Emma Crawford

ENC 2135
9/28/17
Project 1 Reflection
Approaching this Project 1 assignment, I was intimidated and not looking forward to the

task before me. I knew immediately that I was interested in writing about how audience

functions in composition because I did, and now even more so, consider it one of the most

important and driving factors in an authors writing. I knew specific sources that would

contribute the most to my discussion of audience, while others I knew would be harder to

examine usefully. I started with the sources that resonated stronger with me, specifically the web

comic Youre Not Going to Believe What Im About to Tell You, and Billy Collins

commencement address. I wanted to touch on specific tactics these authors used in their writing

to appeal to the readers and how the genre was an integral aspect of how effective the work was.

I started by defining the intended audience for each piece that I wanted to work with. I

thought it would be important and useful to distinguish between the audience an author wanted

to address and the audience that actually receives the message. This was a major topic that I

wanted to focus on in my discussion because I found it quite relevant to the proper understanding

of audience. From this, I developed a strategy for the rest of my writing. I took a key point that I

found important to the idea of audience and elaborate on that point within in the different sources

I used. Some sources were better examples of certain features than others. This approach may be

different from other writers that prefer to simply start writing about the sources and discover

what sense of direction they want to take after digesting the material more.

The most important take-away, and no doubt the purpose of this assignment, was to

establish my understanding of the connection between rhetorical situation, audience, and genre.

If rhetorical situation is marked by the need, or exigence, then the author must respond to this
problem or demand. The author must consider what audience would be most receptive to their

solution to the problem. The author writes with purpose specifically for this audience in pursuit

of effectual and coherent work. This also calls for consideration of the form of composition that

will most effectively convey this message, which demands knowledge of appropriate genres. I

highlighted the use of genre in some pieces and rhetorical situation in others to show balance and

how each functioned in separate works.

Overall, throughout this assignment I developed my theory of writing to convey my

perspectives on the role of audience in a composition. Analyzing the sources as evidence for my

concepts of audience, rhetorical situation, and genre provided useful examples of the relationship

between the three. I also drew upon my personal experience with the readings, how I felt as I

first read them, how they made me feel as well as hear from some peers about their own

experiences with the pieces. This interaction allowed me to strengthen the observations behind

each composition and contribute to the discussion of the functioning of audience in each.