Question #4

4. For question #2, what did you do differently from the original post? Please outline, explain and justify what you changed & why. Essentially, what did you learn from this new topic and what did you change and why. (8 Marks) 

In relation to the original introductory F-Pattern post, I changed almost the whole formatting, information, and tone of the content. Firstly, I had 3 headers; Penthouse Garments, What’s The Big Idea, and What Do We Offer. I realized after more studying of the F-pattern and plain language writing that there’s no need to have 3 different sections for those topics, as they can all be summarized and much more readable under the topic Penthouse Garments, as not to confuse anybody, and be as straightforward as possible, using less words and making the reader not have to read as much to get the idea of the business. Secondly, I added a new heading that is subject to change, but the idea is to have the latest news or offers – whatever is the most click worthy – displayed under the business description, so a consumer can jump right into the action without having to search the menus for a specific page outlining a deal they came for. In this case it was a 20% off discount for select designers in the month of March, related to International Women’s Day, as it will pique the interest of many consumers, particularly females. Leading to my next point, which is that I added an image in this F-pattern that wasn’t included in the previous design. It’s there to draw a consumer’s attention over to the exclusive offer without having to read any words, so they only read the copy if they’re interested in the offer, this makes sure that every reader is consuming the content to fulfill their purpose. Next, instead of having a headline and then a blob of a paragraph for an explanation, I ended up ditching the paragraphs in general, having a short explanation done in a sentence, leading to numbered and bulleted points with 3 words or less on each, ensuring that I stick with the clear and concise properties of plain language, and make sure that the reader doesn’t get bored or feel like gathering the information is a chore. Finally, I changed the overall tone and feel of the writing completely, as before I was writing in an informational tone, which required too many large words, and information that could be cut out in terms of plain language writing; they can be added in other areas, not just the introductory page, since we want to be very clear in this introduction. I changed to lean more towards persuasion, as it’s the main goal of an introductory post; getting a consumer to prefer your business over alternatives, and it was easier to be persuasive while still not saying too much and keeping it simplistic for everyone to read. All in all, my previous F-pattern was hardly an F-pattern at all compared to this, and my understanding of writing for consumers and the web in general has increased considerably since a month ago. Plain language writing was a great tool to really help me understand the way information must be presented to maximize potential and readability, and overall, I feel like I’m now able to summarize content in plain language without “dumbing it down” in the slightest.