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 paper, the Visual Rhetoric assignment, I demonstrated these practices most prominently. I engaged in active interaction with the media I was analyzing. Beyond just analyzing what I could see on screen, I explored WHY the filmmakers made such choices, and what more those choices tell us about the characters. I contemplated how the characters on screen interacted socially together, and what that added to the overall effectiveness of the PSA. I confidently drew conclusions based on what I saw, knowing my discoveries were correct as long as they could be backed by logical reasoning. 

Visual Rewrite–SinatraMan17

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. 

In my Definition Argument, I demonstrated the critical use of several academic and online sources. I used these texts to aid in the definition of key terms needed to comprehend my research paper. I put several of these quotes in conjunction with each other, in hopes to build a definitive comprehension of the often overly-technical jargon. An example of texts interacting and responding to each other would be “‘For most of the past decade, A.I. chatbots have been terrible – impressive only if you cherry-pick the bot’s best responses and throw out the rest.’ Chat GPT differs from its predecessors in that it produces coherent and intelligent responses and, if prompted, ‘artful’ ones as well. The concept which powers this technology is called ‘machine learning, which is defined by IBM as the process in which ‘[AI] focuses on the use of data and algorithms to imitate the way that humans learn, gradually improving its accuracy.’”

Definition Rewrite–SinatraMan17

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 Rebuttal Argument represents my strongest use of analysis of purpose, audience, and context, especially within the texts of my opponents. I explored their strengths and weaknesses and dug deep within their arguments to discover what issues were within. Upon researching the claims of my opponent, I was able to learn the tendencies of the audience– whether they tend to side with me or against me. In learning this I could address my own audience with that idea in mind.

Rebuttal–SinatraMan17

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 semester-long Research Paper is where I spent the most time locating, evaluating, and incorporating evidence to support my counterintuitive claim. Within these 3000 words, It was absolutely essential that I followed all three of these practices. First off, locating relevant, reputable sources from the get-go allowed me to spend time on the latter actions, instead of wandering databases aimlessly. My focused library of texts proved to be extremely useful. Secondly, I evaluated each of these texts through reading notes– jotting down when I thought a certain excerpt was especially relevant to my argument. Lastly, as seen in my Research Paper, I incorporated these findings throughout to support my claims. 

Research–SinatraMan17

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 citations. 

My Annotated Bibliography is a direct example of how I’ve respected the work of others and cited all texts that I quoted or was influenced by. I have noted the background information of each source I used, as well as in what ways I used the text. I used the “How I Used It” section to explain what purpose each work served in the overall argument effort of my paper.

Bibliography–SinatraMan17