Chapter 13 | Organizing

Preparing an outline, is like creating the blueprints for a building.  When created well, an outline will successfully guide your first draft of your paper in an efficient and well organized manner.  In essence, a lot of the major thought process has to happen at this stage.  What will you say needs to be determined.  Then, upon creating your first draft, your can flush out how you're going to say it.  An outline determines the flow of your paper which in turns allows your reader to "anticipate - or predict - what will come next" (Bedford, 218).  This puts your reader at ease, and when your reader feels at ease and confident in your writing they will be more likely to agree with your argument or jump on board the ship you are advocating for. 

There are many organizing patterns in which your paper would be suited for.  They are:  chronology, description, definition, cause/ effect, process explanation, pro/con, multiple perspectives, comparison/ contrast, strength/ weakness, costs/ benefits, problem/ solution.  Unfortunately not one of these categories immediately jumped out at me as the best pattern for my paper on play.  The closest option I think would be definition mixed with problem/ solution.  Defining play in a new light for the reader and then identify the current problem of lack of play in our society and proposing the solution of play conditioning classes.  I still need to lock down my thesis though.  Perhaps once this is more defined the right organizing pattern will be clear. 

Using tools like clustering, mapping and labeling will help with creating an outline.  Given the non chronological or clear pro cons of my topic, I think clustering will be the best tool for me to use to get this process started.

Chapter 19 | Designing Documents & Presentations

Designing your documents and presentations is like creating the the cover for your book - or giving a well designed product shelf appeal.  If the product is confusing and unappealing -  no one is going to get past the first page or pick it off the shelf.  Especially in today's world where cutting through clutter is key, it's important for the writer/ researcher to have such a firm grasp on his/her material that they can easily pull out the important information and present it to their audience in a clear and effective way.

Different types of presentations will call for specific design needs.  A oral presentation might call for a PowerPoint presentation to accompany it.  TED talks are often great examples of this.  Poster presentations call for supporting images and well laid out headings and subheadings - as do newspaper and magazine articles.  Websites are another way to present your research which require well thought out design.  When designing websites, use of color, images, and title bars are key elements.  It's also important that any information on a website in never more that two clicks away - this insures a well-navigated.

One thing I observed is that oral presentations were given more thought to audience engagement than other types of presentations.  Here Bedford expresses the need for clarity, humor, catchy opening lines... The fact is, I think all written articles should be approached this same way.  I think if an article would loose it's audience is read out loud, that article isn't ideally constructed.

Chapter 18 | Understanding Design Principals

Understanding design principals is necessary to craft a well-designed paper.  Unfortunately, being that we are writing an academic paper, the extent to which we can use various design principals is going to be pretty limited.  This doesn’t mean that design can’t be a part of our paper, as long at it is still in MLA format, some main principals to consider would be:

• Balance – making sure all the elements of your paper are properly aligned
• Emphasis- using strategic fonts, sizing and color to make your headings and subheadings stand out.  In a non MLA format piece, you could also use emphasis to call attention to a specific quote or topic.
• Placement – well placed elements such as page numbers
• Repetition – keeping your paper easy to navigate by having page numbers and elements in the same place throughout all pages
• Consistency – keeping all design of elements consistent throughout all page

Having a well-designed paper will help readers understand the organization of your document, locate information and recognize the various functions to the different aspects of your paper.

Given that my topic is play, you would think a bold bright “fun” design would be called for.  However, I think this is misguided and perpetrates the misconceptions of play.  I want my reader to take play seriously, so a serious yet light tone will be objective.