Reading Response Week 6
Chapter 24 and 37 of Thompson Handbook had really useful information for making brochures. Chapter 24 explained about the use of effective design to keep the reader engrossed in the reading while chapter 37 talked about the importance of variety of language in the brochure. I feel our group tried to use both these qualities to our best abilities. The main aim of the brochure is to appeal the audience. This can be only done by having a good content, mixture of attractive pictures and a suitable design.
Pictures speak for themselves. Hence the brochure needs to have relevant pictures that explain the content to a certain extent. The four different pictures that we chose had their own meaning. Looking at the pictures the reader is encouraged to do the same. Also there shouldn’t be a repetition of any picture, since that would make the brochure boring. We kept all these facts in mind while selecting the pictures. The color combination of the pictures compared to the text also matters. Other visual aids such as charts and diagrams are also useful at times. Design of the brochure should be such that anyone who looks at it once would like to read it again. The text and picture arrangement is the main focus besides the color and font pattern in the design. All this is necessary to grab the reader’s attention and our group tried their best to incorporate these ideas.
Language is also another important part of the brochure. The variety is necessary since the reader will find it too monotonous and boring otherwise. The effective use of simple, complex, compound and complex- compound can make the brochure very interesting. By using this, the language would vary in terms of simplicity. The reader would be very bored if the language is too simple, or wouldn’t understand if it is too complex. In our brochure, we tried to have a mixture. We also made sure we didn’t repeat a particular word since that could also go against us. We used bullets to present our information, since we felt the readers could understand easily that way. Also we shortened a lot of sentences to keep the content concise. We didn’t want to drag the information. I was responsible for the content and hence while editing, I made sure the vocabulary was perfect.
All the examples in the Thompson Handbook helped me understand these ideas in greater detail. I hope with all these ideas in mind our draft appeals to the audience.
Comments
Reply
I also think that Chapters 24 and 37 are very useful. I can definitely see incorporating these ideas into our brochure. I also think that pictures can help us as visuals a lot. Repeating the pictures, however, isn’t a good idea because people will get bored looking at the same picture. Relevant pictures are key in creating a good brochure. As for language, that is something we can work on for our next draft. We can revise our sentences and use more variety. This will help keep the reader interested in our message. We will also be revising to make sure everything is in our own words.
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You stated "The main aim of the brochure is to appeal the audience." I am not sure if I am misunderstanding you or if Weber's class is different, but I had a different idea for the main objective of the brochure. I aimed at meeting the objectives of persuasion and informative by appealing to my audience, grabbing and maintaining their attention, and keeping it simple and concise. I wanted to inform my audience about the CFRC and the Christmas Day Dinner as well as persuade them to get involved in anyway possible with this great organization. My hope was that if anything people that read the brochure would remember it enough to at least talk about it or even volunteer or give monetary donations. Persuading people is a difficult task especially when we are persuading people to give up their time and volunteer when as a society we are so "busy".
Reply
I agree with you that chapters 24 and 37 were very useful to the brochure. I also agree with you that visuals are very important and should be an example of the text. I sent pictures for our brochure but it was after the submission. I will be taking more pictures next week so that we can have pictures that are actually showing what is going on in the text. Besides visuals, variety is also very important. Whether is be in structure or in wording, the brochure must have a variety if not the reader will become bored.
Comment
I think both chapters were very useful making our brochure. I agree that main aim of the brochure is to appeal the audience and by having good content, mixture of attractive pictures and suitable design. Especially in our Clinton Human Society brochure, I think we will need adequate animal pictures that can go along with the contents. Relevant picture makes reader not get bored or loose interest and can give clear idea of the contents. But I believe we shouldn’t too focus on the pictures because the purpose of the brochure is to deliver information to readers effectively. Each sentence should be not too long or too short yet following the principle of conciseness and proximity. I think using simple yet providing enough information would be the priority of making the brochure.