How To Decorate Your Room When You’re Broke Research Essay In Joshua Piven, et. al. Essay, “How To Decorate Your Room When You’re Broke,” there is in account of various ways on how to decorate a room, for oneself, and for others too, often on a daily basis. Piven organizes his essay by sub-titles, each one concerning a specific way to decorate, and each sub-title is accompanied by directions to serve as an example for that particular decorations. Piven concludes that the three ways you can decorate your room/space is by using objects that you already have. Piven uses directions to lay out how to accomplish some simple decorating tasks. With the milk crate chair he describes in simple instructions that a milk crate needs to be flipped over and placing a single layer of sponges on top of the crate and then placing a mat or sheet on top and securing it down to make a chair to use, but I think the milk crate can be made into a bookcase or anything else that anyone can set their minds to. The t-shirt curtains is a fun and creative idea to turn your old t-shirts into a curtain to cover up a window inside your bedroom or dorm room. The instructions on how to make the curtain is simple, Piven describes these instructions by saying, “take some old t-shirts and cut the design off of the shirts and sow them together and then attach a rod onto the curtain and hang the curtain up” (Piven). I also like how the writers put in extra instructions with the curtain idea so if you didn’t want to cut up the t-shirts you could place the rod through the shirt’s sleeves and hang the curtains up that way. The cd case frame instructions was a creative way to show that something as simple as a cd case laying around can be used in a practical way. The writer’s proved a point by the way they said, “Flipping the cd case inside out and placing a printed out picture inside of it will give an inexpensive way to present your photos” (Piven). The writers were creative with the “how to” instructions essay fun and manageable to accomplish with a limited budget and showing that with a little creativity having anything with a limited budget is possible. Piven moved throughout the essay with sub-titles to illustrate each way to decorate a room when you are broke. The first idea that was presented was the milk crate chair which was in bold print and then underneath was a description about the chair followed by the “how to” instructions. All three topic ideas on how to decorate a room is presented with a subtitle, a description, and then follows with the instructions on how to make it. What I also liked about each idea on how to decorate a room was a picture of the task that was talked about for instance, the milk crate chair had instructions on how to make it and underneath the instructions was a picture of the milk crate chair. The writers knew how to incorporate a sub-title and pictures of each task to make each one noticeable but a way to know what to do. Piven gives a “be aware” at the end of the milk crate chair and t-shirt curtains, and he also goes into detail with all the instructions. Piven says, “If you’re using your own fabric rather than a placemat, lay a strip of masking tape ¼ inch from the edges around the perimeter of the fabric to prevent fraying before securing the fabric to the crate” (Piven et. al. 292) shows that if you use fabric instead of a placemat then you need to secure the fabric to the crate, so he warns you before making this decoration and this is the same for the t-shirt curtains. For each set of instructions for the chair, curtains, and frame he tell you how to make each one but he then goes into detail how to make each decoration for instance, “cut the manila folder into a rectangle (9 inches x 12 inches) or a square (10 inches x 10 inches) to make a stencil” (Piven et. al. 292). Piven, et. al. Essay, “How To Decorate Your Room When You’re Broke,” there is various ways to decorate a room, for oneself, also others too, on a daily basis. Piven organized the essay with sub-titles that was accompanied with directions to serve as examples on how to make the chair, curtains, and frame. Piven gave instructions and directions for three ways to decorate a room/space with items that you may have while being broke.

Work Cited:
Piven, Joshua, et. al. “How To Decorate Your Room When You’re Broke.” Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide. Twelfth Edition. Eds. Laurie G. Kirszer and Stephen R. Mandell. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012. 290-295. Print.