You Just Never Know

I recently faced the challenge of writing a brochure. How timely. I've been teaching my students about persuasive writing and suddenly, in my own life, I find a real application for the skill.

We were traveling to a family reunion after Thanksgiving and on the way home we always stop at a goat dairy (you know me--I can't help it). Sweet Grass Dairy is located in Thomasville, Georgia and they make the best cheese from their goats milk. This year they have opened a Marketplace and they now sell, in addition to their cheeses, local wines, special olive oils, unique crackers to go with their cheese, and now, my goats' milk soap. My husband was talking with someone and the outcome was that they wanted to try my soap in their store. This was very exciting, but they asked about what types of promotional literature I had. My answer was, "None." I had to come home and write my own story, along with the attributes of using goats milk in making soap. This is not as easy as it might seem.

Remembering your audience is really crucial! Presentation becomes very important. Soapmaking is a chemical process but can include too many details, so simplifying was necessary. Goats have a bad reputation and milking a goat is not within the realm of most folks understanding which necessitated a little romanticizing.

The point of all this is again, you never know what you will need to write in your life. We are teaching our students a valuable skill which will serve them well.