It’s crazy to think that there are so many different ways to write something; or if I were to change that a little bit, how many steps there are to pay attention to. Like the building blocks of life; except that there are no blocks, just small details that are super important. Basically the same thing. In an article written by E. Shelley Reid “Ten Ways to Think about Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students”, she goes through these little blocks of writing in a, well, metaphoric standpoint.
In these ten steps she has different sections of things to look out for when writing. These can go from just feeling out the audience, or reading the story before writing. It’s stimple, yet so precise that even I had to self-reflect a little bit and ask myself if I even do one of these things. There is always a method to madness and sometimes not everyones is the same. Most people don’t annotate or think of the audience when they write, and yet somehow it still works just as well which boggles my mind sometimes.
How I write is essentially how I speak–a little more unprofessional with a lot of big filler words, and very very fast paced. However, my speech changes when I am at work talking to a customer or my boss, as my writing will similarly change for a school assignment or an email. Really I go around my audience, but a lot of the times I slip in between both. Of course it’s a little embarrassing when I curse or get a little excited around a customer, but I know they are going to be fine with it because they are used to our environment. Hopefully–it’s always a toss up.
In Reids’ article, I have learned that step four perfectly describes what I am referring to. Step four is: “Lost money and thank-you notes: what’s in an audience”. Which, broken down, means that with a change of audience, development of vocabulary is put to the test as they are not the same people as the ones the person was comfortable with before.
I feel that school has helped me learn a more professional way of communicating, but so has the outside world. I’ve always been in jobs where the boss or manager is in their thirties or forties, so they walk the line of professionalism and unprofessionalism and they have taught me so much about such small things. How to stand up for myself, how to negotiate (with a food item for example), and even how to talk on the phone with people. I used to be so terrible at making phone calls with people it’s not funny. I still am though but we’re not going to talk about that.
Now I feel so much more comfortable about talking to regulars and even just new customers who come into work because I have learned how to adapt with the audience. I know that sometimes messing around will not fly–or in other instances it would, and I have learned that with writing too. I am slowly becoming more in tune with my body and mind and I think that is the first time I have ever said that so confidently.
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