Coming from high school, specifically AP Literature and Composition, I had this high expectation that my writing                                    would be critiqued pretty strictly, even more so than past English classes, and that I would be ready for the end of                                    the semester after the first day. I was proven wrong. Being able to create in an “evaluation-free zone” allowed for                                      more freedom and less stress about “what grade will this level of work get me?” Watching the TED Talk by Carol                                      Dweck really helped change my mindset of evaluation. Since each person works differently and thinks                                                        differently, a linear grading system may not be the right fit, but using “yet” and “not yet” are more open and                                              encouraging rather than handing a student with a big red D+ and expecting them to know why they received that                                    grade. I appreciate the amount of discussion and peer-review we have done in W140 so our minds are opened to                                      how our peers think and view things. Peer-review provides for a convenient sampling of an audience, but an                                               audience that provides feedback. 

 

                                 Knowing your audience is key to the creation of a piece of writing, something I have picked up on in this class. For example if you are writing about a subject that is not common knowledge, even though you have done lots of research to write that piece, you can not assume your audience has that same knowledge so maybe you have to go the extra mile in explaining some things, adding references, or setting the scene. Jen Percy’s “My Terrifying Night” was a great example of having set pieces and descriptions of what was around her since we were not there to see what she saw, she set the scene.  I learned how to introduce characters from that piece, and that there is more than one way to do it. You don’t always have to say “And this is Bob, he likes to hold sharp things and is kind of violent” but instead you can point out things that lead to the assumption that he’s violent. The quick development of Haji Wazir is a perfect example of this; “We were greeted by her eldest son, Haji Wazir, who looked to be about 40. He wore sport sandals and a motorcycle jacket with the collar popped. ‘Have you ever seen a turkey slaughtered?’ he asked. ‘Look.’ He grabbed a turkey. He held its long neck and sawed at the throat. The blood fanned brightly into the dirt and snow. He tossed the head on the ground.(Percy 3-4)” Just by these few sentences, Percy has developed an entire character, solely by his actions and only partially his looks. 

 

Mary Louise Pratt’s “Art of the Contact Zone” taught me a different aspect of knowing your audience; that you can relate to multiple                                                                audiences and be a transculturalist. Pratt took the role of a mom, a literacy expert, and a woman                                                                  with knowledge of baseball all in one piece. Although her main audience was fellow literature                                                                        professors, some of those were also moms, some of them knew things about baseball, and she was                                                                able to relate to her audience on different levels. I am going to try to incorporate this idea into my                                                                immersion experience narrative. Although I am not an expert on my immersion experience, nor                                                                  have I seen someone experience alcoholism first hand, I can relate to those people on other levels                                                                in multiple ways. 

 

                                                              Attending an alcoholic’s anonymous meeting as my immersion experience,

                                                              itself, taught me a lot. I walked into the church, a building very familiar to

                                                              me, not knowing what to expect.  I left humbled and proved wrong by my

                                                              preconceived notions.  This can relate to me learning in class; I walked into

                                                              an English class the first day, something very familiar to me but I did not

                                                              have a clue of what to expect. By reading and watching these various pieces

                                                              I have learned different ways to manipulate my writing and that there are 

                                                              endless ways to write and not be such a cookie cutter, 5 paragraph essay,

type of writer. I entered my immersion experience with a growth mindset and I believe that’s how I was able

to learn so much from it and be able to incorporate that thinking into my final writing piece. Through each stage of the writing process I will take feedback and begin integrating other resources and aspects of the experience to make the final product multi-dimensional and not just a flat experience narrative. I’m excited to learn more writing techniques through this process and maybe be able to use them in future college courses.