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.

Before this semester I definitely didn’t believe I was a great writer. Even now I don’t think I’m perfect. I have a lot more to accomplish, but this course taught me to hone in on my skills and really appreciate myself as a writer. I may not have been the most efficient or successful writer, but I can look back on my work and be proud of it. I know I produced my best work at the time. As time went on I learned more and improved my writing skills. That’s what I expect to happen in the future as well. I expect to learn and obtain more skills to really improve my writing as a whole. This course wasn’t the end all be all, it was a stepping stone for my gradual improvements as a writer. I learned a lot, and I intend to continue my learning experience in the future.

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. 

My overall way of thinking completely changed after being introduced to the counterintuitive perspective. My ideas stayed the same, but a new perspective was introduced. It’s like when cavemen were introduced to fire. Maybe not that dramatic but you get the point. Changing the way a person thinks about something that was always right in front of them is a very eye-opening experience. I can now interpret situations in many different ways.

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.

At the start of each class we interpreted some random counterintuitive riddle or picture. I always interpreted the realistic answer and deemed that to be the correct one. Unfortunately I was wrong most of the time. These opening sections to the class offered me a wake up call, not only out of my recent slumber, but a wake up call to pursue a different perspective. Now looking back on most of them I can understand the meaning of each riddle or picture by analyzing the true purpose. That analysis has transferred to my open work offering me an opportunity to pursue a different perspective on the next draft.

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.

This core value is perfectly aligned with the visual rhetoric assignment. Analyzing a commercial frame-by-frame, picking apart the setting, characters and facial/body mannerisms completely shifted my perspective on how meticulously engineered some commercials really are. I now look at high budget commercials differently because I was trained to see this way through this assignment. Being able to analyze facial expressions and body language has made me understand human nature a bit more than I did before this assignment. Definitely one of the more important assignments I’ve completed thus far in my education career. 

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. 

In high school I was taught a very different way to cite my sources. In this course I believe I was taught the right way. Now that I’ve been taught the right way to do this, I can move forward with this skill and improve my writing as a whole. I’ve always comprehended the importance of abiding by the rules of plagiarism, but now I know how utterly important it is to be far and just to the system. I understand my place in this realm better than before.