Document design matters in every project you will compose in the workplace. If you think back to the CRAP infographic, you know that your choices can influence a reader to examine your document fully or to skip it altogether. Bad document design often leads folks to declare, “tl;dr” (or “too long; didn’t read”).

Most of the daily posts this week will suggest ways that you can improve your Analysis project by paying attention to the layout and formatting for your table. For our #TuesdayTutorial, I’m sharing some Lynda.com videos that demonstrate basic options for Formatting Table Appearance for Word 2016 and Word 365. If you have another version of Word, you should notice similar options in your version.

To learn even more about how to design your table, watch the entire chapter on Tables for either version or skip around and choose the sections you need:

• Chapter 8: Working with Columns and Tables in Word 2016
• Chapter 8: Working with Columns and Tables in Word 365

Note: These video have transcripts, so they do not need transcripts.

Reminder of How Today’s Posts Work
#TuesdayTutorial posts demonstrate or tell you how to do something. It may be how to write a specific thing (like a memo) or how to revise something you have already written (like revising for concise phrasing).
 

The Tutorial

The columns of information in your Analysis project should use parallel grammatical structures. I’m sure that you all know what the word parallel means. You probably encountered it before you came to Virginia Tech in a geometry course.

You have probably seen the concept in courses here at Tech as well. Consider these examples:

• A mechanical engineering major is likely to be aware of parallelism control and parallelism tolerance.
• A building construction major surely knows that various parts of a building need to be parallel. (Imagine how annoying a staircase would be if the steps weren’t parallel.)
• A computer science or computer engineering major knows all about parallel processing.
• A finance major would probably be familiar with parallel portfolio optimization, parallel loans, and parallel markets.
• A business major may know about organizational parallelism, including parallel leadership and parallel learning.

In all these examples, parallel generally means that two or more things match in some way. That is essentially what parallelism means in a writing course as well. When you are composing your Analysis table, choose parallel phrasing for the information in each column. For example, you might start everything in the purpose column with infinitive verbs (verb phrases that start with “to,” such as to explain or to provide).

You can find out more about parallelism in the Lynda.com video on Parallel Structures (6m40s). The video begins with details on parallelism within a single sentence. At 4m50s into the video, the video discusses parallelism in bullet lists, outlines, and headings. That section of the video is closest to the kind of parallelism you will use for the columns of your Analysis table.

Note: This video has closed captioning, so it does not need a transcript.

Reminder of How Today’s Posts Work
#TuesdayTutorial posts demonstrate or tell you how to do something. It may be how to write a specific thing (like a memo) or how to revise something you have already written (like revising for concise phrasing).
 

The Tutorial

As you are working on your professional bios this week, you should also be thinking about how your online presence. Everything you put online has the potential to influence potential employers and colleagues. You probably already know that you should google your name to make sure there are no unfortunate messages found.

Today’s tutorial is included in the infographic (below) from a Swiss digital reputation management and security company. A related article, Protecting Your Online Reputation: 4 Things You Need to Know, is available from Mashable.

Steps 1 and 2 in the infographic explaing why managing your online identity is important, and Steps 3 and 4 explain what you should do. In addition to commenting on the ideas in the infographic, you can try some of the suggestions to find out what your online reputation is like and decide if you need to make changes. You can tell us what you find in the comments, if you like.

Note: This infographic needs a text-based transcript. See the Optional Accessibility Transcript Activity for more details.

Don’t Use This Bathroom Mirror Selfie

Use This Professional Photo Instead

The Professional Bio Statement that you are working on for your first major project needs a professional photo that shows readers both what you look like and something about your personality and style. I know that none of you would use a bathroom mirror selfie, but based on what students have submitted in the past, I want to provide some specific guidelines.

So what do you need? Take a photo where you are wearing the kind of clothes that you would wear to work or to an interview. Ring Dance or Wedding photos of you in a tux or formal dress may look nice, but they’re not quite right for this purpose. Everyone who looks at such photos knows that the person was trying to make-do with a photo that was clearly for another purpose.

You will find a lot more useful tips in the step-by-step tutorial in the Hubspot post How to Take Your Own Professional Headshot: A Bookmarkable Guide, which says it takes 15 minutes to read. The article covers everything from how to set up your camera to editing your final choice.

Take advantage of feedback from your writing group as well. If you can’t decide which photo is best, ask them to help you decide.

Photo credits: Self Portrait in Barbados by Jens karlsson on Flickr, used under a CC-BY license, and Me for Lindberg glasses by Jens karlsson on Flickr, used under a CC-BY license.