Memo

To: From:

Jason Charnesky, Instructor English 202C Stephen Cantwell

Subject: Booklet Rhetorical Analysis: Booklet Date:

September 6th, 2011

Description This memo is a rhetorical analysis of the Science Fair Fun booklet. This booklet is designed to both teach students about designing environmental science projects and also to instruct teachers on the subject as well so they can use it to teach students. The student age group is from 6 th to 8th grade or ages 11 to 14. And while the booklet is acceptable for instruction teachers, there are a few oversights in their design for the student audience.

Visuals The first thing I noticed in this document was the addition of a third color. The booklet uses the color orange in addition to the traditional black and white to make to booklet more user friendly to children. I believe this was a good decision. It does not undermine the age group but simply makes the guide more appealing to the eye. Illustrations are also used throughout the booklet in the hopes of further captivating the users attention. There are illustrations on nearly every page and some relate to the science projects they are describing. Although they are placed with good intentions, I think that the illustrations are a bit too childish and may offend the target age group who believes themselves to be above such cartoons. A prime example of this is the illustration at the bottom of page eight. It depicts two worms smiling under the description of a section entitled Secrets of Gardening Success. This cartoon does not show any valuable information and worms are not even mentioned in the description. Perhaps a better idea would be to first cut down on the amount of pictures in the booklet. Another would be to instead use actual photographs or drawling that show selected steps or results of the described experiments. For example the Garbage Away experiment on page seven could be complemented with charts and pictures of how much an average household throws away which could be reused or recycled.

Content The booklet is conflicting between its content and its presentation. In contrast to the childish cartoons, the actual content of the booklet is slightly above at least the sixth grade level of knowledge. The opening explanation on how to conduct a science fair project on pages two to five uses certain wording that could confuse the age group. For example there is a section called Craft a Hypothesis which does not actually tell the user what a hypothesis is. The experiments are also worded with the proper terminology but without any real explanation of the definitions in the actual experiment descriptions. The Maid in the Shade experiment (aside from having a confusing title) talked about both corrosive and ignitable products used in the household. These terms are simply stated and, if only looking at the experiment description, tell the user nothing about the definitions of those scientific terms. Now there is a glossary on page ten which defines most of the scientific terms that were used in the above experiments. But if a student read this booklet logically from start to finish than they would not know the definitions until after they read the experiments. This would cause them to have to re-read the experiment to better understand it. This is unlikely considering the audience and most of the terms would go unlearned causing the audience to be possibly more confused than when they were handed the booklet. A better idea would be to intertwine the definitions with the descriptions so there is minimal confusion. The vocabulary of the booklet is accurate and probably useful to the teachers who use this document to teach students. If a teacher were using it to merely introduce students to environmental science fair topics, than he or she could take the time to explain the experiments and use the glossary to instruct students on the definitions of the overly technical writing.

Conclusion Looking at the entire booklet there are parts that are well done. The colors catch the eye of the student user and although childish the illustrations do the same. The experiments are appropriate for the age group and are certainly environmental projects. The note for teachers and note for students is useful and if the booklet is used as they describe than it is indeed adequate. But if this book was simply handed to students and they were expected to conduct the experiments on this alone then there would be difficulty.