Design Choices

[Taken from the first edition of Writer / Designer]

Your analysis of the text should consider how the design choices made by the author affect the rhetorical situation (31).

Emphasis
- “gives certain elements greater importance, significance, or stress than other elements in the text” (31).
Contrast
- “the difference between elements, where the combination of those elements makes on element stand out from another” (33).
Color
- "Analyzing a text for color means noticing not only what colors are being used, but to what effect?" To create a mood, to emphasize something, to highlight something in relation to something else?
Organization
- “the way in which elements are arranged to form a coherent unit or functioning whole” (34).
Alignment
- How elements are arranged relative to one another; horizontal and vertical alignment affect the ways in which “our eyes move across a text” (35).
Proximity
- How closely elements (visual or aural) are placed to one another (36).