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.