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.

In this course I did satisfy the requirements for core value 1. I received a lot of feedback from Professor Hodges when I requested it, and all of his commentary was very helpful. A specific example I have from this course is the definition argument rewrite assignment which is linked below. There is a total of twenty-three responses in the comments section under the assignment. There was a lot of back-and-forth communication that helped me get an idea of how to improve my work. I would change something then ask for more advice to ensure I was doing the best on could on this paper. I learned that College Comp II is no place for a first draft, and even if you think it’s the best writing you’ve ever done, there is always room for improvement.

Definition Rewrite-Sunshinegirl

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. 

Core value 2 was reached in my research paper assignment. I had thirteen references that I used in my paper by the time it was finished. I had to go through multiple articles, case studies, legal documents, nonprofit organization websites, etc. to try to find the best material. I read the entirety of the ones I picked just to be sure I wasn’t missing any critical information, as well as to ensure I get the most valuable quote possible from the author. When including a quote in my paper, I made sure not to place it randomly. I introduced the authors in a respectable way and tied it into my paper so it didn’t stand out awkwardly. Afterwards, I expressed how the quote was valuable to my paper and supported my topic/hypothesis.

Research Paper-SunshineGirl

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.

The completion of core value 3 was achieved with my visual rhetoric rewrite assignment. Here I analyzed a thirty second commercial ad and put it into my own interpretation. I saw what the characters were wearing, the actions they were doing, their facial expressions, and more, and was able to determine the purpose and audience of the advertisement. The one thing I’d mention, however, is that not all of my rhetorical analyses were correct. The ad I watched was for a seatbelt company but the whole time I thought it was a car commercial. It really helped me realized how, without text, every little detail can mean something up for interpretation, because there’s no one to tell you exactly what’s going on.

Visual Rhetoric Rewrite-SunshineGirl

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 accomplished core value 4 with most of my work but specifically my causal argument rewrite assignment. I incorporated three references that added value to my argument and gave credit to the authors for their quotes, as well as their ideas that were paraphrased. One of the hardest parts was evaluating the evidence. Locating useful, scholarly sources was easy enough, but some of the articles were very long and had a lot of information crammed in. It was a challenge to interpret all of the graphs and charts that held the data, but I ended up being successful and I think all the references really added to my assignment.

Causal Rewrite-SunshineGirl

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. 

Core value 5 was completed when doing my annotated bibliography assignment. I properly cited these sources using the format from the example annotated bibliography. At first I simply put the URLs into an online citation generator, but quickly noticed that it wasn’t in the right order. It’s so important that all your sources are in uniform and the reader can easily see which one is which if they wanted to follow along. I also ethically represented the authors’ ideas in the “background” portion of this assignment. It is my duty as a writer to accurately restate their work in my own words, without losing/changing up their ideas too much. While I may not have needed to utilize all of the information the author gave me, I did need to include a basic outline of their studies/procedures when filling out the background, so that their work didn’t go to waste.

Bibliography-SunshineGirl