For question #2, explain how your new post successfully addresses the three main objectives of Plain English writing as discussed in class. Provide a detailed breakdown of each objective. (9 Marks)
Within class we had discussed several of the objectives which plain english writing aims to address, the first one of these three is helping the reader to understand the writing easily. From this, within my writing I obviously knew that this was an objective which I needed to fulfil through my introduction of Ava’s Lil Bakeshoppe. Looking back at my revised post, I have successfully been able to accomplish this by using very direct, familiar and easy to understand wording and vocabulary alongside using shorter sentences that are simple for people to follow along with and read in a short amount of time. For example, in my very first paragraph about what my business has to offer our customers, I was successfully avoiding to usage of wording/phrases that were overly descriptive and used complicated phrases while still keeping my content relevant to my target audience of readers and valuable to them through what information is can provide in plain, easy to digest language. This was done when I had clearly stated that Ava’s Lil Bakeshoppe creates customizable cakes, gourmet cookies, cinnamon rolls and bars with a few easy to understand verbs that do not over complicate the subject of baked goods while also briefly informing them of how these treats are good for parties or celebrations. What my usage of this plain language here did was successfully fulfill the objective of making my written content easy to understand quickly upon reading only once, while mitigating the opportunity for there to be any confusion among readers. Overall, the reason why I know this is important is because if this text did not use plain language to ensure it can be easily understood by my readers, the writing would not even be effective and would therefore be a waste of my business’s time and resources.
The second objective here for plain language writing to fulfill was helping my readers to easily have the ability to gather whatever information they will be needing/wanting to know from having read my content. My revised version of my written business introduction for Ava’s Lil Bakeshoppe easily addresses and ultimately supports this objective, as I have used the F Pattern to effectively break up my written content into different sections that use various headings. Essentially, these headings are written in a way that readers can understand quickly and find what type of content they are in search of. For examples from my writing, I used headlines including “What We Have To Offer You”, “Why Choose Ava’s Lil Bakeshoppe” and “Ready To Order From Us”, all of which use simplified wording in order to give readers a quick idea of the the shortened body of information to follow will be. Therefore guiding the reader through my page of content which ultimately is using the F Pattern to locate where the information they desire/need to gather will be. So, here I have used plain language objective of helping readers to easily “Find what they need” in a timely manner, by choosing to break my content down into much smaller sections that I know are relevant to my audience’s searches for information and will overall allow them to scan through my page efficiently to gather what they need/want to know. I also fulfilled this objective through using some bullet points within my first body of text in order to highlight my most prominent treat products and customizable cake services in a way that makes them easy for my readers to scan through to gather the main details of what my business has to offer without having to spend large amounts of time to read many different sentences entirely to retrieve the information they need. I know that on the web for my website’s blog this is particularly important as so many of my readers are going to come onto my website page and scan before they decide if they wanna fully react and therefore this will help to to easily father all of the information they need by simply looking through my bullet points and short sentences quickly. In conclusion, this objective of helping users find the information they are aiming to gather easily is fulfilled here using plain language to structure my content in a way that involves the F Pattern so it can be read quickly but still fully understood.
The third objective of the F Pattern that my writing for my introduction of Ava’s Lil Bakeshoppe successfully was able to address was helping my readers to use all of my information that I have provided to actually fulfil their purpose for seeking it out in the first place. In my case, the readers of my content likely have the purpose of trying to find a bakery that offers the kinds/types of treats that they are in search of and how they can move forward easily to place an order. This is where my revised post having used plain language within my writing comes into play, as my introduction is now helping to support this objective by including all of the relevant information while leaving out any overly complicated language or unnecessary details that would increase the amount of time my writing would take readers to actually read. This was done here by including plenty of information such as what product I offer (1st body of text), what occasions our products are good for (1st body of text), what our unique selling point is (bottom of 1st body of text and 2nd body of text) and a call to action that easily guides users into visiting our ordering treats online page within the Ava’s Lil Bakeshoppe website itself (3rd body of text). This all uses easy to understand language that therefore fulfills the reader’s purpose for information and tells them why Ava’s Lil Bakeshoppe has all their bakery related needs and can easily take their order requests. Especially with the past body of text which has the header of “Ready To Order From Us?” as this writing is connecting the information I have provided directly to the reader’s purpose of reading my introduction which once again is ultimately going to involve how to place an order once they have read the first sections and know have gathered and understood what Ava’s Lil Bakeshoppe has to offer and why it stands apart from other bakeries. Overall, my use of plain language writing within my introduction is able to meet the objective of allowing users to use the content to easily fulfill their purpose of seeking it out.
RESOURCES:
- Briscoe, W8 – A – Plain Language Writing (W26).pdf, Slide 18
- Briscoe, W8 – A – Plain Language Writing (W26).pdf, Slide 18
- Briscoe, W8 – A – Plain Language Writing (W26).pdf, Slide 18
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