TOW #16: "Freakonomics" (IRB)

            Throughout the past month, I have been reading Freakonomics, an informative, yet entertaining book written by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Before starting the read, I expected it to be similar to the book Outliers, written by Malcolm Gladwell, and I am glad to say it has upheld that standard. Freakonomics uses very creative methods to convey information and generally increase the audience’s awareness for the hidden sides of scenarios they are put in. These methods include both short sentences and statistics to prove the hidden side of every scenario.

            Although some of the things mentioned in Freakonomics are quite complex, the authors frequently use the power of the short sentence to emphasize their points. This structure is often used in conjunction with their narratives to simplify the long paragraphs into short meaningful phrases the entire audience can understand, not just economists. For example, when the authors introduce the book, they discuss the idea of conventional wisdom being wrong, and they reduce their long monologue about the topic down to a few short sentences at the end. This allows the authors to emphasize their point about it and give the audience a sense of the examples presented later in the book. Later in the book, while discussing sumo wrestlers and mutual cheating, quite a weird example to the audience, they use short sentences to reduce the complex example to something everyone can easily understand. In this way, the authors are able to extend their message about the hidden side of everything to the entire audience, and therefore, achieve their purpose in writing.

            Statistics are also used throughout the book, and like short sentences, they are used to emphasize the authors’ main talking points. The authors used statistics when describing the role teachers play in students’ standardized test scores. This allowed them to communicate their point about teachers themselves cheating for their students in a much more understandable way. This allows Levitt and Dubner to more effectively communicate the hidden side of various scenarios to their audience, thus achieving their purpose.

            Overall, Freakonomics has been a very enjoyable read. The authors did a great job simplifying information and making me, as a reader, think more deeply about the world around me. This was definitely their true purpose in writing and as I am sure many readers understood it well, that purpose was achieved.

TOW #15: "Girl Scouts" (Visual)

Girl Scout cookies are a huge hit in many schools and communities throughout America. To spur the popularity, the organization released an advertisement in 2011 to spread the message and increase awareness of the program. To achieve this, the advertisement color contrast and unique font to convince more students to join the organization.

            The advertisement first uses contrasting colors to show the problem with not joining the program. At the top of the ad, there is a black-and-white picture of three obviously bored girls. In this case, the grayscale colors reflect the bored emotions of the girls in the picture. However, at the bottom of the advertisement, there are color photos of girl scouts doing the characteristic activities, such as rock climbing and kayaking. The contrast between the grayscale and color reflects the emotions of the girls in the program. Therefore, the audience is convinced to join the program, since they can understand that they will have better, more fun and educational experiences by joining girl scouts.

            The advertisement also uses fancy fonts to emphasize the euphoric emotions experienced by girls in the program. The font for the phrase, “What did you do today?” is not straight like essay font. Instead, it has angles and fun edges. Therefore, the audience is convinced that the program is going to be a fun experience if they join. The font on “Girl Scouts 2011” is also a little fancy, suggesting that people that join the program will relish the experiences they had and be proud enough to sell those to others. In those ways, the advertisement is able to convince more people to join the Girl Scout program in America.

            By contrasting colors and adding fonts, the Girl Scout organization is able to showcase the experiences and emotions felt by the girls in their programs, and in turn convince others to join. Therefore the ad is very effective, and hopefully, there will be even more cookies on people’s doorsteps because of it.