National Adult Literacy Database

Document Use is one of the most important skills in the workplace but one of the most overlooked skills when it comes to preparing people for work. Documents are everywhere – they convey safety information and important warnings to staff, record daily routines, list items, track expenses, and on and on.

People have to fill them in on a regular basis at work and at home but many people (not just second language learners) still struggle to be accurate and complete. Why? Because, identifying the underpinning structure of documents may not have been clear in previous learning. This is one skill that, with some training, learners can become quite proficient at quite quickly.

Document Use refers to tasks that involve a variety of information displays in which words, numbers, icons and other visual characteristics such as line, colour and shape are given meaning by their spatial arrangement.