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.

Today, instead of reading a newspaper or turning on the television news, a large part of the population turns to sisal media as their main news source and also to see what others, their friends, and prominent people in the media, are saying about the news. Even the pope has a twitter. Social media has become almost more relevant than any other news source and for that reason I used a mixture of blogs, news articles, and forums to explore the issue, discover what a variety of people were saying about it, for my own concepts about the issue, and to develop my own opinions.

Core Value II. My work demonstrates that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities. 

In my research paper the Target chain is cited as being both part of the problem, and part of the solution of sexualized clothing for children based on two different people’s perspectives. Without the rebuttal argument, I never would have known how important a refutable counter argument is to a research 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.

Although the process was– and continues to be time consuming, this course taught me how important it is to write, write it again, and write it again after that and continue that process until there is legitimately nothing else to write. This course also taught me how to rhetorically analyze visuals, which unsuspectedly help me grow as a writer by helping me become more observant.

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.

Because of this course, I have realized that primary and secondary sources do not cut it. You need facts, statistics, out-of-the-box opinions and of course, your own. This was crucial for writing my paper because the more valid sources I had– the more diverse my argument became.

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 made sure to respect my ethical responsibility by always citing sources and giving the author their due credit. I also made sure to quote and cite correctly as to not accidentally cross over into plagiarism territory. Aside from citations, this course has taught me to remain true to what I believe in and to find the proper sources that back up my position my counter-intuitive topic of choice.