1. Collect several documents that you receive as a consumer, a student, or an employee: forms, letters, newsletters, emails, announcements, ads, flyers, and reports. Use the document design guidelines in this chapter to evaluate each of them.

2. Compare these documents in a specific category to the documents produced by competing organizations. Which documents are more effective? Why?

As your instructor directs,

a. Discuss the documents with a small group of classmates.

b. Write an email to your instructor evaluating three or more of the documents and comparing them to similar documents produced by competitors. Include originals or photocopies of the documents you discuss in an attachment to your email.

c. Write an email to one of the originating organizations, recommending ways it can improve the document design.

d. In an oral presentation to the class, explain what makes one document strong and another one weak.