Category: x Archive Assignments

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 have used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development. With one of the very first writing assignments, Stone Money, I have explored many different articles regarding a concept in history that I had previously knew nothing about. While conducting my research, I have discovered information about the stone money concept which led to the result of a short paper that I have written which demonstrated my knowledge and opinions on the concept of money in the past, present and future. In my opinion, I believe that my research has improved greatly from taking this course. I have learned to effectively utilize my resources to the greatest ability.

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.

This semester, I have had the privilege to improve my writing skills in many different categories. One skill that I have had the lack of opportunity to work with would most certainly be this. In my Visual Rewrite, I have learned to place text into conversation to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities. As we selected a short silent video ad, I was able to visually analyze and create detailed text about the ad. This type of assignment was new to me, so I adapted and learned through the professor on how to approach this assignment.

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.

Time and time again, our professor has stressed the importance of revising and editing assignments. Each and every assignment that I have posted has been edited more than twice at the least. A perfect paper is impossible to exist. One assignment that can demonstrate my ability to rhetorically analyze the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing as well as other texts and visual arguments is my Definition Rewrite. With this being one of the first short papers relating to my research position paper, I was able to successfully analyze my thesis. In turn, I was able to apply this to the paper to build a solid structure to base my research position paper off of.

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.

This semester was one of the more challenging semesters. With this being my first semester back in over a year due to training, the adjustment was tough. In my opinion, my work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations. I believe that I have met this expectation in the majority of my papers, but more specifically in the Proposal +5. In this assignment, we were required to find five trustworthy sources, but it did not end there. What made this assignment differ from other assignments in the past was the fact that we were required to analyze each source and apply the material that relates to my research topic. This forced me to pre-read my sources to solidify that it would be reliable and applicable to my topic. This significantly helped support my own ideas and interpretations.

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.

One of my pieces of work that can represent this core value is my Research Position Paper. It is of the utmost importance to respectfully cite the work credited from other sources. Even through previous assignments, I have improved one of the most important skills in writing. The research paper was the big test where every source gathered was used for a single paper. The knowledge gained from previous assignments helped me correctly cite every source and incorporate it into the paper. Due to the knowledge and practice, my work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation.

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 College Comp II professor Hodges reintroduced an idea that has been fed to me for years. However, because of Professor Hodges I have thoroughly listened and taken this advice to heart. The idea that was presented is simply proofreading and correcting. We as students and writers are advised to constantly check and fix our work because it can only get better. However, most students such as my old self would take an assignment as a one and done deal. That is the definition of content. Although, as Professor Hodges stated in class no one should be content, we should always want better.  I achieved this goal by always asking for feedback on all my work. Aside from just posting on the website I also talked to Professor Hodges during class about work, topics and ideas for writing. Feedback from others is the most important starting point for your revision because more than one opinion opens doors for different ideas. I feel my best representation of taking feedback and correcting is in my Causal Argument Rewrite.

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. 

When writing about any topic you should be well educated before you even think about typing anything. Therefore, gathering information through critical research is key. You cannot develop an opinion or create an argument on a topic you know nothing about. I feel I accomplished this goal in my Proposal +5 because I gathered many sources I felt sided with my argument for my essay as well as other sources that gave light on the issue I was presenting. I gathered articles with opinions, statistics and case studies. The material I gathered helped my writing flow better, become clearer and establish a definite argument. We as writers need other source material to amplify our own stance; it is crucial.

https://rowancounterintuitive.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=8396&action=edit

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 it comes to writing a position paper and especially an argumentative piece, we must take into consideration which audience we are writing to. Professor Hodges made sure we understood the importance of having a purpose to writing for a specific audience. I feel I accomplished this goal in my Definition Argument Rewrite because I used valid evidence in my work along with appropriate wording to relate to the audience. The topic that is presented has a certain demographic it reaches out to. Once I realized how prevalent the topic was and took the advice of Professor Hodges as well as classmates I changed certain wording and source material. This was done because In my first draft I was quite naïve towards my audience and a bit irrational. Once I thought of them more my work became better.  

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.

Once again, it is important to gather information to back up our claims as writers. We cannot simply state our opinions as fact, we need research to back up our claims. In my Definition rewrite I accomplished this goal as well. I went out and searched for scholarly articles to back up my claims. I then used statistics to make those claims valid and substantial. Sometimes the audience agrees more with statistics and other times its more opinion related, therefore you must have sources that accomplish both. Real evidence supporting a writers argument is the best way to persuade a reader in agreeing with us.

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 a paper to be viewed as successful and fair you must treat all material in proper way. This involves providing evidence for your stance on an issue and doing so in an appropriate manner. You must cite every piece of work that is not yours. A writer cannot take anothers opinion and evidence and deem it his own. This would be the epitome of unethical. Finally, it is only fair to not be one sides and look at the opinion of your opposing side. Take into consideration the opinions and facts they have and it will not only challenge us as writers, but help us dig deeper into our research to prove our points. My personal example of how I accomplished this goal is in my Rebuttal Rewrite . In the rewrite I present the opposing side of my arguments common view points and present this in a manner in which is fair and concrete. The data that was used was scholarly and properly cited. The rewrite was ethically sound.

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 have demonstrated core value one that I have made revisions to my work in my Definition Rewrite. I kept working on my Definition argument to make it better for my portfolio. I added more of the stuff I researched later on after I wrote my first draft. I learned that the more I rewrite and make my can prove the paper. In class, I learned that rewriting can never stop because once I see a flaw in an essay I have to go back and fixit to make sure that the paper flows throughout the paper.

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 demonstrated core value two in my Rebuttal Argument. I understood that not a lot o people would be on board with the idea of not having helmets. I rebutted against my position so that I could eliminate the flaws in my essay. It helped me to counter argue the readers position because I listed what the readers may side with than talked about why that would be bad and then gave my reasons why it would be a bad idea.

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 have demonstrated core value three about my audience being the industries that are creating helmets and the NFL as a whole. For example, in my hypothesis on my white paper wanted to let  the NFL and the helmet industries know that the football league should change the rules and how the way they tackle in general.

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 demonstrated core value four in my Causal Rewrite. I showed that my research helps to illustrate my position on football helmets and how dangerous they are. In my the fifth paragraph of my causal rewrite when I talked paraphrased what Steven Laurey states in the TED talks speech. I showed the evidence of what I learned in during the time I research through the sources that I have come up with.

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 have demonstrated core value five in my argumentative papers that in order to win my reader over I would have to do my research and find why the position I am write about is right. Using correct citation can help strengthen my paper because it shows the reader that I did my research on the topic that I am siding on.

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 this course I learned that writing is more than creating one draft and being done with it, as I am used to. In this course, I found myself constantly revising my work to the point where the original was almost completely different than the final draft. The piece that most displays this value is my Causal Argument. I originally wrote my causal argument about standardized tests causing minority students to be at a disadvantage. However, Professor Hodges left feedback that brought up points that I had not originally considered. One of the points that I had not considered was where I initially contradicted myself. I had stated that minority students were not prepared fully for standardized tests but then later stated that teachers in minority schools teach to much to the test. Even though when I posted it I thought my essay was good, having someone else read it allowed me to rethink my logic. I reworked the entire argument to make a stronger and more clear piece and by the end almost every aspect of it had changed.

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 preparing for my research paper, it was important to read many different texts from a range of sources in order to get a full grasp on my topic. While analyzing different sources it was clear to see that, although some were more similar than others, all the sources in one way or another contained similar ideas and worked off of each other. Therefore, in my work it was important to show all of the ideas that I had learned  and highlight the differences between different sources. The work that most shows Core Value II is my Definition Argument. In that piece, where I attempt to define “test equity,” I cited three sources to make my case. All three pieces shared similar ideas about the fundamentals of standardized testing but all came to unique conclusions. Therefore, I used the conclusions that each of the sources used in order to create a conversation about test equity.

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 learned that every work has a purpose and intended audience. In my Visual Rewrite, I displayed this core value by analyzing the purpose of the 30 second ad “How Much Would You Like to Lose?” The purpose of the assignment was to show that every aspect of the ad was placed there for a particular purpose. In this ad, even the man and woman’s clothes were placed for a purpose. First, the man and women were dressed elegantly which indicate that they were on a date. Later, the man’s clothing began to change into raggedy garments. Then, the couple’s body language change where the woman began to shift away from the man as if she was no longer interested in him and the man begun to display looks of shame.  For this ad, the intended audience was those who drink and it showed the audience the dangers of buzzed driving. Without thoroughly analyzing the piece, I would not have been able to fully understand the purpose of the ad. I was able to incorporate this concept into my other pieces during the semester.

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 work, it has been important to evaluate many pieces from a variety of different sources. The assignment that most reflects Core Value IV is my Bibliography where I cited the twelve sources I used in my Research Paper. I clearly did not have enough research or experience to write an entire research paper on standardized testing so I had to find sources to support my ideas to persuade my audience. Some of my sources were research studies, such as Kenneth Wodtke’s “Exploratory Observational Study of Standardized Group Testing in Kindergarten,” which allowed me to use real-life observations to relate to my general thesis. Other sources were surveys or statistics, such as NAEP’s data on the achievement gap, which I was able to incorporate to further persuade my readers. I naturally incorporated all of the sources from my bibliography to create solid evidence to support my argument about standardized testing.

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 paper, I expressed the complex and controversial debate that surrounds standardized testing in American public schools. As with anything controversial, it was important to express my ideas as fairly as possible. It was also important to acknowledge opinions that differ from mine and refute them respectfully and fairly. In my Rebuttal Rewrite, I was able to accomplish that. The source that I chose to refute, Latasha Gandy’s “Don’t Believe the Hype, Standardized Testing is Good for Children, Families, and Schools,” the author conveyed a set of beliefs that were completely different than the ones that I was conveying in my research paper. She believed that standardized testing was the most important tool in fighting educational justice in America. Although I did not agree with her argument, it was still important to acknowledge her points and clearly state the basis of her argument. By showing my readers this point, I was able to respectfully refute her argument by using the sources I had gathered in order to support my own points.

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 the recursive, never-ending cycle of good writing. 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, but real revision began during my Visual Rewrites. The first moving image assignment was enjoyable, which made revision a fun recursive process. 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 becomes possible when the writer educates themselves on their subject of discourse. Further, lack of knowledge in your topic of writing will result in a bored audience. Gun control has always been a topic of discourse within my family which has resulted in a genuine interest on the problem. Therefore, gun control was the ideal research topic for 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.

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.

Throughout the semester, I have received large amounts of feedback from my professor and even a fair share from my peers. On my Definition Argument assignment, Darnell18 commented at me, “I like how you cover details on a variety of guns. The subject matter is very informative”. This dialogue between my audience and I helps me better understand what the audience wants to hear.

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 writing for my Research paper, 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.

My annotated bibliography is a direct representation of the sources I located and evaluated, and also explains how I incorporated illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and conclusions.

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

For any work to become great, it is important to look at its shortcomings and work off of that. An important part of Professor Hodges’ class is getting feedback for an essay, and then rewriting the essay based on what was suggested. The best example of me demonstrating this core value is seen in my Causal Argument essay. After completing the original essay, I talked directly with Professor Hodges and through his help, I was able to drastically change and improve upon what I had originally written. For example, one of my original paragraphs lacked a clear argument and had a lot of sentences that shared a similar meaning. To elaborate, it said that there was a connection between socioeconomic status and aggression, but in numerous sentences. It also brought up this being the government’s fault, but that line of thought went nowhere. With his feedback, I condensed what was originally written to a few sentences, wrote more to create a better argument, and restructured it all to be more coherent. So now it goes from establishing that some people are at a disadvantage, those people could end up in a lower class, a lower class leads to a higher level of aggression, and this increased aggression can lead to committing crimes. It wraps up by establishing that this is the government’s responsibility and as such, they may blame others to subvert attention.

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 it is important to use information to back up an argument, it is very easy to simply parrot what someone else is saying. In order to avoid this, one would have to read and analyze the text that they plan to use, and see how they can incorporate it into an essay which says something new on a topic. I followed this core value best within my Rebuttal Argument essay. To elaborate, I had found that the American Psychological Association found a correlation between violent video games and increased aggression. However, it does not directly support the case that violent video games can lead to criminal activity, so I used this to my advantage. I expressed how aggression can be a broad term, and as such, one can not say for sure that the aggression from video games can lead to murders.

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.

An important part of creating good writing is to understand the rhetorical elements. In other words, analyzing the purpose, audience, and context of a writing. By doing this, one can become a better writer overall. I went along with this core value in my Visual Rhetoric Analysis. In this assignment, I had to watch a thirty second PSA without audio, and try to figure out various things about it such as symbolism, purpose, audience, etc. I accomplished this by analyzing the video second by second. I looked at all of the various details of the frame to understand the argument that was being made. By the end, I had a clear understanding of what the PSA was trying to portray and how it expressed this. It was a PSA on texting while driving. It established a good Samaritan who was extremely selfless. In the end, he texts while driving, showing that even the best people can make the mistake of texting while driving. It is a bad thing to do, but those who do it are not inherently bad.

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 to make a good argument, one should have sufficient evidence to back up the claims they are making. Without this, an argument can be chalked up as a baseless theory, lacking any sort of credibility. However, when evidence is used properly, an argument is enhanced and becomes more persuasive. I demonstrated this core value with my Causal Argument essay. In this essay, I brought up various points such as socioeconomic class determining levels of aggression, and poor parenting leading to increased aggression in a child. Alone, these claims mean nothing, but I offered evidence in the form of experiments which show my claims have merit to them, and makes the argument stronger as a whole. I also acquired the information of the experiments through databases since it is important to acquire evidence from a credible source.

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.

A major part of writing anything is to cite where you got your information from, and use the information appropriately. As a student of a university, it is important for me to uphold this ethic, and not plagiarize other people’s work. Even if it were not forbidden, it is only appropriate for others to be credited for the things they worked on. I upheld this core value in my Rebuttal Argument essay. In it, I drew upon a graph, article, and essay in order to get my points across. Whenever I was referring to something in the text, I made sure to clarify what it was and who wrote it. I also created a works cited in order to properly document the sources I used within the essay, and to give proper credit to those who made the respective sources.

 

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.