Goal 13: ENGL 400

In ENGL 400, I learned a lot about the role written response can play in Citizen Leadership. A lot of current world leaders, whether in politics or popular industries, use written or spoken discourse to their advantage. Speeches, letters, announcements, marketing campaigns, and more can be used as insightful, productive tactics that lead to success and influence.

Going into the course, I had heard people say that the course itself was full of way too much busy work, so that was a bit unnerving at first. However, like many courses I was initially apprehensive about, ENGL 400 actually taught me a lot and it didn’t seem as difficult as everyone made it out to be.

Because of this course, I am better able to see Aristotle’s three classic appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos) in almost any advertisement or speech. Because we are influenced by so many different mediums in society today, it’s paramount to understand and see the tactics they use. If we know a certain speaker will pull on our emotions while another may spit out copious facts about their credibility, we are less impressionable or able to be taken advantage of.

ENGL 400 also strengthened my writing skills because it required me to write in several styles and fashions – including traditional essays, speeches, live presentations, scripts, and so forth. Many of the English courses that I had previously taken at Longwood were reading-based (which is great because I love to read), but this course evened out the playing field and allowed me to hone in on my writing more.

The following artifact is from our individual TEDTalk presentations. For the assignment, students could select any topic they were interested in, as long as it had a social significance to the field of Citizen Leadership. I chose to present on the need for diverse literature in English classrooms, specifically at the high school level. While it was required that the presentation be shorter than usual, I am proud of it because it is something I am both passionate about and it’s a topic that I can have a personal impact on in my own classroom someday.