Reading Response Week 6
All of the principles listed in the Thomson Handbook are necessary in creating a professional brochure. Using variety is good so your readers don't get bored looking at the same pictures or reading the exact same type of paragraphs over and over again. Conciseness is a good way to keep your brochure short and keep the readers interested. If all of your sentences are long and never seem to end your reader will get bored quickly. Thinking of who your audience will be and how you are trying to make them feel while reading your brochure is a very important thing to do. If you are creating a brochure on "Caring for Your Pet" like we are it would be a bad idea if you had pictures showing people not taking care of pets. This would create the opposite kind of response that you want.
For our group I was responsible for creating the design of our brochure. The design is very important because if it doesn't look good no one will read it. Using different colors and different shapes of picture boxes are good ideas on how to keep your brochure looking professional and interesting. If you keep using only one color and the same picture your brochure won't be very unique. I tried to use contrasting colors and pictures that will convey the right emotions out of our audience. I want them to look at the pictures and for them to start thinking about adopting a pet. If you have the wrong colors or pictures in your brochure it could send the wrong message to your audience. In our brochure for our group I used pictures of different kinds of pets instead of only cats and dogs. I then read that we were creating a brochure about caring for cats and dogs and then changed my pictures accordingly. All of the ideas from the book should be in your brochure if you want it to look and sound good.
Comments
Reading Response Comment
I read the chapters over the weekend and forgot some of the principles while my group and I were working on our brochure. After reviewing the material today, I realize now that I need to use more variety especially in the types of paragraphs. I believe our group has very important information but we need to display it in a different way to keep the audience interested in continuing to read the brochure. I also need to make sure we reach everyone in our audience because our audience includes a wide range of people for volunteering at the CFRC for the Christmas Day Dinner. I think our group used our pictures effectively because we showed the audience the large number of people that attend the dinner with a picture of all the tables set up and we also showed the audience that it takes many volunteers to make this event successful. I like that you were going to use pictures of other animals besides dogs and cats because that is what most people think of when they hear pet but since it is specifically for dogs and cats, it was good to change the pictures. It is also good that you caught your mistake and were able to fix the pictures.
Comment
The content that is apart of any brochure is the core of the entire thing. It is here where the audience becomes familiar with what you are trying to convey to them. Being concise with what you say is very important because in order for the brochure to be affective enough, you have to get the point across with quality not quantity. Having prolonged sentences tones down the brochure and makes the document lose its credibility in a sense. Developing the right emotions through pictures and slogans is also plays a significant role. These elements act as attention grabbers, causing a sensation that makes audience want what you are trying to advertise.
Reading Response Comment
I agree that the content is the most important part of the brochure. I also agree that the content is where the audience gains the most information from the brochure. Keeping the information conscise is the key to a good brochure because if not you might lose the audiences attention. If you keep your brochure containing the most important information, and not a lot of content that is not necessary you have a better chance of keeping the audience involved. From then you may gain business or whatever it may be from writing a good brochure, with good content.
Reply
I agree that using graphics to emphasize what you are writing about is an important element to any written text and not just a brochure. Using pictures to go along with your text makes sense and using pictures that actually show what you are discussing would be the best. It wouldnt be smart in the caring for your pet brochure to show a chained up dirty dog. It would send the wrong message to the reader. Also, the short sentences and varied lengths and complexities of the sentences makes for good writing. If all sentences were compound or simple it would make for boring writing. Having a good mix of complex, compound, compound complex, and simple makes for good writing. I think we accomplished this with our brochures.
Reading Response Comment
I agree that the design is very important, and I believe our group did a good job with the design of both of our brochures. The designs really helped in creating the right mood for each brochure. When doing a brochure you have to remember to always keep your audience in mind, and make sure the design is eye catching. I think that both of our brochures were very eye catching. I also think the content is very important to keep the audience occupied.