- One reading I’m choosing to focus on is on Mollie West’s “How To Create a Culture Manifesto (And Why It’s a Good Idea).” As the title already begins to suggest, the author is giving the reader/ audience a direction of where her blog post will lead. It’s an effective way of attracting an audience that may be skeptical or may just want simple and direct answers. Throughout the entire reading, I see West realize this and use it so that her message can easily reach large audiences in a short amount of time. From the beginning paragraph, which defines and explains the context of the article, to the end, which offers a do it yourself (DIY) template to approaching a manifesto, West is strategically tailoring an audience platform in mind. Its a very linear reading structured with a brief general intro, main headlines, and bullet-listed points. She strengthens her position on “Why It’s a Good Idea” by giving real-world examples of companies (she lists a diverse pool of companies too) who have applied this approach and succeeded. Similarly, she’s choosing to highlight these companies’ evolution with time (i.e. Warby Parker) which aligns with the trends we see in today’s workforce “to increasingly value meaning work.” All this considered, West’s article serves to push/ employ an audience that can take direct actions for creating organizations that have a good workplace culture and environment.
- The second reading we were assigned this week on ethical culture really inspired me to want to include clean/ graphics-oriented supporting evidence. Given this text was lengthier and intended more for a different audience (i.e. a HR manager looking at detailed case studies or alternative data methods for improving their workplace culture), I still liked the way the authors structured the text having easy to read diagrams (like the Pyramid figure chart) followed up with statistics and discussions on the latter end. With respect to what I’d like to discuss on language diversity in the workplace, I could see myself readopting this kind of approach but in a sort of reduced magazine format. It wouldn’t be as long of a written publication/ research issue as the article we were given presents, but rather a platform that introduces users to a field they may not be aware of. My reasoning behind this would be to quickly engage a reader with the topic, reflect on their own experiences, and channel them to open a conversation with friends, family, colleagues, etc. Since most researchers and authors on studying language diversity stress that there is not enough attention on the issues it can potentially create, including short-read text blurbs summarized with graphic diagrams would be a good place to start. It’d look to have the same purpose Mollie West does in her article for raising awareness and pushing her audience to look further into a specified subject.
Writing and organizational cultures
I too was inspired by our second reading to try my hand at creating graphics to compliment the text. I think you’re on to something about the need to capture people with different ways of presenting the information.
Good point about the visual components (diagrams, etc). I used to brush past the idea that visualizations help us grab onto things easier, but I think it can definitely help a person understand what the article is asking them to. I too liked the examples used in the first article which made it easier to identify with, like Warby Parker. I see those commercials on tv multiple times a week.
Glad to see you all tuning into the significance of the graphic elements in this text, particularly their value in reaching out to different segments of the audience in different ways. That matters. Visual presentation of information is increasingly an expectation that our readers come to our texts with, borne out of years of reading graphics-heavy, web-based texts.
Setting up a strong introduction or idea to captivate the audiences attention is essential when creating a compelling piece. The author shows us that targeting a specific audience or pushing an idea is entirely strategic and necessary when trying to make a point. It is important we implement these ideas when trying to captivate our own readers throughout our pieces.