Know Your Audience Analysis

Through different writing activities, I have begun to learn more and more about my audience. I have to admit that it is kind of difficult to imagine my readers' responses and determine their attitudes due to the fact we are not in a seated class. My classmates are pretty good about conveying their attitudes efficiently on our assignments. I love the diversity of my audience. Last week, one of the class tasks was to ask a question and the class answers it. It could have been any type of question. My question asked if you were any type of music, what type would you be? I expected the usual: hip-hop, country, or pop. I did receive a few of those responses. However, the majority of responses were things I would have never imagined like Native-Hawaiian, Blues, Worship, and Celtic to name a few. These are all excellent types of music but the important thing is my classmates chose an abstract type and not what is popular. I appreciate that more than anything because it keeps our minds on the edge and moving, which is important in education.
In others' posts there were questions of which movie you would want to be, what show would you wish to be trapped in, where would you go if finances were not an issue, etc. Once again, my peers provided responses that I would not have automatically assumed. For the movie question, a few students stated titles of movies I had never heard before. Thus, my brain got its juices flowing and wanted to learn more. This will benefit writing in all aspects. It will help me gather more information than what my peers expect and therefore lead to the same awestruck opinion I had in getting to know my audience.
I expected to have two or more of the same responses to my question but that, clearly, was not the case.
Maybe since this is my first year of college, I am used to the amount of slacking in writing. I'm surprised that my audience put so much thought into their responses. Like I stated earlier, I appreciate their thinking outside of the box.
This concept inspires me to start being more of an abstract thinker. Being an abstract thinker leads to more interesting and successful writing. I am having a great time learning about my classmates via the Discussion Board meanwhile learning to better my own writing skills.