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Javon Scott
July 28th, 2015
Rhetorical Citizenship Paper
ENC3331

Everyday Living: Citizenship Paper

How would one define our everyday lives on paper? Some would we describe it
as something minor like teenage adolescence or apart of life. The rhetoric of those in
power in a society and culture is always going to be most dominant and thus, is what
predominately shapes the society and culture. Change is incited in a culture when the
rhetoric of those less powerful, those demanding change, becomes too powerful to
ignore. The author states that, rhetoric is the use of symbolic action by human beings to
share ideas, enabling them to work together to make decisions about matters if common
concern and to construct social reality.
As a matter of fact, rhetoric is a staple on why everyone deserves a voice. With so
many so many social and political issues going on throughout the country more people
should be exposed to the process that is rhetoric. Justice in many forms on the Internet,
giving a voice to minorities that has previously struggled to find a place to be heard.
Palczewski (2012) noted, Having a believe does not mean one act on it (p.18).
Certainly, it could vary dependent of the peoples culture. As the result, people have
different meanings, customs, and beliefs that could influence on their perception. The
prominence of rhetoric in my own daily life is ridiculous. Theres not a day that will go

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by that we are not given some type of call to action on a particular topic. For example,
Would you like to donate $1 to support Childrens Miracle Network? Its simple things
like that in our daily lives that make rhetoric so common. When some people go to work
its their job to persuade their audience into something. I know the PR career I would
heavily rely on rhetoric to have my audience side with me on particular issues.
Upon reading, "doublespeak, language used in the real world to confuse or
deliberately distort its actual meaning rather than to achieve understanding", language
that is at variance with its real or purported meaning, (Palczewski)". One could imagine a
politician or someone with a heavily biased agenda being interviewed. Often they will
inflate the positive aspects of their ideals while ignoring majority the negatives, or will
outright shift around answering the question at all. In fact it was not until I read that
chapter that I could imagine any positive examples at all. From a PR standpoint I can see
it one hundred percent but I had no clue it had to do anything with rhetoric!
Which brings me to my next question of, what makes someone a citizen? It could
be birthplace, a test or even just love for our country so many people describe citizenship
in different ways. When were asked this question is class everyone was completely
thrown off. In my opinion, theyre a few ways to describe true citizenship. One is a
"reference to citizenship in a general list of student goals in syllabi or pedagogical", and
the other is "more focused in its attention to citizenship and the production of
participatory action through writing." Its through that participation whether its through
writing, stating a neighborhood watch team, taking a brief survey on issues we face in the
world; these are the characteristics of what makes someone a citizen. Wan gives great
examples of these two when talking about Writing in the 21st century and journalism. I

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will say a lot of millennias myself not included dont participate in voting because they
feel as if it doesnt help society. The author points out very valid reasoning defining
exactly what citizenship is. Such discussions confirm the view that citizenship must be
understood as more than simply conferral of official nation-state membership by a
government, and that the process of creating the citizenry of a nation involves a number
of practices other than simply granting legal status. Personally, I feel as if it is your right
as an individual to have your voice heard! There are so many people in other countries
that cant practice civic engagement or theyll be killed. Civic engagement is something
that even if you taught it, its up to the person to participate. Thats what makes a true
citizen in my book. Even minor things like how to get a club approved, building a
constitution and also selecting officers is a major portion of our goal of getting the
committee off of the ground.
With that being said, this was the first time I heard something about Peace and
Justice Group, it truly stuck out to me especially being that UCF is the second largest
school in the United States and failed to acquire a group like this. Our main purpose as a
group is to be as inviting as possible with accepting everyone for exactly who they are.
Its funny now that I think about how as group members were beyond diverse! The
purpose of the group is give students of UCF a chance to practice their right of spreading
positivity throughout campus. Its not like the other clubs that just cater to one particular
group, its all for one, one for all. Our goal of sparking some type of civic engagement by
creating the official Peace and Justice Committee Facebook page, due to time constraints
were only able to pick up where the last group left off on providing whoever wants to
carry out the project with the proper materials. If I could go back and do anything

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different I wouldve personally wanted to at least turn in the paperwork to OSi and have
whoever was coming in after us choose officers and actually start the committee. We as
group plan on checking in from time to time so how the Peace and Justice committee is
doing, some of us even plan on joining! The best part is actually getting to see our hard
work come into fruition.

Works Cited
Wan, A. (2011). In the Name of Citizenship: The Writing
Classroom and the Promise of Citizenship. College English, 74(1),
28-49
Palczewski, Catherine H., Richard Ice, and John Fritch. Rhetoric in
Civic Life. Pennsylvania: Strata Publishing, Inc., 2012. 117-141.
Print.
Diehl et. Al. Grassroots: Supporting the Knowledge Work of
Everyday Life
Palczewski, Catherine H., Richard Ice, and John Fritch. Rhetoric in
Civic Life. Pennsylvania: Strata Publishing, Inc., 2012. 16-18.
Print.