QRGs: The Genre

In this blog post, I will be analyzing the important conventions that make Quick Reference Guides effective.

Screenshot from my computer of "Greece's Debt Crisis Explained" taken 9/12/2015

1.   What are the conventions of the Quick Reference Guide?

There are a number of conventions of a quick reference guide and therefore I will go through and briefly discuss each in an order roughly sequential to how you read a QRG. First off, you must have an interesting title that draws in readers to keep reading and explains what they will be reading about. Next, the QRG should have an informative lead. This consists of several sentences that should serve as an abstract for the QRG. Then, the article should be divided up with subheadings that cover subtopics of the issue (and are often phrased as questions that a reader might ask see the New York Times article about Grecian debt). Next, the writing should not be too dense or at too high a level so as to insure that the article can easily be skimmed and so that it will be easier to read quickly and gleam a maximum amount of information. Quick reference guides should also include visual aids in the form of pictures, charts and graphs, and possibly videos in order to make the content approachable in multiple ways for readers. Finally, hyperlinks to sources and other more in-depth articles are a critical component as these allow readers to further explore aspects of the topic that may interest them.

2.   How do the authors design choices impact the conventions of the QRG?

One of the biggest design elements that strongly impacts the conventions of a QRG is the use of pull quotes. Readers are drawn to reading the pull quotes first and thus will likely re-read them when they read the text. This allows the author to reinforce that particular message in particular. Similar in function are sidebars that highlight relevant information (as seen in the Vox E-cigarettes article). 

3.    What is the purpose of a QRG?

The purpose of a Quick Reference Guide is to provide an effective summary of a situation for readers that is easily skimmable so it may be understood "quickly" as the name implies. This aspect begins with a very brief overview provided by the lead and then the information provided becomes more in-depth as you read. Finally, the QRG provides external hyperlinks (such as the hyperlinks that litter the article about the Sochi Olympics from The Wire) that will allow interested readers to explore the topic even more if desired.

4.    What is the intended audience of the QRGs given as examples?

The intended audience of QRGs always tend not to have a lot of knowledge about a topic (though enough to be interested). However, there are numerous differences in the intended audiences of our examples. The audience of the Vox "E-cigarette" article seems to be aimed at people who may be considering using e-cigarettes. The Washington Post "Gamergate" seems to be aimed at people who don't know much about gamergate, probably aren't gamers, and don't really care too much. The New York Times article about Greek debt seems to be intended for people who may not be 100% up to date on the Debt Crisis but who are interested and concerned about the economics. The Wire article seems to be aimed at people who don't really care about watching the Olympic opening ceremony when it airs on NBC but want to keep abreast of the news. Finally, Vox' #BernieSoBlack article seems to be aimed at Sanders supporters who don't really understand why African American activists are disrupting Sanders events and are rather mad about it.

5.    How do QRGs use pictures and other visual aids?

 A quick reference guide should have plenty of visual aids in the form of pictures, charts and graphs, and perhaps videos in order to offer readers another way to understand the information (charts and graphs are particularly necessary when there is a significant amount of numerical data that is pertinent to the subject). Additionally, by including a variety of visual aids, it is easier to relate to a variety of people some of whom might be more analytical or less. Embedded social media (such as the Twitter posts in the #BernieSoBlack article) can also function as an effective visual as well as an interactive piece as this is something readers can further explore on their own.

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I read and commented on Michael Fischer's post, on Michael Beiley's blog, and on Swati's as well. Reading everyone else's take on QRGs was enlightening as it gave me a number of ideas on how to improve my own. Michael Fischer described the tone of a QRG very accurately as an equal blending between a blog post and a print news article and this is definitely something that I will try my best to apply in my QRG. Mike Beiley had some good thoughts about how to effectively use graphics in a WRG while Swati very perceptively pointed out that data and graphs and charts open up a QRG to a wider audience as they make it interesting for both people who are well acquainted with the subject and those who are not so much.