Short on time? This page is the recap. For explanations and worked examples, use the full study guide.
Recap
- Design features are choices about how a text looks: type style, size, layout and space.
- Some design features, such as italics or boldface, create emphasis. Others, such as headings, lists, capitals, white space, colour and pull quotes, build a hierarchy that tells readers what to notice first.
- Emphasis works by contrast. If everything is emphasised, nothing is.
- Design is chosen for an audience and a medium. A poster, a website and an essay need different design.
Key relationships
| Feature | Creates | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Italics | A gentle stress; marks titles | Overuse reads as hysterical |
| Boldface | A strong, skim-proof stress | A whole paragraph in bold has no emphasis |
| Capitals | Loud emphasis for a short warning | Hard to read at length |
| Headings | Hierarchy and orientation | Vague headings waste the position |
| Lists and bullets | Parallel items, quick scanning | Can flatten reasoning |
| White space | Isolation of a key line | Too much looks thin |
| Size and colour | Hierarchy at a glance | Colour alone excludes some readers |
How to analyse design
- Name the feature (for example, bold for a date).
- Say what it makes prominent and what it plays down.
- Describe the path the reader’s eye follows.
- Explain the effect on this audience, linked to the writer’s purpose.
- Look for the gap between what is prominent and what is quiet; it is often revealing.
Using design in your own writing
- In a timed essay, sentences carry emphasis; use italics for titles and sparingly for a word that needs stress.
- Use headings and lists where the format invites them (a letter, a report), not in a formal essay unless asked.
- If you use a feature, use one consistently so that it keeps its contrast.
Worked mini-example
Text (Marlbridge): a webpage with a large bold heading “Win a tablet”, a medium line “Enter today”, and tiny grey text beneath: “Open to over-18s; one entry per household; winners drawn from correct entries only.”
- Prominent: the prize and the call to act.
- Quiet: the eligibility and rules.
- Path of the eye: prize, then action, then (if at all) the limits.
- Purpose: to attract entries with the benefit and keep restrictions in the background.
- Analysis sentence: “By setting the prize in large bold type and the restrictions in small grey print, the designer directs attention to the benefit and away from the limits, which suggests the aim is to maximise entries.”
Mistakes to avoid
- Describing without explaining: “The text is in bold” is not analysis.
- Emphasising everything.
- Inventing design features that are not in the text.
- Overusing capitals or exclamation marks.
- Relying on colour alone to show emphasis.
- Ignoring the medium: formatting that suits a flyer may not suit an essay.
Quick self-check
- Why does boldface lose force when a whole paragraph is bold? (Emphasis works by contrast; with no plain text around it, nothing stands out.)
- Name two design features and the emphasis each creates. (For example, a heading creates a hierarchy and signals the topic; white space isolates a key sentence.)
- What is the best way to start an analysis of a flyer’s design? (Say what is most prominent and what that choice suggests the writer wants the reader to notice.)
Next: practice questions.