Indented Display

Sometimes your document will be so short that neither headings nor decimal numbering would be appropriate to highlight the levels of your thinking. Nevertheless, you will still be dealing with groupings of ideas, and you will want to highlight them in some way.

Groups of points supporting or explaining an overall idea are always easier for the reader to absorb if they are set off so as to be easily distinguished as a group. Consider, for example, the two versions of the memorandum shown below.

I have scheduled a Creative Thinking session with Frank Griffith and the industrial engineers for the second week of September, and for AI Beam and his staff for the third week of September.

I think we need just a few slides to supplement the introduction, which is attached with suggested slide concepts. We also need slides of the Specific Examples of Positive Reinforcement language. These slides would be used as a wrap-up at the end of the presentation. This language should also be in printed form to be used as a handout.

Slides showing the results of innovation we have had, such as the slides that you made of the musical instruments, would be quite valuable for the Frank Griffith meeting for the second week, and they would be essential for the AI Beam meeting set for the third week of September.

We have purchased the film "Why Man Creates" to be used as part of the introduction of the program. Slides are also needed for the section on Innovation Environment Chart Traits.

This version is acceptably clear as it stands, but the approach used in the version below makes the points literally "jump out" at the reader.

I have scheduled a Creative Thinking session with Frank Griffith and the industrial engineers for the second week of September, and for AI Beam and his staff for the third week of September. For both these meetings I will need slides showing:

1. The major points made in the introduction. Suggested concepts are attached.

2. Specific examples of positive reinforcement language. These slides would be used as a wrap-up at the end of the presentation. This language should also be in printed form to be used as a handout.

3. The results of innovation we have had, such as the slides that you made of the musical instruments. These would be quite valuable for the Frank Griffith meeting, but essential for the AI Beam meeting.

4. The steps needed to create an environment for innovation.

In general, the major rule to remember when you set your ideas off in this way is that you want to be sure to express them in the same grammatical form. Not only does this usually save words and make the ideas easier to grasp, it also helps you to check whether you are saying clearly what you meant to say. In this instance, for example, arranging the ideas in this way shows up the fact that the author has not stated what kind of slides he wants for the section on the innovation environment (point 4).

Whether the memorandum is long or short, the visual arrangement of groups of ideas to set off their similarity to each other will also make them easier to comprehend. As with hierarchical headings, however, one set of indented groupings per memorandum is enough; otherwise the visual effect is lessened.