Audience

I define audience as the people reading, listening or watching whatever it is you are creating. I think audience is important to writing because the audience has the ability to create their own point of view in whatever you create, this allows the audience to connect better to your story. In both instances observed this week the audience targeted is young adults. I believe both the story and video were made with the intent to uplift and inspire the key term audience. The two examples portrayed in this assignment attempt to parallel society in the two stories to that in the modern world in an effort to relate to the audience. This is done by targeting today’s young people, much like myself and other college students, that can relate to the struggles of working hard to better their position at a career as was portrayed in the video, or those that feel as if they are not equal because of the way they talk, the color of their skin, or their sexual orientation. Audience is one of the most important aspects of any book, movie or presentation.

The passage we feel helps the most with the text and to define the word genre is on page 311 where it gives an actual definition of what genre is.

On page 322 and it starts out by saying “Methodological Issues and Analytic Tools: What Is a Genre and How Do You Know One?”

They can speak to one another by recognizing patterns and the second one just goes into a more broad topic of how they complement each other.

You can mark the text to look back on it by writing it down, taking notes while reading with the page number you found that note on, or marking on the actual texts.

My comfort level for Bazerman’s text was that I felt it was very long and it didn’t keep me interested so I kept getting distracted while reading.

My approach to reading Bazerman’s text was to sit in the quiet and do as much of it in one sitting as I could.

My response to Bazerman’s text is that I learned a lot more about how novels and texts are written.

More to come….

Week: 1

What is writing? 

            The definition of writing, to me, is only dependent on what you’re writing. Writing can be used for various reasons. When I feel like there is something in my mind; writing it down helps. When you write down that thought, it almost feels as if you’re leaving whatever it was on paper, it’s like your head was cleared on the thought and now you can move on. Those thoughts can be both good and bad. The good thoughts can include; ideas, something exciting, or even the great day you could have had. The bad thoughts can be; anything that has you feeling down, the terrible day you want to forget, or something that could possible frighten you. Writing is what you make it. 

            To be successful in writing make sure the word choice is at the readers level, whatever you’re writing makes sense, and confidence. Depending on the reader, the words may be able to be at a higher level or they may have to be at a lower level. For instance, a child would need lower level writing so they can read and understand what you’re saying; as opposed to a young adult/adult, who would understand higher leveled words. While you’re writing, the reader needs to be able to understand what the writing is about. Most times you may not be the only one reading what you’re writing. You need to remember that if it makes sense to you, that doesn’t mean it will make sense to the reader. When I said, “make sure the writing makes sense”, I mean the reader needs to be able to understand what you’re saying in order to comprehend the text. For example, if an author was to write a novel and not mention a character’s name and only uses pronouns to describe the characters, you would get confused between who was who in the story. The writing has to be detailed to keep the reader intrigued in what you’re writing about. I feel as confidence is also an important part of writing. When you’re confident in your writing, more comes to you. If you don’t feel confident while writing, instead of thinking about stuff to write about, you’d be thinking about how you’re already going to do awful at it anyway, why write? You have to KNOW you can do it in order to be successful at it. 

            When it comes to me, I see myself as a more narrative type. I say that because I love to tell stories. When I’m telling a story, I try to make the listener or reader picture the situation meaning I tell every detail so that person can feel like they were there too. When telling a story, it is important to be descriptive. I feel as leaving one detail out can ruin a story or confuse a person. I would also say narrative would be my personal style because I think fiction stories are cool to write as well. My goal when writing a fiction story is to keep the reader intrigued. I usually just put myself in a situation and think on what or how I’d want to happen. Narrative writing is more entertaining, to me, than any other style. 

Key Terms 

1. Narrative 
2. Descriptive
3. Expository
4. Persuasive
5. Fiction
6. Non fiction
7. Autobiographies 

Billy Collins’ Commencement 

When reading Mr. Collins’ commencement, what I took from it was that we need to focus on being happy. People these days sit on technology 24/7, stress about school or work, or take life for granted. Everyone is so obsessed with looking at their phone or computer screens to get information, no one wants to go out and FIND information anymore. Mr. Collins was right when he talked about going to sit in nature, staring at it and just enjoying it. He brought up that the graduates shouldn’t give up the high school in them and I agree with that statement. I have lived the full-time job life in a big company and am still living it. I work with multiple adults and they have showed me that maturity does not change as you become an adult, the pettiness does not stop. In order to survive in the real world, you need to stand up for yourself, believe in yourself, and most importantly stay positive. The real world can hit you like a brick if you are one of those people who let others walk all over you. Stress can be cause by moving so fast that you’re rushing to get stuff done. When you’re rushing, things tend to go wrong and that can be avoidable if you would just stop, take a breath, slow down, and relax. People don’t sit long enough to think about how great it is to be alive and healthy. They don’t enjoy life anymore; the simply let life control them. When I say that, I mean that people get down on themselves when something isn’t going right instead of taking control and fixing whatever is going on right then and there. Allowing yourself to stress proves you take life for granted. Be positive, enjoy this life you live, and TAKE CONTROL.

As I was reading, I was very interested in what the commencement was about. It made me stop and think. I would say it was very successful according to my criteria because it was intriguing, at the readers level, and it made sense. I was able to understand the message Mr. Collins was leaving for us while reading. 

I would revise my list of key terms, not much but by one word. I would add intriguing to my list. Mr. Collins’ commencement had me intrigued with not only what he was saying but with what he meant by what he was saying. Keeping the reader intrigued is a huge part of writing. You want that person to understand you so I feel it could be a key term. 

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.