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.

Core Value 1 is crucial to demonstrate that the process of reading and writing are recursive, and must be conducted in multiple stages in order to properly convey information. Keeping a White Paper helped this process, as I was able to keep my readings all in one place and come back to them at different times to add thoughts and notes on them. Using Google Scholar (I source I had never used before this course) proved to be incredibly helpful, since it provided trustworthy academic sources from various databases. I most definitely plan on using this search engine in any and all future academic research projects. Use of this core value is best demonstrated in my White Paper.

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 is critical, as it shows how one must be able to read critically and glean specific meanings from texts. Counterintuitive thinking was a major part of this course, and it was a concept I really had to concentrate to grasp in the beginning. The Stone Money project was my introduction to the counterintuitive thinking style, and it was an eye-opening experience to thinking outside of the usual metaphorical box. Learning how to absorb information, question its value (and those of its author), and create your own definition and meaning of it proved to be an interesting challenge. Use of this core value is best demonstrated in my Stone Money paper.

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.

Core Value 3 values rhetorical thinking, a concept which I have only very recently begun to explore. My experience with rhetorical thinking has been enlightening, as it has taught me how to write with purpose, and understand that your work must be concise and clear so that readers have no opportunity to question the concept or idea you are relating to them. Since readers cannot know what you are thinking, you must be illustrative in your writing to give them the closest possible iteration of your thoughts. In completing the Visual Rhetoric assignment, I learned how to clearly and properly convey my personal notions and ideas to readers to lead them to a specific conclusion. Use of this core value is best demonstrated in my Visual Rhetoric.

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.

Core Value 4 is the result and culmination of all of my work over the course of the semester. In understanding the concepts and values above, I was able to create my Research Paper, which is the final product of all of my research, reading, and counterintuitive ideas. It was difficult to try and incorporate academic studies into my writing, as their specifics would have proved irrelevant to my overall purpose, but I quickly realized that absorbing their concepts, conveying them in my own specific way, and citing them as a source in my Annotated Bibliography proved to be the best method. Use of this core value is best demonstrated 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. 

Core Value 5 is one that is quite crucial in the experience of the average college student. Academic integrity is an important part of the student contract we enter into when we enroll in University, and requires us to cite our researched sources properly, and not claim others’ ideas for ourselves. The Annotation Bibliography assignment forced me to not only evaluate the works I used for my writing, but to understand the purposes I used it for. Use of this core value is best demonstrate in my Annotated Bibliography.