In high school, my favorite subject was history, and so I was excited that my WR151 course had a historical focus and involved reading and analyzing famous speeches and documents in American history. Much of our class discussion around these documents highlighted patterns in rhetoric throughout history, and the shared methods orators use to provide comfort, inspiration, or new ideas to the nation. For much of our analysis, we used scholars of rhetoric Campbell and Jamieson’s works to find common themes and structures in the documents we studied. I decided to focus on school shootings because gun control and school safety have sparked the most discussion and political engagement among my generation over the past seven years, since the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, and there are few presidents who have addressed the issue due to its contemporaneity. The contrast between the approaches and rhetorical styles of Donald Trump and Barack Obama, specifically, led me to question the role of the president during these national tragedies, and whether or not any patterns or evolutions arise when looking at presidential responses of this genre across eras. I hoped to determine through my research and my application of Campbell and Jamieson’s rubric for national eulogies whether there was an established presidential role following school shootings, or if each president who has addressed the issue has done so in a different way that more closely mirrors his policy agenda or values.
ELLIE YEO is a rising sophomore from Washington D.C. majoring in international relations with a concentration in foreign policy. As a kid, she loved to read and write stories. Now, she enjoys spending time with friends, listening to music, hiking, and reading when she can. She enjoyed and received exceptional writing instruction in both my WR120 class and my WR151 class and would like to thank Professor Shawn for being so supportive of her writing and for making her college transition less daunting and more exciting.