Core Value 1. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

Throughout the semester I feel that I read feedback given by my professor and used it to revise my work. I kept revising and editing my writing throughout the semester and made sure to use all of the feedback given to improve upon my writing. I made sure to remember that writing is a multi-stage process by reminding myself before completing an assignment that it will not be the finished product and there is still more to be done to it and this was reflected in my Causal Argument I used this ideology everytime I made revisions to different essays. I was able to also take out useless information or wordy phrases in order to cut down on the bulk of my essays to make them easier to read and more compelling. 

Core Value 2. My work demonstrates that I read critically, and that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities. 

By reading different texts and excerpts throughout the semester I was able to have a better understanding of how to come to my own conclusions and expand upon those conclusions by digging beyond the surface of what I initially saw and explaining why I had the opinions I did. By the end of the semester I was able to identify the bigger picture and explain different aspects of writing. When I am faced with different texts I have a better understanding on how to properly analyze and constructively criticize them on my own. I did this most often in my Rebuttal ArgumentI am able to understand the meaning behind what the author is trying to say, why they are trying to say it, and why they ultimately feel the way they do about the topic they are writing about. 

Core Value 3. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

Throughout the class I feel that I obtained a better understanding of peer and professor critiques and how writing is influenced by the audience. I understand how to connect with an audience and how to properly display the message I am trying to display. When faced with different texts or visual arguments I feel that I am able to communicate what I am seeing and what that means for the overall message. I understand how to effectively identify messages and themes throughout different works and I understand why they are important to conveying the author’s opinions. One specific example of this is the Visual Rhetoric piece. I was able to identify the meaning behind different aspects of the 30 second advertisement I chose to write about. 

Core Value 4: 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 work throughout this semester has shown that I am able to meet the expectations of academic writing through the aforementioned ways. One way that I feel I improved with was using evidence to support the claims in my writing. I was able to conduct research on various topics, culminating into one specific thesis by the end of the semester, and use the research to support claims I made regarding the subject. Using this evidence and citing different sources helps to establish trust within the audience in order for them to have faith in the claims that are being made in your writing. Without this there is a disconnect between having your audience read your points and having them understand and be persuaded by what you are trying to show them or convince them of. This was most used in my research paper

Core Value 5. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation. 

Throughout the semester I have been doing research to find support for my overall claim that the minimum drinking age does not benefit young adults as much as we are conditioned to believe it does. I found many different articles that supported various sides of this claim in order to have a well rounded perspective. I was able to expand upon these different arguments and display how each was important to my thesis. These articles were integrated into my final essay in different ways, but in my annotated bibliography I was able to explain to readers how and why I used each one. I feel that by doing this I was able to represent these complex ideas that I had by using different evidence that further solidified my original claim.