C

MIXTAPE PROJECT

University of South Florida

Daniel Richards

drichar3@mail.usf.edu

Project Description
Rhetoric is about choice. Plain and simple. The study of rhetoric concerns itself with what Aristotle famously penned as the available means of persuasion. That is, when you want to get something done in the world -- be it convincing a friend to come to a party, getting a certain person to see you a certain way, or rallying a downtrodden nation into recovery -- you have a certain repertoire of tools at your disposal: certain techniques, objects, shared ideas, and actions that will help you get something done. Think of it as similar to constructing a table. For some people, they only own two tools: a hammer and a screwdriver. These people are going to struggle to make a nice, sturdy table. For others, their knowledge-base of tools is more expansive, as is their collection in their garage. In addition to a hammer and a screwdriver, these people have a table saw, a leveler, and a sander. Needless to say, the table these people craft is going to be far superior. Same thing goes for communication: the more one is able to see and use the available means of persuasion they have at their disposal, the more effective the message will be and the more likely their outcome to happen. Effective rhetoric, indeed getting things done in the world, is about making the right choices for the right person at the right time for the right purpose. ! This project asks you to create and justify an object of persuasion that calls for making of crucial decisions: a mixtape. (Of course, cassettes are out of production so your mixtape will take the form of a CD or an 8tracks.com playlist.) Culturally speaking, the sharing of mixtapes has usually been associated with a romantic relationship: unable to communicate their feelings through verbal speech acts, boys and girls turned to mixtapes to deliver their message in a way they could not. Careful, precise decisions are made in terms of what song to start with (to set the tone), how to balance the popular with the cheesy, the mainstream with the underground, and also how to balance songs the creator loves with songs the creator thinks the receiver will respond to most. ! This assignment does not require such a narrow exigence for you, though. The mixtapes need only focus on an event or theme, as broad or specic as you wish: they could take the form of a top ten, a manifesto, or really anything. The main thing is that the choices of songs on the playlist are carefully thought out and that the mixtape has a very specic purpose (goal) and audience.

Prof. Richards !

Composition II

Objectives i) Gain a deeper understanding of rhetoric through focusing on choice, audience, and medium. ii) Engage in stylistic forms of writing. iii) Successfully employ rst person voice. Conventions i) Tone: energetic and emotional. ii) Audience: not specied. iii) Format: Annotated list + CD or online playlist. Deliverables I. Write a 1200-word annotated playlist (similar to an annotated bibliography). The mixtape playlist should have a title, an introduction to give some context, and paragraphs of explanation, rationalization, and/or analysis after each noted entry. The content explaining and analyzing your choices is of utmost importance here. The writing should reect the amount of time and thought put into the creation of the mixtape. Your writing should be as specic as possible in terms of the reasons given for your choice of tracks. Entries of songs should list, in order: the title of the song, the artist, the album name, the genre(s), and the year of release. II. A hard copy of a CD or a link to a playlist created on 8tracks.com. Each playlist will have 810 tracks; a custom cover design, and a clearly labeled track list (i.e., not just the song title). Final write-ups must be uploaded to My Reviewers by Tuesday, July 24th, by 9:00am. Final playlists must be shared by the same time, while hard copy CDs must be submitted at the beginning of class, July 24th.

Prof. Richards !

Composition II