E-Portfolio
Welcome to my e-portfolio! My name is Ryan McElroy and I am an International Politics major at Penn State University. Starting out this year, my goal was to become a more effective and efficient communicator. At the beginning of this semester, I had no public speaking experience. I had only given one speech in my whole life. While I had extensive writing experience throughout my educational journey, I still had many things that I needed to correct or refine to improve my writing even more. Through this semester, I saw my writing and especially my speaking improve greatly. Considering my aspirations to enter the field of politics and international relations, this year definitely provided valuable experience in terms of public speaking. This year also gave me a new perspective of rhetoric, which is also important for someone intending to enter politics. While most people look at rhetoric as a manipulative thing that politicians use to make the masses agree with their agenda, rhetorical speech goes far beyond that. While politicians and speech writers are trained masters of rhetoric, it is important to see that it has an impact on each decision we make. Rhetoric surrounds all of us in every moment of our lives. The way we say something, the words we choose, and the body language we display in every conversation we have is an example of rhetoric. No one realizes how important rhetoric in our lives. Having the opportunity to explore and dissect rhetoric has not only given me more knowledge of this art, but also improved my use of rhetorical devices and speaking. This year was one of new discoveries and experiences for me as I entered Penn State University and this included new experiences with public speaking and rhetoric in general. Overall, it was a very rewarding experience for me academically.
