Ch. 4 Reading Reflection

Chapter 4 speaks at length about the presentation of a piece of writing. The acronym the book uses is HATS (headings, art, typography, and spacing). For me, the presentation of a piece of writing is a crucial component in my willingness to read something. I relate the topic of the presentation of writing and documents to textbooks and readings for a class. I get very easily overwhelmed by a reading within the first few seconds of looking it over, depending on how it is presented. There are a few things that contribute to my state of being overwhelmed while reading: small text, lines with little spacing in-between, and no pictures or visual aids. If a piece of writing comes across as cluttered and overwhelming, my attention span and openness to the topic go down rapidly. One is more likely in losing their reader due to fatigue and lack of interest if they do not consider the impact of each of the components of HATS. Each part of the acronym contributes to the clarity and understanding of the reader and lends to a better chance for the writers' ideas to be clearly communicated.