When I was in my high school, my Math teacher once scolded me for not presenting my solutions in a readable format. The readable format in his definition was to draw margins to the pages and writing the problem definition as it was originally defined. He actually told me short example on how visual effects really make an impact. He asked me a simple question "If you were given two choices regarding your lunch today which would you prefer? The one in an unclean greasy bowl or the one a neat and clean bowl?"Well, the lesson did not stick in my mind even after a long lecture filled with examples on why it is important to present things in a nice and pretty format because I did not lose points for not doing it!!
Later, in my undergraduate studies, once a grader wrote in my Lab report "What is this? Where are the margins, labels etc...?" I still did not bother to learn the lesson because it was not particularly effecting me in any which way. In fact, I honestly did not understand the importance then.
Then again... in my Graduate studies, one of my teachers said "I refuse to read this. This means you have not even proof read the document you sent me." I did... but I did not have an eye for it because my focus was on checking to see if what I wrote had any technical significance at all in the first place as otherwise I assumed I would be terribly embarrassed. Another teacher said "You were clearly in a hurry." These two comments rung an alarm!!!!
After so many of my teachers sometimes including my parents saying the same thing repeatedly, I decided to observe my own attitude while perceiving others work. Interestingly, I almost always have a problem reading (or listening to)others work if it was not presented in an organized fashion. I sometimes get stuck even with typos. Then I finally realized how annoying it is to see carelessly presented work. Not that I really suck at it. It is just that I get really excited when I am done doing things by hand and by the time I need to present it, I am in a rush. And in this super excited state I write e(2j) instead of e^(2j) but still read it as e^(2j) because I think my mind, hands and eyes all think alike which is definitely not very true.
All these comments and feedback added a new dimension to my perception of presenting work. I recently read an article in a magazine which was talking about how customer reaction trends have changed just by changing the way a survey on the website has been presented. The focus of the article was on how important it is to use visual effects to impact the customer experience. This opened my eyes....creativity is a necessity when it comes to winning attention.
So friends if you are having the same issue as I do then, from my experience the magical formula for good packaging of work is to have a pinch of patience, a little dose of common sense and a touch of creativity. I am sure I might need to add pinches of several other things as I move on!!!!!
