What students see: Word processing and the perception of visual design

A study of students who have completed the first-year composition sequence shows that they are aware of, and understand the function of, some common design elements (boldface, italics, numbered lists) but are much less aware of other design elements (such as headers, indentation, and line spacing). These students' perceptions of design elements correlate strongly with their self-reported experience using word-processing packages and with their attitude concerning the design of a document and how that affects their ability to communicate, but not with other related demographics or attitudes. This study suggests that using a word-processing package can help writers learn to use and understand important elements of visual design. As more and more information is presented by dynamic, protean media such as the Internet, the ability to understand the codes of visual rhetoric will become more important for writers. Visual rhetoric should be addressed more directly in our teaching and research.