You will create and compose a variety of documents using layouts and styles that suit their different purposes. You will compare the style and layout of documents you originate with similar documents produced by organisations.

This unit links closely with Unit 2: Handling information (Intermediate). Together, they form the basis for all other units.

This unit provides broad knowledge, skills and understanding for Unit 202: Produce documents using word processing software, and Unit 203: Produce spreadsheet documents, in Level 2 NVQ IT, Using IT.

This unit will be assessed only through an external assessment. The grade you achieve in this assessment will be your grade for the unit.

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What you need to learn

The topics are:

styles of writing and presentation
types of information
document layout
presentation techniques
standard ways of working

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Styles of writing and presenting

You need to understand how the following purposes affect writing style and the style of the presentation:

meeting the needs of your reader
attracting attention
setting out facts clearly
explaining details
summarising information.

You know what you want to communicate. How will you express it? There are two things to remember when you are presenting information. You must learn how to:

use language to suit the reader. For example, when writing for a young child you would use simple words in short sentences; when writing for an adult you could use longer words and more complicated language
select a writing style that suits the occasion. For example, the words and sentence length you would use in a letter of complaint would be different to those used in a glossy advertisement

You meet the needs of your reader by using the right kind of language. Unusual words might impress the reader of a job application. They might irritate a reader of directions to find your house.

You meet the needs of the occasion by thinking about style. Styles of writing and presentation vary for different types of document. You need to think about and understand the reasons for the variety of writing styles.

Thinking about some of the following examples may help:

a formal letter responding to a job advertisement
an agenda for a meeting for a sports and social club
minutes of a meeting for a sports and social club
an advertisement trying to sell something second-hand
a note to the milkman ordering milk
a formal invitation to a social event
a glossy advertisement for some new cosmetics
a letter to a newspaper
a table of results for a sporting activity
a form on which the user enters information, for example a fax header page
a report of a local council planning meeting
a form for ordering products
an invoice
an E-mail to a company asking for information on a product.

You must learn that there are tools to help with style. Different styles of document layout can be created by selecting a suitable template. Most software provides templates for a wide variety of different types of document.

There are also tools to assess the reading age of a piece of text. If the reading level seems too high, you can try shorter sentences and simpler words. The advice you get for editing the text matches the style of writing you choose from the options provided.

Other tools such as a thesaurus help you to replace particular words with more appropriate ones.

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Types of information

Different types and forms of information are often combined in documents to make the documents easier to read and understand. The most common forms of information are:

text
numbers
tables
charts and graphs
graphics

You must originate, use and combine a variety of different types of information in your documents.

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Document layout

You must show you understand different forms of document layout. For example, each of the following types of document uses a different layout:

memos
publicity flyers
screen displays
agendas
business cards
business letters
newsletters
minutes
fax header pages
E-mails
itineraries
reports

There are common standard layouts for most documents. The different features of layout include:

page size and orientation
paragraph format
margins
headers and footers
line spacing
fonts.

The position on the page of important items in the document is also part of layout, including:

logos
headings
references
dates
addressee names
signatures

You will need to think about why commercial organisations use a standard layout for business documents. You will look at how different organisations use different layouts for the same type of document, including the following commonly used documents:

invoices
orders
delivery notes
letters
memos
advertisements
newspapers
agendas
minutes

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Presentation techniques

It is important to present information clearly. Poorly presented information may annoy or confuse readers. A common error is not keeping to a consistent style for headings in a document. You should also think about what you want to achieve with your document and what will appeal to your readers.

There are many features that you can use to help create effective documents. They include:

layout grids
templates
use of white space
titles and headings
fonts and sizes
bold and italic text
hanging indents
tables and tabs
upper and lower case
subscript and superscript
graphics
colour
borders and shading
dividing lines (rules)
bulleted lists
justification
columns
special symbols
headers and footers
charts and graphs
contents and indexes

You will need to know how and when to use these techniques in a document. You may need to create a number of documents before you can use them well.

You will also need to learn to:

use existing information
create original information
blend existing and original information
combine different types of information
maintain a consistent style of writing and presentation

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Standard ways of working

Many organisations have rules and guidelines to help people work effectively and avoid problems. These are known as ‘standard ways of working’. They are very important for people working with Information and Communication Technology.

Note:

What you need to know and how to use standard ways of working are described in the next paragraph. These techniques must be applied to all of your ICT GNVQ work. In the other units the requirements are stated more briefly to avoid repetition of detail.

There are many reasons for having standard ways of working in ICT. The most important is that information in ICT systems can easily be lost or misused. For example:

unauthorised people may gain access to confidential information
people may copy original work and present it as their own
data files may be lost, corrupted by a virus or damaged in other ways
computers may be damaged so that data stored in them cannot be recovered
inaccurate or poorly written information may confuse or annoy readers
information presented professionally may be believed, even though it may be inaccurate
poorly laid-out workplaces may cause physical stress or be hazardous to ICT operators
use of ICT systems may result in less attention to the planning and managing of work.

Standard ways of working help you to overcome these problems. In your work with ICT you must ensure that you:

manage your work effectively
keep information secure
ensure that information you produce is accurate and readable
work to standards commonly accepted by organisations.
work safely

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Managing your work

The way you manage your ICT work is important. You must be able to:

plan your work to produce what is required to given deadlines
use tabs and indent settings correctly so that you can easily make changes to data
use file names that are sensible and which help to remind you of the contents
store files where you can easily find them in the directory/folder structure
keep a log of any ICT problems you meet and how you solve them
check and evaluate your work and suggest how it might be improved

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Keeping information secure

Protecting information from loss or misuse is essential in ICT. You must learn the particular importance of:

keeping information secure, for example from theft, loss, viruses, fire
protecting confidentiality, for example preventing illegal access to medical or criminal records
respecting copyright, for example not using or presenting the work of others without permission

If work stored on an ICT system is lost it is important that there is another file that can be used in its place. There are two ways to make this possible:

by saving work regularly, and using different filenames
by keeping dated backup copies of files on another disk and in another location.

People or companies may wish to keep information confidential so that others do not know about it. In such cases you must learn to keep the information secure and not pass it on to others.

A computer program, words, pictures and graphic images may belong to other people. The people who created or own this material have copyright. This means that you must not use their work without their permission. If you do you are breaking the law. You must understand what copyright means and respect copyright law. Where you are able to use other people’s work it is important that you include an acknowledgement.

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Accuracy and readability

Inaccuracy can mislead and annoy readers. There are some checks you can learn to use with formal written work such as business letters.

Spell-checkers help you to correct spelling and some other mistakes. They can also help you to improve your spelling. You must be able to use spell-checkers to detect:

words spelt incorrectly
repeated words (for example, ‘and and’).

Sometimes a spell-checker will suggest that a word is incorrect when you know it is correct. This often happens with proper names, for example ‘GNVQ’, or ‘Peter’. You may be able to add these words to a computer’s dictionary to fix the problem. Using a spell-checker will not find all errors. It will not correct ‘capitol’ for ‘capital’ or ‘there’ for ‘their’ or ‘to’ for ‘too’.

You should also learn when and how to use grammar-checkers. They can help you to:

make sure your sentences have a subject and a verb that agree
find out the level of reading difficulty of your work
write mostly in a certain style, for example in the active voice
detect sentences ending with two full-stops
detect missing capital letters at the beginning of sentences.

It is important that you use print preview on the computer to review the layout of your documents before printing them. You must proof-read your documents for errors, both on screen and the printed copy. You also need to check that your document makes sense and meets your purpose.

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Organisations and standard formats

Organisations often have their own standards for document layout. They will certainly have rules about confidentiality and security of information.

You must learn the importance, to organisations and to your own work, of being able to:

use common standards of document layout, for example letters and memos
write sample minutes and agendas and present them in a specified layout
proof-read documents, using some standard symbols for omissions and corrections.

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Working safely

The ICT working environment is relatively safe. However you must avoid:

bad posture and physical stress
eye strain
hazards resulting from equipment or workplace layout.

You should be aware that a comfortable working position is important to avoid physical stress, eye strain or safety hazards. This may include:

comfortable seating
suitable desk and VDU position
suitable keyboard position
brief rest periods
avoiding long periods of continuous VDU work
surrounding area that includes near and distant objects upon which your eyes may focus
layout of cables and equipment (to avoid tripping)
insulation of cables (from electrical supplies)

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Assessment Evidence

You need to answer test questions to show how well you understand presenting information.

Pass-To achieve a test pass your work must show:

Merit-To achieve a test merit your work must show:

Distinction-To achieve a test distinction your work must show:

P1 a knowledge of suitable writing styles and page layouts for a given purpose

P2 an understanding of aspects of document layout, including paragraph formats, line spacing, margins, pictures, clip art, charts, drawings, tabs, headers/footers, fonts, bullets, tables, use of white space, titles, borders/shading and headings

P3 how information that may be better presented in graphic or tabular format is used

P4 an understanding of automatic facilities for checking accuracy

P5 an understanding of the reasons for keeping information secure and describe how backup files can be produced

M1 a knowledge of how a document might best be presented to achieve an impact and meet a specific requirement

M2 a knowledge of the correct position of certain information on standard documents

M3 an understanding of automated facilities for checking accuracy and their limitations

M4 an understanding of different sources of information

M5 that you can comment upon content, layout and differences between similar documents used by organisations and identify good and less good features.

D1 a knowledge of suitable sources of information for a specified purpose

D2 that you can explain the meaning of the term 'security' in terms of loss or misuse of information

D3 that you can describe aspects of safety when using Information Technology

D4 evidence that you have proof read, annotate and mark errors in a document

D5 a description of how given information could be presented in a way that makes it easier to understand.

In addition, in your portfolio, you need to produce six original documents for different purposes that show a range of writing styles and layouts. The documents can be in printed form or shown on screen. You must produce notes describing the documents and comparing two of them with three different layouts used by organisations for the same type of document.

You also need to produce an evaluation of your work.

Pass-To achieve a pass your work must show:

Merit-To achieve a merit your work must show:

Distinction-To achieve a distinction your work must show:

P1 your ability to chose and use appropriate writing styles and layouts so that your documents work as intended

P2 appropriate use of page orientation, paragraph formats, line spacing, headings, margins, headers/footers, tabs, bullets, fonts, borders and shading to enhance your documents

P3 your ability to originate suitable information and combine it appropriately with different types of material selected from other sources to create combinations of text, pictures, drawings, charts and tables

P4 your ability to check the accuracy of your work and keep backup copies of all files

P5 a clear description and comparison of different layouts used by organisations with your own layouts, identifying similarities and differences.

M1 imaginative use of document layouts and presentation techniques to achieve good quality and an appropriate impact in your documents

M2 your ability to proof-read your work and correct obvious errors

M3 relevant explanations for the differences between each of the documents used by different organisations and your own documents

M4 your ability to work independently to produce your work to agreed deadlines

M5 your ability to save and annotate draft work to show clearly the development process for two of your documents.

D1 different types of information is organised into a convincing and coherent presentation

D2 information that is accurate and concise and is presented in ways that make it easy to understand

D3 your ability to use technical language fluently and produce clear, coherent and comprehensive explanations and annotations

D4 a constructive evaluation of your documents that identifies good and less good features, suggests possible improvements to them and compares them with standards used by organisations.

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Useful GNVQ Links

Standard Ways of Working

Part2 GNVQ