Creating a newsletter

Suhaila Mohamed 10N (Mr Authur Tuesday 4th lesson)

Short Course I.C.T. Coursework

Part 1: Identify

Statement of the problem

I have chosen to interview Alan Ford, who is the Manager of Acorn Youth Club. My task was to create a newsletter on what has been a great week at the Acorn Youth Club, with many events and competitions taking place. I was asked to make sure that the newsletter was aimed especially at the teenage and young adult audience, with lots of information which highlights Acorn Youth Club from other youth clubs. The information would also have to advertise more youngsters to join ACY (Acorn Youth Club).

The above stated are the main purposes of writing this newsletter, which will be displayed in local libraries and schools. Importantly, I had to make sure that it could be used as template, for future newsletters, with ease.

Consideration of alternative solutions

There are several ways to producing and presenting this newsletter, but each way has its pros and cons.

One way is to design, plan and write it by hand. The positive aspect of this is that you can get down exactly what you want, using the desired colours, style, font etc. Also it can be photocopied many times, for distribution. The major negative aspect of this is that it cannot be used over and over again as a template, to edit and change with ease, as it’s done by hand. This method cannot be used, as an important requirement was that it must be a template for use with future newsletters and designing an d writing this newsletter by hand would not fill in this requirement.

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This is a preview of the whole essay

A more promising method is to use Microsoft Word. This is bound to give more and better options to choose from, for designing and writing the newsletter. However, word processing does have its advantages and disadvantages. The main benefits are that once text is entered it can be easily processed. The appearance can be changed (text formatting) and the content can be changed (text editing). The text or document can be saved and reused. However this is only relevant enough for something like a standard letter template, which can be created and used to send similar letters to different people. With word processing the appearance of the document can be improved with graphics and formatting. It also has spell and grammar check, which is an essential element when word processing a newsletter. Its disadvantages are that it doesn’t contain ready made templates, like Microsoft Publisher. Also a variety of borders, colours, backgrounds, word art, images and text boxes can all be used at once, easily; where as in Word it’s harder to use a wide variety all at once and also get the desired look. Moreover, in Publisher images can be imported and edited using a wider a range of options, which aren’t all readily available in Word.

So therefore when using publisher to create the newsletter, I can use its many features. I can use a readily available newsletter template. If I’m not satisfied with that particular template then I can edit its, colours, patterns etc. A useful feature will be the text boxes, which I need, to add in the necessary text. I can take illustrations or images from a scanner, digital camera, clip art or internet and import, resize or crop them to fill the available space. I can then make text flow or wrap itself around the text, when writing articles in the newsletter. I can use the Autoshapes feature to draw lines and boxes or shapes to separate or put text into. I can use word art and format text to add variety and make my newsletter eye catching.

Summary

I believe that Desktop Publishing is the best software to use to write the newsletter because:-

A wizard or template can be used, to reduce the amount of time it takes to organise and design the layout of the page.
Templates can also be originally designed by the user as for the youth club newsletter. For example, at the top of the page the clubs logo, name and address could be displayed, similar to a letterhead.
Features from other software’s, like Microoft Word, Microsoft excel, and can be copy and pasted or imported into Desktop Publishing.
These features such as text, charts and pictures, can then be edited in their layout and appearance and organised in the page. Pictures can be cropped and resized. Text can be made to flow round a graphic or image using text wrap.
Features in Desktop Publishing such as word art, autoshapes, borders, backgrounds, clip art and font can be added to make the newsletter look attractive.
Once the newsletter has been finalised, the completed publication can be printed and checked for errors, improvements, negative points and positive points. Corrections can then be made before printing out a fine, high quality master copy.
The document can also be published on the internet easily.
Very professional-looking newsletters can be produced.
When doing the next issue, text and images can be deleted easily and replaced with the desired text and images.

User Requirements

My user has requested me to make sure that my newsletter should have these objectives:

It must be aimed at teenagers and the young adult audience.
It must be a template, so that it can be reused in future newsletters.
It must be eye-catching and have a variety if images, fonts and formats.
It must be liable for copying many times, in colour.
It must identify the organisation, its address and logo.
It must contain relevant images and information.
It must not have any grammatical or spelling errors.
It must contain enough information and identity to persuade youngsters to join our youth club.
It needs to be printed on one side of an A4 sheet of paper.
It must be complete, accurate and look professional.