Know Your Audience

I went back and read posts from my classmates. As everyone knows, we are all different and view things differently than the next person. I thought this was clear in my post "Last of the oil." My question was "with the last barrel of oil on the planet, what car would you drive?" The answers surprised me. I picked an exotic car that culminated everything that I thought a car should be. I got one other answer like that. The rest were extremely varied. They ranged from "what I'm driving now" to not even being about the car, but the destination the car would take them to! I know that my class is mostly "non grearhead", but I thought that most people had some kind of exotic vehicle as their dream car. That's what I get for assumptions. My class seems to be mostly content with their material possessions. What they seemed to crave more was travel. Most of them gave examples of where they would go and why the vehicle they picked accomplished this. My class seems more of the "its the destination, not the journey" type. Believing in an afterlife was big too. While pretty much everyone believe in the hereafter, it was what they said about religion that caught my eye. Many people said they believed in God but not religion. That you don't have to go to church to believe, or even be saved. That believing in and accepting Jesus was something one could accomplish without a priest telling you what to do. I figured this question might start a religion war, but it didn't. Most people felt that religion is corrupt and to take it with a grain of salt. Last was the question about seasons. Most people liked fall and spring, mostly because it wasn't too cold or hot, which allowed them to do more outside. Taking all this into account, my writing should be impacted by my audience. They seem to be happy with their lives and are steady in their beliefs and family. A paper just about cars would not interest many. My ability to reach my audience is probably best served through papers on the outdoors, possibly vacations and the types of things to be done. I am not sure I am comfortable touching religion or the afterlife. Too many variables to take into account. Never the less, my writing will probably change.