To: Professor Priscilla Sneff

From: Bridget Corey

Subject: Rhetorical Analysis of Science Fair Fun Booklet
Date: January 26, 2016

The purpose of this memo is to examine how well the Environmental Protection Agencys
booklet, Science Fair Fun, acts as a piece of technical communication according to Mike
Markels six key characteristics for technical communication. The intention of the Science Fair
Fun booklet is to provide science teachers and students in grades 6 to 8 with information about
designing environmental science projects associated with reducing, reusing, and recycling (the 3
Rs).

Summary
Overall, the rhetorical analysis of the Science Fair Fun booklet shows that the booklet
successfully follows Markels six technical communication principles. While there are areas of
the booklet that could be improved, in the end, the booklet effectively communicates the
intended content to its readers so that they can use it in completing the task of preparing an
environmental science project.

Discussion

Addresses Particular Readers
This booklet is aimed most prominently towards students in grades 6 to 8, the primary audience,
as well as towards science teachers, who would be designated as the secondary audience. This
categorization of students and teachers is shown on page 2 of the booklet. Also on page 2, there
is a note for teachers, which explicitly states that the booklet is intended to provide students
in grades 6 to 8 with ideas and resources for developing environmental science fair projects
In addition, there is a note to students that explains that the booklet contains ideas and
suggestions for projects. In many parts of the booklet, the sentence style and vocabulary is too
juvenile for the intended readers, middle school students. For instance, in the part 2 Fair Play
section, one of the steps to conducting a project is to give the project a title and specifies that
the students should choose a title that describes what you are investigating. For middle school
students, this kind of instruction is unnecessary because the students already understand that
titles should accurately summarize their projects. On the other hand, in the Glossary, the level
of detail presented is in my opinion appropriate for the intended middle school audience. It
includes terms such as biodegradable and virgin materials which are relevant to the
booklets focus and also may be somewhat ambiguous when not clearly defined for the students.
Lastly, I found that the introduction paragraphs to some of the different sections were a bit
wordy and superfluous. For example, I found this to be particularly true in the Getting Started
section, in which it is stated, Science is funespecially when you create a science fair project
focusing on the environment! Stumped on how to start or what to do? This booklet can be your
guide. Good Luck! I think students would read this and find the nature of it to be a bit childish,
which could in effect, alter how seriously they would assimilate the rest of the information in the
document.

Professor Priscilla Sneff

Page 2
January 26, 2016

Helps readers solve problems
The Science Fair Fun booklet does a fine job of explaining the details of science fair projects
and providing examples for the students and teachers to use when creating their own science fair
projects. The booklet was successful in being thorough about what a science project entails
without making the process seem overly intimidating or complex for the students to do on their
own. In one example, the Fair Play section consists of the basic steps to creating any kind of
science fair project. Each step incorporates a brief explanation and a related image, which is
helpful to the audience. Thus, this section is detailed, but concise in showing each step of the
science project creation process. More specifically, one step, shown on page 4, is to summarize
the results. Below the step it is stated that this summary could be a table of numerical data,
graphs, or a written statement of what occurred during the experiments. This description allows
students to clarify what it specifically means to summarize the results they find during their
experiments.

Reflects an organizations goals and culture
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the organization that created this
booklet, clearly displays their goals and culture throughout the booklet. On page 1 of the
document, a bold orange box dominates the page, titled What is EPA? The excerpt explains
that the EPA is an organization within the federal government, whose mission is to protect
human health and the natural environment. It also details the Office of Solid Waste (OSW)
sector of the EPA and its duties, which are extremely relevant to the booklets focus on the 3 Rs.
It was smart of the EPA to include this piece in the very beginning of the booklet so that the
student audience, who may not have initially known what the EPA is, could get a brief overview
of the agency. It is evident that the intention of the EPA is to encourage students and teachers to
not just learn about how to conduct a science fair project, but to inspire them to be more
ecological and environmentally aware. It is also shown that one of the main goals of the EPA is
to make people more conscious of the environment, so by directing this booklet towards
students, they are broadening the potential population of the environmentally aware.


Is produced collaboratively
Although collaborative work in making the Science Fair Fun booklet is not overtly addressed
anywhere in the document, it can be assumed that joint efforts were made. This is because the
overall quality of the booklet in terms of sentence structure, grammar, word choice, and design,
as well as imagery, and organization is exceptional. In addition, no individual names of
contributors are noted; instead the entire US Environmental Protection Agency is referred to as
the author on the cover page. In my opinion, this is solid evidence that a number of individuals
from the EPA partook in the booklets completion. Also, near the end of the booklet on page 9, a
brief references section is included to acknowledge the main contributors. It can be concluded
that several different kinds of experts created this booklet, such as environmental educators,
scientists, technical communicators, graphic artists, and others. As a result, it can be deduced

Professor Priscilla Sneff

Page 3
January 26, 2016

that numerous people worked together to construct this booklet because of how professional it
looks and how well it communicates in all aspects of writing and design.

Uses design to increase readability
This booklet includes many different design features that enhance its overall readability. For
instance, the booklet is largely colored in several shades of bright orange. This color definitely
engages the reader and gives a sense of enthusiasm. In particular, the document uses bolder hues
of orange in pieces that need to be emphasized to the reader, which makes it more easily
recognized. Page 1s excerpt about the EPAs goals and values, page 5s note about what to do
when a project doesnt work, and page 9s references are all bolded in orange because they must
be stressed to the reader. Another area where the document utilizes outstanding design
techniques is in the table of contents. The location being at the start of the booklet allows the
reader to have an initial overview of the documents contents and helps the reader to navigate the
document and distinguish each section easily.

Consists of words or images or both
The booklet incorporates both words and images to appeal to its readers, as well as to highlight
and convey important concepts to the audience. For instance, in the Fair Play section, each
individual step for carrying out a science fair project has an adjacent image that summarizes the
step. This use of images makes the document more attractive and more comprehensive. In
another example, each sample project in the Sample Projects section also incorporates a
graphic that describes the respective sample project. These images help to gain the readers
attention and aid in their understanding of the material, too.

Conclusion
This rhetorical analysis of the EPAs Science Fair booklet concludes that the document
successfully exhibits Markels six characteristics of technical communication. Although the
EPA could improve in being more sophisticated in its word choice and sentence structure to
better communicate to the student readers, the rest of the document is an overall accurate
representation of a technical document.