Reading Response 6
The information found in The Thompson Handbook is very useful. I really found Chapter 24 to be useful because it gave a lot of good information on visuals. The details really helped me learn how to effectively use a visual aid. I also liked the information on different kinds of visual aids. This will really help me when I am trying to think of new ways to incorporate visuals, such as various charts and diagrams.
Chapter 37 was also very helpful. I really liked how it gave exercises on how to add variety to your writing. Variety is very important because it helps keep the reader’s attention. If every sentence is short, the reader will quickly lose interest. The book also helps with how to build different types of sentences. It’s nice to have a refresher on how to add variety to your writing.
We will definitely be using the information from Chapters 24 and 37 when we write our brochures. Since the Humane Society could be using our brochures, we wanted to design a brochure that is visually appealing. The information on visual aids really helped us see that we needed to use relevant pictures. We couldn’t just put a random clip art on the page. We had to think and use appropriate pictures of animals to help our work seem more professional.
The information on variety also helped us as we wrote our information. The brochure would be very dull if we used the same sentence structure. We also varied our writing a little by writing in paragraphs and bulleted lists. We figured this would help break up the writing a little bit.
Since we had a lot of information, we really had to use the past concept of being concise. We had to pack a lot of information in shorter sentences. We had to make sure our writing could be utilized by all ages as well. Since the brochures are going to be read by people of all ages, we had to be careful how we wrote. We could not use large words because that would confuse the younger audience. At the same time, we could not sound like we were writing for a three year old because that would not please the older audience. We had to find a happy medium that all ages would understand.
Overall, the information in The Thompson Handbook helped us create our brochure. The examples and topics made sure we thought carefully before writing and designing the brochures.
Comments
Reply
I agree that the information in The Thompson Handbook was very useful. I really liked how chapter 24 went over the effective use of visual aids. It had some good points on making sure that your information made sense and went along with your text. I think variety can sometimes be difficult to incorporate in a brochure so I also liked how chapter 37 gave some ideas for how to include variety when writing. I think that bulleted lists are a great way to include variety but to also point out important things that you want the reader to be able to read quickly. It is also important to be concise in a brochure because you have a lot of information but you do not want to lose the reader's attention.
Comment
Finding that happy medium to fit our wide range of audience members can be a difficult thing to do. I think that the best way to do this is to keep it simple. Using a lot of lists, charts, graphs, figures, etc. will help reduce the total amount of text used while actually improving the audience’s ability to comprehend the material, if it is presented in the right way. I feel that this is something that every group probably needs to spend time on, because it so important to the brochure. Something like this either makes or breaks the project.
Comment
I like how you tied in chapter 24 and chapter 37 to the brochures. I am glad that we were on the same page about variety and proximity. Also, I like how you mentioned that you wanted the brochure to be visually appealing. By using complimentary colors and friendly pictures, we were able to make the brochures visually appealing. I think with a few touch-ups, the brochures will be very professional.
Attention
To grab the reader’s attention is our main aim while developing a brochure. To do this, I agree with you, that we needed to have a particular sentence variety. The sentences couldn’t be too long, or too short. The reader would loose interest either way. Using different types of sentences was one of the options. Also as you said, using the same sentence structure would make the brochure really dull. I think our group did a good job, putting together the text in paragraph as well as bullet form to keep the brochure attractive and visually appealing. We look at the pictures and we make an opinion about something. Hence appropriate pictures are really necessary.