For Project 2, we will explore how to shape content in an online auditory format. Podcasts are a relatively new medium, but already there are podcasts for almost every topic imaginable, most of which are created by amateur enthusiasts. The one thing that all effective podcasts have in common is that they communicate something to a specific audience in a specific context for a specific purpose.

Each student will create a podcast episode by identifying a specific context, audience, and purpose for the work. This means that each student will find a specific existing venue that would be appropriate for his or her podcast episode. Examples of existing podcasts may be found through Podcast Alley, Find Podcasts, the NPR podcast directory, and Podcast Bunker, among other lists. Students can also find podcasts through iTunes or by doing a Google search for "find podcasts." When students locate an appropriate venue for their work, they should analyze its existing podcast episodes to make determinations about the venue's audience, context, purpose, strategies, and arrangement, and then craft their own work accordingly.

Each student's final podcast episode should be over 3 minutes in length, in mp3 format, and burned to a CD labeled with the student's name. Podcasts may include talk, music, interviews, sound effects, jingles, etc. depending upon context, but the majority of the podcast content on each episode should be original. This means that students can't, for example, make a podcast episode that only plays music (this also would be almost certainly a violation of copyright, which we will discuss). Student final design plans and postmortems should be printed. All projects should be organized, accessible, and professional.

Project Deliverables:

• design plan
• podcast episode
• postmortem

Due Dates:

• Design plan first drafts due by the beginning of class on Friday, Oct. 10
• Podcast first drafts due by the beginning of class on Wednesday, Oct. 15
• Design plan second drafts due by the beginning of class on Friday, Oct. 17
• Podcast second drafts due by the beginning of class on Monday, Oct. 20
• Project 1 final draft (design plan, podcast, postmortem) due Monday, Oct. 27

Grading:
Grading is done holistically. This means that the rhetorical effectiveness of all three deliverables is judged as a whole. There is not a set point value corresponding to the severity and frequency of individual errors. Projects are assigned a letter grade based upon the following criteria.

Excellent design plans will:

• account for all the design plan elements outlined in Compose, Design, Advocate
• proceed through a structure based on the sequence of design plan elements in Compose, Design, Advocate
• provide a coherent narrative rather than a collection of disconnected parts
• speak in third person about how the podcast functions, not in first person about the designer's process of creation
• speak about how the corresponding podcast works, not about what it will or might do
• demonstrate how the podcast episode fits into its venue
• demonstrate thoroughly what rhetorical purpose the podcast intends, who is targeted, what the context is, and how the message is to be delivered
• demonstrate coherence between the design plan and the resulting podcast
• be in a finished, polished format appropriate for an academic/professional reader, including appropriate grammar and mechanics

Excellent podcasts episodes will:

• be over 3 minutes in length, in mp3 format, and burned to a CD labeled with the student's name
• contain mostly original content that is not already copyrighted
• display strategies and arrangement appropriate to the specific chosen venue
• target a legitimate, specific audience other than the podcast creator
• communicate information not easily transmitted in another format
• communicate information that is focused and specific rather than general
• communicate information in a way that is engaging rather than dull
• display technical proficiency (clean editing, appropriate encoding, absence of audible clicks and background noise, etc.)

Excellent postmortems will:

• account thoroughly for all the sections of the postmortem form
• focus on the designer's process of creating the podcast
• provide valuable insight into project successes, difficulties, and what lessons have been learned going forward
• provide documentation that would be necessary in a professional setting
• be in a finished, polished format, including appropriate grammar and mechanics, such that the postmortem could be given as-is to a professional superior

Applicable Resources:

• Project 2 questions
• Project 2 postmortem
• Audacity homepage (including free download)
• Portable Audacity download
• LAME encoder download (Audacity needs this to export .mp3 files)
• Penn State podcasting resources
• Creative Commons audio
• CC Mixter (helps locate creative commons audio)

Applicable Links:

• Google search for "find podcasts"
• Google search for "what makes a good podcast"
• SecurePurdue copyright information
• Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center
• Copyright Navigator
• Link to Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture