Katie Quinn's e-Portfolio

Welcome to Katie Quinn’s e-Portfolio!  I am a pursuing my undergraduate degree in Political Science at Pennsylvania State University with an expected graduation date of 2014. 

            I have always had an interest in politics, but it is not until after taking this course (LA101H) that I have come to a full understanding of what it means to be an engaged citizen involved in civic life.  To live a civic life a person must have the ability to understand and use rhetoric. In ancient Greece, Athenians who were defined as a citizen played a direct role in making important decisions that affected the entire community.  Therefore, each Athenian had to be well versed in rhetoric in order to promote their position on an issue in government.  While each individual citizen does not receive that power today, competing voices on issues make our ability to rhetorically argue our position possibly even more important that it was in ancient Greece.

            In my e-Portfolio I focus on our call to lead a civic life. It involves all people at different levels of engagement, and does not end at the United States’ border. Instead it is a call to understand and learn from the history and lessons from countries all over the world. Each of my pieces in my e-Portfolio focuses on a specific aspect of civic life:  from understanding a phrase as simple as “family” in Obama’s State of the Union address and its larger context in our society’s attitudes towards our government, to drawing a rhetorical argument out of the cold metal of the National Famine Memorial in Ireland.

            Rhetorical analysis of memorials such as the National Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Germany and the National Famine Memorial in County Mayo, Ireland create arguments that lead to greater understanding of the depth of famine, or the horror of human genocide. It is through greater understanding of these broad concepts that plague society that we can form our own arguments to promote a policy or position that may protect us from future hardships.

            We become truly active in civic life when we argue in favor of our own view of an issue facing society. I have done this in my motivational speech in favor of a severance tax on Marcellus Shale production. I used the rhetorical knowledge I have gained from this class and from practicing an active civic life in order to call other citizens to become engaged and take action in favor of a policy that will help and protect our community and society.

            Being an engaged citizen is constantly striving to understand every aspect of the world you live in. While many concepts and issues are still out of my grasp, rhetoric has been a key tool in uncovering the arguments that shape our world.  In my e-Portfolio I have collected and revised some of my best rhetorical work of the semester. I hope you enjoy viewing it and I hope it helps you to further understand the joy that comes from being an engaged citizen.