Reflective- thesilentbutdeadlycineman

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.

In almost all of my work for this class, I have asked for feedback from the professor, which often resulted in copious amounts of constructive criticism, which in turn I used to evolve said work. As demonstrated by the extensive amount of comments in thesilentbutdeadlycineman’s Proposal, I really try to use my interactions with the professor to improve my pitch. What started out as a simple topic like Rock ‘n’ Roll was saved by the Occult (which already had a lot of external support going for it and wasn’t very original), morphed into Rock ‘n’ Roll instead focusing on honoring deities and various religions, which in turn became the pitch that Rock ‘n’ roll  is commonly misinterpreted, like a book being judged by its cover (White Paper- thesilentbutdeadlycineman).

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. 

I highlighted the counterintuitive nature of the course by placing various seemingly unrelated ideas together to create interesting arguments. In my Definition Rewrite, I needed a way to define Rock ‘n’ Roll and how it is misunderstood, without actually defining the genre in a straightforward manner. My argument was that the music was judged by its seemingly dark-nature exterior, while in truth it is a wide variety of colorful topics. I decided to bring in multiple instances of Black individuals throughout history who were unfairly judged by the color of their skin. Both Solomon Northup and Thomas-Alexandre Dumas were unfairly judged by their race, even though they were very accomplished men. The misjudgment of Blacks and of Rock ‘n’ Roll initially seem unrelated, but I have managed to synthesize what they represent.

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 my work, I have tried to appeal to specific audiences by showing a clear purpose with appropriate context. I have also analyzed other texts in order to see if they properly meet these rhetorical elements. For example, I once read through three different articles- How to Armor Planes,Mormons Baptize Anne Frank, and Surviving the Shower– and came up with my own Summaries. The original articles were nice and had counterintuitive topics, but did not always focus clearly on the rhetorical elements. In my summaries, I made sure to focus on each specific purpose throughout the entire effort, not losing sight on what I argument I should be focusing on. For each composition, I had specific audiences in mind, and tried to appeal to their best interests. I also retained specific contextual evidence from the original articles to clearly support the purposes.

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.

Throughout my essays, I worked hard to incorporate illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations. For example, in my Stone Money Rewrite, I attempted to show that money had no value and was just an abstract concept. First, I used an example from Milton Friedman’s The Island Of Stone Money to show that although money on the island of Yap is never actually present (instead represent by almost immovable stone wheels), a trust system and word of mouth successfully creates a method of purchasing and selling. The example was a story in which a group of individuals were transporting a large stone wheel from one point of the island to another.  On the way, a storm broke out and the stone fell to the bottom of the ocean. Once the group arrived at the destination, they told the people there that they had a massive stone wheel and that it had fallen into the ocean. The listeners accepted this account as fact and offered gifts to the sailors based on how much they believed the stone was worth. Following this example, I incorporated my own illustration of the overall concept by relating it to money in our own society. We never actually see the money, instead trusting green pieces of paper and little digital numbers on computer screens to represent any form of transfer. In almost all my of essays, I would use this combination of outside work and personal illustrations to really create “full” arguments.

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. 

In my writing, I really make to represent each side of an argument fairly. For example, in my Definition Rewrite, I highlight my personal stance on Rock ‘n’ Roll, explaining how it is misunderstood. However, I also took my opponents’ views in consideration through my Causal Rewrite. In this essay, I analyze the multiple reasons why Preachers choose to denounce Rock ‘n’ Roll, like how the genre highlighted blasphemous values (immediate cause), and the diminishing amount of church attendees over the years (remote cause). I don’t insert my own opinion in this essay, instead working hard to find external sources that support each possible reason. For example, to support my remote cause, I included this quote by  Dr. Richard J. Krejcir of churchleadership.org to show specific statistics- “Most of the statistics tell us that nearly 50% of Americans have no church home. In the 1980s, membership in the church had dropped almost 10%; then, in the 1990s, it worsened by another 12% drop-some denominations reporting a 40% drop in their membership. And now, over half way through the first decade of the 21st century, we are seeing the figures drop even more!”