Know Your Audience Analysis

After completing the discussion board exercise from assignment 3.2, I certainly have a better grip on who my peers are for this class.  I would say more than anything, cliché sounding or not, that we have an incredibly diverse group.  We have people who are within a few years of their high school graduation, some who may have seen a reunion or two, and everything in between.  We have single people and people with families. 

Some of the questions posed were very good, such as, “What is your happiest place on Earth?” asked by Maggi Bowers.  I especially liked this question, because it offers a great deal of insight into what people value at this point in their lives.  As there aren’t any strings attached to this question, people seemed to be comfortable giving honest answers.  There was a large variety in answers, demonstrating how different we all are.  I would say that despite this group of people being unique in many ways, a common thread is that everybody is enthusiastic about learning and excelling in this class.  Nobody on the forum was sarcastic or condescending with any of the questions or answers.  Everybody was interested in sharing their experiences and connecting to some degree with their classmates. 

I know personally, my social circle largely consists of people similar to myself.  So normally, I can make a lot of assumptions about what somebody is familiar with during a conversation.  I found this “Know your Audience” exercise to be a strong reminder that my classmates have different interests and backgrounds than I do.  So while I intend on writing about things that are of personal interest to me, I need to make sure that I explain fully what I am talking about.  I also need to try to not get caught up in the minutiae of a topic, but instead look for ideas and themes that anybody can relate to, regardless of their interest in whatever subject I am writing about. 

In conclusion, I feel like our class is a great microcosm for the rest of life.  People will always be different, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t work together or learn together.