Factual Writing

Scott Harrand

LeafletThe leaflet makes use of a consistent colour scheme throughout, consisting of white, dark red, and olive. This helps to establish a theme and a mood for the leaflet, which in turn gives the readers of the leaflet their first impression of the mood and the theme of the establishment being advertised. The colours and the theme they establish is quite muted, refined and classy, which seems appropriate for a tea room, which is generally quite a classy environment. Various segments of text throughout the leaflet, especially titles and sub-headings, are written entirely in upper-case lettering. These sections of text also generally tend to be in a larger font size, and may be in a separate colour to the rest of that section of text in order to bring greater attention to it. By making these titles and sub-headings and other sections of text more noticeable and eye catching, the designer can draw the readers eye to whatever they would like them to see. It is also one of the effective ways used in this leaflet of sectioning off information into smaller chunks, rather than just have entire blocks of text blurring together. The font used throughout is a fairly simple, san-serif font, but it is still quite sleek and elegant. This prevents the establishment from looking too exclusive and pretentious, but still showing that it is a refined experience. There are several images used in this leaflet, depicting a variety of subjects related to the tea room, such as the Tea Room itself, pictures of the sort of food available, and images of guests enjoying their experience. These are all pleasant images, with the guests looking happy and seem to be enjoying themselves. The images of food are shot in a way that makes them look especially enticing and aesthetically pleasing, through use of lighting, colours and angles. These techniques make it more likely for someone to look at this leaflet and then want to go to try the experience for themselves. There are a variety of written techniques being implemented throughout the leaflet. Even on the front of the leaflet, the designer has manages to slip in several positive descriptions of the tea room, referring to it as “Beautifully restored in a perfect location” under the title, and in the top corner it is referred to as “A unique venue” that serves “Delicious food.”. These additions are all quite small and fairly unobtrusive, but they immediately begin to paint a positive picture of the venue before the reader has even opened the leaflet. On the middle section, that, when folded up, would be the back of the leaflet, there is a bullet-pointed list of positive qualities to recommend the tea room, making use of positive adjectives in order to enhance the descriptions, with words such as “Beautiful”, “Unique”, or “Delicious” appearing regularly. This list is situated at the very top, which is where a reader’s eye would often naturally go to when reading. This means that they are immediately told about all the things that the tea room has to offer, in quick, concise pieces of information. Beneath this, a paragraph goes on to talk about the tea room in greater detail, explaining it’s location and other various attractions.

Leaflet

This leaflet makes use of bold, rich colours in it’s palette, which reflect the nature of the food being advertised in the leaflet. The leaflet is sectioned off into these block colours of red, green, and orange, which correlate to the general colours of each of the three different flavours of curry being advertised. The colours also reflect the bold flavours that are generally associated with curry. Alongside being relevant to the subject being advertised, these colours are eye-catching and pleasing to the eye, which will help to make this leaflet stand out from others. The text is written in a small, simple font style, written in white, which stands out clearly against each of the different coloured backgrounds, making the written sections easier to read and very clear, without the need to change the font colour. However, the title fonts (which give the name of each curry being advertised) are written in a larger, curly white font. This font is notably more fun and interesting, and suits the colourful leaflet quite well. The descriptions written in white font beside each of the curry products gives a positive description of it, pointing out in detail that the ingredients used are all natural, organic and nutritious, In order to make the products seem even more appealing. Each of these paragraphs is also prefaced with a line of text, written in Thai, as the curry is produced by a Thai organization, and the curry is based on a traditional Thai recipe. The usage of Thai gives the greater impression that the product is interesting and exotic, and is most likely meant to appeal to a Western audience who are interested in trying new, foreign foods.

Textbook

The background of this textbook page is in white, which helps to ensure that most other colours will easily stand out against it. This is effective and important, especially as the textbook needs to be clear and easy to read for educational purposes. Most of the other features of the textbook page have been put into some kind of bright colour, such as the titles and subtitles, these colours include blues and oranges. These are both colours that contrast quite distinctly from each other, and therefore they help to make these distinct parts of the textbook stand out and look separate from the rest of the information. This is especially important in a piece of writing like a textbook, because there is so much text and information that it becomes necessary to use techniques such as these to break up the text, so it all doesn’t simply run together and cause the reader to lose interest. Other techniques that achieve this affect in the page are the usages of imagery; these include a painting of George III, as well as his likeness on a coin, both of which are relevant to the textbook, as he is apart of the events being discussed. At the top of the textbook, a timeline is featured, which helps to illustrate the timing of the events being talked about in the textbook. This is just one of the few ways that images can be used to clearly and concisely display information.

TextbookThis double page spread of a textbook dedicates it’s entire second page to a portrait image of Henry VII, which dominates the page. This image is heavily relevant, as the entire page on the left is related to Henry VII, and thus it makes sense to have this image put in such an important place, taking up the amount of room it does. It is helpful to have images in textbooks, as they help to break up the heavy amount of text and writing that is featured in them, and prevent readers from losing interest. The fonts and text used in the written segments of the pages are quite simple, standard san-serif fonts, because the point of the textbook is that it clear, informative and easy to understand. Some sections of the text, especially titles and sub-headings have been written in blue, in order to help them stand out and draw the readers eye to them, while other sections have been written in red text, in order to highlight their importance. Techniques like these are especially helpful in textbooks, because they can help guide the reader eyes to sections of special importance or with a particular subject focus. Font size has also been utilized in order to draw the eye to certain pieces of text, such as the word “FACT”, which has also been written in bold capitalized letters, and placed next to an exclamation point. These are all techniques that help to draw the readers attention, alongside the other image of a cartoon monkey that features on the textbook’s double page spread. The subject of the article discusses whether Henry VII could be considered a gangster, a question that is asked right away in the pages title. This is intended to spark the readers interest, and encourage them to read on, as the contrast between the concept of a Tudor king is quite removed in the public mindset from that of a modern day gangster. This may also have been done in an attempt to make the subject more relatable or understandable to the, most likely, young readers, who may benefit from using modern examples that they may understand from the media in order to better understand historical concepts and events.

Instruction ManualMany instruction manuals tend to be printed in a monochromatic, black-and-white style. This may be less of a stylistic choice, and more an economic one. The companies that produce instruction manuals will often be doing so to accompany a product they produce, the instruction manual often being there to explain how said product functions, or potentially how to assemble it. This means that a manual will need to be printed to accompany each of the products, and therefore it is much cheaper to print them in black-and-white rather than use colour ink. However, the usage of black-and-white, whether an economic decision or not, helps to create a certain degree of contrast, that helps the information and images used to stand out effectively, with a stark contrast between the black and the white. This manual, like so many others, is focused on delivering clear and concise information to the reader. It makes use of simple, basic fonts that make the writing easily understandable. However, the writing is broken up into boxed sections, and numbered lists, which helps to highlight important sections of the instructions. This is especially helpful to anyone who is scanning the manual for information on their specific issue or inquiry. The use of images is less based on the need to make the manual more interesting, but more to more clearly illustrate the instructions, as many people will find it easier to understand by following visual aides rather than simply written instructions. There is a perceptible shift in the register of the writing throughout the manual, with the initial opening paragraph of the manual being written in a very formal but friendly manner, that seems to illustrate that the readers purchase of their product is an exciting and interesting event. After detailing the positive qualities of the product, the opening paragraph explains that 25% of their profits will go towards charities. This seems to be done to encourage the reader to buy more of the companies products. The register remains fairly formal throughout the rest of the manual, but it becomes more succinct and to the point, and eventually devolves into much shorter, snappier sentences that quickly explain the instructions.

Instruction ManualThis manual is an exception to the idea that the majority of instruction manuals are made in black and white, and in fact, it actually utilizes a wide variety of bright, aesthetically pleasing colours. This is most likely because this is a video game manual, and video games are generally considered to be quite fun and enjoyable, so it follows that the manuals should use fun, colourful designs. It is also effective when considering that the general age range video games are aimed at is that of a younger audience, and it is possible that the particular video game this manual was aimed primarily at children or teenagers. Therefore, the design was made more interesting than the majority of instruction manuals, in order to keep the audience reading it so that they would have the information they need. This double-page spread of the manual in question mainly consistsof an image of a console controller in the center of the pages, with colourful annotations coming off of it, each describing the functions of the buttons that they point to. The annotations are all sectioned off into squares, in the same bright colour as the line they connect to. The text appears sparse, as it is spread throughout the two pages, rather than all being written in a block of text. This helps to make the information seem much clearer and far less overwhelming, which it may potentially be, especially to a younger audience, or an audience not familiar with video game controls. Alongside the image of the controller, there are also smaller images within the annotation squares of the buttons and controls on the controller, which help to illustrate how the use of the buttons, or combinations of buttons, can achieve various results when performed in game. The manual is very clear in it’s instructions, but still manages to use only a small amount of text, and not take up a great deal of the space in the page.

Magazine This magazine article is focused around a woman called Monique Jeremiah, a young business entrepreneur. As she is the focus of the article, it is understandable that her image is featured prominently, dominating most of the upper-right corner of the page. While the rest of the page is entirely in stark black and white, the image of Monique Jeremiah stands out boldly, in an eye-catching red, which makes up both the background of the image as well as the outfit that Jeremiah is wearing. The image appears to have been given a saturation in post-production, which would help to enhance the richness of the colours, as well as only intensify the degree to which the image stands out. With the image standing out so much, as well as being the only image in the article, it is made immediately and abundantly clear who the article is about, before the audience has even begun to read the article itself. Aside from the image, the text-based portion of the article, while lacking in colour, has been well designed and laid out. The text is well spaced out, with wide gaps between the columns that prevents the text from running together and makes it far easier to read. There is also a distinctly sleek, minimalistic style, that utilizes negative space and prevents the page from looking too cluttered. Certain sections of text have been written in bolder fonts, or larger fonts, and some sections have been written in thinner, or smaller fonts. This helps to draw attention to certain sections of particular importance, or to catch the readers eye. For example, with the font for the title section being much larger and much bolder, it is more likely that someone who was flipping through the pages of the magazine would notice the article, than if the entire article was written in a standard, regular font size with no variation. A pull quote is featured in the bottom of the article, which helps to quite succinctly sum up the topics featured in the article, which is mainly discussing what it is like to be up-and-coming in the business world. The text seems to get smaller as ones eyes move down the page. It is possible the thinking behind this was that once someone’s eye was caught by the large, bold title, and if they continued to read past the title and the somewhat smaller short description beneath, that they would be interested enough to focus on the smaller font article.