Legacy in the Public Sphere

 EQ: How do we create and sustain someone’s legacy in our modern public sphere?

Outline, draft, revise, and submit an MLA format research essay answering the essential question:

  • Include balanced argumentation according to Aristotle’s view of persuasion
    (logic, empathy, credibility balanced correctly for an audience is the best approach to persuasion)
     
  • Center your research around one key figure from our course so far – choices below
        **Legacies for the figures below vary widely: some bring legacies into modern public sphere, others are adding content right now into the sphere and do not have a known legacy yet**

  • Include additional expert commentary about your key figure, directly or indirectly, from at least 5 sources, including two print sources

  • Include at least one original commentary from an expert on your figure (contact figure or someone who works with figure’s legacy, discuss your figure with the expert in person or by phone)

  • Conclude your research with a call to action regarding legacy in general in the future public sphere before your Works Cited page

Choices of “someone’s”: Must center your evidence on texts studied within our course so far:

Presidents we’ve studied for rhetorical strategies in speeches:

G.W. Bush 9/11 Speech
Eisenhower – order of the day
Thomas Jefferson – Declaration of Independence

  “City On The Hill” Presidents
Kennedy
Reagan
Obama

Political Figures

Sandra Day O’Connor
Martin Luther King
Ben Franklin – start with our quotation from Essay Contest

Ted Talk Speakers
Dovie Thomason
Elizabeth Bellinger
Onondaga Historical Association

Rhetorical Figures – Writers

Dekanawida – Iroquois Constitution

Jon Winthrop – Model of Christian Charity
Paul Salopek – Out of Eden National Geographic/Out of Eden Walk
Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers) 

Chris McCandless {journal entries in ITW}
Corrine McCandless: Your DNA Does Not Define You McCandless

Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild) 

Jack London – non-fiction writing
N. Scott Momaday – writer, “The Becoming of the Native”
Mediakixx’s team – instagram

Karen Hao (MIT Technology Review Artificial Intelligence Writer)
Maya Daoud (Hiram Essay Contest student winner from last year)
Tristan Harris – Center for Humane Technology
John Piotti – American Farmland Trust President
Douglas Rushkoff – Team Human

Peter Diamandis – X Prize Foundation
Matt Hogan – Datacoup
Alondra Nelson – writer, Columbia University professor
Michael Jenson – publisher of Standard Democrat, newspaper in Missouri
Vincent Schilling – writer, Indian Country Today
Vanessa Otero – creator of Media Bias Chart

Grading:

Figure selection and Outline due __________________ worth 20 points
First version due _______________ graded on Argument Rubric, 9 = 40 points
Final version due _______________ graded on revisions and additions based on my comments and your own proofreading for grammatical errors: same scale of grades – up to 40

For defining your terms: Public Sphere Concept from 20th century German philosopher Jurgen Habermas: public sphere “may be conceived above all as the sphere of private people coming together as a public”
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J%C3%BCrgen_Habermas