Know Your Audience

To be perfectly honest it is going to be incredibly difficult to pinpoint exactly what my audience consists of in this class based off the questions posed and the way they were answered in our "Know Your Audience" discussion. I will admit that the our first assignment (view from your window) had me generalizing the majority of the class as religious Midwesterners. I'm not saying this in a bad way at all, but this was just perceived by the majority of posts discussing their view as witnessed from their kitchen table with their coffee and open bibles.. This was not disproved or reinforced by the answers to questions because honestly I feel that the class, myself included, failed at posing questions that would give us a more complete presentation about the general ideologies of the entire class. I know what some people's destination spots, or favorite foods are, but what does that really provide me about the audience as a whole. I think instead I've learned a great deal more from reading people's reading responses than the know your audience game. These responses are where my original assumptions are more reinforced. I feel that many students in this class fit the mold of passionately patriotic Midwestern Americans. They have a huge appreciation for family, our military, and our country. I think that many of the people in this class tend to lean more to the conservative side of the debate and would fit the way I view the majority of people I coexist with in Springfield, MO. This was not unexpected when entering this class because I find myself in many deep conversations about politics and ideologies with the people that surround me. I guess I just didn't ever learn that one should never discuss politics and religion with people. These conversations, with a vast amount of people over the past five years, has allowed me an educated generalization of Missourians. I don't use this assumption with everyone I come into contact with, of course, but it does help me get a general idea of what opinions might be presented when striking up a conversation with someone in which I don't have a great deal of knowledge. This causes me to be a little more reserved with my ideas, that tend to be more "liberal" than those of the people around me. I keep this in mind when I am writing in order to not scare away part of my audience or offend them with my more open and loose perception of the world. Overall, although I did not learn what I would have liked to from our question game I did gain insight into individual students passions and goals. This will help me in my writing because I will feel more confident to make references of things that I know at least a few people in my audience will understand. I hope that I am not coming off as arrogant or like I am speaking from my high horse because that's definitely not the tone I was trying to convey. As I have said before, in my responses to posts, I love different opinions. It's what made debate in High School so much fun. If we all had the same perspective on every subject life would be an incredibly boring place.