Writing and Rhetoric Citizenship (Spring 2021)

As an artifact for this course, I have chosen the oral presentation I gave in April 2021 for my final paper of this course: “Liberty Masked: Is Liberty Truly Infringed by Masks?” For this oral presentation and final paper, we had to choose an issue of liberty within our country and provide a rhetorical analysis and argument on how we believe the issue should be solved, or at least properly managed. For my paper, I chose the issue of citizens’ rights in opposition to the mask mandate, arguing that the wearing of masks should be viewed as an expression rather than an infringement of liberty.

In reflection of ENGL 265, I believe this course truly sharpened my ability to use rhetoric in both text and oral conversation. By reading many significant texts from history and providing detailed, perceptive responses on the topics each week, I was able practice my ability to analyze and use rhetorical language to gauge my opinions on specific topics. I believe this will be extremely beneficial in the future for persuasive communication in many important situations, such as presentations, job interviews, and professional conversations.