English 420Y - Business Writing Online

Appeal to Emotions: +
I feel our brochure really will tap into the emotional side of the reader. We provide plenty of information that would give good reason for a person to volunteer with the Community and Family Resource Center. With our design, we provided plenty of pictures and visual imagery that would also appeal to the emotions. I feel that a person will feel a sense of comfort when they see how happy the children seem in the pictures when they are sitting in Santa's lap. We provided enough of information to persuade the reader to consider volunteering with the organization, if not with their time, with money donations.

Be Professional: -
On this topic, I don't think that our brochure looks cheap by any means, but maybe it is not as professional as it should be. After reviewing the document, I noticed that the color scheme could be altered and our cover page includes a cartoon picture. As the article says, ClipArt can make a brochure look trashy. This will be something that we may change, and will design components will probably be the biggest concern when we edit for our final project.

Be Personal: +
Our brochure will relate to any person reading it. We provide plenty of information about what volunteer opportunities will be available for everyone's specific interests and tell them the rewards people could gain from their volunteer experience. I feel the personal qualities of the brochure go hand-and-hand with the appeal to the emotions. We need to appeal to the personal emotions of the reader, so I felt we were strong in both of those areas.

Achieve Readability: +
Our brochure is structured specifically to be easily readable and pleasing to the eye. Our text is split with headlines and bullet points to show emphasis. We utilized the use of the rhetorical question. We felt that if the reader was asked a question in a headline, an interest would be sparked, and they would continue to read through that particular section. Also, I feel our design is pleasing. We used a color scheme that related to the Christmas theme, and our pictures did the same. During the Christmas season, it is pleasing to see these types of things to put someone in the mood for the holiday season. I feel our brochure does this.

Speak the Language: +
This was a problem we encountered with our first draft, but I feel we cleaned up the document pretty well since then. We changed and edited many of the text sections so it would be easy to read by all. Honestly, when we were writing our first draft, we did not have in mind the audience we were targeting. The main audience that will be reading this brochure may be those who are not necessarily as educationally advanced as other people. So, with that in mind, we changed our text to be easier to understand by anyone who will be reading.

Lead with Benefits: +
I feel we addressed this idea as well. We told them of the gratification a volunteer would feel from providing service to the organization. With these tactics we can appeal to the emotional benefits for the volunteer.

Have a Single Message: +
This was another area that was a big improvement from our first draft. In the first copy of our documents we tended to focus more of the CFRC more than the actual Christmas dinner itself. We were sidetracked and it made it much more difficult to find the underlying message in the brochure. With the second draft, we focused much more on the components of the dinner itself, which made for a much stronger presentation.

Focus on a Product or Service: -
We allow for a various amount of activities that a person could volunteer for, but I'm not sure it is necessarily a disadvantage. Our main message is about volunteering, but we expand on the opportunities and different choices a person can make. I put a negative on this section because we almost did provide somewhat of a catalogue for the potential volunteer. I'm not sure if narrowing it down would be helpful or hurtful, however, so I think we will leave the volunteer opportunities like it was in this draft.

Make an Action Call: +
We provided enough call-to-action information to allow a volunteer to apply for a position. We provided a contact address as well as a form for a volunteer to apply with. This was a very strong section for us.

Add the Score: 7+, 2-
Based on these figures, I figure our brochure was effective and had the essential characteristics to persuade a reader into action. As for our negatives, I feel these are adjustments that would be easy to fix. By the time we finish our final draft, we should have a very strong brochure with all necessary components