Self-Reflective Statement- Ugandanknuckles

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.

Throughout the semester, we wrote and revised different argument essays. The first draft of my rebuttal essay was repeatedly revised and strengthened as the semester progressed. As the end of the semester neared, we eventually needed to make a second draft of our pieces, and I learned I had made a lot of mistakes in my paragraphs. From using the forbidden word “y-o-u” to just general issues in how I was conveying my argument, there was a lot to fix. The drafts are hyper linked to lead to the original and corrected essays.

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 have had my professor’s help to very great extent throughout my different works. Taking a look at my rebuttal essay, we see that I was able to turn my professor’s criticisms into a revised piece. For example, I was very confused as to how to get my rebuttal essay to make sense, especially after I rewrote it entirely when I changed my topic. As it turned out, his original advice to me made more sense after reworking it from my initial topic. My rebuttal essay is hyperlinked to my rewritten version.

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.

My initial writings were done from the viewpoint that mantras are garbage. After struggling with the topic for a bit, I asked people what they thought of mantras. Contrary to my initial belief, people agreed with me. After that, I changed my work to argue the opposite of what I had initially been so that I had real opposition, and that can be viewed in both my white paper and in the differences between my Causal Argument paper and my other works. All of the works mentioned are hyperlinked.

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.

In all of my assignments I use different sources from all over the internet. I was relatively naive when it came to the topic of mantras, so it was important for me to do my research. This is best displayed in my definition essay and my definition rewrite.  I used direct quotes from my sources to help backup my arguments, as well as make myself more knowledgeable on the topic.

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.

Whenever I used outside sources for my essays, I used informal citations in my essay, and then I included a works cited section at the bottom of each page. It’s important to cite your references properly as it is important to give credit to other people for their work. I used sources in all of my essays, but I used the most sources in my rebuttal rewrite essay. I made a works cited for all four of the sources I used, and I used informal citations in my works when needed.