Category: A15: Self-Reflective Statement

I. Understand that writing is a practice which involves a multi-stage, recursive and social process.

I believe I had accomplished this goal albeit a lot later than I would’ve liked. Generally I am rather independent so learning how to cooperate proved to be difficult but necessary. Without a thorough discussion of ideas and a number of drafts, my thesis would have been not only impossibly difficult, but almost inherently unworkable as well.

II. Understand that close and critical reading/analysis allows writers to understand how and why texts create meaning.

Early on I was set back by trying to find a singular definition for “The American Dream.” Quite frankly this singular definition does not exist. This led to significant difficulties in the forming of my thesis as well as starting my paper. Only through comparisons of various definitions of the “American Dream,” presented by various authors, and polls and cross referencing them to each other was I able to define what the “American Dream” meant to me and what it meant in terms of my paper.

III. Understand that writing is shaped by audience, purpose, and context.

By having an idea of what I wanted this paper to be, as well as having a general idea of what I was going to find, I knew that the purpose of the paper would be to ultimately address the shortcomings of the United States in terms of fulfilling the American Dream. I knew I would end up talking about the income inequality and it shows, as the main points in my paper focus around the economy and social mobility.

IV. Understand the role of information literacy in the practice of writing.

During my research paper I found a lot of often times conflicting facts. There’s a lot of statistics that can be thrown around and it was important for me to learn how to understand it properly. Had I not achieved this goal, my paper could have been very different, especially when announcing numbers given by polls. It’s important for me to learn how to use the data in the way that benefits me, and in a way that accurately represents what my research conveyed.

V. Understand the ethical dimensions of writing

My paper was very factual and at times could be very wordy. I had to learn how to take the information given to me and represent it accurately without trying to twist their meanings. I also learned that I could not just take someone’s data and just put it in my paper without proper citations. Although it would be easier for me to just put all the stats and data in my paper and talk about them after, I knew that I had to properly mention each source as I brought it up.

 

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.

Regarding this value I would claim that I showed development, but I still have room for improvement. In the beginning my work went through the process and stages such as continuing to rewrite my work in order to improve it. The process began with rereading my work and analyzing it searching for what my work was missing or what I needed to replace/add to my work. After I went through and reviewed what changes needed to be made, I would go through my work making the proper changes to ensure my work had improved. In my Stone Money Rewrite I displayed improvement of this value by making variations improvements to my work.

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. 

For this value , I would say that I have demonstrated it with my Definition Rewrite with providing a numerous amount of text and giving it great meaning. I gave my Definition Rewrite a lot of rewriting because I thoroughly went through the text making sure to truly capture the text from the meaning. However I did miss one part of the core value which was to placed texts into a conversation with each other but based on the other strengths I have displayed with this value, I could improve on that part of the value.

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 terms of this value I demonstrated it with my Rebuttal Rewrite, however I believe I didn’t fully achieve the core value. I believe my Rebuttal Rewrite could’ve had more revisions, replaced some content, added some more information and take out some words in order to fully achieve this goal. My Rebuttal Rewrite did display enough to show that I was able to demonstrate this goal by capturing the audience of those who opposed my thesis and gave a good amount of contexts that help shape my writing.

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.

When taking a look at my work and I would make the claim that I have demonstrated this value. My Definition and Rebuttal Rewrites have proven that I have achieved this value. Both are good examples of this value because of how each display my own idea and structure that I intended for the work while still incorporating solid evidence from a good amount of sources.

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. 

When it comes to this value, my  Definition Rewrite provides a great example of my ability to capture the core value, however I didn’t fulfill the core value. I thoroughly achieve parts of the value reaching most of the dimensions of writing providing a good amount of evidence from revealing how my Definition Rewrite, displayed good grammar structure, portrayed my information to support my thesis and I was able to display meaning to the context of my work.

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.

The style of this course was very new to me. New, but I loved it. The way that we could go back and edit our work after you gave us feedback was more than helpful. Needless to say, your feedback was always harsh and honest. To some I could imagine it to be quite discouraging but to me, I found it helpful. Your honesty made me think about my writing much more. In other classes, you do your work to get a grade, while in here, you do the work to not get torn apart by your grading which makes you put in much more effort. Don’t take this the wrong way, I enjoyed it. Like in my 03 PDST claim you commented about how I chose the wrong way to write about this. You were rough on me but I took what you said and now I know better.

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. 

The way that you grade the material is a great way for me to implement this task. I was able to take your comments and effectively make the necessary changes. This teaches me to proof read my assignments and get them perfect before grading. This also gives me a good understanding of what you are looking for with every assignment. Another great tool is how I am able to see other students work. This helps me with formatting and brainstorms new ideas to implement into my writing. It really opens up my mind when I get stuck. For example, in my definition argument assignment, you commented and explained how my citations were wrong so I was able to go back and correct them!

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.

As stated before, the fact that other people can view my work is quite intimidating. With this being said, I tend to put more effort into my work when I know that others are able to view it as a resource. I wouldn’t want to do my assignment incorrectly and have someone else try and follow my same steps. It is one thing if my grade is bad but if someone else grade is impacted by me, thats a whole different story. The way the class is set up keeps me all around more motivated than other classes. In the Stone money assignment there were many ways to interpret the story so it was nice to see the way that others thought about money along with my original thoughts.

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.

Many of the assignments gave me a chance to really express what I had on my mind. My favorite thing about this class is that I get to write about things that are in my mind but never get the chance to express. Sometimes other students’ blog posts’ give me some structure on how I should write the things that I am thinking about. I love how if Im not sure how to structure a certain assignment, I can get some ideas from others. Then I can put my ideas into that structure to make the process much easier. It also helps me learn new writing styles other than my own. For example, the visual rewrite assignment, at first I formatted the assignment incorrectly. After I completed my writing, I noticed that my formatting was wrong so I was able to go back and format it properly.

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. 

For the most part, I believe that I am a fairly detailed writer. I am far from perfect so researching certain topics and putting that information into my writing is a very helpful tool to add some interesting knowledge. I have learned to properly cite everything that i get from other sources other than myself. I enjoy tying my thoughts in with a nice hard fact from a reputable source. It gives my thoughts more concrete evidence given that I am not a reputable source in certain areas. A nice twist to this course was the missing dollar assignment. It made you think about a problem and then we had to write about it. It made me think about more than just composition and writing. It was a very clever way to open up our minds.

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.

When I first made the proposal + 5, I based my article on the concept of millennials. I then found the 5 articles that I was planning to use for my eventual research paper. I analyzed the sources and conceptualized how I would have fit the sources in my essay. However, I eventually switched my thesis completely so I had to repeat the same steps to help for my actual research paper. Repeating the same step showed me how the essays can be constructed and molded by the information and citations that you make and how the more modifications that is added, the more the essay can grow and adapt. I started to appreciate the repeated process of finding more and more information to then add on to a concept of an idea that can easily change.

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. 

In my Visual Rewrite, I analyzed a 30-second ad of a little boy who was attempting to eat food. However, as I described the ad frame by frame, I started to talk to other people to see what they believed certain details represented different claims for different people. From there, used the different ideas that each idea can imply and used to completely analyze a situation. For example, the ad displayed numerous pictures on a fridge. However, once I started to analyze each picture as a separate claim, I was able to deduce much more information than I originally thought I would. Two of the most notable papers was a family drawing, which lacked a large male figure and showed a lady in all blue, and a Diploma. With only these two articles of paper and examining them as claims, I deduced that the father left the household and forced the mother who was a nurse to constantly work to fill a financial gap.

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 the Stone Money Rewrite, I originally wrote the analyzation of the podcast and numerous articles of the different forms of money as a very formal paper as I was used to that in my former classes. However, the lessons on how to entice the reader to read more instead of trying to simply relay information changed my view on how to write the paper. From attempting to add details in the lecture of Cows and Chips, I started to imagine my language in a way so that the reader can easily understand. I then changed my very abstract descriptions of money to easy to understand representations. This was one of the first times I considered the audience of my writing

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 my Causal Rewrite, I viewed many different articles that made many different claims of why the work environment for scientists is  causing issues. I started to understand the situations and constrictions each claim was attempting to make and I combined the separate claims together to make a causal chain that utilizes claims such as the scientists are forced to publish what will make them money, and connect that with the issue of businesses can influence with money and how the two ideologies became a perfect segway for each other.

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 Research Position Paper, I utilized many different studies and controversies to help prove my point. I supplied the information and background that was needed to help understand the pretexts of a situation and why the result of the situation mattered. Since scientific studies are very based on what the study attempted to find, its results, and the actual effect it had. I attempted to use and supply with all the knowledge of my studies and then explain what resulted afterward. For example, one of my studies was showing how a retest of already published studies can differ. Instead of only saying the result, I took the entire context of what the study did in order to explain the source as best as possible.

 

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.

For my Visual Rewrite and Definition Rewrite paper, I took advantage of Professor Hodges feedback to develop and improve my work. For my Visual Rewrite, my first draft had little depth as I never went into the emotional or significance of the environment and the actions of the characters in the video “Your Son’s Messed Up Haircut.” Although I mentioned how the son didn’t have a large reaction to his mother’s shaving mistake, I hadn’t dissected the meaning behind his reaction. For my second draft of the paper, after receiving meaningful and helpful feedback from the professor, I explained in thorough detail the meaning behind the actions I described in the video such as the squeeze after the hug at the end of the video. In the first draft I said the mother hugs her son, but to go deeper into the action I added how a squeeze after the initial hug typically is used to show support and care toward the person being hugged. Hugs in general don’t mean much, but in this context where we find out the son is adopted and that the “squeeze hug” means his adoptive mother loves him as if he was her own flesh and blood.

In my Definition Rewrite, I missed explaining the main reason to why self-identification of race is more important today than it ever has been. Professor Hodges immediately pointed this out and his advice was greatly appreciated. While revising the essay, I addressed how applicants of college scholarships, college admissions, and work institutions were the main subjects who find racial identification of the utmost importance. This core value has been met.

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 did not converse much with my peers during the writing of my Definition Rewrite and Rebuttal Rewrite. I had used Professor Hodge’s feedback wisely to address points in my posts that I had missed. I am unsure if I responded enough to the feed back though. Despite my lack of peer discussions, I used multiple articles to help form the thesis of my papers with evidence and information. Especially for my Rebuttal Rewrite, I used sources to not the similarity of race and gender in general, then countered this by mentioning that self-identifying as a race and gender are actually very different. In this case, I have met the requirements for this core value as I did create an essay that compared two almost unrelated topics by using the information of several sources.

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.

For an exercise in class, I was given the opportunity to give feedback to yankeeskid6, prof2020, and dublin517’s on their Definition, Causal, and Rebuttal posts respectively. By analyzing their posts, I gained a greater understanding of what my audience would also want from my works: a clear thesis, direct explanations, and relative examples. I definitely applied what I learned to my Definition Rewrite by clarifying my thesis and writing as concisely as possible for my examples. I can say I have meat the requirements for this core value.

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.

For almost all of my works, I have met this core value. My Definition Rewrite, Rebuttal Rewrite, and Research Paper all incorporate evidence from multiple articles to support my theses. I have used beyond the minimum required number of sources in order to properly describe my ideas. My Rebuttal Rewrite is the best example of how I went beyond the required the expected number of sources which ranged from The Huffington Post articles to pediatrician tips for parents.

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. 

Maintaining this core value was of the utmost importance by citing the sources I used in my Research Paper, Rebuttal Rewrite, and Definition Rewrite. I learned to properly cite through the Good Citation exercise assigned by Professor Hodges. Instead of using parenthetical citations after sentences or paragraphs, I have inserted the author and title of the articles into my essays along with the information I drew from the sources. I have given the sources of the information respect through my citations in my posts and have not tried to pass of their ideas as my own. I have only used their ideas to help embody my own idea of self-identifitication.

 

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 this semester I did not always utilize the complete process that is involved in this core value. I found myself often times falling behind in getting course work done on time leaving the professor not much time to give me feedback which is only my fault. However, I was able to apply this core value through the help of others around me as well as constantly building on my research to develop my research position piece. When writing my visual argument for the first time I did the assignment all wrong. After receiving feedback from Professor Hodges about not doing this assignment correctly I found time to meet with him to go over how I could improve my paper. After making proper revisions based on the feedback provided and revisiting the assignment page, I produced a very good visual analysis. I also found that because of the assignment of White Pages, I was able to fulfill this value by using my white pages as a place I constantly used to jot down ideas and sources and never stopped adding to and editing. By doing this I was able to compile my thoughts to create my research paper for the end of the semester. The format you designed for this class was confusing to me in the beginning but now makes sense as you needed to go through a process to produce your best work.

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. 

The design of this class was helpful in implementing conversation and ideas into my writing. My thesis for my research paper began being too broad and unclear. Through conversations we had in class as well as conversations with the Professor, I was able to narrow my thesis a bit. After the lecture we had on research tips, I began to think more about my topic and after discussing my ideas with classmates I decided to want to relate my topic to another topic. I did this by relating the age limit on tobacco and the positive affects it had on society to how we could prevent childhood obesity from getting worse. Throughout the entire semester the conversations and lectures that happened in class were extremely helpful. Also I found that the bouncing ideas off other students and classmates help to improve our ideas and writing. I feel I was able to fulfill this core value.

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 writing throughout the semester I always considered the purpose, audience and context of my writing whenever I began to write. I found myself being more cautious of this due to our writing being on a blog website that anyone can view. While writing many of my papers, I often would view other works to see how they fulfilled the requirements and to help me make sure I did the same. I also always remembered that other students may possibly be doing the same and with that I found myself constantly analyzing the purpose and context of my papers. I feel when writing my rebuttal argument I did this as I wanted to make sure I was following the proper instructions. I was careful to analyze the text I used in the paper and build the strongest argument possible. When writing this piece, I was very cautious to remember who my audience could be and the purpose of the assignment at hand. Once I completed that assignment, I felt myself analyzing the rest of my work more intensely to make sure I was making the argument I want to make and that it is being portrayed properly.

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.

My research paper is a direct outcome of this value. I was able to use different sources to help support my own ideas through the paper. When reading and evaluating different sources, I was able to identify what pieces from these sources would benefit my arguments and I was able to incorporate them in my writing. I also found that when creating my white pages, that when I listed a summary of what was in each source, I was able to locate what was in each article and how to use the evidence most effectively in my writing. After writing my different papers and beginning to work on my annotated bibliography I found that writing how I used each source in my papers helped me better understand, if the evidence supported my own ideas properly.

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. 

At the beginning of the writing process I was very unsure that I was using proper citation and fulfilling my ethical responsibility as a writer. When taking this class previously, as well as another class in the writing department, I was accused of plagiarism by my professor due to not putting an in text citation and instead using a format like “in this article published/written by this person”. Professor Hodges told the class that is not how we should be citing which was confusing for me in the begging as I was afraid to do anything close to what I completed before. After Professor Hodges explained to me how to cite the way he liked I became more confident with how to use appropriate citation. In all three of my argument papers, rebuttal, definition, and causal, as well as my research paper I used proper citation with fulfilling my ethical responsibilities and giving credit to authors when using their ideas.

 

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.

What I really established from Comp II is one of the most important parts of writing is the ability to take feedback or criticism and understand how to use that criticism to improve what you have written. looking back on past assignments I realized that I had only gotten feedback on one assignment. The one assignment was my Stone Money rewrite. I was not custom to the idea of requesting feedback as professors would normally automatically give feedback in my past courses. But from getting feedback on only one assignment substantially changed the way I took on future assignments. For example in my “causal argument rewrite” I attempted to find strong supporting evidence to the points I was making. Citing media interviews of eSport franchise owner Rick Fox that helped support the idea that the media has a very biased outlook on video games. Just one piece of feedback helped me realize that one; asking for feedback would be an optimal decision in a class surrounded by writing and two; having supporting evidence behind my judgments  add to the credibility of my writing.

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. 

Having a purpose and searching for that underlying message in a text and using critical thinking to find said underlying meaning is key in writing. After reading and watching several argumentative articles and videos on my topic of eSports. I came to the conclusion in my research position paper, that sports in our culture were not popularized because of the physical aspect in which sports are played, but more so the social aspect of them is what makes it so enjoyable to the public. Which then helped my stance on eSports and how it should be considered a sport. Having purpose leads to deeper and more critical thinking.

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.

When writing I have a set goal. The goal is to attempt and place a new form or style of rhetoric into my pieces. So to obtain these new and original forms I search and analyse other texts to form my own original format. Whether it is reading articles on my topic about eSports or analyzing other students work. For example coming from my “visual rewrite” I wanted to see how other students were attempting the task at hand. I noticed many were giving very simplistic and vague details when explaining their images. I realized that I could easily use my knowledge of film terminology to explain the images in the PSA much more effectively and efficiently. Terms I used for example were Waste shot, Extreme close ups and tracking

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.

Applying supporting evidence to ones claim is key piece to writing useful and informative observations. Without evidence ones claims or theories are thrown out the window. As discussed earlier an example where I show my use of supporting evidence is in my “causal rewrite” where my point that I am making is that the media is heavily involved in the creation of the false image that was given to video games. I then went onto citing evidence of a TMZ video interview with Rick Fox that show the bias TMZ holds on competetive gaming.

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. 

Going through this course time and time again, it has been noted that properly citing sources and honestly using them to support arguments is the ethical approach to writing persuasively. Which is why I attempted my hardest to not fall into the trap that is plagiarism, and coming up with my own original conceptualizations using evidence to support those conceptualizations was my objective. An example would be in my “Research paper”. where I got the idea that our society has been hindering the growth of eSports because of its set image of video games, and Ben Casselman the author of the article I cited had a great title that supported my idea which was “Resistance is Futile”, and helped progress my claims.

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 a lot of my work for this class, I used my roommate to help me edit my work, because he is very gifted when it comes to writing papers. He gave me quite a few ideas in order to help develop not only my position paper but all of my papers. When I first started my proposal +5, I originally started with the advantageous uses of stem cells for our society. After consulting with professor Hodges, I decided to use the angle that stem cells can be used without harming or killing humans. The more I researched, the more my argument developed and would eventually come full circle.

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.

Within my works, I utilized different articles and complied their information together; the best example of this is shown within the contents of my Causal Rewrite essay. Although this essay only has three main arguments, it utilizes information from four different articles in order to argue my point. Two of the articles compliment each other, so I used them to compliment each other within the section specific to it. One article spoke on how genetic code within a fertilized egg could inhibit the egg from ever developing into a human being; the second went into depth and described how this could occur. The author wrote about how specific hormones are needed to allow the cell to attach to the uterus wall and fertilized eggs with incorrect genetic codes release the wrong hormone. This as a result stops them from ever becoming humans. By synthesizing these two ideas, I was able to relay a better argument than if I just utilized the first.

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.

Before starting my first draft of Definition Rewrite, I researched what defines a human from different perspectives. These perspectives came from both secular and biblical perspectives in order to help define what a human is to everyone. Through using vastly different sources, such as scientific articles and the Bible, I was able to come to a consensus that both parties would agree on. Once agreed upon, I was able to attack the idea that a fertilized egg that’s been in existence for a about 4 weeks cannot be considered human by definition. By utilizing these texts and understanding my audience would use the notion that fertilized eggs are humans, I was able to refute this idea completely.

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.

I demonstrated that I could meet the standards and expectations of academic writing by coming up with counter intuitive ways to view different aspects of my research paper. I incorporated vastly different forms of evidence that ranged from biblical support to scientific support. The best examples of these are the essays Definition Rewrite and Rebuttal Rewrite. I came to the conclusion of utilizing such different forms of support, because I could not simply fight fire with fire. My argument before adding in the biblical stand point was very one sided and contained a lot of science, but many of the protesters of stem cells were religious groups that do not believe in science. As a result, I had to figure out a common ground between the two and move forward from there.

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. 

Since my entire paper is a research paper, I did not make any of the studies by no means. I utilized journals, books, and websites a like to argue my point of view. With that being said, I needed to cite all of these sources and utilize them correctly. One example where I could have used a source and made my paper sound more appealing was the Causal Rewrite. I could have used a different statistic that would not have been honest at all, but after consulting it with professor Hodges a little, I was able to put another spin on the actual statistics. As a result it came out much better than I could have imagined. My citations for these different sources can be found in my annotated bibliography.

1. Befon. “Cloud9 CSGO: Tips for New Players & Becoming Pro.” YouTube. YouTube, 04 Aug. 2015. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. Background: Video interview with the professional CSGO team Cloud 9. In this interview they discuss the topic of newcomers coming into the world of eSports and if there is to be a chance for success for those people.How I used it: I used this video to help explain the amount of time and effort is needed to pusue a professional career in eSports. Also to help explain the skills needed to become a top playe.
2. Casselman, Ben. “Resistance Is Futile: ESports Is the Future.” ESPN.com. N.p., 22 May 2015. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Background: This article provides the statistical viewership data of eSport championship events and nationally televised sports championship events. Also the number and types of sponsors backing eSports organisations.

How I used it: by listing the viewership numbers for eSport events it allowed me to better understand the poularity competitive gaming events have compared to other traditional sports. Therefore proving my point of its exponential growth in the industry.

3. HBOsports. “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel: ESports Discussion (HBO Sports).” YouTube. YouTube, 13 Dec. 2013. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Background: This was an episode of a sports documentary series. On this episode they presented the new phenomenon that is eSports and how big it was becoming at the time.

How I used it: I used this documentary to give an example of the mindset of some older demographics when first learning about eSports and how the media has created this false image that society has taken as truth.

4. “National League of Baseball Is Founded.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Background: This article specifically gives information on the first crreted sports league in America which was baseball, becoming established in 1876.

How I used it: I used this article to help better explain and understand how sports become professionally played sports. With the start of a professional league these games such as baseball and football were turned into brands.

5. NewzooHQ. “ESports Reaches Tipping Point as Media Brands Scramble to Get Involved.” Newzoo. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

background: This article contains the percentages of people who watch eSports and also view big name T.V channels such as CNN or ESPN.

How I used it: This helped prove my point that there is not a specific stereotype for people who enjoy watching or playing competitive games. Instead it showed the great diversity of people within the eSport community.

6. Peckham, Matt. “Why ESPN Is So Serious About Covering Esports.” Time. Time, 1 Mar. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Background: ESPN website head gets interviewed on the reasoning behind their push for more eSport coverage on their platforms.

How I used it: I used to learn about how they are covering eSports on their platforms. And to see how much success has come out of it.

7. Poladian, Charles. “‘ELeague’ ESports On TBS Debuts May 24 With Three-Hour ‘Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’ Broadcasts.” International Business Times. N.p., 28 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Background: This article is about the announcement of a brand new eSports league debuting a Counter Strike: Global Offensive tournament on national television on TBS during its sport segment.

How I used it: This is the very first successful U.S/ T.V broadcasted eSport tournament. ELeague is showing very promising viewership figures on TBS. Only helping the fact that eSports is growing exponentially.

8. Staff, TMZ. “Rick Fox: ESports Jocks Are Just Like NBA Players … Real Athletes.” TMZ. N.p., 29 June 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Background: This article shows an interview TMZ did with Rick Fox, a former basketball player, businessman and actor who owns his own eSports team/organisation.

How I used it: That the media and the majority of society are very biased and ignorant toward the fact that eSports cannot turn into a mainstream sport like football or soccer.

9. TMZSports. “Rick Fox- ESports Will Overtake NHL In 2 Years!! | TMZ Sports.” YouTube. YouTube, 21 Mar. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Background: TMZ does a very quick interview with Rick Fox, former NBA star and now owner of Echo Fox, an eSport franchise.

How I used it: I used this interview to show how biased and close minded Americcan media can be. It shows the image that some news/media outlets hold on video games.

10.  Wagner, Michael G. “On the Scientific Relevance of ESports.” Researchgate.net. N.p., Jan. 2006. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

Background: This article provides information about the lack of scientific research behind eSports.

How I used it: This source proves that eSports is more than just a casual game that anybody can pick up and play. It shows that it requires a physical form that not everybody has.