My argument for this project is that I am going to use three genres to create an argument and promote that Americans should attend the 2014 World Cup in Brazil this summer. My first genre is a brochure-like information sheet with pictures and charts, which gives brief information about traveling, Brazil, and soccer. My original plan was to make a brochure but after much time was wasted and unsuccessful attempts on uploading it to my blog, I’ve decided to create a similar appearance posted up directly on my blog board. For my second genre, I’ve compiled a list of twenty-five reasons to go to the World Cup in Brazil. My list comes from several articles that I’ve read and reasons that consistently appeared, along with my own ideas throughout reading and research. Lastly, I made a promotion video inspired by the works of many others, but tailored it to the World Cup in Brazil. The promotional video is a mix-up of videos that I found on YouTube that I cut and personalized to my own song, which is the official 2014 World Cup song by Shakira. I think the song fits perfectly, as it is upbeat, talks about the World Cup and Brazil, and contains a Brazilian dance beat.
My audience is Americans who like sporting events, traveling, soccer, or large festivals. I would say that this piece might even appeal to a younger (and possibly broader) crowd. I have chosen this audience because my subject and genres will likely attract them. Additionally, they will be the most likely audience to consider this event, even though they’ve probably never put much thought into it. As if this were a real piece open to the public, they must first make the first step in googling trips or events. My goal is that by the time my audience finishes reading (and watching) my blog, they will say, “I want to go!!!.” That is the ultimate goal here. I want my readers to get excited about this once in a lifetime event and encourage them to take a chance and admire the beauty of the world from another culture’s perspective.
Figuring out what information was needed to complete my argument was quite difficult for me. Ultimately, I decided that I needed to have my “brochure” as an informative explaining a few details I felt that was necessary. Then, I used my twenty-five reasons to persuade my audience why going to the World Cup is such a great idea. My last genre is for entertainment purposes but if you watch closely you will see many details that will tell you a lot about Brazil. The order of my genres is important because without them I don’t think they would fit well together. This is why I had to reverse the order of my blog postings, so that the order goes from top to bottom. First, we have an introduction. Then, reasoning. Last, my visuals bring out an emotional side and hopefully make my audience excited.
In this, my tone is friendly, relaxed, and humorous in that I want the reader to feel that I am just as excited as I want them to be about this spectacular event. The World Cup is most likely to attract younger, livelier crows that like to have a good time. I want my tone to reflect this. Total professionalism wouldn’t work in this piece because it would come off as a bore, which is the total opposite of what I want. Emotions play a big role in my argument and if I don’t sound zealous and excited, how can I expect my audience to reflect the same energy?
The information from my last research paper is more on comparing whether hosting the World Cup will be beneficial for the country. Because the objective of this piece is to enlighten and motivate viewers to go to Brazil, pointing out the negative facts that I learned about hosting the World Cup would not be effective here. For this to happen, I had to do some additional research that related more to the advantages of attending the World Cup. I was able to extract some information, such as Brazil as a country and it’s characteristics.
If I were to have more time on this project or were to do it over again, I might change my thesis a little bit. My project would be directed towards people who are already heading to Brazil for the World Cup, and try to provide helpful suggestions that would help benefit the country more than it would FIFA. This information might include alternative options of where to stay, what tourist attractions there are (besides World Cup), and where to go souvenir shopping. My past research essay question was, “Is hosting the World Cup beneficial for Brazil?” In this project, it would be “Ways to spend your time and money during the World Cup in Brazil so that Brazilians benefit the most.” This would be a project that I could build more upon with direct information that I already have (from me research essay), but I don’t feel that there was enough time to accomplish this. For this project, I wanted to keep my thesis and project pretty simple since I knew that time was a concern. Producing quality work was key so I had to make my thesis modest in order to achieve this.
On a final note, I wanted to talk about my resources. I used various sites throughout this project and all of them can be found throughout the blog, with a specific word hyperlinked. Not all of the hyperlinks are direct sources. I wanted my audience to be able to locate further readings if they desired to. To me, the more information that they read, even through various sites, the bigger the impact that this will have on them.
In summary, I enjoyed this project very much. The creativity and use of visuals made this whole process enjoyable. I put time and enthusiasm into every post and genuinely enjoyed it! I hope that you enjoyed seeing the final product as well!
