Main challenge in communicating my analysis of my art comes from being able to clearly convey my
thoughts into writing. I have the ideas in my head, and it all makes perfect sense there. However,
when trying to convert it into writing, I sometimes struggle with finding the best wording to use.
The last time I had to explain the impact of a work would be when I was telling my girlfriend about
this joke performed by a famous comedian. Explaining it went well because I remembered exactly
how the joke went and I was able to describe how I thought it expertly highlighted a flaw in the
world. The challenge that arose, one that is common for myself, was explaining my thoughts in a
clear way. Because my girlfriend is close in age to me, college educated, and is Cambodian, I felt I
was able to explain the joke in detail and what exactly it is dissecting from society. The joke had to
do with the treatment of Asian-Americans so I felt it connected to her specifically. I think the most
challenging part of this presentation will be in-text citations. I know what the definition is, but when
it comes to placing it into my work it becomes hard. I really believe I am over thinking the entire
process. I will continue to try to master it. I think another challenging part will be analysing my
thesis statement to make it a little clearer.
c c c I remember the first time my mom got into my truck. I had country music playing, and it is not
something she listens to on the regular. I was listening to Jason Aldeans song Any Ol Barstool. I
must admit he is my favourite country singer. My mom was listening to the lyrics, well trying to, and
assumed he was talking about being at a bar hanging with his friends. I had to explain to her that he
is more less referring to a break-up he went through. The break-up then led him to realize that he
could do bad all by himself. She then understood more of the lyrics and the meaning behind the
song. I would say that the explaining was successful. The explanation only changed due to cultural
background. My mom's age and education did not affect the explanation at all. The only thing that
was challenging was the lyrics to the song to her. We got that squared away, and now when she
gets in my truck, she expects my Jason CD to be playing. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my
mama's smile. The challenge I am facing right now while trying to communicate my analysis is trying
to make sure my vision is clear and concise for my audience. As I am trying to compare to very
different works of art, one being a painting, while the other being literature. While it is easier to
digest the theme in the literature work of art because you can simply read the literature and gain a
perspective. As with the painting, you must try and draw conclusion from something that looks like
a mess of colours and figures. A time when I had to explain the impact of a work from the
humanities was last year, a friend of mine and myself were surfing Netflix for a new binge worthy
show to watch, when we stumbled across "Shameless". My friend had never seen the show and was
entirely new to the context of Shameless. As appalled as I was that he had never seen the show, I
began to educate him on the context of the show while sharing the emotional and mental impacts
Shameless brought upon me when it first aired. Explaining the impact was exhilarating for me only
because I love educating and sharing new things to people. There were no challenges that arose
during this specific time for me. My explanation had changed dramatically because although I was
speaking with a friend, I was also speaking with someone who had no prior knowledge of the show.
I had to break down every cast member, every scenario, and every real-world event that was
happening. This friend happens to be born and raised into the military life and has never seen a
show or witnessed an act of real-life that involved acts of poverty, addiction, sex before marriage,
and vulgar language. As per this class: The most challenging thing in presenting my analysis to the
audience is keeping them engaged and not bored. Anyone can put words to paper, but it is how you
express your thoughts on that paper that will keep them reading.
As a mom, it is hard to explain certain things to my children. They are ages 13 and 10. When
explaining music to them, such as let us say musical soundtracks from movies. We all have that one
movie soundtrack that makes you happy, sad, angry, and emotional all at the same time. The Movie
“The Greatest Showman” for instance, explaining the story line in this musical was challenging for
me when explaining to my 10-year-old. He loves music, he loves this movie. He loves how the music
flows and how it makes him feel goosebumps all throughout the movie. For those of you that have
never seen it or know about it. It is a musical film based around the circus. At the beginning you see
a wealthy family and a poor family, the wealthy family did not want their daughter with the poor
boy. As the movie went on, they ended up together and he tried to give her the world that he
thought she wanted, but she was happy just making their little family. So long story short, the man
decided to start a circus, bringing in all “walks of life.” For example, the bearded lady, the tattoo
man, largest man, as well as tallest man, conjoined twins etc…. you get it. Heard it before? Yes, this
film is based on Mr. P.T. Barnum, Barnum’s Circus. It was challenging for me because this film
brought a sense of comfort, meaning and reason for living for these different types of anomalies,
when everyone else said they were “freaks.” When my 10-year-old first seen this movie, it was
music, music, music, it makes him happy, and after a challenging experience of explaining and not
listening. We watched it again a few days later, and he goes “Everyone has a place and Barnum
gave them a place to be accepted and loved. That is awesome! They all became a family. All it takes
is a little love and acceptance.” c In that moment, I knew he listened, and I had gotten through to
him.
When explaining to your audience, it is imperative to know your audience. Express your thoughts in
a way that your audience will understand and want to keep listening. Oftentimes, I will make
references to videos I watch, or stories that I have heard from my friends and family. A specific
example is when I am talking with my mother as we are driving through country lands, I will speak
of folklore that I have heard about, as the surroundings invoke thoughts of the stories or videos of
stories I heard. My mother is extremely sceptical of anything outside the realm of reality, so I tend
to recount the stories in a more scientific view for her to understand and believe them better. This
may include giving psychological reasonings for the beliefs in groups of people, comparing our
knowledge with others’ knowledge, and giving contextual insight as to where these stories
originated from. Sometimes this approach still does not have an impact on her, as it does with me,
but one example I gave of Native American legends did seem to pique her interest due to the story
sharing similarities of her ethics, morals, and religious beliefs which invoked an emotional response
rather than a logical response.
Looking at the two articles that I have chosen to research for this class, I would think that my best
audience would be involved in the arts. While that may seem like the obvious answer, I think that
being able to interpret both the sculpture and the piece of music I have chosen takes a special
person that odd open to things and able to see outside of the box. I believe that presenting these
artifacts to someone outside of my targeted audience would pose as a challenge because they may
see things in black and white, while not being able to hear the inner beauty and true meaning of the
song, or the sculptors’ thoughts and feelings into his creation.
I have tried explaining several things to people who just did not get it, but one that sticks out to me
was a documentary I had watched about a hotel in California that was deemed as cursed because of
the terrible things that had happened there over the decades. I tried explaining the documentary to
a friend, all while explaining the different situations that had occurred there (murder, rape,
disappearances) however the friend could not understand nor comprehend the idea of a place
being cursed. While I can certainly understand what she is saying, the point was that I was trying to
explain th ins to her with examples only for her to prove that she would not be a good target
audience for this type of movie based on her reactions.
Watching a movie, observing a piece of art, reading a book, or listening to a song; might be easy to
interpret when doing it on our own. It is a different story when explaining those artifacts to other
people. For example, my 12-year-old son and I love watching movies, and we often find ourselves
expressing how the movie made us feel and sharing observations about the film. I once had to
explain to him the impact of the similarities between Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. The
first thing that I said to answer his question was that the writers of both films were from the same
country and that both movies were in fantasy. While thinking and analysing my answer, I realized it
was not enough explanation for a 12-year-old, so I thought of a better way to describe the
similitudes between the two movies, which was a little challenging. Subsequently, I decided to start
breaking down the movie's plot. For instance, I told him that Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings
develop in a world that we know nothing about, a fantasy world that can only exist in our
imagination. However, I encouraged him for these explanations to not let them negatively impact
his love for fantasy movies. Thankfully he is still a big fan of fantasy movies! I then understand that
for an audience of this age, it would be better just to put it into simple words than going into facts
and detail. Regardless, I always tell my kids the complex version and then explain it in a plainer
version for them.
I think the most difficult aspect of this project so far is reading and analysing the resources. It has
been pretty time consuming up to this point. Additionally, I sometimes struggle with in-text
citations, so this part of the presentation is probably the most challenging for me.
Recently, I read the book It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover, and I wanted to recommend it to my
mother. I feel that I was able to successfully sell her on reading the novel. I described what I
enjoyed about it as well as how quickly I read it. The most challenging aspect of describing the book
was trying not to add too much information so that I did not spoil it for her. It was difficult for me to
describe the basic idea of the novel instead of the major plot points, as I wanted to discuss the
novel with someone. My explanation changed a bit as I was describing the book to my mother
because I know that my mom and I have similar tastes when it comes to books, movies, and TV
shows. I thought that telling her what I personally enjoyed about the book would encourage her to
read it, seeing as we like similar pieces of media. Analysing work and presenting on a specific
audience basis has a lot of scenarios to evaluate. Audiences are of different types. The ideology
differs from one person to another. When the work has proposed or performed, different
feedbacks were attained. The work was based on social relationships of same age people and its
difference from age to age. The book "The Kite Runner" was explained as an example and
connection between Hassan and Amir was detailed along with other characters. But priority given
on other characters were evaluated individually by one person to another on gender or a
community basis. Main challenges are following: Conveying ideas equally to people, certain parts of
work must be altered based on education level of people, and it is observed that people close to the
narrator are more likely to support views even though they are biased in the projected scenario.
When I was telling my best friend about the composition, I studied by Beethoven, he automatically
knew about the composition and personal characteristics of Beethoven and his struggles with being
deaf. My friend also mentioned the invention of several instruments he incorporated in his
symphony such as piccolo, contrabassoon. It was easy to discuss this composition, because my
friend was aware of this famous composer. I spoke in simple terminology with my friend and we
had rather interesting discussion. One challenge I have faced while trying to communicate my
analysis is creating a clear thesis statement. I tend to overthink in many aspects of life, and writing
is no exception. I want to create a thesis that does justice to the paper, yet I find it a bit challenging
to sum up the main point of my paper in just one sentence.
My favourite show is One Tree Hill, so I find myself explaining this show to many people. One
specific time was when I was explaining this show to my sister, and it went well overall, but her
being my sister, I figured she did not care much about what I had to say. One challenge that arose
was that like me, she has a hard time watching something someone recommends to her because
she prefers to stumble upon shows herself. This meant that I needed to try even harder to pique
her interest in this incredible show. My explanation was very thorough. I explained to her the
incredible music they pick for this show, and how well they match the scenes. My favourite part of
this show is the love Nathan and Haley have for each other, so I made that known. Love is our
favourite part of any movie, tv-show, etc., so I believe my thorough explanation of the magical love
this couple shares was the main selling point of my explanation. This worked, as One Tree Hill is
now one of her favourite shows too.
