A primary application of communications theory in the ID field is in the area of message design. Richey et al (2011) discuss the following points: “the role and impact of written and visual language on meaning-making; the influence of channel on effective instructional communication; and the attention-getting properties of a message.” One of these in particular – language – is such an inherent part of each of the perspectives of communication that an effective use of language when designing an instructional message is crucial if learning is to occur. Human communication and its messages at the core are based on language, whether spoken, written, or perhaps signed – as in the case of American Sign Language. Instructional designers rely heavily on language to convey a precise message to the learner. For instance, instructional designers often have to incorporate explicit text structures to signal the overall structure of a text. To illustrate, Armbruster (1986) identified devices like: “lists of items or ideas, comparisons or contrasts, temporal sequences, cause and effect structures, definition and example structures”. In addition, once these types of structures are incorporated into a lesson, the instructional designer needs to include typographical conventions and “explicit statements that alert the learner to the structure” (Morrison, Ross, Kalman, & Kemp, 2013). Words like first, second, and third help point the learner to list items, and consequently, as a result, if/then, and one explanation is all help guide the reader through cause and effect statements.