Develeoping Learning Power End of the Year Essay

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution grants individuals or groups freedom to air their views regarding social, political, and economic issues affecting people. Individuals, social groups, businesses, or human rights activists claim and use it. For instance, campus students enjoy the freedom of speech. However, some students misuse this freedom, resulting in violence and even death. Recently, a protester named Heather Heyer lost her life during a rally in downtown Charlottesville. This took place after a protest by white supremacists. After the incident, Sophie Quinton wrote an article entitled “Charlottesville May Put the Brakes on Campus Free Speech Laws” to elaborate how freedom of speech permits hate speech, a key factor that encourages violence. Quinton uses an appeal to pathos descriptive language to create imagery, and quotation to argue that free speech endangers students on college campuses. She explains the need to reexamine the law concerning freedom of speech for campus students, as it results more harm than good. The law grants citizen’s freedom of expression and speech. Some individuals or groups express themselves through protests and demonstrations, just as students at the University of Virginia did in response to Jewish immigrants in their city. It is, however, alarming to note that in the recent past, cases of protesters getting killed or injured during protests have increased significantly. Quinton noted that it is the duty of university administrators to lay down strategies to ensure that freedoms granted to students are used correctly to avoid incidences of violence (Batchis, 44).

The author based her article mostly on pathos in order to persuade readers to sympathize with the victim of this horrible tragedy. 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed as a result of hate speech on a college campus. The writer’s main purpose in writing about this tragedy was to show that hate speech leads to violence. She, using pathos, was trying convince the readers that people on college campuses abuse the use of free speech and, as a result human, a being was killed.

Quinton used many literary devices to make her article easily understandable. Examples of literary devices she used are imagery, and allusion. Quinton begins the article with imagery by recreating the marching of the white supremacists around the university with Tiki torches. This helps the reader get an image of the students marching, thus making the article interesting and easy to understand. There is also use of allusion in the article. Allusion is where an author refers to incidences of another story to bring out the meaning of a particular issue in his or her story. Republicans’ responses to speech laws on university campuses reference 1984, a novel by George Orwell, which talks about how schools deny students the freedom of speech (Batchis, 56). This is an excellent example of allusion used in the article.

Quinton uses quotation skillfully in this article to emphasize how destructive free speech can become where hate speech in allowed. She quoted “Jews will not replace us!” as main quoted argument. The following quoted argument was the beginning of a flaming and shouting.

The header easily perceives how such angry words predict violence.

Quinton’s article portrays her strengths in expressing issues through creativity. Her choice of words and expression of the main points are remarkable. The author is non-partisan as she represents both points of view in the subject matter. For instance, she explains the importance of regulating the use of freedom of speech among students. She points out that freedom of speech has encouraged hate speech, which triggers violence. She goes on to elaborate the demerits of regulating freedom of expression for campus students. She quotes opinions from various leaders such as legislators and party members. They say that restricting freedom of speech will be denying them their constitutional rights. Moreover, the author used various literary devices such as to enhance the structure of the article that helped readers get a clear understanding of the subject matter (Batchis, 50). The used of devices such as allusion, and imagery make the flow of the story more appealing to the reader. Further strength of Quinton’s article was brought to light by her use of direct speech. Author quoted individuals who either witnessed the Charlottesville incident or shared their views on this tradegy. Use of direct speech brings out the truth of the issue being discussed. It helped readers understand the subject matter of the article with ease. The author also gave comparative examples of states that have adopted the legislation of regulating free speech on university campuses. Such states include North Carolina, Colorado, and Arizona. Although Quinton explains the harmful effects of hate speech resulting from freedom of speech on university campuses, it is evident that changes to the first amendment may not make it to legislation due to criticism from various leaders and organizations.

Work cited

Batchis, W. (2016). The Right’s First Amendment: The Politics of Free Speech & the Return of Conservative Libertarianism. Stanford University Press.

Hemesath, M. (2017). Education, free speech and Benedictine Values.

Mitchell, D. (2016). The liberalization of free speech: Or, how protest in public space is silenced. Spaces of Contention: Spatialities and Social Movements, 47.