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.

When finding information and sources for my research paper I definitely used aspects of this core value. Exploring different sources to find relevant information and then developing those ideas into my writing was something improved on this semester. In the past I have I have really struggled with relating evidence in sources to my writing and explaining how an aspect in my source is relevant to my paper. Using google scholar to find sources and even using our libraries databases really benefited me and I plan on using these platforms in the future with my research. This core value was demonstrated in my White Paper assignment. 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. 

Reading critically and creating meaning from my text was something that I struggled with in the beginning of the semester. Learning how think counterintuitively really opened my mind and changed the way I view new formation by questioning and understanding the values of what is being said. Our Stone Money assignment really showed me this by the main Idea of “Is money even real.” When the claim grabs your attention and you question it, you are able to look into it and see where the author of the claim’s mindset is and what their true intentions are when the produce that claim. Stone Money

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.

Thinking rhetorically was something I learned last semester with explaining details clearly for your audience or whoever is reading your work. This semester I furthered my skills with the visual rhetoric assignment. The basis of this assignment clearly targets rhetorical thinking and thought process which allows you to think of every detail and explain it to your audience. One of the biggest lessons I learned was to clearly state what you’re explaining and to not create any lead off conclusions that stray away from what you want the readers to know. 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.

This core value was demonstrated through my research paper assignment. Through the buildup of finding sources and creating short arguments, my research paper was born. The process of producing my paper was definitely a challenge, but learning how to organize my ideas and making my information clearer it made my processes easier. Linking my sources to the text was a little hard and especially when most of my sources were studies. With studies it is a little difficult finding an exact key point with most of the information being results and not definitions. By using the results of the studies, you can demonstrate what people are going through and explain how they got to a certain outcome. Using the results, you can implement them to your claims for supporting evidence. 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. 

I believe I demonstrated this core value in my Annotated Bibliography assignment. In this assignment I cited my sources with a link and described the background and how I used it in my writing. I think this assignment really helps you understand your sources better and you can relate to what the author has to say. Also, in any paper I wrote, creating a references citation page was common and formatting skills improved over the course of the semester. Annotated Bibliography