The document is a proposal for an English literacy program brochure for the Pollard Memorial Library and Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts. It outlines the need for the brochure to spread awareness of the program to potential students and tutors. The proposal describes a 3-panel brochure that will provide the history of the organization, details of the tutoring program, and a call for more volunteer tutors. It also includes a budget and timeline for completing the project.

1. Pollard Memorial Library and
The Literacy Volunteers
of Massachusetts
Brochure for the
English Basic Literacy
and Oral Tutoring Program
2014
Nicholas Vaughn David MacDonald Julian Morishaaker

2. Summary
The LVoPML (Literacy Volunteers of Pollard Memorial Library) has expressed a need to
spread awareness of their organization, both to potential clients and possible tutors. In order to
fulfill this need, we propose an informative and accessible brochure in a standard three-fold
format, establishing the history of the Literacy Volunteers and explaining the specifics of the
program within. Should you approve of this proposal, our team with produce a prototype
brochure by the 16th of April. We estimate that this proposed project will take fifteen hours to
complete, and it will cost you $75.00 per 100 brochures.

3. Need Statement
The main mission of the LVoPML is to act as a tutoring service for those who wish to
improve their reading or oral English skills. This service is designed for both immigrants, those
who will most likely be first generation immigrants as indicated by Tomas Jimenez’s report on
immigration, learning the English language, and for Americans who never learned to read. It is
a one-on-one tutoring system that allows for a personal and comfortable learning experience.
The LVoPML has also created a collection of materials for its students called “New Reader”
which is advertised on the Pollard Memorial Library website to provide additional support for this
program. All of this is a combined effort to make learning for those unfamiliar with speaking or
reading English as smooth and manageable as it can be.
One of the main obstacles that the LVoPML is facing in this mission is a lack of tutors.
Despite the overall increase in tutored clients by 30% from last year, over a hundred people are
still on the student waiting list due to a lack of tutors. This is not a problem unique to the
LVoPML, as there is a shortage of classes teaching English all over the country as reported by
the Huffington Post, but it is made worse by the program’s unique design. Due to the unique
one-on-one nature of the program, most tutors only teach one student and there is an increase
in demand for tutors to provide this exceptional service. Because of this, the LVoPML’s
expressed the need for more potential tutors to be informed about help they can provide at the
LVoPM. This would spread awareness for those who want to help their community, and allow
the LVoPM to increase their overall client numbers.
An expressed concern was the willingness of clients to attend the program. Self esteem
was said to be a large issue considering the enrollment of the potential clients. Many of them
feel ashamed that they lack the skills the LVoPML teaches and have difficulty in asking for help.
This issue has proven to be very widespread, as 14% of Americans are illiterate according to
the Huffington Post. In response to this, the LVoPML has dedicated itself to making the clients
feel comfortable, the central focus of the program, and moving at their own pace. The LVoPML
wishes for all potential clients to be aware that clients can feel at ease within the program.
On a lesser note, its been recognized that there is a need to designate and explain what
the various acronyms mean in your organization. The multitude of different acronyms can be
difficult to remember and often must be clarified to participants of the organization. The LVoPLM
would benefit from this matter being clarified. The LVoPML also requested that the relationship
between it and its parent group, the Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts, be explained.

4. Project Description
Content
The cover will provide contact information at the bottom and in the center have a
greeting or a question to garner the reader’s attention.
The first and second pages will be dedicated to explaining the program that the Pollard
Memorial Library has set up in conjunction with the Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts. It will
accentuate the highlights of the program in a simple bulleted format as this is easiest for a user
to follow described in Technical Communication by Mike Markel. Also, keeping the targeted
audience in mind, we’d like to make the brochure as simple to follow as possible so that they
feel comfortable right from the beginning. For example, the first page will specifically outline the
types of learning conducted in the program:
● Two programs dedicated to improving your oral or written English!
● Hands-on, everyday activities such as going to the grocery store, the bank, or the drug
store.
● Create your own schedule! You choose a two-hour period during the week and we
match a tutor that works for you.
● Formalized tests to see how far you’ve come!
● An overall improvement in self-confidence and acquire comfort in the spoken or written
English language.
Whereas, the second page will specifically outline the achievements of the organization and the
demographic of clients you serve, like:
● We serve ages 16 and older with an average age between 45-55, it’s never too late to
learn!
● We are a dedicated one-on-one tutor program!
● We have expanded from 30 students and a handful of tutors in 2004 to 70 students and
50 tutors in 2014. That’s a 30% growth in the past decade!
● We require every tutor to go through a rigorous 18-hour training program to ensure
quality tutoring
● We require the trainer of the tutors to be a certified instructor who also must be re-
certified annually!
The third page will be a page dedicated to acquiring volunteer tutors by having an
inviting question as a title and outlining the benefits of being a tutor to address the need that the
Pollard Memorial Library has in terms of acquiring more volunteer tutors, such as:
● Develop a personal 1:1 relationship with your client!
● Feel the joy of helping someone just by interacting with them for two hours a week!
● Acquire experience tutoring!
● Improve your own skills in English!
● Meet new people!
The inner-flap will be a flap dedicated to the parent organization and the Pollard
Memorial Library with only a few sentences of information describing their partnership. It will
also give the phone number to the library so that immediately if the user of the brochure likes
what they see they can call without searching the brochure for a number.
This type of simple, catchy, yet functional brochure will best serve the needs of your
organization because it will not push away any potential tutor or client with verbose language

5. and will also reinforce the idea that this is a non-profit organization running a program with
volunteer base. Furthermore, Markel says that “most brochures have a three-panel design,”
indicating to us that this type of brochure is the most popular one and deductively the most
successful.
The back page will be almost a mirror image of the front page with both of the
organization’s logos, contact information, hours, and a graphic of a map where the Pollard
Memorial Library is located in Lowell.
Design
We will use an accordion design for the brochure because it is the most commonly used
format for the type of information being presented that we discovered through analysis of
multiple other companies and program’s brochures. Furthermore, we think it is the best to keep
the brochure black-and-white to reduce cost as Markel says, “a full-color brochure on glossy
paper might seem inappropriately extravagant for a nonprofit organization that relies on
donations.” Lastly, thinking about the targeted audience, it would be easier for people to
understand and less intimidating if it were a simple black-and-white brochure rather than a
glossy, highly decorated brochure. Refer to Figure 1 for further visual representation of the
brochure.

7. Budget
We have done research into multiple local printing companies and we believe that the
most cost effective option for printing this brochure would be Vistaprint. It is a company with
roots outside of the country, but posses a base of operations in Lexington, a twenty minute drive
from Lowell. Its prices are the cheapest that we could find, with the price per brochure
decreasing with the overall amount ordered, as displayed below and on their website. The
brochures printed by this company are by default in color, but even then they are cheaper than
their competitors.
# Of Brochures 25 50 100 250 500 1000
Cost $20.00 $40.00 $75.00 $150.00 $225.00 $350.00
Future maintenance costs are unclear. Short of a drastic change within the inner
structure of the LVoPML or the Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts or their target audience,
the only maintenance costs would be printing further brochures to replace ones taken out of the
library. However, if there is such a change, a recall and redesign of all currently used brochures
would be called for.
This project will most likely be very time consuming. Between the time spent in class,
group meetings outside of class, and individual work hours, our group has already dedicated a
lengthy time period to research and pre-work. Below is a graph detailing the hours that have
already been put into this project, as well as the estimated hours that will be needed to complete
it. We also estimate that this project will take 3-6 hours of your personal time.
Task In Class
Work
Out of Class
Group Work
Out of
Class
Individual
Work
Total Work
So Far
Estimated
Future
Work
Estimated
Total Work
Hours 1 & ½
Hours
3 Hours 3 Hours
(x3)
13 & ½
Hours
15-20
Hours
28 ½
Hours - 33
½ Hours

8. Bibliography
American College Health Association. “Stress in College.” Baltimore, MD 21240. P.O Box
28937. American College Health Association. 1920. Pamphlet.
Benedetti, Ana. "Shortage Of English Classes As Demand Rises In The U.S." The Huffington
Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 20 Sept. 2013. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
Crum, Maddie. "The U.S. Illiteracy Rate Hasn't Changed In 10 Years." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 06 Sept. 2013. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
Easton, Trevor. "Microsoft Word - Make Brochures with Microsoft Word 2010 - Part 1." Online
video clip.< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG5BPLw1wF4/ >. YouTube, 19 Dec.
2012. Fri. 14 Mar. 2014.
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2012. Fri. 14 Mar. 2014.
"Home | Pollard Memorial Library." Home | Pollard Memorial Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar.
2014.
Jimenez, Tomas R. Immigrants in the United States: How Well Are They Integrating into
Society? Rep. N.p., May 2011. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
"Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts." Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts. N.p., n.d. Web.
18 Mar. 2014.
Markel, Michael H. "Connecting with the Public." Technical Communication. 10th ed. Boston,
MA:
Bedford/St Martins, 2012. 639-43. Print.
UMass Lowell. “Mental Health Resources.” 1 University Ave, Lowell, MA 01854. UMass Lowell.
1894. Pamphlet.
UMass Lowell. “Meal Plan Guide.” 100 Pawtucket Street, Lowell, MA 01854. UMass Lowell.
1894. Pamphlet.
Vistaprint. N.p., 2001. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
< http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/welcome.aspx?no_redirect=1&xnav=logo/ >
< http://www.staples.com/sbd/content/copyandprint/brochures.html/ >