A*** Know Your Audience

There is much to be said about knowing your audience. But if you are in my audience (reading this blog) you’ve probably heard most of it, so I am not going to repeat the rules. This blog was started as a project for the Towson University (TU) undergraduate course English 315 – The Literary Essay. My initial audience was my essay teacher and my classmates. That part of the project is finished. I passed the course with an “A”. Yea me! I also made the honor roll this semester. But, I did not get a bumper sticker to advertise my achievement on the highway; so I'll just have to brag here on the Super Info Hwy, on my blog.

Here now begins a new part of the blog project.

Now I am addressing a new audience. Generally speaking, most of the new audience knows me pretty well, and I know them. Most are my family and my friends to whom I give my blog address every time I send them an email; or almost every time. However, I am always making new friends and getting introduced to people on campus, and in my daily life off campus, who I think if we had more time to get acquainted, might want to know more about me, as I would like to know more about them. So, for my part, I made up some business cards to advertise my blog. That card also advertises a website that a student in another class created. I thought the site was a really good discussion forum and I contributed a number of comments there. However, that website is now closed; so, if you came to this site because I gave you a card, ignore the other site advertised on the card.

My new audience could be a mixture of people who I know very well, and people who I hardly know at all. Add to the mix a few virtual strangers -- other bloggers who surf the Internet for interesting things to read. Bottom line is that I might not know half of my audience, or more. I did get 230 hits when my classmates were assigned to read each other's blogs, and when I had first distributed my cards. How then, shall I write? I think I shall proceed slowly and choose my words carefully. I will try to bear in mind my audience and to write of things that anybody, and everybody, may be interested. Of course, I will continue to write about the things that I find most interesting. I hope you like what I write. Please enter your name and comments at the end of the article(s).

Here are two stories of what happened when I did not know my audience. The first is from when I was a student at Catonsville Community College (CCC) back in the 1970s. I was a Jesus-Freak in those days and my religiosity was just blossoming into the Street-Preacher I would eventually become. I took a public speaking course, Speech 101, to prepare myself for a career on the pulpit, or on a soapbox if a pulpit was not available. I might interject here that http://www.blogspot.com/ is nothing more than a personal soapbox where the method of communication is writing instead of speaking, thus the need to learn the literary essay. However, the blog must some how compensate for the disadvantage of not having audio-visual effects by using a comparable set of communication techniques, like pictures and good writing principles.

One type of speech I had to write at CCC was called a speech of persuasion, where the purpose was to influence public opinion and inspire change. The purpose of my speech was to persuade people to believe in Jesus Christ. I wrote a speech modeled after a Rev. Billy Graham crusade, complete with an altar-call at the conclusion of my speech. I invited my audience, the students in the class, to come forward and to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. No one came forward, but during the critique afterwards everyone said it was an excellent speech and well delivered. They also said it took a lot of courage to speak so openly about my Faith, especially considering my audience.

“What? What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you know that most of us are Jews!? And more Orthodox than not?”
“No. I did not know. I am sorry; I did not mean to offend anyone.”
“No one is offended. We believe in free speech. But to give due criticism of your speech, you should always know your audience. Your persuasion didn’t stand a chance here. Your speech is better directed to an audience that doesn’t already believe in God.”

I am such a dumb yutz! I should have known. This class was an evening course offered at the CCC Extension Center in Pikesville. The neighborhood of the extension center is probably the heart of Orthodox Judaism in Maryland. While this was probably one of the more humbling experiences of my life, it was also a turning point of how I might express my Faith. Many years later I would come to embrace Judaism as the foundation of my Christian Faith, a foundation without which I could not be a Christian.

My second story is more recent. It happened only last week. The Asian Art and Cultural Center, which is housed in the Towson University Center for the Arts, invited TU students to view the Asian art show, titled Abandon and Adhering, and to enter a poetry contest based on poems inspired by the show. Cash prizes of $150, $100, and $50 were to be awarded. I decided to enter the contest. I viewed the art show and indeed was inspired to write a poem with an Asian art theme.

The deadline to enter the contest fell on Friday of a particularly difficult week for me. I really did not have time to thoroughly contemplate the artwork and to wait for the inspiration of poetic expression to come to mind. As it was, I had to pull 2 ½ all-nighters that week to keep up with my class work. Never the less, I was able to make several trips to the Asian art show after my classes on my way through to my car, as I usually park at the Towson Center lot across the street from the Arts Center. On Thursdays, after my last class, my schedule calls for about three hours of reading the Bible in preparation for a Disciple course I am attending at my home church. This week I traded my reading time for a quick prayer for inspiration and then I spent my time recording my reflections on Asian art.

more later