Reading Response #7
Appeal to emotions: (+) I believe the brochure my group created appeals to the emotions of the readers. We included pictures of the Christmas Day dinners held in the past to show how happy the kids were.
Be Professional: (+) For the particular purpose we had, I think we did a good job of making our brochure seem professional. The pictures may not be the best quality, but we didn’t choose them.
Be Personal: (+) For the most part, the text of our brochure talks about ways in which the reader can help. Because of that, I would say we kept our text pretty personal.
Achieve Readability: (+) Our brochure had four separate sections of text. Two of which were in paragraph form and the other 2 were in the form of lists. I think we achieved readability because we made lists out of the longer sections of text and kept the shorter sections of text in paragraph form.
Speak the language: (+) I feel that we kept the language pretty simple and easy to understand.
Lead with Benefits: (-) I think our brochure explained mainly the ways the CFRC would benefit from a donation. I think we probably could have mentioned ways in which the person donating would benefit.
Have a Single Message: (-) I think we could have done a better job in this particular area. In one section we are telling about the dinner and inviting our reader to join. In the next section, we are telling how many volunteers we need and persuading the reader to volunteer or make a donation. I think we should probably focus on persuading the reader to volunteer or donate.
Focus on a Product or Service: (+) I don’t think our brochure resembles a catalogue in any way. We introduce the particular event on the front cover and talk about it throughout the entire brochure.
Make an Action Call: (+) We have definitely prompted action in our brochure by including the tear off section to mail in. We also included contact information in the “About Us” section and the “Donations” section.
Add Your Score: The totals for our brochure ended up being seven plusses and two minuses, meaning our brochure most likely wouldn’t be trashed. The only things we need to work on are focusing on the readers’ benefit’s a little more and having a single message.
Comments
Comment Week 7
I think our entire group is basically on the same page here. I think you make a good point in your lead with benefits section. We do need to focus more on what donation will do for the Christmas Dinner. Also, I think we need to point out what donating time and money will do for the volunteer. Why do they want to do this? I think we need to really emphasize how much a program like this can support families in need. I also agree that we should focus on a single message. But, instead of only focusing on volunteering or donating, we could make the message encompass both by saying help make the Christmas Dinner happen.
Agree
I think all of us have the same opinion on our second drafts. I agree that we have to reflect the clear single message, audience, and benefits. As we both think, our brochure contains two different messages, inviting people to the dinner event and asking people to donate or volunteer. Since the purpose of making these brochures are to recruit volunteer workers for the Christmas event, I think we should focus on appealing people why we need volunteer or donations. I think having two alternative messages might lead to the lack of action call. I will try to include why CFRC needs donations and what the donations will be used to. Since our second draft was much more improved than the first draft, I think we will do a greater job on our final draft.
Comments.
Because I did my Reading Response based on our first draft, I was able to see the progression between the two drafts. The biggest thing that I realized was that we did not improve our idea that we "lead with benefits" between the two drafts. I think this is true. We need to improve our writing to make it seem more appealing to help out. We need to show how people can make a difference if they help out at this event. This kind of leads into the idea of having a single message. You said that we did not have a strong central message and before I said that we did. I think that I have to agree with you. I thought we had a single message, but after reading what you wrote, I have to say that we need to improve that. I will do my part to help make this better by revising the sections of the brochure.