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.

Although I had the facilities available to me through my professor to look at my work through a different lens, I did not take advantage of this until the final few weeks. Through the final weeks alone, just on a quick conversation with my professor, I was able to take in his scope on my work and revise my work due to this factor. Even with this being related to one of my three papers (causal rewrite), I revised my last two arguments with his lens in mind. I never had anything like this available to me in my years of taking English classes, so I was not aware to the possible additions my writing could have.

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. 

The class is set up in a routine that brings up different ways to look at topics. In most of our classes, we opened up with a warm-up or riddle that would force us to use a counterintuitive way of thinking. One of the examples that truly marked my way of thinking was our conversation on child euthanasia. Although it is a child that is taking their life prematurely which nobody wants, if their quality of life is awful for every breath they take, every second they live. Why not let them pull the plug if it is a mutual decision? Why look at age as a measurement from the date of birth rather than a measurement until the date of death? This proposition has truly left a stain on my brain, a stain for good. I feel I do not make decisions anymore without proper thought into the subject. That, I believe, is the greatest impact that this class has had on me. I tried to use this level of thinking in my research paper, in which I attempted to prove that the mental aspect of physical sports is more important than the physical aspect.

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.

Another great thing about this class is the constant responses we would have during class. Through our responses of whatever we were going over, we would typically have to analyze and respond to it. This would stay consistent outside of class as well through a few of our assignments. To analyze the audience, we had one assignment that pinpointed this precisely. An assignment where we analyzed a short YouTube video, then looked at separate point of views and how they would interpret the video. The video was of a new invention and we had to look at this video from the perspective of a typical consumer, the gov’t, the creator, etc. This was a great way to practice how others may perceive our own writing. Although in the revision process, it was stated that the goal is not to tend to everyone, but rather those who you’re either trying to persuade or those who already agree with you. The way of looking through numerous point of views at my own work has given me great help in the revision process and will be helpful in the future.

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.

I don’t think there is a better example of this than the visual rhetoric assignment. I think, personally, that I did a good job at conveying what was going on in my chosen advertisement while conveying the purpose of the advertisement as well. Even if it was not top tier writing, I think it exceeded my usual ability, I was proud of what I was able to put on the paper. We could not use sound in our analysis which left major focus on the visual part, hence the name of the assignment. This assignment also opened my eyes to how in-depth advertisements will go to connect with their audience. Something I will have to implement in my writing.

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. 

This a issue I have been thinking about a lot. I’ve always respected the articles/pieces of writing that I have responded to or cited in any of my papers or assignments. I have never tried to misinterpret their information. However, in my rebuttal to my paper I found myself struggling to find an article or source that wrote of how physicality is the strongest point in sports. Something, that I assume has always been presumed by others. I had to resort to using the “stacking the deck” rebuttal. In my notes of the Nov 16th class, I defined this type of rebuttal as “Stacking the Deck: It’s not effective to say the author is unfair to your side of the argument. Rather, introduce your evidence that the author ignored and argue that evidence’s importance.” The source that I chose, stated that the four major dimensions of sport were skill, endurance, recovery, and strength. I used this definition to argue the importance of the mental aspect of sport. Although I do not consider a full-scale proper rebuttal and I’m not convicted in my use of it, I believe I respected the source and gave him credit to his opinion. I did not like my rebuttal at all, and I do not know if this was due to a weak hypothesis possibly, or a vague search of mine. Looking back I possibly could’ve changed the rebuttal to an argument regarding stress but it is a little too late at this point in time.