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.

I took advantage of the professors feedback opportunities. After writing first drafts of assignments I used the Feedback Please category and left comments to ask for what specifically I was looking for. I used the feedback that I asked for as well as what was offered outside of my requests to benefit me and improve my writing. I was able to consider outside thinking that I may not have come up with on my own. I also used the Professor Conferences when first creating a hypothesis to help brainstorm. Having the professors input and challenging of my hypothesis helped me narrow down and specify a topic that I wanted to focus on. I kept my mind open throughout the semester that everything I write has the potential to be improved. I demonstrated my responsiveness to feedback in my Definition Rewrite.

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.

I achieved this through analysis of all the journal articles I used in my short arguments. I read through the texts but also delved in deeper to analyze what other authors write and how it can help support the hypothesis I created. I made sure to express other authors thoughts in the context they were written and not manipulate them just to fit my arguments. I demonstrated this value specifically in my Rebuttal Argument. I was able to critically read about a side opposing to my thoughts and opinions and find ways I could refute it to validate my points. I had to thoughtfully consider the other side in order to fully reject it.

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.

In the Claims assignment I took a single paragraph from an article and analyzed the rhetoric. I was able to break the paragraph up by claims. I had to identify the claim based off what it seemed like the author was trying to say, deciding which type of claim was being made forced me to think about the authors intention, such as who they were trying to influence. I explained my decisions for which claim category I assigned to each sentence and what brought me to that conclusion, as well as it effectiveness in clearly portraying it. In all of my works in general I had to carefully consider what the author of any text I read was trying to say before doing anything with the text (paraphrasing, refuting, evaluating, etc.)

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.

When finding sources for my short arguments I had to distinguish between high- and low-quality articles. Not all sources that pertain to a specific topic are reliable. I had to be careful with which sources I decided to use so that I was not using weakly supported information. When I did choose sources that I decided were good, I had to read through them to find the information that would be helpful to me. This is demonstrated in my Bibliography. The background information included was the information from my sources that I found useful. Keeping everything in context, I evaluated only the parts of the articles that I would use in my arguments so that there was not useless information that could lead to confusion.

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. 

In my Research Paper I demonstrated my ethical responsibilities. I included references of all sources that I used in my paper with proper citations and links to the sources. I also used in-text citations to properly credit the paraphrasing to who and where it came from. I stayed true to the sources I was using and as previously stated represented other authors ideas in the context with which they were written. I did not just use the ideas of others but included my own in a conversational way. I reacted to the sources that I read with my thoughts that helped advance my argument. I was considerate of the information that I was using and used it to justify my points without manipulating it to be falsely presented.