(This Picture is A Simple Demonstration of Coding Style)

Outcome 1 refers to the awareness of using different strategies in different writing contexts and for different audiences. This ability is important, because writing isn’t like applying formulas or following rigid procedures. Instead, it should be flexible and specific for different audiences or contexts, which requires us to have broad understanding of different writing strategies and be able to choose which one to use. After having been practicing for the whole quarter, I have good understanding why and how to use different writing strategies for different audiences and contexts.

I am able to realize the audience of the writing, and choose good writing strategies to apply. Realizing whom the audience is means knowing whether we are writing for academic experts, general readers or other groups of people. Different group of audiences have different level of background knowledge of the topic, which requires us to make good decision on what information to provide and what information not to provide. I am good at making this decision. In short assignment 2, my topic is the analysis of the discourse communities of Chinese dialects. I write in English, so I assume that I am writing for a general person in an English-spoken country. Because this English speaker may not have background understanding of the discourse community of Chinese dialects, I provide him/her with enough information in my paper in order not to let him/her get lost. For example, this is the paragraph I wrote to define Chinese dialects: “Chinese dialects, although we call them ‘dialects’, are actually very different from the ‘dialects’ we use to define the varieties of English. There are eight branches of Chinese dialects (or Sinitic languages) and each has their own words, pronunciation systems and grammars. People speaking different branches of Sinitic languages cannot understand each other. For some reasons Chinese still define Chinese dialects as ‘dialects’, but if we use the standard that defines dialects and languages in English to define Chinese dialects, they will be probably defined as languages instead of dialects” (SA2, 1). In this paragraph, I demonstrate the differences of different Chinese dialects (“different words, pronunciation systems and grammars”) and give the reader an intuitive feeling of how different they are (“they will be probably defined as languages instead of dialects”). As I discuss about the differences of lexis, taboos, and other topics between different Chinese dialects, if I don’t provide the reader with this information, they may think Chinese dialects are just like English dialects, and will be confused by my statements that show huge differences between different dialects. I have demonstrated my awareness of audiences by providing them with necessary information not only in this paragraph, but also among all papers I have accomplished in this quarter. Thus, I believe I am successful in fulfilling the outcome 1 from this perspective.

In addition to provide audiences with necessary information, it is also important to show the audiences what they are willing to see. In other words, we should write down something they are interested in, they trust, or at least they accept. At first, I was not good at fulfilling this awareness of audience, but after revising my papers for many times, I have practiced a lot and become strong in catering the tastes of audiences.  In short assignment 1, our goal is to analyze the rhetoric of Amy Tan’s article Mother Tongue. As this paper is a rhetorical analysis in three dimensions of rhetoric – ethos, pathos, and logos, we should assume that the readers are academics of rhetoric who at least know what these three dimensions are. Because our audiences are professional in the topic we talk about, they look forward to reading formal and objective procedure of analysis for this topic. In the first draft of short assignment 1, I didn’t do it well because my analysis is too personal. For example, to demonstrate how Amy Tan appeals to our pathos by showing us a long paragraph of example of her mother’s broken language, I wrote: “At first I don’t understand why the writer introduces such a long paragraph […] on the other hand, it reminded me of how much hardship I had and I am having in order to master English, as an ESL student” (Original SA1, 1). In this paragraph, I used my own experience and situation to analyze Tan’s empathy. It successfully shows the procedure of how my feeling is evoked by Tan’s word, but it is too subjective – my own feeling cannot represent for that of any people other than me. Academic readers don’t like this, because it is not universally applicable. In order to make my statement more persuasive, I generalized my demonstration about feelings for a certain group of people instead of just for myself. In the last edition of my short assignment 1, for the same demonstration, I write: “On the other hand, Tan’s mother’s word also specifically appeals to the sensibility of those who had or has been struggling in learning English as second language. […] When these people read this paragraph, they may think of how bad their English was or is, and how much hardship they had or are having; they will sympathize Tan’s mother for her broken English and will be more willing to continue reading the article” (SA1, 1). Although the logic here is similar to that in the first draft, I avoid all first person expressions and I don’t write for any individual person, which puts me to an objective point of view and increases the persuasiveness of my statements.

In order to bring comfortableness to the audiences, we should not only focus on offering contents that our audiences like to read, but also pay attention to some writing-style level details. Audiences consciously like reading contents they like to read, but they also subconsciously notice the word choices, writing tones, formality of statements, or any other wording details. For example, an expert in certain academia likes reading professional terms and statements in a serious tone while a general person may like reading words that are easy to understand and in relaxed tone. I also do a good job in this aspect. For example, the audience of major paper 1 is supposed to be experts in the area of studying the identities of languages. In order to appeal to the reader’s ethos (increase my credibility), I use some higher-level phrases in major paper 1, like “language replacement” and “language addition” and define them when they are put forward instead of directly use simple phrases like “replacing original language” and “adding new languages”. My using higher-level terms gives the reader a more professional impression of myself, which improves my credibility and evokes the readers’ willing to continue reading my article.