Analysing a particular work and then presenting it to a particular audience is a tough task. As the
type of audience differs, and their ideologies also vary, it becomes more challenging.
I remember a time when I was trying to explain the impact of the Netflix specials of Bo Burnham to
my brother. He is one of my favourite comedians. However, the explanation of the impact did not
go well. It was mainly because I was not able to communicate it in the right way so that my brother
could understand it properly (Meyer et al., 2016).
During the process of explaining the impact of the Netflix specials of Bo Burnham, I encountered
several challenges. One of the major challenges was that I lacked confidence. I kept thinking about
whether I would be able to articulate the impact and present it in the right way or not. It made me
more confused (Meyer et al., 2016). In my mind, I was constantly struggling to form sentences and
kept thinking if it would make any sense or not. I was trying to explain some of the jokes of Bo
Burnham to my brother. However, he did not have any idea about him. He neither knew who the
comedian was nor was he familiar with his style of comedy. This made things more complicated as
well as challenging. As I was not able to communicate the impact in the right manner, some of the
jokes even seemed to be offensive to my brother. I also tried showing a video clip of his comedy to
my brother. However, by that time, I had already messed up things. As my brother was not able to
know that the comedian was trying to be sarcastic, he did not find the video to be funny and could
not enjoy it. The lack of familiarity with the jokes of Bo Burnham made it difficult for my brother to
understand it or find it interesting.
As I was explaining the impact to my brother, who is just one year younger than me, I made use of
too simple terms. The language of communication was also very informal and casual. I could have
explained the impact better if I had made use of some better words and a semi-formal tone.
However, owing to the relationship with my brother, I used a very casual tone as well as language.
Even though the process was challenging, I enjoyed it a lot.
Throughout this project, the challenges of trying to communicate my analysis of the literature and
the music were ever-present. It was not because of the lack of information available; it was mostly
because I was so focused on presenting my points and ideas in such a way that my selected
audience could understand. The impact of the work was there, however, I felt that it was incumbent
upon myself to be able to articulate the impact that the theme provided in the best way.
Because of this challenge, I found myself toiling over sentence after sentence -- rereading and
thinking, constantly asking myself: "Does this make sense?" Because my explanations were geared
toward college students such as myself, I felt that I had flexibility with the terms and comparisons
that I had made; but still, I could not communicate too eloquently for fear of losing my audience's
attention.
All in all, though challenging, I enjoyed completing the rough draft. I am eager to hear inputs and
make corrections. Finding the right audience can be difficult. Sometimes the people that get the
most out of your research is not who you expect to. I have always found myself struggling with
whom to gear my work to. I can usually tell if I need to, well honestly, dumb it down or not. I tend
to explain things how I see them, and people are often surprised at how I view the world. I seem to
have a habit of holding back what I presenting to anyone.
I wrote a small essay for my friend about why I adored two characters in a movie, and I just let go.
The friend read it, coming back to me in absolute tears and told me she had no idea I had all that
inside of me. I did not know I was going to affect her that way and she decided to watch the movie.
She has since come to me and told me she sees the movies about the characters so much
differently than she would have without me.
If you asked me to explain my essay to someone else, I would have to adapt it. I would probably
take out most of the emotional feel of it due to my own issues. I know that an audience perception
will change based on gender and education level. Explaining to my friend leaves me open to deepen
our relationship.
Communicating to a specific audience can be difficult because it is not just about choosing words
that your audience will understand, but also about conveying the information in a way that
captures their attention and convinces them that your argument is important. I have mentioned
before in this course that one of my favourite pieces of literature is a pamphlet called "The 7 Day
Mental Diet" by Emmet Fox, and I stand by that. I still believe, to this day, that one of the best
things a person can practice to change their life is a positive outlook. I had tried discussing this to
some of my friends at one point, but unfortunately it did not quite land with them. I feel that I did a
good job at explaining the impact of the work. My friends always know me as someone who has a
positive vibe and a sunny outlook on life, so explaining to them the importance of positive thinking
in that regard was not terribly hard. I think the biggest challenge that arose was trying to convince
them that it was worthwhile. Most of them did not think it was a worthwhile thing to practice, or
simply did not care at all. It taught me a very important lesson about making sure to build a
convincing argument as opposed to simply saying that something is true.
A time when I experienced an issue while trying to explain the plot of a movie to my parents and
grandmother. The movie, Tenet, was a movie about the prevention of World War 3. This movie was
a bit difficult to understand for me and the group of people I saw it with, never mind trying to
explain it to others. The biggest, most confusing part to explain was their use of time travel. Having
the ability to go back in time multiple times during one fight to try and change the outcome. This
was very difficult for them to understand so trying to explain the plot of the movie without trying to
explain every detail about time traveling was much easier to understand. If I were telling the story
to a close group of friends that are interested in the same type of movies, they would likely better
understand the plot of the movie.
I remember a time where I was trying to explain a ballet titled "Giselle" to a friend who was not a
ballerina. It was a challenge to explain it because ballets are historically hard to follow. They use
only words and use movement to describe the story. Ballet has many moments that translate to
words that ballerinas know but the average person would not. So that was the biggest challenge,
trying to explain how a story in conveyed through movement. My "audience" was someone that
was aware of ballet, but not aware of how ballets express stories. They were close to me however
so I felt comfortable engaging in an informative conversation with them.
While explaining the impact of the work, I think the hardest time I had was trying to put the art into
words. For example, trying to explain how something sounds like a season, or how a piece of art
makes you feel, you cannot just say “it makes me feel at home.” You must find a way to explain
exactly what “home” feels like. The main challenge for me was trying to not over-explain things,
when I am writing sometimes, I forget that I already said the same thing earlier in the paragraph.
Based on my audience, I realized I had to be clearer about my words in my analysis and stick to the
main key points and not just venture off with “word-fluff” in my paper.
A time when I had to explain the impact of a show would be when I was telling my coworkers about
a recent episode, I had seen from the show Rick and Morty. All most all my coworkers are not
familiar with this show, or any type of shows like it. Explaining the impact of work was a struggle.
There is a huge age gap between most of my coworkers and I, at least 25 years if not more.
Therefore, the language and jokes they use in this show does not resonate with people of that age
group very well. Once I realized I needed to change my explanation based on the audience I was
addressing, things went a lot smoother. I used less "slang" terms to describe the show and they all
understood much easier.
There was a time when I tried to explain this tv commercial that I had seen that made me have an
emotional response. I laughed at myself for crying at this commercial, especially since I was
unaware of what was being advertised but stayed more focused on the message relayed. I started
to talk with a coworker about my "tv commercial breakdown" and began to recreate what I
remembered. At first, when I began explaining the commercial, it seemed to be going well, as I
described the opening scene of an animated father teaching his son how to ride a bike. However,
some challenges arose when I attempted singing the song that played in the background as the
commercial continued. I remember some of the words that touched me the most, but not all of
them. I had the wrong pitch, even though I could hear it in my head, but overall, it was not the
same without the song and images playing together. So, I resorted to Google and found the tv
commercial based on some simple lyrics I remembered. To my surprise, it was an "Uncle Ben's-
Original Rice TV Commercial called "Life Lesson." As we watched the commercial, she began to nod
her head in agreement with what I assumed was what I had attempted earlier. After it played, she
began to express her thoughts, which aligned with some of my similar thoughts. We agreed that the
parent or even a trusted adult in a child's life has an enormous responsibility to set positive
examples and help guide them. We also shared that this promoted positive masculinity healthily as
the father was emotionally intelligent to realize his behaviours directly impacted his son. That was a
great moment as that commercial created a space for connection and seeing similarities in each
other, despite our cultural backgrounds and lifestyles.
It is easier for one to be on the spotlight as most people wants to know the ways of living outside of
the United States. Most people are eager to know about different cultures and heritages. Therefore,
as an immigrant, audience are mainly adults who have great interest in learning about the African
culture and perception of life. There are challenges one faces when trying to explain the culture
differences in African as most people have a stereotype mind of Africa as a poor state and as well a
country and not a continent. c
Besides having challenges in explaining the different cultures in African as a whole, I had a bit of a
schooling with some friends of mine about the purpose and reasons for a female to have waist
beads on. It was challenging for me because they already have the idea that the waist beads are
such of a fashion and are supposed to be worn above the clothing, they have on rather than it/them
been hidden underneath the clothing. But with the help of their curiosity, I was able to have their
attention and explained to them that the waist beads in my culture are meant for seduction, they
are worn underneath the females clothing and can only been seen by their spouses as a sign of
seducing their partner. The beautiful colours of the beads laying around the female waist most
likely brighten the sculpture of the female body/figure that attracts the eyes of the owner/spouse.
At the end of my explanation, I was able to give much better understanding to my friends/audience
and since then, their waist beads were never worn for fashion as they were never seen outside of
their clothing, but rather as I have taught them according to my culture and traditions.
c c c c c c c c
The most challenging part of communicating my analysis of a work of art, literature, or music, is
finding the words to emphasize what it means to me, while explaining the parts I know will interest
my audience. For example, I tried to explain to a friend how Instructions Not Included impacted me
and the hardest part of explaining it, was trying to find the right words to describe the absolute
beauty in the film that caused me to become emotional watching it. Since my friend is my age, but
has no kids, I had to find another way to make it appealing. For men and a younger audience, I
would explain the comedy in the film rather than the emotion behind it.
I think I have a difficult time explaining thing to adults and I find it easier to explain things to
children. The challenges I am facing with communicating my analysis is putting my thoughts into
words. It is hard for me to find what is most important to say. Just recently I had to explain a bible
verse to a group of people all age ranges, I felt that that was easy for me because I could relate to
the verse. I think this went well because the verse resonated from my heart so I think the people
could feel what I was saying. I think the challenge I faced was since there was all different age
ranges was to make it where everyone was interested, I did not want to be too simplistic or use a
language to challenging.
A time where I had to explain the impact of a song would be trying to explain the meaning behind It
would be “Through da storm” by Polo G to my mom. She is always wondering what types of music
and shows I have been interested and why, so when I try to explain the music of rap music to a
person from a time where rap was not very respected can be difficult. Rap gets a rep that it is
mainly about crime or hate, when a lot of rappers use music to escape or write down emotion
which is what helped her understand. The challenges that erode were obviously her being religious
and not wanting to hear rap, her being from a time where it was not respected, and her getting
passed all the cussing to listen to the actual message. I think that my explanation changed once I
realized my audience was older than me and a bit more proper, I had to use less slang and more
respectful for her to understand.
References
Meyer, J., Song, R., & Ha, K. (2016). The effect of product placements on the evaluation of movies.
European Journal of Marketing.
https://youtu.be/UWZ60Ol3P0E
