Giles 1

Isabelle Giles
Professor Bennett
English 1010
28 September 2016
Self -Study of My Writing Life
Writing is a big part of our communication with others, analyzing my style of writing and
the purpose of my writing as well as its effects on others, can help me improve the way I
communicate my thoughts and ideas and do so in the most proper way. As a mother of four and a
stay home mom, the most relevant texts I produce are religious topic texts, identified as talks that
I read in front of a congregation at a Sunday church service. My three talks have three common
components. The first component is the people for whom the talk is intended, the audience,
which greatly influences the way I will convey my thoughts in order to be completely and fully
understood. The second component is a more personal and more selfish goal. Indeed, there are
quite a few personal reasons why I never turn down an opportunity to give a talk such as the
knowledge I gain from the research on the topic, the introspection the process brings, or the
spiritual growth. The third common component is the effect I want the talk to have on the
audience. I want my talk to uplift the audience spiritually, give the audience hope and peace or
even be an answer to questions each individual might have as the individual relates to my
experiences. Together these three talks are relevant to understanding, not only the way I
communicate with others but also be aware of the way that I convey the message to make sure it
is received and understood by the audience exactly the way I intended.

Giles 2
The most compelling evidence is the audience. As I write these talks, keeping in mind the
audience I will be facing is crucial. I need to make sure that the words I choose convey in the
most correct way my thoughts and also make sure that my remarks are tailored to the people who
are going to be in the congregation that day. The audience is usually composed of a wide variety
of men, women, boys and girls ranging from the age of a few months to one hundred years old.
All together there are about two to three hundred people. They all come from different
backgrounds, with different levels of knowledge and more precisely gospel knowledge and
maturity. Despite the fact that I know most of them, as a token of respect, I still need to address
them in a formal way when standing at the pulpit. With this in mind, I can see that talk number
one is a little less formal than talk two and three. Greeting the audience with Good morning
brother and sisters is not as respectful as greeting the audience with Dear Brothers and
sisters. Equally important, the language used for the talk should be very refined and proper.
Looking back at the three talks, once again I can see that talk one versus talk two and three had
some word contractions such as: I cannot which reflects a lack of formality. The target
audience is a determining factor to seriously consider before producing any kind of texts.
Lets take a closer look at the second component which is my personal goal. Writing a
talk is a learning and refining process that requires a significant amount of time and efforts doing
research, studying, pondering and reflecting on my own life. When a specific gospel topic is
given to me, my duty and my goal is to become as knowledgeable as possible about that topic in
order to present it to the audience. The knowledge gained from this research will stay with me
and will increase my understanding of the gospel. For instance, in talk number one, the topic
given to me was to explain the meaning of conversion. In this talk, when I say; Conversion is a
process, not an event, I stated a fact, I presented a knowledge I gained from my research. This

Giles 3
talk is informative and factual. Preparing those talks is also a great opportunity for me to reflect
on my life experiences and how my beliefs in the gospel have influenced and guided my
decisions. When I am asked to share my feelings, I need to be able to identify them in order to
share them with the audience. All of this work is so meaningful and beneficial to the well-being
of an individual. Talks number two and three were very different than my first talk. Talk number
two was all about the decision process and the experience my family and I went through to move
to France and talk number three was about our experience living abroad. By the nature of the
topics, these two talks were going to be more personal, I was going to open my heart and expose
my feelings. In talk number two I say: I had so many worries and concerns and I was lost! this
statement illustrates how I exposed my feelings and showed my vulnerability to the audience.
Same as when I say in talk number three; And as a human being, I let self-pity, despair and
murmuring take over. As I reflect on the audiences reactions to the three talks, I can tell that
they really appreciated when I was sharing real emotions and personal experiences because they
could relate to me. Some people told me that they had their questions answered and others told
me they found some guidance for their personal lives through my words. This feedback was very
fulfilling and it was a great feeling of accomplishment, which brings me to my third component,
the effects of my talk on the audience.
When I stand at the pulpit and share my thoughts and experiences with the audience, my
desire is to uplift them, bring them hope and peace, give them some direction in their lives,
maybe give them a way to overcome their challenges, and have some of their questions
answered. When in talk number one I ask the question; What is true conversion? the audience
knows that I am going to give them the answer and those who have been wondering or struggling
with that topic, might find an answer. In talk number two, when I am talking about our move to

Giles 4
France and I said: We dont know why we are moving now, we dont know the big picture, all
we know is that we want to and that France is where we are supposed to be, the message I am
conveying is to have faith and trust. After I gave this talk, a lady expressed her gratitude to me
for sharing because she was in a similar situation and did not know how to react. I realized at
that point the impact words can have.
Writing is a big part of communicating with others. So many components have to be
taken into consideration for our writing and communication to be as effective as possible, such as
the targeted audience. Besides, being aware of the effects our writing has on our audience will
help improve our communication skills. John A Piece said: Communicating is not only the
essence of Being Humane but also a vital property of life. The better we become at
communicating, the better we feel understood by society. Mastering the art of communication
should be a long life goal for everyone.