Multimodality and editorial design: a proposal for a Writing Manual for theSocial Communication Directorate of UNIFAL-MG

Abstract

As mediators in the relationship process with internal and external publics of the organizations, the Communications Departments stand out. Present in universities, the sector assumes different functions, such as promoting relations with the press or publishing news about the highlighted organ. In this article, wesought, based on observations of the productive routines of the Social Communication Directorate of the Federal University of Alfenas (Dicom/UNIFAL-MG), to discuss the production of the first editionof a Manual with tips on grammar, style and formatting, in order to ensure the standardization of the guidelines published on the Institutional Portal.For this purpose, we used the procedure of bibliographic research of works in the area of Social Communication and documental research of regulations that regulate the Dicom, such as the Editorial Line and the Internal Regulation of the sector. The production of the manual took into account the contributions of Multimodal Social Semiotics, precisely the compositional meanings (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 1996; CARVALHO, 2012) and the parametric systems of colors (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2002; CARVALHO, 2012) and of the typography (VAN LEEUWEN, 2006; CARVALHO, 2012). As a result, the relevance of the application of thestudied concepts to the elaboration of a practical and objective product, as well as coherent and visually integrated, in terms of editorial and graphic design, was verified.