Organization: Using Headings to Organize

In addition to traditional writing elements, certain design components — headings and lists — help with organization.

Headings

Headings Heading provide the title for a chapter or section. You should use headings as navigation points for your readers, not only for whole sections but also for subsections.

They must be specific. Create ones that

  • Ask a question the segment will answer,
  • State the main idea of the section, or
  • Use a key word or phrase that reflects the topic of the segment.

For example, the heading DISCUSSION tells the reader only one thing: that something will be discussed. Instead of a generic heading, use one that tells the reader exactly what to expect:

OPPOSITION TO THE NEW BIKE PATHS

THE NEW BIKE PATHS: PROS AND CONS

RESULTS OF BIKE PATH SURVEY

Once you’ve created explanatory headings, make sure that all of them are parallel in style: all questions, all statements, etc.:

SETTING UP YOUR PRINTER

CONNECTING YOUR PRINTER AND IPAD

PRINTING YOUR DOCUMENTS

The heading for your entire document is actually called a title. Primary or first-level headings are the main headings (like chapter headings), while second-level ones indicate major section breaks, third-level ones breaks within those majors sections, and so on. Sentence or paragraph level headings are found at the beginning of sentences, like this example:

Stylus. The stylus is the tip of the pen. It is made of a soft rubber.

You should use as many headings as necessary to help your reader move through your document

With regard to design, the company for which you work might have a preset standard for setting up all a document’s external and internal headings – all main headings look like X, all secondary ones like Y, all others like Z -- or it might not. Regardless, though, there are two things you’ll need to remember where design is concerned:

  • The more degrees of internal headings you use, the more variations of a single style you will need.
  • The more important headings should be larger in size, with size decreasing as you decrease in level. This indicates hierarchy, or level of importance for readers.

Although many more possibilities exist and the company or organization for which you work might have set designations for heading styles, this example shows you three simple style groups for internal headings:

Example showing various levels of headings

Notice that all of these levels of headings differ in size, but also in style. As the third example shows, color can also be used to differentiate between levels of heading; however, you should remember that it is wiser to be consistent with color. Choose gradations of a single color rather than, say, three different colors. For example, if you elect to use blue for your headings, as shown here, use it for all headings, but simply make the main heading dark blue, the second level heading a bit lighter, and so on.  That way, readers can visualize the levels for themselves.

Additionally, if you are working on a longer document, such as a report, that might require numerous heading styles, be kind to yourself and set up Styles for each level of heading. If you do this, and you decide later to change that a particular style, changing the style alone will alter all of the headings you’ve selected as that level. Otherwise, you’ll be doing it by hand. Since it’s a good bet that most of you will be producing documents in Word, check out Style Basics in Word Links to an external site. for help setting up styles.