t use all its fonts in every paper. And you will save your readers’ eyes.
Keep your fingers off the boldface and underline keys. Boldface and underlining are fine for headings but should be used only for occasional emphasis in text. The same goes for italics.
When you emphasize too many words, the effect is not what you intend. It may even be the opposite — when everything is emphasized, nothing is emphasized. And your page looks messy.
When you do want to emphasize a word or phrase, italics will do it most professionally. Well-edited magazines, newspapers, and books always prefer italics to boldface or underlines.
Forget about justifying type on the right margin. Justified type on the right looks good in books and magazines because the spacing between words is handled with a lot of care. Software programs tend to do the job crudely, leaving artificially large spaces between words or else jamming the words too close together.
Readers are accustomed to business papers with ragged right-hand margins. They look more natural, and are easier to read than papers that have forced both margins to line up. The narrower the measure, the worse the results.
Enough is enough. “Perfectionism is spelled p-a-r-a-l-y-s-i-s,” said Churchill. In some hands the computer illustrates his point. Some people never stop editing. They never stop formatting. There is always one more change to try. So our final word of caution is don’t be too cautious — let ‘er rip! The computer is your liberator. Don’t become its slave.
HOW MUCH COMPUTER DO YOU NEED FOR WRITING?
Whether it’s your first computer or an upgrade, you need note daunted by the hardware numbers or software options. Writers don’t require a lot of electronic horsepower. Any computer sold today by a reputable manufacturer is more than powerful enough for word processing and e-mail. Major brands all give you more processing, disk space, and memory than writers know what to do with. (But get a quiet computer with a quiet fan.)
Which laptop you choose has implications for writing. Small, lightweight models, with slightly reduced keyboards and smaller displays, are a reasonable compromise if you go through a lot of airports. The slightly heavier, full-feature portables are better if you write or read large amounts of text, or use your laptop as a desktop or primary computer.
A few bucks extra on the monitor is a wise investment. The life span of a monitor is generally twice that of a desktop computer, and a desktop has twice the life span of a laptop. So it pays to get a monitor that’s easy on your eyes. That means no smaller than seventeen inches, preferably nineteen inches if you have enough room on your desk or table. (New generation LCD monitors, which are clearer and flicker less than current CRT models, permit you to use a screen that’s a couple of inches smaller.)
Microsoft Word, the leading word processing system, is excellent and getting better all the time. Some experienced users have stopped automatically ordering each upgrade that comes along with new bells and whistles. They find earlier versions familiar, simpler, and adequate for their needs.
Printers have come a long way from the slow and noisy dot-matrix printers of not long ago. Ink-jet print quality is good. Laser printers are faster, with better print quality — and more expensive.
The big news is faster access to e-mail and the Internet, thanks to improved dial-up telephone modems. ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) or DSL (Digital Subscriber Lines) offer Internet connections up to twenty times faster than phone line connections, but at a price. Cable lines, connected through an Ethernet cable (built