Elements Unifying a report

Writing reports comes easy to most people, but the trick is to make the report easy and inviting for others to read. It is difficult to pick up and read a report that is dull and boring. I am not talking about the subject of the report but rather the look of it. A report may be chocked full of useful, important, and exciting information; but it may never get read in its¡¦ entirety because it looks uninteresting. One way to make a report more inviting to read is the use of eye catchers. An eye catcher is something that captures the eye; it aids you in gaining the reader¡¦s attention. Examples of eye catchers are:

„«Sidebars

„«Pull Quotes

„«Drop Capitals

Later in this report we will also go over other ways to build a great paper; such as, coversheets and unifying elements.

Sidebars

Why use a Sidebar?

„«Makes the report easier to read

„«Summarizes the main message

„«Reinforces the important concepts of the main message

Pull Quotes

A pull quote is a small selection of text pulled out and quoted in a larger font. One of the benefits of using a pull quote is to draw the attention of the skim reader; it clearly highlights key points of the article or report. Pull quotes add style to a document and also breaks up the monotony of text. A pull quote can be placed within an article, span multiple columns, or be placed in an empty column near the article.

Below you will find a good example of a pull quote from Glamour magazine. This one sentence can cause a reader to stop and read it. If the pull quote interests the person enough, he or she may read the balance of the article. The following are some guidelines for doing pull quotes: need to be thought provoking, need to be quick bites of information, and need to include only a single thought.

Drop Caps

Drop caps add visual interest and directs the reader¡¦s eye to the beginning of a section of text. You can use drop caps to enhance the appearance of your document. A drop cap is also another way to put emphasis on a word without using bold or italicized font. Drop caps provide a visual break in long articles or in the main text. You can vary the size, color, and font of a drop cap to achieve a more pleasant appearance. Roger Parker's Newsletters from the Desktop offers these additional tips for using drop caps: