Reading Reponse - 6
After reading Chapters 24 and 37 of the Thomson Handbook, I realized that our group has been following the principles. The main principle that I see throughout our brochure is in Chapter 24 on page 559 dealing with the design and layout elements. Our group thoroughly discussed how to display our visual content in order to catch the reader’s attention. Our use of color is bold but not distracting to the message of the brochure. We utilized lines around our pictures which showed professionalism and form.
Chapter 37 stresses repetition, and defines repetition as a way to emphasize a key idea. Our brochure focused on two ideas which are promotion the organization and attracting volunteers to contribute to CFRC’s success. Our pictures demonstrated repetition by showing the importance of volunteering. The pictures show the spirit and effort involved in making such a productive event. The text also emphasizes repetition by providing all the information necessary on being a volunteer.
One thing that our group achieved in the brochure is the sentence variety. Sentence Variety is found in Chapter 37 on pages 758 and 759, and it explains why sentence variety is so important in a brochure. Sentence variety keeps the reader engaged in the material and causes the reader to continue reading the material. The variety of sentences makes the writing flow smoother and helps express different thoughts in a manner that keep the reader interested. The reason that this is important is because “overuse of any type of sentence makes writing weak and in some cases choppy. The word structure our group used on our brochure is a mixture of all the types of sentence structures. Different sentence structures were used in different topics that we covered. A specific example is in the structure in which we wrote the information about the Christmas Day Dinner when mostly simple sentences were used versus the section on the history of CFRC which included more complex sentences. Overall, this brochure has helped our group understand all of the principles that go into making a successful brochure.
Comments
Reading Response Comment
I agree that our colors are bold and attract the reader to the brochure but it isn't distracting. I think the dark red and gold will catch someone's eye and make them want to read it. I always knew sentence variety was important but after reading Chapter 37 and the differences between one type of sentence in a paragraph and a variety of sentences, I didn't realize the effect it would have on a reader. Even as I was reading the examples of all one type of sentence, I was bored and couldn't believe someone would write like that. I think it is very important that we accomplished sentence variety in our brochure. I think our brochure is easy to follow and keeps the reader's attention. The drop caps lead the reader to a new section.
Comment
It is good that we have variety of writing from each section. I would have expected this since each of us wrote our own individual parts, so it is natural for us to have different writing strategies. I think we could benefit from trying to include variety within each section as well. Like you said the history had more complex sentences. I agree with you, I have a tendency to try to jam tons of information into a sentence. But for other sections, like the Christmas Dinner, the sentences are more direct. I think if we could try to mix the two it would make for a much better writing. Luckily for us, since we do have different writing strategies, we could each go through and almost re-write each section with our own thoughts. We could then incorporate the new ideas with the ideas that were already provided. It is important to make the document seem like it was written by one person rather than a large group. So we can combine our efforts as a group and work as if we are one person.
Comment
Judging from both your post, and your group members' comments, your group seems to have a hold on what you need to make your brochure a good one. The color and boldness of your brochure is certainly eye-catching, and I would have to agree with you guys--I did not feel distracted by it. I like how you stressed the importance of sentence variety. The pictures, colors, and design may draw someone in initially to your brochure, but the smoothness, sense and flow of the words on the page will be the element of your brochure that sways a person to volunteer or not. Good Job!
Comment
Our group did put a lot of discussion into how the brochure should be laid out. I think this was sort of difficult via the internet and would have been a lot easier if we could have been in one room together. This was a great learning experience for us. I think it helped our sentence variety that we each wrote different parts of the brochure. We each have our own writing style and is reflected in each section. I also like the bold colors we use, but I think we need to make it standout more. We also have to do something so that the gray scale stands out more. I don’t think they will be printing these in color.