Document Design 

Abstract: Multimedia explanations are communications using words and pictures to explain how something works, including animation and narration in computer-based environments or text and illustrations in book-based environments. A cognitive theory of multimedia learning reveals a concurrence requirement for meaningful learning, in which corresponding verbal and pictorial representations must be held in working memory at the same time. Based on a theory-based research program, I propose five design principles: multimedia principle, to use words and pictures rather than words alone; contiguity principle, to place words close to corresponding pictures on a page or to present narration concurrently with corresponding animation; coherence principle, to minimize extraneous words, pictures, and sounds; modality principle, to present words as speech rather than as on-screen text; and individual differences principle, to use these design principles particularly for low-experience rather than high-experience learners and for high-spatial rather than low-spatial learners. Multimedia messages offer great potential for improving the effectiveness of communication, but only to the extent that their design is based on theory and research.

Abstract: This study focuses on the impact of linguistic markers of coherence on the comprehension of expository discourse. The impact of such markers on comprehension (i.e. off-line) is a highly controversial topic in current studies, especially for connectives for which a facilitating as well as an interfering role has been demonstrated. As a matter of fact, it seems that connectives facilitate the comprehension process in that they improve the reading process, but that they do not increase comprehension of the text. It might even be possible that they ease the reading task in such a way that they provide the reader with the "impression" of having understood the text instead of a real understanding. The objective of the experiment was to test this far reaching hypothesis for the use of connectives in expository texts. We wanted to determine the impact of causal connectives such as 'because' ('parce que') and 'so' ('donc') on comprehension and on the feeling of understanding, contrasting it with the impact of anaphoric expressions. Contrary to previous results, our experiment shows that the presence of connectives actually improved comprehension while it did not have an impact on the feeling of understanding.

Abstract: The role of rhetoric may seem evident in print advertising. However, few analyzing frameworks exist that allow for studying the function of the rhetorical devices. This article addresses the issue by examining the validity of two competing frameworks, Text-Interpretive Analysis devised by McQuarrie and Mick (1996, 1999) and the Visual Rhetoric approach by Groupe Mu (1992). In addition to a reliability test, it is ascertained whether the frameworks make it possible to account for a different rhetorical style in French and Dutch magazine advertisements, or for a different rhetorical style in ads for tangible products as opposed to ads for intangible products. The results show that neither framework is completely infallible, and that both frameworks present inadequacies with regard to their feasibility. The model proposed in McQuarrie and Mick 1996 appears, however, to be the most promising.

Abstract: The production of expert-to-layperson documents in private and public companies is an area of research that is gradually gaining ground in research communities throughout the world. This article discusses the nature of public communication written by experts or semiexperts and aimed at a large and heterogeneous audience, often potentially the entire population of a country. The article analyzes common barriers to this kind of communication, and considers topics such as the implications of very broad target groups, expert-to-layperson communication and the legislative introduction of mandatory genres as opposed to genres which have evolved naturally over time. The case of the patient package insert is outlined as a prototypical example of 'public communication' suffering from the problems brought about by the existence of these common barriers.