Klein and Shackleford's Design Approach

Klein and Shackleford have a similar design approach to Robin Williams in that they both focus on the basic principles of design: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. In fact, the writers acknowledge that they have gotten their information from this book. So it is quite similar.

The difference between the two texts is that, while Williams' text focuses almost entirely on professional documents, Klein and Shackleford attempt to help college students understand that design is an important element in student writing- particularly academic. They seem to focus a lot on how to insert images and graphics into academic papers in order to give a visual representation of the issue at hand in order to strengthen its impact. I agree, but the problem I had with the article is that all of our papers have to be in MLA, usually, and graphics, at least in my field, are discouraged. The article went on and on about what MLA is supposed to look like, but I've had that shoved down my head since the seventh grade. MLA is sort of an afterthought now. And if the design rules are already decided for me, what's the point of thinking about design at all?

I think that design elements are useful to know if you are the one in control of the design. But if you have to follow a certain formatting, these style skills don't get utilized.

The rhetorical purpose of MLA is consistency. If everyone formats their documents in the exact same way, it is no longer the design that influences the reader's perception of a document, but the text only. With all the writer's necessary information in comparable places, the reader can focus more on the body of the text itself. Style wise, the title is centered in MLA so that it stands out from the rest of the text. Titles are very important in academic writing: they can either be creative or can give the basic gist of the paper before you dive in. The writing is double spaced so that you can read a large chunk of text more easily. This also leaves room for notes and editing by the reader. The name and page number at the top of each page are there for organizational purposes. The header brings consistency and equality to writers, as well as providing pertinent information.