Who is your audience?

I keep up with many people through blogs. It's fun, and I enjoy it, but I can't help but notice that some writing speaks clearly to me and some just...well, doesn't. Being an English major, I really like big words. They make me feel smart, and I like being able to rattle them off and actually know what they mean. I might even drop a few here and there in this blog. But the question I think every writer should ask themselves is this: Does my audience understand what I'm saying?

If you're only aiming to impress people with your massive use of grammatical vocabulary, then by all means, keep writing your glamorous prose. But if you really want your audience to think about what you're writing, then you might want to keep your language free from confusing words.

This is something I struggle with sometimes. Like I said, I really like my big words. But what I like even more is when I can allow my audience to think about the meaning behind the words, instead of just wondering what the heck those words meant.

If I do nothing more than that, than making my language clear and understandable, then I really do believe I've done my job as a writer. Though I might drop a challenge or two along the way. A broader vocabulary never hurt anyone, after all.

Resolved

I hereby resolve that this year I will get involved more and have more fun and quit being a stick in the mud. I get so bogged down by what I have to do, what I should do, and what other people expect me to do, that I completely forget to just have fun. And, according to my friends, I'm way too young for that to be happening.

I realize that if I manage to pull off graduating in May (a grand feat of extraordinary proportions considering I'm behind), I'll get a nice healthy dose of reality when I go after my first "real job." Apparently all those summers working at the lake don't count as a "real job," whatever that is. Anyway, when I do secure this job and start the beginnings of what I hope is a nice happy career, I'm probably going to have to give up a lot of the fun college things that I get to do as a student. Things like late night ice-skating, free movies and popcorn in the basketball stadium, etc etc.

I'm going to miss being a student. So as of right now, I'm going to make the most of the time I've got left to just enjoy life.

P.S. My roommate has stopped running off for days and days at a time. So, for now, I'm not going to worry too much about it.

Back to the Grindstone

So, I've pretty much decided that I'm going to graduate this May. There's a lot of hard work ahead of me, but I'm confident I can get everything accomplished. College has been fun, but I'm tired of sinking thousands of borrowed dollars into my education. As the debt racks up, my anxiousness to be debt-free climbs. So I'm going to go out and do something about it. Starting just as soon as all my classes are over.

Speaking of classes, I'm currently in the middle of a week-long intensive course on Musical theater. By Friday evening, I'm convinced I will be a brainwashed mind-puppet that only sings showtunes because of the extremely long days and the mountain of work I'm plowing through each night.

It's definitely a good feeling to get weeks worth of classes done in one day, though.