Counterintuitive Spring 2023

Core Value I. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

Coming into College Composition II, I thought I was familiar with the basics of writing. I would pick a topic, find sources, and write. There was never any drafting nonsense. Once I wrote and proofread, I was finished. After a semester in this class, I have become much more comfortable not only in the repetitive process that finding sources, forming ideas, communicating thoughts and developing a paper presents, but I have welcomed the frustrated feeling that overcomes me when I read my own work. Before I was introduced to the write and shred attitude of this class, I didn’t enjoy feeling confronted by my own paper. Now I look harder for sources, challenge my own writing, and think a little deeper to convey my points.

Core Value II. My work demonstrates that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities.

Transitioning from point to point without making it obvious is a problem I always face when writing. My papers get choppy and boring when I just spit out one sentence after another. My research paper for the end of the semester contains many points, some closely related, others not so much. After watching many visual pieces in class, struggling to write my short assignments, and receiving some serious constructive criticism, I was able to understand a bit better that each subject can branch off of another. I am able to develop and build new arguments and points based off of what came before. In visual rhetoric pieces, one thing happens after another, a snowball effect. Finding the meaning in a written or visual piece by analyzing its claims has helped me become stronger in my own writing.

Core Value III. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

Many of my writer’s block moments have been solved when I take a step back and study my writing from the perspective of someone who has never read that specific text before. I realized throughout my college writing career, and this semester specifically, that people are usually not writing for themselves. I am able to write in ways that appeal to certain groups of people to shape a meaningful paper, and I am also able to shift that appeal in different ways, thanks to the help of Professor Hodges. When reading others’ writing, I now keep in mind their intended audience when analyzing their claims to better understand their message. A more concise piece of writing is created by knowing who one is speaking to, where one is coming from, and what one wants to convey.

Core Value IV: 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.

Without research and sources, writers would be left to their own devices. I admire that I am able to use the work of others to build my own writing up. My research allows me to develop my ideas, based on the evidence I have collected. By supporting my personal beliefs and opinions, sources give my writing a strong base to work with. In addition to using these sources to my advantage, I have recently found it easier to locate sources that are related to any topic I may be pursuing. Composition II has given me the motivation to find new evidence for pieces I write. The usefulness of gathering reliable sources is evident when writing a paper suddenly becomes easier, thanks to the research done.

Core Value V. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation.

As I stated in my response to Core Value III, writing is not done for the author alone. It is important for the author and the intended audience to know where certain ideas come from. Forgetting to cite a source is considered a big deal and is most often deemed plagiarizing, but it is hard to forget citations when the words are not your own. As I collect research, I now note right away the credible source for citation. When applying the quote, idea, or thoughts of others, I consider the work they put into constructing that writing. I am hopeful that they would be appreciative of being acknowledged in the writings of others, and hopeful that another author would do the same should they ever use any of my own writing.

Goal 1: I used a multi-stage process in my writing, and took into consideration the feedback provided by my professor.

It has been hammered into my head since I was in middle school that writing a single draft is rarely, if ever sufficient.  It is necessary to seek feedback from one’s instructor, in order to produce the most satisfactory and least shreddable draft of a written work before it is to be turned in, with the exception of this very assignment.  In order to acknowledge this goal, I requested feedback from Professor Hodges on nearly every assignment, and did my best to work his notes into my writing.  This can most clearly be seen in my Stone Money Rewrite, in which I attempted to make my writing less bland, as well as elaborate further upon the ideas explored in my essay.  In addition, I also asked for Professor Hodges’ input during class, so that I could submit the most satisfactory work.

Goal 2: I critically analyzed texts to help form and support my own ideas.

Regurgitating the words of another author is not true writing.  More often than not, it is mere plagiarism.  Without critically examining sources, one runs the risk of parroting the ideas of others, rather than expressing unique views.  To avoid this, I examined my sources very thoroughly, and ultimately used the words of others to help support my own ideas, with my own words.  The strongest example of this is most likely my causal rewrite, in which I weave the philosophy of Southern Baptists and the words of a Rabbi into my own ideas, drawing conclusions that support my thesis from existing parallel philosophies.  Examining the words of certain Jewish individuals helped me to understand the opposing argument, and then explain it away.

Goal 3: I wrote with a clear purpose in mind, while considering as broad an audience as possible.

While writing my paper, I considered my final goal of convincing my audience that my thesis was in fact correct.  This was couples with my goal of amusing my audience with scattered satire, which gradually decreased in concentration as I became more focused on my primary goal.  Furthermore, I wrote with hopes that my paper could be read by anyone, and that any given individual (except perhaps an angry Jew) might be convinced by my research and my writing.  This is best shown in perhaps any of my portfolio arguments, with the possible exception of my definition rewrite, as it is rather strongly worded and may seem aggressive when taken out of context.  Throughout my research, I kept my goals in mind, and did my best to accomplish them.

Goal 4: I used my literacy skills to find information, then use that information to my advantage.

Having the literary equivalent of raw mathematical data is all very well and good, but it is only a starting point.  After performing my research, I synthesized the information that I had collected to support my thesis.  This can best be seen in my rebuttal rewrite, in which I used various facts about the Mormon’s baptisms for the dead to refute the argument that these baptisms are harmful.  In this same essay, I used the words of a Rabbi to argue that the only issue at hand is a misunderstanding.  The information itself was found with my knowledge of research tools, and I did not make a single claim that was not backed by some sort of evidence.

Goal 5: My writing tells the truth, gives credit where credit is due, and is respectful.

There is a fine line between good writing and deceit.  While my writing may contain rather stern-sounding criticisms of certain Jewish practices, it does not resort to name calling, and it does not imply that the Jewish faith is any more or less valid than the Mormon faith.  Furthermore, my writing only states what it can demonstrate to be true by either tangible or theoretical evidence.  It does not make a claims out of nowhere or deliberately make claims that are shown to be false.  This is seen in my definition rewrite, in which I strongly, but respectfully, claim that a certain Jewish practice is harmful.  This claim, however, is backed by concrete evidence, and this evidence is properly cited—obviously, I did not know everything about my topic when I began to write, and still do not.  My writing avoids plagiarism, and is altogether ethical.  This can be seen in any of my essays.

Core Value I. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

Throughout Comp II, I realized there is not just one draft. There’s more than that. In my other comp classes, I would only do one or two drafts, however, in this class, there are more than that. I learned that there is always improvement if I take in other points of views and opinions. For my research paper, I realized the other side is equally right. My professor taught me to think about different points of views in their shoes. Create arguments for the other side, and this helped me significantly because now I know what to address in my research paper.

Core Value II. My work demonstrates that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities. 

I’ve used many articles as sources; however, not all articles I found are going to be used. Throughout the semester, I realized what articles I should and should not use. All articles are really informative and give me different views in various subjects. Using google scholar was not new to me, but professors never really recommended it until this semester. I’ve learned to look beneath the surface material while reading. I always questioning myself if there is another meaning to what I’m reading. These are the little things Comp II taught me. There is never just one answer or one side. There’s always another answer that someone views as “correct”.

Core Value III. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

I never really researched the other side before. When I believe in something, I usually find evidence for my opinion only. However, this semester taught me how to analyze other people’s work and other text in order to find a new argument. One that will strengthen my own work. I worked on visuals regarding to the Visual assignment. I analyzed every detail of the video. Now when I go out to places, I tend to find myself analyzing every single detail of whatever I’m looking at.

Core Value IV: 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.

Throughout my work, I realized that I would spend more and more time editing and thinking of new ideas. I shredded my draft several times before submitting a brand new Essay. When I’m researching a topic, I do not stick with one or two sources. I would find more and pick some main points that will support my claims and ideas.

Core Value V. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation. 

Citations are always important. In every single paper, where another person’s ideas are restated or quoted, there should be a citation. Always respects a person’s claims. People should never plagiarize another author’s work. At the end of my essays there is always a work cited page where the reader can click on to see the articles I used and got the information from.

Core Value I. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

I believe that throughout the course of the semester I have used practices that helped me improve all aspects of writing. The feedback, for example, that Professor Hodges offered on the Stone Money essay assignment was the first time I’d ever received criticism that tore my writing apart. That essay I wrote was really bad, and I only know that because I was forced to open my eyes more and focus on ways to fix it. The feedback provided on that essay, as well as the rest of my work, helped me think of ideas from a different perspective, which enabled me to form to concepts and ideas. Being able to read other feedback provided on other students’ work, and seeing how they improved from that also enabled me to improve. Seeing other people change or advance their ideas was influential in advancing my own work.

Core Value II. My work demonstrates that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities.

I’ve learned that creating a discussion of information found from different texts is an important aspect to prove an argument. In my rebuttal argument, for example, I compared two stories of women who were raped and forced to suffer legal consequences after reporting their trauma. The comparison of the two allowed me to further prove my argument that the legal system can often be unfair and many people suffer from the unfairness in place. In addition, I used an unconventional source in my causal argument to prove my point. Instead of a print text, I found a visual text. The visual was a monologue about a young boy’s experience of rape, performed by an actor. This source is important because it represented a different point of view of sexual assault and rape culture that needs to be addressed so badly. So, I benefitted from the uniqueness by having it help prove my argument.

Core Value III. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

I have analyzed and dissected my work to reflect my purposes of writing. All of the rewriting of the different arguments for the research paper assignment shows this. I am very passionate about discussing rape culture and achieving improvements in the way sexual assault is handled and discussed, so writing the definition, causal and rebuttal arguments has been enjoyable. I get to explain my own ideas and find evidence to prove that I am right. Something that I have learned to be more conscious of is the audience of my work. My writing is often tailored for people like me to read and understand, which is not really acceptable. The feedback provided on my first drafts of my definition, causal and rebuttal arguments explained that in order for my points to be solidly accepted, I must either find specific examples of evidence or explain my concepts thoroughly. I have attempted to do so in my argument rewrites.

Core Value IV: 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.

The role of literacy in writing is essential. Illustrations and evidence are the only things needed to prove a writer’s concepts. Without sources, there is no essay. In total, I have eleven sources. Each source has proven to be a huge contributor to furthering my ideas, no matter how long they are or what type of source they are from. My sources have also allowed me to expand my ideas by seeing things from a different perspective. The aforementioned monologue is something I would have never considered to use as a source in an essay; I would have normally just shared the link on Facebook. However, listening to the meaningful words spoken influenced me to consult Professor Hodges for approval. Using this seemingly unconventional source made me reevaluate my personal beliefs, which then made me develop clearer concepts that influenced by writing.

Core Value V. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation.

Academic honesty must be implemented in order for a piece of writing to be accepted. As students, we have been taught to be honest and responsible throughout our career in school. I think I have clearly upheld the honesty and responsibility in my rebuttal argument. I immediately begin the argument by discussing the fact that there are indeed falsely reported rapes. I could have ignored this fact by not mentioning the statistic and could have proved my point that people in authority are discriminatory for no reason, but that would not have been honest of me. Instead, I address the fact, mentioning that it is an unfortunate reality. I then continue on in the argument to highlight the repercussions met by those who take this fact too seriously and ignore the truth. In addition, I portray ethical responsibility throughout my definition and causal arguments by referring to the sources each story came from.

Core Value I. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

Throughout the semester in Composition II, I have learned to validate persistence and understanding in structuring my ideas and writing. Reading and composing processes is one of the ways I comprehend; it allows me to discover and explore ideas. I learned that writing is a multistage process that takes time and reconstruction. I have learned to construct my essays in small steps with revising so it can be perfected and free of error. You can distinguish between local and global revision as a reader and a writer. I am able to revise and be critiqued on my essays in the revision process. I learn from my mistakes that I make in my essays throughout the revision process by my professor. Core value I has taught me to always ask for revisions on my essays. The best example of this is my visual.

Core Value II. My work demonstrates that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities. 

After applying core value II to my work, I understand that texts create meaning and critical analysis. Using core value II helped me explore an issue or question brought up and effectively analyze, challenge, and apply my own perspective to the topic. This is best shown in my stone money paper. I have learned to read a text through the eyes of the writer and to identify the tools and strategies that the author is using in the text, just as a musician can listen to music with a musical ear. 

Core Value III. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

Core value III taught me about the importance of audience, purpose and context. These three mechanisms are vital when writing an essay. This core value has taught me to identify my audience and purpose of writing before beginning to construct my writing. This helps make it clear to the reader what my claim is and helps them relate or comprehend my point of view. This goal is shown in my white paper. When writing, I now know to put myself in the position of the reader by making my writing decisions based off of their opinions. This core value also explains the importance of grammatical and mechanical correctness, which takes multiple edits and revisions before the essay is up to standards with the expectations of college level writing.

Core Value IV: 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 IV helped me stress the importance of supporting my ideas through sources and evidence. When writing, I can now come up with support for my ideas through personal experience, observations, and analogies and not simply based off of opinion. The best example of this is my proposal. When finding research, I usually put it in my own words and try to make my point as clear as possible to minimize confusion among my readers. It is important to create your own ideas and not plagiarize. Core value IV taught me to properly include support from sources in my work and use it effectively to back up my ideas.

Core Value V. 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 V taught me to understand the ethical dimensions of writing. Practicing this core value helped me  to learn to listen and understand the opinions of others on a topic and to compare them with my own ideas when writing. By keeping an open mind to the views of others, I can now use their opinion to better shape my own writing when analyzing a topic.This is best shown in my casual rewrite. This core value also taught me to look at both sides of a controversial topic in order to better understand it. Core value V teaches to properly credit a source used in a student’s work, which can be done through a properly formatted work cited. I now understand that instead of basing my ideas off of my own opinion, I should consider the opinions and views of others in order to better shape my own ideas.

Core Value I. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

In order to get the best out of your writing you must express variety throughout the writing process. Including repeating the editing steps and developing your writing into the best it can be. I already had an idea of this process but Professor Hodges helped open new doors in my mind on how to expand my writing. A good example of how effective this process can be is my own Stone Money Rewrite. In just one rewrite, the second draft of my Stone Money essay was significantly better. I utilized all of the useful practices provided to myself and you can notice the results. In a normal essay I would reread and rewrite an essay many times before I come to my final product. Using these recursive stages to get a polished draft.

Core Value II. My work demonstrates that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities. 

No matter what you write about, there are generally two sides to every claim. Early in my writing career I have been told to look at the other side of my argument. Sometimes I would realize that the other side is correct or possibly that my argument was stronger than anticipated. Professor Hodges taught me that any given sentence could be an argument. Meaning there could always be another counterpart involved. A good example of this in my own writing is my Rebuttal Argument. My claim is that multivitamins are useless and sometimes even harmful. I recognize that vitamins may be very convenient, so I started with that fact. Then I went on with my point of view and continued to reinforce my claim.

Core Value III. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

In my opinion analyzing the purpose, audience, and contexts of my writing is among the most important things to do. You obviously need to have a purpose for writing, and once you figure that out it is important to find out who the audience is to figure out how to word your context. A good example of myself analyzing these factors is my Definition Argument. My purpose is to inform people about the disadvantages of multivitamins. My audience would be adults who care about their and their children’s well being. I need to be intelligent and formal while writing to such an audience because they will not take anything seriously if it isn’t.

Core Value IV: 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 have always known in order to have a good essay you must have reliable, and essential evidence to support my ideas. Many other classes I have taken had given me most of my sources. Professor Hodges had us on our own to find all of our sources. An example where I found an essential source is my Casual Rewrite. I only used one source, intending to add more, but the one source was so reliable I was able to finish the argument with just one source. It was great practice for when I have to find evidence on my own again. This course gave me great confidence in myself for when I have to find sources anytime in the future.

Core Value V. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation. 

Another essential aspect of writing is citing sources. No fictional essay would be possible if there were no sources, and you must give credit where it is due. This course has reiterated to me how important it is to accurately cite your sources. A great example of this is my Annotated Bibliography, where I cited all sources used in my portfolio work. Notice everything is correctly cited and there is even a brief paragraph of what the article is and how I used it.