This thesis analyzes the challenges technical writers face when designing documents for high-context cultures, such as the Japanese. When developing documents intended to cross cultural gulfs, technical writers must take into consideration cultural expectations, preferences, and practices in document design and communication. High-context cultures, such as Japan, design documents using drastically different design strategies than those used in the United States. Japanese communication habits are more ambiguous than communication in the United States. Thus, the Japanese often use visuals for their aesthetic appeal, not for their ability to complement the text that surrounds the visual. The ambiguous nature of high-context culture communication habits often pose problems when Americans try to communicate--whether through written or oral communication--with a high-context audience. Without careful analysis and research into these cultural implications, the technical writer risks developing unsuccessful documents that do not accomplish the goals of the communication. It takes years of research to understand cultural differences, especially in the case of Japanese communication habits. With the research presented in this thesis, technical writers will understand better how to address document design issues when designing for high-context cultures in general and the Japanese culture specifically. In order to effectively analyze document design strategies across cultures, I have collected documents from two cultures--from the United States and from Japan. These two cultures represent a low-context culture, the United States, and a high-context culture, Japan. The United States and Japan are opposite each other on Edward T. Hall's cultural continuum, providing ideal subjects for a cross-cultural document design analysis. Using previous research in document design and cultural studies, I have established a grid for analyzing visual elements in the documents I have collected--full color automobile sales booklets. I analyze both high- and low-context documents against this grid. The various document design grids allow for visual representation of document design decisions in both cultures. American international technical communicators can use these grids as a starting point for addressing the cultural implications of document design for high-context audiences. The research presented in this thesis shows that high- and low-context cultures use visuals much differently. Readers, in both cultures, are persuaded differently by visual elements. By exploring and analyzing the use of visuals such as photos, diagrams, line drawings, and the way both cultures use visuals to approach their audiences, this thesis attempts to present an explanation of visuals in high-context cultures that will aid American technical writers who design documents for international audiences. This thesis uses Japanese cultural analysis and Japanese design theories to explain high-context design decisions applied to Japanese documents.

This thesis is analysing some problems of visual communication and interpretation of visual information. It's focus on psychological, typographycal and colour aspects of document design. This thesis also includes some facts about an interpretation of information by the spectator. Introduction of this thesis points to the problems of corporate identity (and its components) and its conections with psychology and design. Then chapters with a bacic knowledge of typography, psychology, composititon design and color therory are defined. These chapters bring theoretical principles, applicable in corporate design. The last chapter defines the redesign of the corporate visual style and through some examples of the practice shows its conections with the theoretical knowledge described in this thesis.

This thesis documents the process of developing and evaluating a curriculum written for adult literacy students transitioning from their current literacy goals to academic and occupational pursuits. The curriculum, titled the Basic College Skills Transition Curriculum (BCS Transition Curriculum), was written for students at Project Read, a non-profit adult literacy program located at the Provo Library in Provo, Utah. The model used to design this curriculum is a variation on the ADDIE model (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation), including the reiterative steps of research and evaluation. The lesson plans and materials in the BCS Transition Curriculum include the topics of U.S. History Vocabulary, Textbook Reading Skills, Lecture Note-Taking Skills, Study Organization Skills, Test-Taking Skills, Computer Skills, and Time-Management Skills. The curriculum is content-based, with each skill being taught through the content subject of U.S. History. This allows vocabulary to be recycled through each lesson plan and creates more opportunities for vocabulary acquisition. This also ties the curriculum together in an integrated experience that simulates an academic course in U.S. History. After the lesson plans were developed, tutors and students used the lesson plans and participated in an evaluation of the curriculum. Their feedback gave direction for revisions and provided ideas for the future development of this curriculum. Some lessons learned during this project about curriculum design include the importance of 1) including the curriculum designer's needs in the needs assessment; 2) clearly communicating needs and constraints to collaborators and stakeholders; 3) planning for problems and accepting limitations in the product; and 4) collaborating with others.

The 1930s and 1940s were characterised by considerable interest in research on literary magazines. Relevant studies were undertaken by A.M. Uys (1933, UCT), P.J.J. Dry (1939, UOFS) and W.G. Combrinck (1945, UW). This interest dwindled until J.H. Venter registered a doctorate at UNISA (1991), which he never completed. Today there is a vast gap in the field of research on Afrikaans literary magazines in general. Since no other research has yet been undertaken on the document design of literary magazines in particular, this study may be regarded as groundbreaking. Document design focuses on the utilisation of design elements to purposely create a document for optimal use by the reader. Renkema’s CCC model was chosen to serve as a generic, theoretically founded model for document analysis. In accordance with this model, texts were analysed and reviewed with regard to genre, content, structure, style and layout. Renkema’s model was adapted in order to fine-tune it for reviewing the document design of literary magazines in particular. In this study the choice of genre fell on literary magazines and little magazines of the 1960s (Sestiger, Wurm, Kol and Standpunte), the 1980s (Spado, Graffier, Stet and Standpunte) and the era of 2000 (Driepootpot, PENorent, seepdoos, Tydskrif vir Letterkunde and Spilpunt). The object of this study was to determine whether the parameters governing the document design of literary magazines changed over a period of forty years. The content of these magazines was analysed by classifying it in various subgenres and then comparing the number of writers who contributed to every subgenre in every magazine; the internal and external structure of the various magazines were defined and compared; the style of the various magazines was established and compared; and, lastly, the layout of the twelve magazines was explored and similarities, differences and progression were established. The results indicated that some of the parameters of document design have indeed changed over the past forty years, but that a large number of principles also remained unchanged. The content expanded significantly as a result of the addition of new subgenres. The internal structure remained consistent. The quality of the external structure and layout improved in such a way that it supports the internal structure much better. The style of the content remained unchanged for those magazines that belong to the same era, but changed through the decades to reflect the actualities and struggles of the day. Layout is the area in which the greatest measure of progression was recorded, mainly as a result of the expansion of knowledge in the field of document design, the evolution of technology in the form of the Internet, the layout process, the printing process, et cetera. These developments have, in the course of time, made it substantially easier to design documents for a specific purpose and target audience. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Unit for Academic Literacy / Unrestricted