Lately, I have been trying to be much more aware of the multi-modal choices that I incorporate into a text or piece of communication. By multi-modal choices, I am referring to all of the design and implementation choices that are apart from the actual content: things such as aesthetics, spacing, color, medium, etc. After remembering a particular situation from when I worked as a technical writing intern at DTE Energy, I started to think more carefully and critically about a specific design choice.
As technical writing interns, part of our job was to take old manuals or instruction sets and edit them to make them more modern, clear, and usable for the engineers and line workers. It was quite a big deal for us when we received a few manuals that were written exclusively in Comic Sans. In case you’re not familiar with it, Comic Sans is a playful font reminiscent of elementary school handwriting. We were, to say the least, extremely opposed to this writer’s choice, and although I was not the writer assigned to edit these manuals, I’m sure that the font was the first thing to be changed in the editing and redesigning process.
Looking back, it’s interesting that we all had the same immediate (negative) reaction to this particular font. Although our opinion hardly mattered in this instance (we weren’t the intended user), there are obviously situations in which the perception of the text can make all the difference. Such perceptions can materialize as clearly as it did for us, but they can also go barely noticed—although they may still have an undeniable effect. In fact, some underlying perceptions can come from your own culture and location.
In Paul V. Anderson’s book Technical Communication: A Reader-Centered Approach, he wrote about Karen Schriver’s research on font and typeface in particular. He wrote:
“Schriver notes, however, that several factors may come into play, including cultural preferences and familiarity with the font. In the United States, serif font is the most common in published books, but in Europe publishers use sans serif type.”
For these reasons, it’s important to always be conscious of what you’re choosing to use as a font. I won’t say that it should overshadow the creation of the actual content (don’t spend hours picking between Arial and Helvetica instead of writing, for example), but the text is the delivery system of the content. It deserves some amount of consideration and care.
You also don’t have to settle for one particular font. In fact, Paul Anderson recommended the use of different fonts as a way to “…help readers distinguish one kind of element on your page from another. At work, this is often done to help headings stand out from paragraphs.” I use this often when I’m working on non-academic projects and even in job-seeking materials.
Overall, I want to emphasize that font should be used as a tool in technical communication, rather than just another box to check before the piece is finished and passed on.
Contemplation & Communication 