2.5 Using headings and signposts

The final version of your document should have a clear and logical structure that is easily discernible to the reader. It should not only be clear what the document’s structure is, it should also be clear how each part contributes to achieving the document’s overall purpose. At any point while reading your document, your reader should be able to discern without much effort exactly how the current sentence, paragraph and section of the document fits into the document’s overall structure.

Headings are the most direct and useful way to identify where different sections begin and end. Do not be shy about using headings that expressly mark out distinct sections of your document. Headings and subheadings will often help you when planning your document and help your reader to follow your structure.

The wording of your headings can provide useful information about what is to be found in the sections to follow but they should be brief. Even so, avoid using generic headings like ‘Background’ or ‘Main discussion’ because that does not tell your reader much about what that section is about. The heading usually works better if it describes the key content of the relevant section or communicates the section’s main idea. This allows you to make the flow of your document’s points or argument explicit even in the headings, which can be a great help to your reader.

You can make your structure even clearer by telling the reader, directly and explicitly, what you are doing at key points in your document. For example, you might write:

This section examines the main arguments for why the concept of law should be viewed as inescapably value-laden and not neutral.

This sort of signposting helps the reader to follow your text. It can also be very helpful to you, the writer, in working out just what it is that you are doing at any given point in your document.

If you are using more than one level of heading, be clear about which heading belongs to which level. That is, you should clearly identify what is a main heading, what is a subheading, what is a sub-subheading, and so on. You can do this by numbering or lettering the headings, or using different fonts, bold text, italics and so on, or both. (The Australian Guide to Legal Citation, 4th edition, rule 1.12.2 provides one model for heading levels and styles.)