Document Design

COURSE OBJECTIVE
To get acquainted with theories on genre, information processing and text comprehension of different text types: informative, persuasive and instructive.
To learn which linguistic characteristics play a role in the quality of different texts.
To reflect on different texts in an analytical way and to judge their quality.
To apply the knowledge and insights by identifying problems within a text, conducting user research and giving advise for rewriting it.

COURSE CONTENT
During this course, we will try to understand how certain choices in the design of a document can help us to inform, convince or instruct its
receiver. We will pay attention to genre theory (how can you differentiate between different text types), theories on information processing and text comprehension and will use these theories to understand how the characteristics of a certain document help to reach its goal. By analyzing examples from informative, persuasive and instructive texts from different domains, students learn to recognize linguistic phenomena that play a role in document design and they will at the end of the course be able to analyze the problems of a text, to improve it/rewrite it and to draw conclusions about its functionality by conducting user research.

TEACHING METHODS
Two lectures and one seminar (mandatory attendance) per week will be scheduled.

TYPE OF ASSESSMENT
One group assignment (50%) and one written exam (50%). Both the assignment and the exam should be graded with minimally 5.5 out of 10 points.