PROMPT

There are many different kinds of informative brochures. We get them in the mail, see them in waiting rooms at the doctor's office, see them at the check-out counter, and so on. One main premise of the informative brochure is that if people are educated about a subject, they can and will make a choice of action based on facts and probably will choose the option that is most beneficial to them.

For example, if people are sitting in the doctor's office and pick up a brochure about E. coli which tells about the disease and ways to avoid it, people will usually employ the suggestions made on the brochure. There wasn't any persuasion involved. The people simply read the facts, came to their own logical conclusions, and acted on their own intelligence.

Your assignment is to make an informative brochure about E. coli and more specifically HUS that could be used in your class project.

PREWRITING

A good explanatory essay does the following:

·        It seeks to inform readers about a specific subject.

·        It presents information confidently and efficiently.

·        It relies almost exclusively on established information.

·        It does not feature its writer's experiences or feelings.

·        It tends not to argue for its points.

·         

Some of the things you may want to do to make you draft more effective is:

• define your terms: take ideas for words that are new to your audience and clarify them
• organize ideas by steps or categories: this helps you reader understand where you are going with the information
• gather visuals such as charts or photos to illustrate the point you’re making

DRAFTING

Once you start to write your text there are several techniques you can use to make it more effective for this kind of writing:

• Use appositives and parenthetical explanations that efficiently combine into one sentence information that might otherwise require two.
• Writers who are explaining concepts rely on examples to increase readers' understanding.
• Use summaries and paraphrases, as well as quotes (remember to cite sources)
• Framing: Framing means referring at the end to something mentioned at the beginning
• Engage readers by giving them lessons to learn.
• Forecast early on: a forecast identifies the main topics or ideas in an essay, usually in the sequence in which they will be discussed.

PROOFREADING

Once you have gather your visuals and completed your text, you will need to combine them into a mix of the 2 media. Find a format to follow in a program such as MS Works or Publisher and use its wizard to create a visually appealing while informative brochure.

Remembering that brochures are folded, consider what your reader will see when you create your layout. What order should you put each element in? How can I use the layout to forecast, to frame, to emphasize?  The order in which you present your information is easily as important as the information itself.