Category: A15: Self-Reflective Statement

 

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 that writing is a recursive, never-ending mission. 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. 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 is only possible when the writer is educated on their subject of discourse.

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.

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, 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.

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 right. In class I learned the importance to be civil in our 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.

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!”

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.

As I previously learned through my years of writing, Professor Hodges restated that writing requires more than one draft and that there is always room for improvement. If all of this is done properly it will be a successful well-written paper.  When it comes to changing my work, I find there are times when I feel like what I have written is good enough, even though I know there are things I could change.  I know that I could  honestly have done a more thorough job at achieving this core value throughout the semester. The best example of this is my Stone Money paper.  Even though this is not going to be in the portfolio, this essay was a good stepping stone to the expectations of this class. It showed the evolution of drafts and corrections that need to be made for a well written college essay.

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 every writer, the most important stage in the writing process is to grasp an understanding and collect information on their topic.  This entire class is based on our research.  Every assignment we have is one that involves a necessarily large amount of the knowledge of our subject.  The more sources that we read helps us to make our argument become more professional. Another thing is that you have to make sure that your sources are reliable.  This goal is shown in the process of our research papers. My paper on Vancouver’s free heroin involves a lot of medical information so I could present a good background of heroin.

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.

Throughout this course, I have been refreshed about everything that essays embody.  We must remember that every piece of writhing has a purpose as well as an audience. In my Visual Rewrite, I presented this value by studying the motive of the 30 second ad “A Kid Again | Father Involvement.” This assignment was given to us as a way to show that every second of this ad was placed there for a specific reason. In this ad, even the man and woman’s clothes were placed for a purpose. For the first 15 seconds, the audience is shown 3 men of different ethnicities doing child-like activities.  We as the audience, watch as others react to the men with pondering expressions.  In the remain 15 seconds, we are shown the men engaging in these actives with their children.  We as an audience are lead to believe that the way to be a good dad, is remembering to be a kid again.

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.

Authors must realize that certain writings can not just be stated. With the work that has been done in class, it has been extremely important to analyze as many  writings from as you can.  Thankfully our school offers us different places to be able to search for information other than google and yahoo.  Our library offers resources including ProfSearch, Gale Virtual Reference Library and Academic Search Premier.  The assignment that would best represent this Core Value IV would be my Bibliography where I cited ten sources that were used in my Research Paper.

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. 

An authors audience in never the same. Some topics can be sensitive to some so, we have to be careful of how things were said and what words were used to say what was written.  At the same time, we as authors need to be true to ourselves and voice our own ideas in a careful manner.  Our own thought are a combinations of our own creation as well as the ideas of others so in a way, we need to represent those writings in a proper fashion.

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.

This semester was a very challenging time than my previous years.  Mr. Hodge’s teaching approach is really tough and the work that he criticizes was difficult as well. He introduced me to new methods of the writing process that expanded my knowledge of the craft. He still manages to find errors in my work however; I can still be proud of my writing because I come to him with new ideas that allow him to better understand my writing style. He commented and gave me a lot of feedback on one piece of writing that was the Stone Money Rewrite. In the Stone Money Rewrite I made a lot of changes to make my piece more analytic. Mr. Hodge recommended that I should be more transparent and add details to make my point valid; also he suggested that I use abstract ideas and concepts to widen my range of my writing flexibility. I now understand why Mr Hodges kept pushing me to rewrite my material. In my previous experience I would rewrite my piece of work just 2-3 times. But David Hodges made me go further depth in 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. 

Second, I demonstrated the Core Value II by using a technique for concrete examples to illustrate abstract concepts, just like how Cows and Chips were assigned in my Stone Money Rewrite. I used this example of “how friend play poker with a set number of poker chips, you can only play until one of you loses all their chips. By adding fake chips to your lot, you can draw more hands until you break even or win. Edman allowed Brazil to continue their economic game by creating more opportunities for his country to be active in the business world.” I am very content of my work on this piece because the poker analogy made sense to of how Brazil used fake money. Now I realized of how to concrete examples to illustrate abstract concepts can help my writing. My writing will be more creative, not boring. Readers will actually enjoy it and think about of what abstract ideas that I came up with.

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.

 

I had trouble of picking a topic that I can truly write about. Later, I found that I should write about of how smart phones are distracting. However, when I proposed this idea to Mr. Hodges he insisted that my topic is not bad or good it’s in the middle. I took that advice and I thought of a new topic which is about should the government have the control to override someone privacy.  In this piece of writing Definition Argument shows my stance on how the government should not have control of accessing privacy. I knew that if I can pick a write topic I can write about it because I am capable of doing that.

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 displayed core value four in the Definition Argument Rewrite, “Defintion Rewrite” I’ve met the some expectations of academic writing in my Definition Argument because I stated my position of this topic and presented of my stance in the thesis. I should’ve asked Professor Hodges on this this topic whether if this a valid input or not. I should have listed more sources to show where I got the information. But overall, the content that I have I am satisfied. I felt like I explained thoroughly and get to the reader’s attention.

 

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. 

I feel I did the best job for this core value because I properly citing my sources and trying to interpret the text critically. In class, when Mr. Hodges taught one class on how appropriately   to cite sources in the text. I took that time wisely so then for the future I will have the knowledge to cite properly.  In the text that I manage to cite well is in Stone Money Rewrite. In this I took the sources that were given and talk about it. I gave credit on who wrote the material and then I interrupt on my own way. I am fully satisfied with this Core value than the others ones.

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.

I know that I could have done a more thorough job on this core value throughout the semester, even though my work may not depict a firm grasp of this concept. Nevertheless, gathering copious amounts of knowledge and information for my research paper helped me to be much more open-minded about my topic of discrimination by police officers on the road. I was set on strictly supporting the side of the frequently targeted African Americans in this argument when starting this assignment, and while I still remain on the same side, I am now more open to hearing out opposing views, such as the theory that police officers only seek people violating the law, and consistently serve without discriminating against African Americans. In my Rebuttal Rewrite, my research led me to remember that traffic stops can simply be due to a law being broken, and not to just assume that the intent in all stops are derived from the driver’s race. Research is important because I could not write a successful paper without understanding both opposing viewpoints of the issue being discussed.

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.

On the assignments that required me to do so, I was able to see that close and critical reading/analysis allows me to understand how and why texts create meaning. The first assignment that comes to mind is my work on Safer Saws. I synthesized ideas from multiple articles into the same assignment effectively. I assessed multiple claims from different people on the same saw, from various readings, and did it in a cohesive, comprehendible way. Also, this was not from a text, but my writing on the Visual Rewrite assignment showed that I am capable of critically analyzing a piece of work and understand the meaning it creates. Breaking down the specifics of what people did every second helped me to get a better understanding of why they did it. Regardless of the fact that it was a video rather than text, I feel the same concept can be applied in the fact that I was able to take complex material and make it mesh together.

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.

I would like to believe that I was able to analyze the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments rather well. Most specifically, I think that I took the purpose and audience into consideration when it comes to my research paper on discrimination by police while driving. My opinions may have gotten in my way when trying to write a non-biased paper, but nevertheless, my purpose was to make whoever may read the paper socially aware of my topic. Also, taking my audience’s opinions into consideration is what made me look deeper in research to understand and respect both sides of the argument. In the end of my Rebuttal Rewrite, I actually addressed the audience by saying that regardless of what side they may take, this is really happening and to neglect that fact will only make the problem worse.

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 the process of writing my definition, causal, and rebuttal essays on discrimination by police while driving, I did not necessarily incorporate many different sources within those texts. Not to say that I did not have them, but I probably could have done more to involve a wider variety of resources in those arguments. Furthermore, I will still utilize many more articles, facts, and statistics in my final paper. I found that the papers leading up to my final copy were somewhat of a trial and error process of seeing how to tie it all together. Referencing back to my Bibliography, I have an abundance of sources supporting both different viewpoints of whether this discrimination exists, or traffic stops are solely based on the violation of laws. With that being said, my prior work may not reflect meeting the expectations to support my own ideas, but I am certain that my finished research paper will fulfill these requirements and contain evidence to support my interpretations, as a final paper of any variety should.

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.

As far as I am concerned, I did a good job of respecting my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation. More so, in my Rebuttal Rewrite, I believe I was able to cover both sides of the argument fairly; whether discrimination by police exists, or rather it is solely based on violating the law. I did so while also being able to logically refute the opposing viewpoint with statistics. The topic I chose of discrimination by police while driving is extremely complex without a doubt, so it is difficult, but I tried to stay openminded to the best of my ability even though I firmly stand on one side of the topic. When it comes to appropriate citations, I did not learn how to properly do so until a few weeks into this course so there are still things that may need to be edited and corrected. Nevertheless, I now firmly understand how to do so, even though the current state of some of my work may not reflect that.

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.

I demonstrated my idea on Core Value I by going back editing my papers many time and taking advantage of the advice professor Hodges whether it was in person or feedback on a reply. I demonstrated this idea on my Causal Rewrite where I went back a few times to edit my paper and met face to face with professor during class to get advice and ideas on how to make my paper the best to my ability. He explained to me that I was missing the effects to my causes, as well as make separate paragraphs instead of a just a few giant bulky paragraphs and separate them by ideas. The information and advice that professor left me with I was able to use to my advantage and took his feedback as a helping tool. By editing revising and listening to feedback from professor Hodges I was able to demonstrate what Core Value I means to 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.

I demonstrated my idea of Core Value II by connecting two different ideas together that helped build up a strong claim. In my Rebuttal Rewrite I gathered information from different articles that had the same idea, but had different claims that I felt both helped me build a strong argument and was able to put them together. I was able to share my thought on other people’s comments such as Lt. Gen. Clarence E. McKnight and use their ideas and thoughts to my advantage by countering some of there arguments and sharing my own ideas. By understanding this Core Value II was able to find the right information and ideas that I needed from articles to help propose a strong rebuttal for my paper.    

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.

I demonstrated my idea of Core Value III by understanding who my readers are and what kind of background knowledge they have on my topic so I know what ideas to give them and a background on what my idea is. In my work, Definition Rewrite I was able to target the citizens of America and a problem that they tend to hear much about in this past year. I focused on the American people to give them an idea of what is going on in our world and how actions of our government may or may not affect us. I never singled out an individual but maintained my focus on the people of America and a situation that we face. By knowing who my readers are I can turn their attention to the matters of terrorism and refugee problems that we face. By understanding what the Core Value III is I was able to demonstrate it in my work.   

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 my idea of Core Value IV by demonstrating it in my Visual Rewrite. I was able to prove my understanding of this Core Value by understanding what my video “Take Time to Be a Dad Today” was about. I was able to understand this videos message with no volume and just by the location of the house the type of mood the actors seem to be in as well as the movement. Such as the father seemed to have been playing with a child just by the looks from our first few glimpse because he was doing a little childish dance and looking down which in fact gave the the impression of looking to someone smaller then him due to not being visible through the window. By pausing it second by second getting a good glimpse of all the events going on in the video I was able to come up with an idea for what was going on and then was able to conclude to a conclusion, that the father was trying to spend time with his daughter and trying to make an impact on her life. After getting my final thought I went back and turned the volume up just to make sure my ideas matched the videos point which came out successful.

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.

I demonstrated my idea of Core Value V by understanding to give credit to when credit is due and by doing so I would always give credit to an author when using helpful there ideas as seen in my Bibliography I would give credit to the author and the name of the article to provide where I got my information from, as well as attach a link to my work cited to show exactly where I got my information from so it would bring you exactly to the website by just clicking the title. By doing so I was able to demonstrate my ethical beliefs in writing. As well as explain how I used their ideas to help my argument by giving a short statement of how I used it. By having good ethics I was able to show where my information came from so that they weren’t some idea that I thought of, but a credible source where I was able to use to build my claims 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.

It took me a while to figure out what I want to do my research paper on. I actually thought about the problems that we face today in the world  , which the most common problem is police brutality. I noticed that police brutality is a a wide concept , so I decided to focus on one group  that which is African Americans.  I found my sources by using google scholars to make sure it all facts.  I achieve this goal by making sure all my sources are coming for a reliable website and making sure I am convincing people about the topic I am researching.

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 achieve this goal by making sure the evidence is proving my point that I will like to get across in the paper.

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 Research paper, I started off not achieving this goal because I actually didn’t have a purpose for this paper.  I just knew what I wanted to talk about, but didn’t have a plan for how I could convince people to keep reading this paper.  As time kept going, I started to achieve this goal by creating a thesis, which in other words is an argument for my paper. My purpose for my paper changed from just how law enforcement killings have increased dramatically to how law enforcement killings among African Americans had increased over the years.

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 order for me to meet this goal I had to make sure that I had a thesis to help start with writing my paper.  With a thesis, I was able to accomplish what evidence I would include in order for it to support my overall thesis of my research paper.  While conducting research for my topic, I had to make sure that the evidence was actually useful and insightful for what I wanted to educate my readers about.

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.

I didn’t actually achieve this goal because I was focusing on my thesis do the whole paper, by trying to get my point across. My paper started off as a opinion paper where I was citing information and for the analysis I was stating my opinion instead of stating why the source was connecting back to the overall question of the paper.   

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.

I’m not going to lie, I could have done a bit better on this value. Sometimes I left feedback unanswered and didn’t revise when I should have. However, these incidents were not the majority. On the majority of my assignments, such as my first Stone Money assignment and my Research Proposal assignment, I replied to feedback with appropriate revisions. I did my best to improve my writing, not only in these cases, but in general, when I completed my short argument rewrites. In those cases I strove to add more content and research, such as adding a patient perspective into my Rebuttal Rewrite. This was not my strongest value, but I still demonstrated a sufficient understanding.

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 been quite active in discussing work with my Professor and others. I almost always replied to feedback, giving rewrites when required. This can be seen in my Definition Rewrite post. I also attended “office” hours on Monday, December 5th in order to literally converse about my writing. In class, I have discussed other student’s writing, helping them to understand assignments as they did the same for me, specifically in the Missing Dollar exercise. That was a collaboration between many students. Collaboration is an important part of the writing process, and I believed I engaged in a good amount in order to understand this 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.

I was given a great opportunity to demonstrate my understanding of this value, by giving feedback to three different students’ works as an exercise. My comments on yankeeskid6, prof2020, and dublin517’s posts provided insight on how I fully understood how to analyze text. analyzing my own text with the help of Professor Hodges was also very helpful. He helped me with my original Causal Argument, telling me that my argument that dysregulation is a part of college was both causation and definition. I fixed this in my Causal Rewrite, in which my argument was clearer. I feel I now have a great understanding of how to analyze text effectively in order to improve it.

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 have met this core value, and demonstrated my proficiency in this value in many of my works. I have often gone above the minimum number of sources needed, showing my willingness to not just do what is required for a grade, but what is required for quality writing. I have also added new sources where none were required, demonstrating my willingness to always improve. These qualities are most evident in my Definition Rewrite, in which I exceeded the minimum number of sources and added new sources that were not present in the original Definition post.

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. 

I did my best to uphold this value by properly citing my sources and trying to interpret their content in the clearest way possible. This skill came from learning how to Purposefully Summarize, in which I summarized and interpreted three articles in order to fit three arguments. I was mostly successful in my summaries, but improved as the semester progressed. As for citations, I started weak but finished strong. Professor Hodges corrected my MLA-style citations in my original Stone Money post, which were corrected in my Stone Money Rewrite. I always gave proper credit to my sources. This may have been my strongest value of all.

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 entire semester I have been revising my arguments and essays. My first drafts is where I start off with and as time goes on I revise and edit my work. For my causal argument I wrote a first draft, but about three weeks later I revised my work and made a second draft. I noticed I worded things confusingly and that I needed to clarify my argument. I also learned from my mistakes and how I can write more clearly. The two links below show my original draft and my second draft which has the improvements I later made.

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 always listen to the advice my professors give me. I also have friends read my assignments before I submit them. For my definition essay, I realized I was not clear in my thesis. My professor commented on my work and I replied saying that I made changes to my essay. Sometimes I need someone else to read my work just to double check that everything makes sense.

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.

I wrote my causal argument based off of why I believe the NJ sales tax is not a regressive tax. I took into account that my professor was looking for specific keywords to show I had an argument. I highlighted all the keywords to show I was proving a point in my argument.Some examples of these keywords are: so, because, and even specific arguments that prove my point.

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 each assignment related to my research paper, I used sources to back my claim. A few of the sources were facts that I needed to know and others were articles with an author’s opinion. The facts that I researched helped me shape my own opinion. When I first picked this topic I did not really know if I considered the New Jersey sales tax to be regressive. While doing research I came across an article published by the New Jersey Department of Taxation which had a list of everything that was taxable and tax exempt. After reading this article I developed my own opinion based off of facts, which is stated in my definition essay, that I did not believe the tax was regressive toward people with low incomes.

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 I use outside sources for my essays, I use informal citations in my essay and then create a works cited page. It is very important to properly cite sources. In my definition rewrite, I used an informal citation for all three of my sources and then had a work cited page for my sources.  I think it important to give credit to other people for their own 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.

When writing, I think that discovery of new topics and development of new ideas is where I strive the most. I find it that in this class, I was challenged more than usual to perform my top writing at all times and I liked the battle I had with myself. To narrow one point down, we look at the research topic of my own which consisted of baseball players and the injuries they encounter.  Being a baseball player myself and looking up new material, I came across many appealing news that surprised me.  By doing that, I was able learn more myself which enabled me to make the reader interested and want to keep reading.  It is very important to keep the reader hooked. Being an observer myself on others writings, I know that there are sometimes in which you do not want to keep reading because nothing interests you.

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.

While doing my research topic, I got a good idea of how to do this. It was very important to add more then one source and bring together peoples ideas to form one stronger point. From doing this, the reader can understand it more because more people are saying the same thing which always helps. Honestly, when writing, I have to say that citing and bringing sources to my papers was always my hardest deficit but from this class I learned quickly how to change that. Having people from different communities come together and all agree on one thing is always huge in every situation. More or less, it is like saying a team full of best friends is unbeatable and compound a stronger bound which in a sense, is the same as people coming together to all have the same conclusion maybe with different premises.

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.

One of the biggest things I got out of this class was that you have to entertain the audience. No one is going to continue to read something they are not forced to if it does not interest them. So from all the work and learning this, I was able to come up with better material in which I can make the audience more involved and want to continue to read my pieces. Visual arguments was actually my favorite part of this class for a few reasons. One, everyone likes seeing pictures because it seems easier. Two, you get a short story about something important and you retain some knowledge from it. Pausing the video throughout the whole piece so describe scenes is a good way to keep yourself guessing. There is so much detail that one wouldn’t think is actually there but in reality, there is so much more then you can see at first glance. I think from looking at these and studying them to write about, I won’t look at another video, movie or program the same ever again which opens up a whole new way to view things in life.

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 think that I have the expectations to the best of my abilities. Being in this class really helped me learn how to actually write. I enjoyed learning what writing really is about because I did not get this in any other class that i have been in over all my schooling. When evaluating others papers and my own to rewrite, I come across mistakes more then I would have before this class. I can see more grammar issues and sometimes there are words I use and maybe even full sentences I use that don’t need to be there at all and give no information to the reader. With incorporating illustrations, I think I’ve learned how to do this is a much better manner. This was always my favorite part about writing because when I write, I visualize it happening in my head and I can understand what the reader is thinking and seeing at the same time so it inspires me to write even better so the bigger picture is there for them.

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.

Coming into this class, having had some trouble with bringing sources into my own information, I think I learned a lot on how to properly do so to a large extent. Having appropriate citation is a huge concept in writing that needs to be performed to excellence. I say this because with any mistakes or if no citations at all, how could it be good work? If we are basing it off a argument with none of these, then we are looking at our own opinions and that is something that not everyone will want to believe especially when they have there own. From learning how to properly cite after all the time that I have been in school, I come to see how much better my own writing is and also, I can stay away from mistaken case of plagiarism.