Core Value I. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.
One of the largest lessons that I have taken away from college composition is the recursive, never-ending cycle of good writing. Good writing is never finished. Last year in comp, I learned a great deal about proofreading. But yet, this semester I have learned more about changing my work than ever before. Every assignment this semester has been thoughtfully proofread and edited, but real revision began during my Visual Rewrites. The first moving image assignment was enjoyable, which made revision a fun recursive process. At the beginning of the semester, I struggled with revision, but we learned more tools to aid us in our revision towards the end of the semester which helped me greatly.
Not only are recursive stages of revision dire for great writing, but recursive discovery for the topic you are writing about is just as important. Without a broad knowledge of what you will be writing about, your writing will not be great. I was sure to create a legitimate interest in topics discoursed during class to make better writing. Informative writing creates curiosity within the reader, that becomes possible when the writer educates themselves on their subject of discourse. Further, lack of knowledge in your topic of writing will result in a bored audience. Gun control has always been a topic of discourse within my family which has resulted in a genuine interest on the problem. Therefore, gun control was the ideal research topic for me.
Core Value II. My work demonstrates that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities.
By sorting all of our composition work into an online blog, a large platform that allows for a large community for discourse amongst various topics has been created. In my writing I was allowed discourse between my professor and I in order to improve my writing, as well as discourse amongst my fellow anonymous students. By receiving anonymous discourse from other students in my class, I am able to analyze a diverse view separate from my own that has helped tremendously in preparation for my research paper. And by forcing anonymity, this creates a bias barrier that encourages honest, although sometimes brutal, criticism that acts as a motivator towards the student to improve their writing in their recursive stages.
Throughout the semester, I have received large amounts of feedback from my professor and even a fair share from my peers. On my Definition Argument assignment, Darnell18 commented at me, “I like how you cover details on a variety of guns. The subject matter is very informative”. This dialogue between my audience and I helps me better understand what the audience wants to hear.
Core Value III. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.
In writing for my Research paper, I provided readers of the blog with unbiased and accurate information. Nowadays, it is challenging to find unbiased information. In response, I made a mission to supply that to the readers of the blog. In doing this, I was sure to search for observational data as opposed to subjective analysis. Subjective information is unreliable and strays from the work I am attempting to provide. By rhetorically analyzing the purpose, audience, and contents of my writing, I was able to provide accurate information effectively to the readers of the website.
Core Value IV: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.
Without a premise, a conclusion has no meaning. Illustrations and evidence are of dire importance to support the writer’s ideas and deductions. As stated before, I wanted to deliver unbiased, accurate information to the readers. Therefore, I limited my sources to unbiased electronic web pages and documentaries in order to receive the most precise information as possible. I was sure to evaluate each website before it’s use to be sure that it’s facts and data were accurate and true, and that each website lacked subjective observation as to avoid such data to achieve my composition goal.
My annotated bibliography is a direct representation of the sources I located and evaluated, and also explains how I incorporated illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and conclusions.
Core Value V. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation.
“My worthy opponent is wrong.” This quote told to us in class sticks out in my head with every argumentative paper I write. In class I learned the importance to be civil in our rebuttal arguments, and to respect our opponent, but to crush them in our knowledge and compositional skills. My work demonstrates this by showing that general knowledge is generally wrong, respectfully. My work also politely attempts to prove that our perceptions are not to be trusted, and that observational data is our key to advancement as a society.
Further, I learned the ethical responsibility of providing accurate citation to show respect for the sources that made my writing what it is. Without proper citation, the advancement of knowledge is halted because the validity of the information will be questionable.
Rowan Counterintuitive 