Reading Response 6
By reading chapters 24 & 37, I gained a better understanding of how to communicate effectively the ideas that our group is trying to accomplish. In order to compose an interesting and attractive, as well as, informative brochure, my group members and I followed the necessary principles to develop our first draft. There are, however, some areas that need to be tweaked such as, adding more visuals and decrease some of the writing. When designing this brochure, our group was very conscious of offering a variety of sentence structures to draw the readers attention to certain areas in the brochure. For example, the Xmas dinner event background section in our brochure does a great job of using a variety of sentence structures and employs a great opener to entice the reader. The diversity of vocabulary and variety of sentence structures throughout the brochure add interest and emphasis, which directs the readers attention to areas of interest. I believe the principle of conciseness was not effectively used throughout our group's brochure. Our goal was to make the brochure's information very entertaining and lively, but some words can definitely be omitted in the second draft. A point that needs to be addressed for second draft, is writing more concisely. We are very limited with space and must make every word count in order to express our thoughts. By being more to the point, clarity and purpose is better expressed. Creating this brochure was definitely directed to public in hopes of gathering individuals to volunteer their time. As a group, we designed features in the brochure for individuals to mail-in donations and learn about the volunteer opportunities. The design of a brochure is the most interesting and visually challenging aspect of the pamphlet. Placing the images in strategic spots in the brochure, definitely draws attention to the section of information and allows the eye to take break from all of the writing. Not only does it add color, but also draws notice to the cause and entices the reader to get involved. Strategically laying out the design of the brochure with visual images and font, helps the document increase more awareness in its content and purpose.
Comments
Great Point
I think you make a great point in your post. I too noticed that our brochure is a bit wordy. We could definitely take a lesson from our book and go through the paragraphs to make them more concise and powerful with verbs that call people to action and make them want to volunteer. I think that it was a good think to do some word dumping on the first draft so we are aware of what we need to convey to the audience. It is often easier to cut out information than to decide where to add some with such limited space, so I would say our group is in a good place. I wanted to tell you that I appreciate all the work you did to start the brochure, and look forward to completing this project with you and the rest of the group!
Reply
Our group had the same problem with the conciseness of our brochure. We had a lot of information to put on the brochure but it didn’t seem like enough space to put it. When we were applying all the information to our brochure it seemed overwhelming and we tried to condense a lot of the information but it was very difficult to do. This is something that we are going to work on in the next draft to not only make our brochure look better but make it easier for our audience to follow. I also agree it was very difficult when trying to use different sentence structures in the brochure to draw the reader’s attention to certain areas of the brochure. With all these difficulties I guess that is why we have first and second drafts!
Reading Response Comment
I understand where you are coming from. A brochure does have to be very conscise and to the point in order to make it work. You have to know how to put a lot of information into a little amount of words. You do have to know how to condense the information down, so that the brochure is effective for your audience. Although brochure serve a great purpose they can be very hard to write. It defientely takes a smart writer to write the brochure. I am sure all the groups had a hard time trying to condense their information into a tri-fold brochure. Hopefully after reading the chapters, all the groups will have a better understanding about what is necessary in producing a brochure.
comment
I completely agree with you about the challenging part of the design. I think it is so difficult to place all the pictures, images, photographs or charts in place were they will be helpful for the reader but at the same time they won’t take all the attention of the brochure. It was so interesting to learn that if we use them in a wrong way, images can inspire someone into a different idea and not the one you’re trying to explain in the brochure. We have to be very careful and that’s what makes the design task so challenging.
Reply
I completely agree with you that your brochures need to be clear and concise. Being clear and concise is a big part of everything. This is true when speaking, but is even more important when one is writing. If one is not clear and concise when they write then they could leave their audience bored and confused. These two chapters were great examples of how to communicate effectively. With proper application of these two chapters, one will now be able to communicate effectively with large audiences through one's writing.
Reply
I think being concise within your brochure is a good thing to focus on. Being concise with what you have to say not only makes its easier for the viewer to read, but also makes the text easier to understand. Furthermore, conciseness can help sustain the reader’s attention. Many people when reading a brochure want to get the information as quick and as easy as possible, having long wordy sentences and too much text have a negative effect on the reader’s perception of the document. Typically when I come across brochures or documents like these I tend to stop reading and move on to something else.
Comment
I agree with what you said about the importance of being concise. I noticed that my group's brochure could use some work in that area as well. Looking back on the section that I wrote, I can point out many sentences that could be shorter and words that could be omitted. I like that your group focused on adding variety to the text in the beginning. I know that is something I definitely need to work on when I revise my portion of my group's draft. It sounds like you guys have been doing a great job so far and are on the right track as far as the text and design goes!
Brochure
It was interesting to hear how in depth your brochure was. Creating a spot to mail in donations was a very good touch to your brochure. I think your group is of ff to a good start. When reading over your response I agree that the design of the brochure was the hardest part. First of all the overall design and color scheme was difficult to come up with. Next like you said placing the pictures and the works in the correct place on the page was more difficult than I thought it would be. After adding all of the images I found that there were many that I had to move multiple times to find the right place.