The audience for the multimodal project and the formal paper are very different. For the formal paper, I had to sound scholarly, I had to make sure that I used big words, and I could not use any type of contractions. It is also more stressful, because I wanted to make sure I had everything right. I had to be more precise. Also, when writing a formal paper, I had to make sure I was writing it to the right age demographic. For the formal paper, I needed to be serious and make sure I covered the depth of the topic. I did not want to make it boring, but I also could not really make it fun, because my topic was such a serious and heavy topic. I could not take away from the seriousness of it. Also, with the formal paper, I knew my audience would be a little bit more familiar with the topic. Most of the time, older audiences pay attention to the news or read newspapers so they know what is going on. I did not want to insult them in my paper by reiterating stuff they already knew. I had to make sure that I gave them new information and did not insult their intelligence. Writing to this audience can be very challenging and stressful, but once I became organized, it got better.
With the multimodal project, I can be a little bit more relaxed and flexible. By that time, I had plenty of time to really understand my topic, so I knew how to translate all the information better. Also, when doing the multimodal project, it does not have to be so stuffy. I wanted to make it appealing to 18 year olds who lose interest very soon. I made it colorful and added a lot of pictures. I also broke up the text into small sections that way they would not get overwhelmed with information. I still sectioned each topic off, but I shortened the paragraphs a lot. My paragraphs went from being about twenty sentences to about seven. When the audience for the multimodal project was done looking at my website, I wanted them to have an understanding of my topic but not feel so bored and depressed by it. I wanted it to grab their attention. With me being an 18 year old, I know what bores teenagers, and I know what grabs our attention. When it came to the text of the multimodal, I struggled a bit. I wanted to make sure that my sentences were still scholarly, but I did not want to sound like I was preaching. I also did not want to insult their intelligence by trying to dumb down the sentences. I finally came to the decision of using some of the same words from my paper, but to also use words that I know most teenagers use. When it came to the knowledge of my subject, most 18 year olds know about racial profiling but only through social media. They do not really watch the news or read newspaper. Most of the time, we are only getting the opinion of uneducated people. In this multimodal, I wanted to make sure they got a good understanding of what causes racial profiling. I wanted them to actually learn and still have fun reading the website. The younger audience was probably the most fun to do and the least stressful, but at times it was still pretty hair-pulling.