Hiram Lopez
ENG1301.28
Trang Phan
10-18-10
Closing My Eyes as I Speak: An Argument for Ignoring Audience Summary
Peter Elbow. “Closing My Eyes as I Speak: An Argument for Ignoring Audience” College English, Vol. 49, No. 1(Jan., 1987), pp 50-69
In the article “Closing My Eyes as I Speak: An Argument for Ignoring Audience,” Peter Elbow focused on the fact that when we talk to a person or a group we struggle to find words because we are so overwhelmed by their presence and it makes it hard for us to get our point across, he argues that” writing without audience awareness is not meant to undermine the many good reasons for writing with audience awareness.” (50) For example we easily neglect the audience because we would write in solitude, and that students have a weak sense of writing communication because they have only written to teachers in a school setting. He also made a claim that writer-based prose was sometimes better than reader-based prose. He describes that when writers are aware of the audience, it may disrupt their thinking. So, he suggests for teachers to teach them in a desert island mode, in order for the teachers to help their students by helping to trust and believe in their writing.
Question:
Why is it good to block out the audience at times?
Response:
I think it is important to block out the audience at times because an audience can overwhelm someone so much that they can often forget what they are trying to say. It goes the same way when we write alone in our rooms; we often have to write in writer-based prose so we can get our ideas out the way we understand them. It’s not that we should never think of the audience. The question is when. “An audience is a field of force.”(51) It all comes down to what kind of audience we have. There are two types of audiences an inviting or enabling, and inhibiting. The inviting and enabling audience which is like talking to the perfect listener they make us feel smart and allow us to come up with ideas we didn’t know we had. While the inhibiting audience makes us feel dumb and make it hard for us to find words or thoughts. So, it all comes down to the audience we have at hand they contribute to the ways we write. It can be good to block them out at times to write better papers.
I have the same reason for blocking out an audience. They do overwhelm me, their judgement scares me, and it makes me altogether nervous. Inhibiting audiences are what scare me the most during presentations.
ReplyDeleteI agree with an aduience, my mind seems to go blank at times, so i try to block them as much as i can but at the same time you have to be aware of them so you won't go off track on your writing
ReplyDeleteNice summary, it's simple yet it sums everything up. I also agree with your answer because i've gone through it and i still am. I sometimes struggle trying to create a type of writing that the audience wants to read. It's hard to make a good paper, but if we have writer and reader based prose combined we will be fine.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your summary because, when i start to write i try to keep my audience in mind, but there are certain times in my writing where i block them out because i am knowledgeable enough with what i am saying and don.t need an audience to pressure me into doing something right.
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