guldin+EAR+final

Introduction to EAR: In high school you may of not had to study for those 10 question quizzes, do your homework,or even study for a test but once you get to college you go to take that first test and realize that maybe you should of studied. Or...maybe you were the one in high school that did have to study in order to get good grades, and when you get to college your same methods aren't working. This is why I chose to look into the way students at Bloomsburg study and inform students and parents of the resources available here and what not to do while studying. I've heard plenty of people say that college is easier that high school, that you can chose to go to class or skip and really college isn't easier! College is something to take seriously, it is the place that you will receive the education you need in order to get to your dream career. It is your choice to spend a lot of money for the classes you take and then just skip out on them or not do everything you can to get a good grade. Just like your GPA in high school counted in order to get to the next level in life, college, your GPA in college counts in order to either further your education or get a job. So when it comes down to it studying and doing your work in college is a very essential aspect to the rest of your life because if studying now gets you a higher grade, that can effect career choices.

Flyer: All three of the flyers I used as examples were "eye grabbers" for me and in different ways they caught my attention. I think that a big thing for flyers is that they are simple and to the point, they catch your eye, and get you interested with little information. Also for the audience group that we are trying to reach out to are students, and we all know how busy they can be so flyers are a great way to get their attention because if there's too much information then they won't want to read it or even think about it. The first one is most definitely very colorful and for me it caught my eye and I wanted to learn more. Now, I'm not exactly an artist or anywhere near one but it still was bright and an interesting way to get the word out. The second one is a different kind of eye grabber, maybe for guys more than girls but this still grabs a girls eye because it just seems mysterious and different than something you would normally see. The last flyer I choose was more down to earth but it's about a concert, so this shows that a flyer can be for any kind of event but I think it also shows how they are mostly for a younger audience.

I choose the bright colors on the top to catch someone's eye also the different colors for the word free may stand out to someone too. Another thing I wrote free because most broke college students like free things, I know I do personally, and would go just for that so it's a bribe to try and get people to go and learn more about how to better their studying habits. The flyer was simple and right to the point, things that are too elaborate start to lose the interest of the reader. This ties into my studies in my CLUE project because what I found was that studying and school work was a big part of an average students life, so this may interest someone looking to up their grades by changing or continuing their ways of studying.

Brochure: Something that I think a brochure is good for is relaying information about a certain topic and the reason that I would choose this genre for this audience of adults (parents/faculty) is because they often have all these questions and want to know more. I think that any genre should be bright and eye catching like I mentioned for my flyer and I think that all of these have that without over powering the brochure. Something else that all of the examples I used had was visual aid, by using pictures which is also important but I think that the last one using diagrams is another great way to explain the information visually. Another thing that sticks out to me is that even though a brochure has a lot of information it also is organized so the reader doesn't get lost in following the information. The organization could include the straight edged text (centered), bullets, short paragraphs, etc. Any type of advertisement needs something to appeal the the eye of the reader and these are the elements that I believe make a good brochure.

I chose to start out with the colors of Bloomsburg to relate my studies to this specific school and then also indicated that with the picture on the front on the Andruss Library on campus because this is the main building where my topic of studying may take place. I tried to use a catchy title because the topic of my EAR project is about studying and I wanted this brochure to be a "study guide" for parents on how they can make sure their students are doing to right things. Next I broke up the information that I discovered from my CLUE project that helps that most for students and wrote a section for each (studying in your room, materials, tutoring services, and studying hours). I made sure that at the end there was a conclusion of all the resources available for students and for their parents to be sure they are studying correctly. Each section or paragraph was short and to the point because even though a brochure is more of an information containing genre, it is still important to keep it brief. I added in pictures of students studying to show some visual aid and add some color and action to the brochure.

Comic Strip: I liked the idea of a comic because their normally know for being funny and interesting. I think that all comics are eye catching but some more than others with the colors and obnoxious sayings sprawled across the comic strips. There's also a variety of kinds, they can be funny or serious, colorful or black and white, it can be long comic or only one part but they all normally make you think. The comic isn't something that you can really just get the whole story right away, well for me anyway I normally have to look at it a couple times to figure out the point of the comic. This is something that I tried to reach when making my comic strip. Within this comic strip you may find more than one message, or the message just may be different from person to person depending on their own views.

I felt that a comic strip is a good way to reach out to college students because it's not something that you see everyday as a way to advertise about the "does and don'ts" of studying and schoolwork. I also liked the idea of a comic strip because using satire in this genre made it even more of a catch not only to the eye but to the mind. Like I described in the comic strips above how you don't always understand the underlying story right away, well using satire and sarcasm really made this a lot more interesting and maybe harder to notice. Although, this genre still made the same point that I've been studying in my CLUE and EAR project about the different types of studying and ways to achieve that goal academically.

Conclusion: In my CLUE project I studied the different ways to study and what ways were more effective. By bringing the CLUE project and this EAR project together I found different ways in which I could display my information by using a variety of genres. I found that certain genres should be used for different audiences, for example I used a flyer for the audience of a student because it was quick and simple to catch the eye of a busy student. Each genre has specifics details about it that make it useful to the reader in which I explained above. In doing this study and using different genres really open my view to many things. I now know how different students spend their time studying and what they do in order to achieve their grades that they do but not only do I know that but I know different techniques that one can use when applying their information to a different form of genre. Some genres will be more effective than others and I learned that it's more of an opinion on what the producer of the product really thinks will do the best job.