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Dear Mom,

As I was growing up, you watched me spend countless hours of my life playing the Sims.  I was always trying to convince you that it was not a waste of time, but it never seemed to work.  Now in my English 103 class we have just started to use Second Life.  It is different from the Sims, but is still similar in some ways!  Basically, I have created an avatar that looks just like the characters on the Sims do, but I can change more about the appearance (face, body, clothes, hair, hats etc.).  Second Life also is different in that it involves interaction with other real people that are online at the same time as me.  You can see the other people walk around in the same areas as you and some of their outfits are outrageous!  The single feature of this program that I feel is most important beyond it just being a fun online game is the fact that it is extremely educational.  You wouldn’t believe me if I told you I was at the Sistine Chapel this morning. However, with Second Life I can visit and learn all about it and many other places without leaving my desk.  I’m excited to visit more places and tell you about my online travels.  Second Life is a way to have fun and still be doing my homework! 

Mom's Reaction: 

Dear Classmate,

I always used to play the Sims when I was in elementary school and I’m sure you did too.  When the game first came out my friends and I would play and talk about the game constantly.  With that being said, I was really excited when I found out there is an educational form of one of my favorite computer games that we were going to have to explore for English class!  Second Life is also even better because you can change so many more aspects of your appearance, making everyone so much more unique.  It’s always better to have diversity, even if it is just a virtual world.  This makes the game so much more personal than the Sims.  It also helps that the other people you interact with are real people, exploring just like us.  The best part of Second Life that makes it so much better than the Sims is the traveling.  I love the idea of going to places I would never have the time or money to go to in any normal circumstance.  Teleporting to the Sistine Chapel is much more exciting than just reading about it in a textbook.  Taking a vacation to the beach might also be a nice break from the stresses of college.  Second Life is opening up so many possibilities that are going be very exciting as we learn to use the program more throughout the upcoming semester.

Dear Professor McWhorter,

Just as we are learning about many new things in CORE, I’m learning about a new program in one of my writing classes.  It is called Second Life.  I’m not sure if you’ve heard about it before, but it is a virtual online world and you can create a virtual person to live in that world.  You have complete control over your appearance and have the ability to teleport.  Being able to teleport allows you to go to different places.  This morning I was just in a recreation of the Sistine Chapel.  I would not have had the time or the money to get all the way there and back this morning in real life, but Second Life allows me to do so.  You can also converse with the people using the program in the places that you go.  This is exciting because you can learn from these other people even when you are both sitting at your computers in different areas of the country.  Second life is similar to the computer game the Sims, which I used to play and enjoy very much.  I’m excited that I have found something so fun that is still educational! 

What had to be changed for each audience?

While looking at the different audiences I broke them down into what would be most interesting to each person and tried to focus on that point while still explaining Second Life as a whole.  For my Professor I tried emphasizing the educational part more and had to explain more about the program incase they had never heard of it before.  For my mom I wanted to emphasize the fact that I was having fun while still learning at the same time.  I started her piece by recalling a memory from my childhood so she would have something to compare Second Life to.  For my classmate, I wanted to emphasize the more fun parts about second life.  It also wasn’t necessary to explain simple Second Life things because my classmate is using the program and knows some basics.