Brochure

Brochure projects mix research and artistic elements, allowing you to flex both the analytical and creative parts of your brain.


Task 1: Requirements


Make sure you understand what your teacher expects of you. Review all of the information you have about the assignment and verify that you can answer the following questions. If you don’t know, ask your teacher.
When is your brochure due?
Are you required to do your brochure on a particular topic?
Did your teacher provide any guidelines regarding how you conduct your research or how your brochure should look?

Task 2: Topic and objective


Your goal is to pick a topic that is specific enough to cover in a brochure, but not so limited that you won’t be able to find research sources.


1. Choose a broad topic that interests you and falls within your assignment guidelines. If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas, think about recent experiences you’ve had. Pick up a magazine or skim a newspaper for stories about people, events, or issues that intrigue you. Example: You are required to create a tri-panel travel brochure on a country in Africa. Your soccer team hosted an exchange student from Senegal last year, and you were fascinated by the Senegalese player’s descriptions of life in this West African country. You decide to do your brochure on Senegal.




2. Define your objective—that is, what you intend to accomplish with your brochure. Example: Your assignment—to create a travel brochure on a country in Africa—has built-in objective. By their very nature, travel brochures seek to pique readers’ interest about a travel destination so they want to go there. Your objective for your brochure, then, is to educate your readers about Senegal and convince them that it’s a great place to visit.


Task 3: Research


1. Do some digging to get a feel for your topic. Skim an encyclopedia article or read a few newspaper articles related to your topic. This will introduce you to the major areas of interest in your subject.


2. Move beyond your preliminary investigation to find more specific reference sources. Track down library books, periodicals, and Web sites, then read, read, read.


3. As you read, note any information you encounter that supports your objective. Each time you take a note, cite the reference—that is, jot down exactly where you found the information, including the title of the source, its author and publisher, publication date and place, and a page number. You’ll need this information if you’re required to compose a bibliography. Tip: If your teacher requires you to hand in a bibliography with your brochure, take a few minutes now to determine what information on each source that you’ll need for your bibliography. For example, does your teacher require you to list your source’s publisher and where it was published? Knowing exactly what you need now will save you the hassle of having to go back to look up additional information later.



Task 4: Design mockup


1. Organize your ideas. Put your objective at the top of a piece of paper, then, working from your research notes, list the key concepts you must convey in your brochure to achieve your objective. Example: Your objective is to educate your audience about Senegal and convince them that it’s a great place to visit. You plan to convince your audience by conveying the following concepts:
Senegal is a thriving West African cultural center with a rich history.
Senegal has pleasant, sunny climate, with average annual temperatures of about 75°.
Senegal offers diverse terrain, from deserts to tropical rain forests to white sandy ocean beaches.
Senegal has activities for everyone—fine dining and museum tours in the bustling capital city Dakar, exploring rural villages, thrilling wild animal safaris, and sunbathing and scuba diving.
Senegal is convenient for travelers. It is a relatively small country with restaurants and lodging to fit every budget, and a modern airport and transportation infrastructure.



2. Create a design mockup. Make a rough sketch of your brochure and plan how you’ll convey your key concepts visually. Example: To create a mockup of your tri-panel travel brochure on Senegal, you fold a piece of typing paper into thirds. This creates a brochure with six panels: the front panel, four interior panels, and the back panel. You decide to use the front panel as a title page that tells your audience what they find in your brochure, then devote each remaining panel to one of your five key concepts. You plot each concept to a panel, reserving the one that you find least interesting—Senegal is convenient for travelers—for the back panel.



Task 5: Bibliography


Some brochure projects require a bibliography—a list of the sources you used in your research. A brochure bibliography can be a page in your brochure or a separate page titled “Bibliography,” “References,” or “Works Cited.”


1. Gather all the source information you jotted down when you were taking notes.


2. Assemble your sources into a single list, alphabetized by author’s last name. Sources that don't have authors (encyclopedia articles, for example) should be alphabetized by title.


3. Properly format each item in your source list according to an accepted bibliographic style. One common bibliographic style is provided below, but there are many acceptable styles for bibliographies. Be sure to use the format that your teacher specified. Common Bibliographic Style

This bibliographic style follows the MLA Handbooks for Writers of Research Papers, 5th edition, written by Joseph Gibaldi and published in 1999 in New York by the Modern Language Association of America.

Book

Author Last Name, Author First Name. Book Title. Publication Location: Publisher, Publication Year.

Encyclopedia article

"Article Title," Encyclopedia Name. Edition Year ed.

Newspaper, magazine, or journal article

Author Last Name, Author First Name. "Article Title" Publication Title Publication Date: page numbers.

Book review

Reviewer Last Name, Reviewer First Name. Rev. of Book Title by Book Author First and Last Name. Publication Location: Publisher, Publication Year.

Film, movie

Movie Title. Dir. Director First and Last Name. Studio or Distributor, Movie Release Date.

Internet source

Author Last Name, Author First Name. "Article or Page Title." Site Name. Institution or organization affiliated with the site. .


Task 6: Final project


1. Make a list of the materials you’ll need for your brochure (pictures from magazines, construction paper, pens, glue, etc.) and gather them in your workspace.


2. Using your mockup as a guide, create your brochure. Refer back to your t objective often to keep yourself on track. This is your chance to let your creative side take over. You might want to draw on the following rules of thumb about visual presentation, but don’t let convention limit your creativity.
Keep it simple. Support a key concept with two or three important facts, rather than many small details.
Use contrasting colors to make your brochure more readable. If you’re using light-colored paper, choose a dark color for your graphics and text.
Draw attention to important information by drawing a border around it or using a different background color.
Give your brochure a professional, polished look by trimming jagged edges, securing loose pieces with glue or double-sided tape, wiping away excess glue, and erasing any pencil guidelines.
Don’t forget to check your spelling.


3. Give your brochure a final once-over. When you’re sure it represents your best effort, hand it in!