Caroline Stewart

I wrote my first project about the rhetoric of the musical Hamilton, and how it utilized contemporary music styles, engagement from popular artists, and color-conscious casting to tell Alexander Hamilton’s story authentically and in an intriguing way for modern day audiences. With my first draft, I definitely became more drawn to the story of how Miranda wrote the musical instead of analyzing why he wrote it the way that he did. Once I began to read articles about the musical and listen to interviews with Miranda, analyzing his “why” became easier and more intellectually stimulating. I chose this topic because I knew my interest in the topic would come naturally. Writing about a topic you enjoy is a lot easier than writing about something you don’t like or understand. Being as immersed in theatre as I am, pulling random facts or knowing specific interviews comes with much ease and excitement. I did try to challenge myself to write economically, because I clearly can talk about theatre for as long as I want. In the beginning of my paper, it was a little difficult to be economical because I wanted to go on about Miranda’s backstory. In my third draft, I restructured the paper so that the intro had the backstory, and the beginning of the first paragraph began the analysis. My challenge for myself in the next paper would be to jump more into my own analysis and delve deeper into that rather than being so intrigued by the backstory.