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 not been the most effective and confident writer. Typically, when I wrote papers in high school, I would get B’s and be satisfied. However, high school is entirely different than college so I was stressed out about CompositionII before it even began. On the first day of class, Professor Hodges told us to take out a piece of paper and rip it up. To be honest, I thought he was crazy. I didn’t find any purpose behind us ripping up paper that I could have used to write notes for a different class. He then went into discussion on how his course would be all about rewriting. Something I needed to do desperately but was always too lazy. At that very moment, I knew my writing would improve with the help of Professor Hodges and myself. The first assignment we were given was Stone Money and I was very intimidated because I was confused on the topic and was not good at proving my point through my text. After lots of critical but effective feedback, I was able to develop stronger points in my Stone Money Rewrite and that helped me throughout the remaining of the semester.

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. 

Normally when I would analyze my writing, I moved at a speedy pace. This caused me to overlook multiple errors plenty of times, which could result in poor grades if my teachers didn’t take any heed to it. Professor Hodges course is not like any other English course I’ve taken. Most Professors will tell you that you’ve made errors in your work but not go into depth about them. He on the other hand cares about our success in the course. I had a tough time coming up with a counterintutive topic for my research paper and when I did my Proposal+5 it was evident. Professor Hodges took the time to comment on my post and assisted me in finding other considerable topics that had a numberless amount of sources to back it up. That’s when I was able to develop my Redo Proposal+5.  This allowed me to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from numerous sources that was used in my Definition Rewrite,  Causal Rewrite and Rebuttal Rewrite.

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.

Other than becoming an assertive writer, my other goal was to learn how to take my audience into consideration when writing papers. I wouldn’t provide a lot of facts and sources on my topic as if my audience had background knowledge on it, prior to reading my essays. Although I was aware that I had a continuous habit of doing this, I didn’t stop. I waited until Professor Hodges pointed it out and then made changes from there with his help. After several rewrites and finally getting it together, my writing made a significant improvement as I was able to keep my audience in mind by providing more information when developing my arguments.

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.

Since we always have to rewrite our papers in this course, I have now become a fan of looking for things within my paper to edit. In my Visual Assignment, while analyzing the video I missed more than enough points that I could have made. Luckily, in my Visual Rewrite, I had the opportunity to review the video over again and make points that I didn’t the first time. I felt like I have made the expectations of academic writing because I evaluated and incorporated illustrations, that even someone who didn’t watch the video would be able to visualize it because of the amount of vital information I provided.

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. 

Not only do I provide evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations but I also respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas and to fairly cite my sources. Not only is plagiarism an academic violation that can result in a F and possibly get you kicked out of school. It also restrains students from providing citations for their sources. Throughout this course, we were assigned to cite for every source listed in our assignments. This has not only saved me from failing this course but has helped me in my Annotated Bibliography, when I had to provide information on the source and how I intended to use it in my research paper.