How Presentations Change The Way I Address My Audience

When I give presentations and I can actually see my audience, the way I address them is different from when I cannot see my audience. When I can see my audience, they can see my body language, they can hear the tone of my voice and they can see my facial expressions. This has a big impact on the way I address my audience and this is because I can be less descriptive about what I am saying. People can infer a lot from my body language, facial expressions and the tone of my voice; therefore, I do not have to go into great detail to express my emotions if they can already infer it. But if you cannot see and hear these things, then I have to describe them so my audience will know. For example, you can tell if I am happy about something by the tone of my voice and you can see it because I am smiling but if I were to write something that I was happy about then I would have to actually write in some way, shape or form, "I am happy about…" so my audience knows. When I am writing, I do not want to assume that my audience knows how I feel with out directly stating it. But, a lot of the time, I can assume these things when I give presentations. And this is all because my body language, facial expressions and tone of voice tell a lot about what I am saying. I usually can tell if my audience understands what I am saying and if they understand my emotions about what I am saying by their facial expressions and body language. For example, when I am talking about something that makes me happy and I am smiling, my audience usually smiles too. My audience reacts in some way to what I am saying that allows me to know if it is understood or confusing. If something is confusing then I can elaborate or describe it in a different way. For that reason, my audience can actually help my presentation to be better. But if I write a paper, I only have that one chance to get my point across and I cannot try to re-explain something later. The differences that I listed above are also differences that I see myself making. I know that I rely a lot on body language, facial expressions and tone of voice when I am presenting and I know that I cannot rely on these things when I am not presenting.

Shaping Compostitions to Their Audience

My compositions have different audiences, therefore; I must shape my compositions to their specific audience. I often do this by changing what words and phrases I use. For example, if I am sending a text to my friend, I may write things like "lol" and "jk". But, if I am writing an essay for my English class, I would not write those things. If I am writing to anyone besides my friends, I also cannot use slang. It would not be appropriate to use slang while talking to someone who you should be respectful towards. The words/phrases I use in order to address my audience change depending on who I am talking to. For example, if I am writing a formal letter to someone, then I may start it off with, "Dear Mr. Smith," but if was writing a note for a friend I may write, "Katelyn,". This is related to the fact that, for certain audiences, I have to be formal and respectful. There are other audiences that I can be informal and casual with. This idea of respect and formality influences what form of composition I use. For example, I may text my friend or send them a message on Facebook but I would not do that to one of my professors. It would be inappropriate to do that to a professor unless they tell you to. Another example of the form of composition is that I may write a formal letter asking for a recommendation for a job but I would not text someone in order to ask for that. The same ideas of respect and formality influence whether or not I can write in shorthand. I can write in shorthand when I text my friends or talk to them on Facebook, but otherwise, I cannot do this in my compositions. For example, I may write "nvr" in a text, which is shorthand for "never", but in an English paper I would write "never". Writing in shorthand, using certain words/phrases, addressing my audience and picking the form of my composition all rely on who the audience is.
When writing compositions, I often think of audiences other than my instructor. But, if I am writing a composition for school, I only think of my instructor as my audience. There are some exceptions though. For example, when I wrote my Meet My Neighbor papers, I thought of my instructor as my audience and either an old pen pal or a friend, depending on the composition. Typically, I only think of my instructor as my audience.

What I Want to Accomplish in This Course

There are many things that I would like to accomplish in this course. By the end of this course, I would like to be able to write overall better papers. There are many things I need to accomplish first in order to accomplish that one goal. I will have to learn how to write more clearly and effectively, therefore; I will need to be able to get my point across successfully to various audiences. In this class, I would like to learn what it takes to effectively write to different audiences. Another thing I would like to learn is how to write better blogs. These blogs are short so I will need to learn how to be concise when I write. Although I need to be concise, I will need to thoroughly respond to the topic. This will be hard for me to do. This writing class can help me accomplish my goals for my college career and eventually my vocational career. I will need to become a better writer in order to do my best in college. I have to write clearly and effectively in all my classes, not only my English class. I will try to do my best in all of my classes and learning how to write better will help me to do so. The same thing goes for my vocational career. I want to become a psychologist. For any vocational career, you need to know how to write well and this includes being a psychologist.