I've started doing some research on document and graphic design, and two of the texts that I really like are John McWade's Before & After Page Design and Before & After Graphics for Business, books derived from the tips and tutorials in Before & After: How to design cool stuff. These look to be great potential texts for a professional writing document design class. For those that want a sample, some of the articles from Before & After are available at Creative Pro. The style of McWade's articles are similar to the books, although the books do a better job of working through beginner to advanced concepts.