1 - Introduction ~5 mins
Welcome
A document can say the right thing and still look untrustworthy if the formatting is messy. Today you tighten character and word formatting on a real project document: two fonts maximum, readable body size, and emphasis that earns its place.
Warm-up
Your teacher will show a clean version and an overloaded version of the same short paragraph. Hands up: which would you hand to a Work Experience supervisor or local business contact? Keep that answer in mind as you work.
2 - Key Concepts ~6 mins
These three rules keep a document readable for a busy adult reader: a supervisor, an examiner, a community contact, or a customer. You are not aiming for fancy — you are aiming for a page a busy adult can trust in ten seconds. Keep the clean target visible and match it.
Clean target (keep this visible while you work)
- Heading: Arial, 16 pt, bold, dark text
- Body: Georgia, 11 pt, regular
- Emphasis: bold on one short key phrase in the practice sample; on your own project, italic only if it helps the reader
- Colour: none in the body; strip underline from body text
Quick gloss: heading font (e.g. Arial) = plain letters without small feet, good for titles. Body font (e.g. Georgia) = small feet on the letters, often easier for longer reading. That is what people mean by sans-serif and serif.
| Concept | Why it matters | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Two-fonts-maximum — one heading font and one body font for the whole document | Extra fonts make a page look unfinished and pull attention from your message | Work Experience report: Arial headings + Georgia body looks calm; Comic Sans, Impact, and Calibri mixed in looks careless |
| Readable body size (10–12 pt) — body text easy to read on screen and on paper | Too small strains the reader; too large wastes space on a report or CV | 11 pt Georgia body for a community project proposal; leave 14–18 pt for headings only |
| Purposeful emphasis — bold, italic, underline, and colour each have a job | If everything is emphasised, nothing is. Readers stop trusting the cues | Bold the phrase a supervisor must notice ("two-week placement in May"); avoid underlining body text (it looks like a broken link) |
That clean target is what you build in the step-by-step task, then apply to your own project document.
3 - Step-by-step Task ~15 mins
Build a short, clean sample page using today's best-practice rules. Your teacher will demonstrate the pairing first on a half-built sample (under 2 minutes); then follow the written platform steps for Word Online or Google Docs below. Do not freestyle from the paragraph alone. This sample is practice only — it is not the banked portfolio file. Your real project document comes next in Independent Practice.
Folder check: open {{code:Project_Portfolio}} → {{code:09_specialism}} → {{code:sm1}}. Work in {{code:01_drafts}} inside {{code:sm1}} if you have that folder; if you only see files loose in {{code:sm1}}, work there — that is fine. If you cannot see {{code:sm1}} at all, tell your teacher before you click New.
If a font only changes on one word, you probably selected too little — select again and reapply; nothing is broken.
Sample text to use (type or paste this into your new document):
Match-day photo pitch
I offer club match-day photos for local GAA teams. Packages cover warm-up, key scores, and a short winner set delivered within 48 hours. Sample galleries are available on request for club secretaries planning the next championship weekend.
Pair check (about 2 minutes at the end): swap screens with a partner for about one minute each. Name one thing that follows the rules and one thing still noisy. Do not rewrite yet — deep fixes wait for Independent Practice.
4 - Common Issues ~4 mins
Common Issues
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Only one word changed font, not the whole paragraph | Click and drag to select the full paragraph (or triple-click inside it), then choose the font again |
| I cannot find Georgia or Arial in the font list | Type the font name in the font box search. If a font is missing on a school machine, use the fallback pair Times New Roman (body) and Arial or Calibri (headings) |
| Bold or italic will not turn off | Select the text again and click the same {{btn:B}} or {{btn:I}} button once more, or press the same shortcut ({{kbd:Ctrl+B}} / {{kbd:Cmd+B}}, {{kbd:Ctrl+I}} / {{kbd:Cmd+I}}) |
| The heading and body still look the same size | Check the size box carefully: headings should read 16 (or similar), body 11. Click outside the text, then reselect and set size again if the box is blank |
| My document is full of colour and underlines from an old template | Select the noisy section, set font colour to automatic/black, and click underline off. Then re-apply only the two-font pairing and one or two purposeful emphasis marks |
5 - Independent Practice ~20 mins
Independent Practice
- Find the file. Open {{code:Project_Portfolio}}, then {{code:09_specialism}}, then {{code:sm1}}. Look in {{code:01_drafts}} first for {{code:sm1_doc1_from_template.docx}}; if you only see files loose in {{code:sm1}}, look there. Check {{code:03_finished}} only if needed.
- Make a v2 copy. Copy the file so you do not overwrite the original. Name the copy {{code:sm1_doc1_from_template_v2}} (Word Online keeps a Word file; Google Docs keeps a Doc — same name either way). Use the platform steps below for copy and rename.
- Path B (only if missing or almost empty). Copy {{code:sm1_formatting_practice}} into {{code:sm1}} (or {{code:01_drafts}}), or paste a short Work Experience or enterprise paragraph your teacher supplies. Still finish under the name {{code:sm1_doc1_from_template_v2}}. If your file is short, one heading plus one body paragraph to the clean target is enough for today's evidence.
- Apply the checklist with the same Home or toolbar font and {{btn:B}} / {{btn:I}} controls you used on the practice file. Work section by section.
- Select each heading: Arial, 16 pt, bold
- Select body text: Georgia, 11 pt (keep 10–12 pt if 11 looks tight)
- Strip extra colour and underline from body text
- Leave only 1–2 purposeful bold or italic marks on the whole page (italic is optional on your own project)
- Headings and body use at most two font families across the whole document
- Body text sits in a readable 10–12 pt range and looks even from top to bottom
- Body text is dark with underline off; colour only if a heading accent is already part of the template and still calm; at most 1–2 bold or italic marks on the page
- {{code:sm1_doc1_from_template_v2}} is saved inside your {{code:sm1}} Specialism folder (Word or Docs — matching name)
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