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>Proposals are judged both on the meat and on the packaging,
>and picking a nice paper shows that you can pay attention
>to detail. Go with something a bit heavier and more opaque
>than typical cheapie copy paper, perhaps with a slight
>off-white tone.
Geoff:
Your comment sound sensible--not just for proposals, but for any kind of
documentation. Like typography, the subject of paper is one that writers
should know something about, even though they will probably never become
experts. It's useful if you have a vague idea of what you are talking
about when you deal with printing houses.
Your paper preferences also echoes a basic standard of classic
typography: good design is effective, but doesn't call attention to
itself. I've yet to see a grunge or post-modern manual, and I'd suggest
that this standard is usually the one to follow in documentation.
--
Bruce Byfield (bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com)
Technical Writer
IBM WAVE Group
Burnaby, BC, Canada
h: (604) 421-7189 o: (604) 293-5781
"Learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You
may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie
awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may
miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated
by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of
baser minds. There is only one thing for it then--to learn. Learn
why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing
which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be
tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.
Learning is the thing for you."
--T. H. White, "The Sword in the Stone."
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