Analysis
The Historical document is from 1673 and it is a bond issued by the Dutch East India Company. The document contains text in both a printed style most likely from a printing press as well as handwritten text including a signature of authenticity for the amount of the bond. The language of the bond is most probably Dutch as the Dutch East India Company was a Dutch trading company. The layout of the document follows a block paragraph with an enlarged first letter creating a two line indention. There are specific areas of the document where printed text is spaced so that handwritten text may be filled in for information. This shows us that the bond was probably mass produced in a printing press and that the empty spaces were filled in by hand with information about the bond’s specific details. This information might be: who issued the bond, where it was issued and the amount the bond was worth. There are no visual cues on the document, although the enlarged first letter is very noticeable as it is almost twice the size of the other letters. The handwritten text is also very different from the printed text as it is in cursive. The signature and amount located at the bottom of the document are obvious as well. This is to make sure that this information was easy to see who issued the bond and how much it was worth.
Supertextual
The supertextual aspects of the document are what would be expected of 1673. The bond was most likely to be shipped from one place to another, so it needed to be made out of something stronger than paper but easier to manage than cardboard. The bond does not appear to be written on thin paper but more than likely on stiff parchment. There are no bindings or any holes on the side of the bond which means that this small document was made to easily be carried, traded, or stowed away safely. There are some faint signs of text that has been printed backwards. This has two possible causes, the first being that the document had text printed on the reverse side of the document. This is unlikely because parchment is not see-through when placed upon a table (as the document is pictured). The second, more probable explanation for the reversed text is that the document was pressed against another document, perhaps inside a book or ledger causing some of the ink from the second document to transfer to the bond. This would also be likely in that the bond’s size would allow for it to be placed inside of a book or ledger.
Extratextual
The extratextual aspects of the bond are almost non-existent. There are no icons or pictures and the most noticeable visual aspects of the bond is the first letter is twice the size of the other text; the amount of the bond has the only numbers in the document, and the signature which takes up almost as much space as the printed text. The ink is all the same color, leaving the only indication of important text being the handwritten portion. Although there is a lack of extra-textual properties this does make sense for a document of its type. It had to be repeatedly produced and it would have to travel under extreme conditions on the ocean. This means that extra pictures, icons, or symbols would be costly after a certain number of prints, and would possibly fade and be of no use after some time. This is also probably why there are no different colors in the document. Because the handwriting was so different from the printed text, this would be the only needed visual cues to show the important aspects of information in the document.
Intertextual
The intertextual aspects of the document are mostly consistent. The printed text is setup in a block format so that no word or character extends past a certain point. Hyphens are used so that the document follows an exact format. Each line contains the same number of characters (with spaces being counted as a character). The line to line spacing is consistent as well. An exception to this is the beginning of the document where the first letter is more than twice the size of the other printed letters. One difference of text in the bond is that the printed text is in manuscript whereas the handwritten text is in cursive. However, all of the printed text is manuscript, and all of the handwritten text is cursive, so there is still cohesion within these two groups. Unlike the printed text, the handwritten portion does not follow any boundaries other than the size of the page, or the amount of space allowed for writing.
Intratextual
The intratextual aspects of the document are mostly consistent. Within the printed text, there are no differences in font size, style, spacing, or alignment with the exception of the first letter. The only other differences in the printed text are the spaces left for handwritten text. The spaces are not consistent in length, but this may be due to the information that is expected to be provided. The handwritten text seems to have some sort of priority over the printed text as it is of a different font size, style, spacing, and alignment. In one section the handwritten text crosses out the printed text and it appears to either change or add information that was particular to this bond.
Current Document
The current document is a Financial Aid Award Letter from 2005. This document contains all printed information with specific areas left blank for possible input from the recipient of this letter. The first page seems to be more of an instruction on what needs to be done. The second page is more of a notification and explanation of the contents to the recipient of this document. All content on this page is geared towards collecting, displaying, organizing, and explaining information. The top part of the first page is designed so that the recipient is informed about the sender. The next section is to inform of the recipient’s information. The next sections of the first page are designed to collect any information about their section. The second page is designed to inform the recipient of the financial aid being rewarded as well as providing an explanation as to why or how the aid was awarded. The bottom of the second page is for the recipient to acknowledge or decline the financial aid. This section is more geared towards informing the sender than the recipient. The document is designed in such a manner that all information of a specific nature is sectioned off into blocks or boxes. This makes identifying information easier as well as helps to organize specific sections that might have been more difficult to locate if the text had been just one large paragraph. There are no visual cues in respect to pictures, icons, or graphics, but the document is made to draw attention to specific areas. Different sections are boxed off. The first section is outlined with red, the only different color within the document. Other sections are started with non-letter characters and all capitalized letters followed by more non-letter characters. Although this is not a picture or icon, it is a visual indicator designed to easily capture the recipient’s attention.
Supertextual
The supertextual aspects of the document are very different from that of the historical document. First it is very obvious that the document was printed on paper, it is also noticeable that this document is larger and there is more than one page. Like the historical document there is no indication of binding, but this would probably be due to modern conveniences, such as scanning or faxing the document. The two pages could also be stapled or paper clipped together, so alternative binding methods are available that will do little or no damage to the document. Another difference between this document and the historical document is that the historical document has a slight crease down the middle, as though it were folded over at one point in time. The current document does not have any creases as folding the document would either create an unusual size or could have the potential of rendering some information unreadable.
Extratextual
The extratextual aspects of this document are similar to the bond. There are no identifiable icons, pictures, graphs, stamps, or any other significant visual aids in the document. Like the bond the text arrangement does seem to be a visual cue to show that some items may be more important than others. For instance, in the middle of the first page there is one line with the sole purpose of grabbing the reader’s attention. This line is separated from nearby lines, giving it whitespace which makes it stand out from the surrounding paragraphs. The line is centered while the other text is aligned. This line also contains several non-letter characters followed by the word 'attention' in all capital letters and then some more non-letter characters. This is an effective visual cue that doesn’t need to have different colors or graphics to draw the reader’s attention. Unlike the historical document, there are boxes or borders around specific paragraphs, indicating that he information within these sections belong together. There is also a difference in ink, as one of the boxes is formed by red lines, an indication that this section is the most important. This is compounded by it being the first section to be boxed off, and it contains the 'attention' visual cue. Another difference from the historical document is that there is a list on the second page of the document. The list appears in the form of a table displaying data in an easily readable format.
Intertextual
The intertextual aspects of this document are mostly consistent throughout the entire document. The paragraphs are not indented; the distance between the text and the margins is consistent for the text not located inside of a box. The text that is located inside of a box is consistent with itself as well as the text inside of all the other boxes. The boxes are also consistent with each other in terms of width and distance from the margins. There are obvious spaces left for handwritten segments to be filled in, these segments provide a blank space in the middle of text making them noticeable, and would most likely be easily discernable once filled in.
Intratextual
The intratextual aspects of this document are consistent with a few exceptions. The text follows the same font style, size, spacing and alignment throughout the document, regardless of location. The exceptions are the identification for the Financial Aid Office located at the top of the first page, as well as the visual cues, such as the 'attention' cue and the table containing data. There are no differences in colors of text, but there are some places indicated by underlines that handwritten information is supposed to be supplied by the recipient of this letter for the benefit of the Financial Aid Office.
Conclusion
Technical Communication with respect to business has had some minor changes since the 16th and 17th centuries. The documents are and were made from cheap material readily available materials. They were created not to be bound in order to facilitate their uses to all parties. The documents also have size considerations in order for them to be easily handled by all parties. There are a lack of graphics, icons, and pictures most possibly in an attempt to cut-costs as well as make the documents easily manufactured. This lack of visuals is replaced by visual in the form of text that differs greatly from the surrounding text. With respect to the contents of the documents individually, there is a cohesion of uniformity that can easily be seen through the printed methods of the documents, but allow for handwritten sections to be easily seen before or after they are filled in. To go to an even further level of a line by line basis, both documents are consistent with font size, style, color, spacing, and alignment throughout the documents. The only visible difference that seems to be of any significance between the two documents is that the modern document has boxes or bordered text to separate it from the rest of the text in order to organize or stress the importance of the information contained within the boxes. For the most part, what worked in the 16th and 17th century still works today, with only a few minor adjustments to accommodate for the evolution of technology.
Modern Document
Revised
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