As the future ever-presses-on as intensely as possible, the realization that nothing is ever going to be an easy break and life proceeds to only be more difficult; those with the mistiest of eyes look fondly on the past, longing for the simpler times when life had the “anything goes” mentality and the intensity of the modern age had not yet begun.

I am not one of those people, and my eyes are not misty.

Challenges to overcome are possibly the most fun that can be had in just about any situation.  There might not be anything as thrilling as a due date looming just hours away with only a paragraph completed; the rush sets in, the brain starts to pump engines, and the exhilaration of creative spark commences.  Lord knows, College Composition II was a challenge.  There was no “growing pains” period; I was sitting above a dunk tank with a shark in the water, and Professor Hodges was certainly prepared to through the pitch.  Luckily, this tank proved to be fairly roomy, and buoys in the shape of Core Values and guidelines to grab onto made avoiding the shark all the easier.  The threat still loomed, but was much easier to avoid.

These Core Values are nothing new to me and have been incorporated into my writing in the past; each one has a specific in place in practically all of my work.  Value III, for example, states that a paper needs to “Understand how texts represent meaning and how the processes of writing and reading create and interpret meaning.”  In my Visual Argument, I chose to interpret a video made by the Ad Council, which discussed arthritis being a threat to the people of America.  While I made the decision to display the Ad in an illustrated, and sarcastic, manner, the content understood the message being described in its essence.  The Council was attempting to make the point that arthritis is a very serious issue and needed to be just as prevalent as any war.  While my illustration was exaggerated, it drove home the ideals that America is a strong, imperialistic nation who handles her matters like men through the flag Presidential Address.  A unique perspective on a common understanding, certainly.

Factual evidence is just as important as any perspective interpretation, though.  Core Value V, or “Understand[ing] the role and use of information in writing,” is always a crucial element of any piece of writing; opinion pieces may work well in newspapers and art, but in a document reporting or persuading based in facts, facts technically need to be present.  The Rebuttal Argument essay demonstrated this in spades; when information on my topic of Marvel Comics suing its own artists for copyright infringement, there was a real drought of hard evidence of its wrongdoing.  Suddenly, when the search for facts intensified, a savior presented itself in extra details of the court trial Marvel v. Friedrich; the article provided additional information in that the ruling, in favor of Marvel, resulted in Friedrich paying out $17,000 that he did not have as well as losing the ability to boast himself as the creator of the character Ghost Rider.  This was just enough to slander Marvel in a light it had shone on itself; there was no “faulty” or “opinion” information, strictly the creative use of information to better my own perspective.

Lastly, Core Value VII is both the most important, and my personal favorite.  I am a true fan of the concept of power; I study it in all its definitions, adore its diverse portrayal in media outlets of what I am a fan, and tend to exemplify it in my own personal manner.  VII states that a writer needs to “Understand the power and ethical responsibility that comes with the creation of written discourse.”  Now, surely this is common sense.  Writing is never just to the pleasure of the author; the entire reason authors write in the first place is for possessing a large enough ego to believe that people actually care about what they have to say.  This is a concept of power in itself; ego is necessary for launching any sort of idea into physical being.  The difference is having the knowledge of using that power to convert audiences to an author’s will.  While all of my papers have my personal charm of strong outward bias and opinion, my Research Position paper is the major influence of my thought process here.  The entire paper outlined a power struggle between Marvel’s corporate and legal departments against its creators, in an attempt to make my devoted readers understand that Marvel took the role of a villain they might have written by those very employees facing legal action.  To better this, it became my objective to paint a clear picture that Marvel was taking the role of a logo more than people, unemotional and vile.  Luckily, the information that presented itself in my cited sources was enough to use my speech format to provide a persuasive enough standpoint to do exactly what I intended.  Of course, as for responsibility, I relied solely on facts and creative language; it was rather fortunate that Marvel made themselves look enough like a “bad guy” that all I was required to do was string it all together.  Hopefully I was enough of the hero I see myself as.  Comp II surely has given my the tools to be, now it is up to me to understand how to use them, and use them in ways better than others.

Reflecting on the Core Values

Over the course of this semester, I believe that I have grown significantly as a writer. Near the beginning of the semester I was using bad grammar, writing unclearly, and leaving unfinished ideas. However, with the help of my professor I was able to greatly improve my writing skills, as well as my critical thinking skills. Throughout my work, I strongly believe that I have met the three core values for this course.

Core Value III is the ability to understand and interpret the meanings of texts. Throughout the course of the semester I have had to read texts written by other people, and be able to interpret what the author was trying to say so I could work the material into my own papers. When doing this I had to correctly interpret what the author was attempting to say in order to give them the full credit they deserve while working their ideas to my paper. Since I was able to understand and interpret what the author was saying, I was able to form solid and logical rebuttals. This is a crucial step in the writing process because it can become very easy to present a weak argument since the source material is not fully understood.

Core Value V is to be able to understand the role and use of information in writing. Information is key in writing a solid paper. Without strong information to back up what someone is writing about, the paper will end up being weak. Academic sources are strong sources of information and are necessary when writing a paper. The writer also must be sure that they are presenting truthful information to whoever may be reading. Also, if the information is false then a writer may lose the trust of his readers.

Core Value VII is to be able to understand the ethical responsibility that comes with written discourse. Accomplishing this goal was not as much of a challenge for me compared to Core Values III and VI. To accomplish this goal I made sure that any outside material that I used in my essays was properly quoted, had an in-text citation, and was listed in the works cited. This was crucial in the Research Position Paper, and also in the smaller papers, since it was required to have a significant number of sources. It is very important not to plagiarize considering that it can lead to automatic failure.

This class has taught me things that will not only help me in future classes, but it has also taught me values that I will go on to use out of college.

Core Values, Schmore Schmalues

(Cutting the Crap and Getting Down to Brass Tacks)

Core Value III. Understand how texts represent meaning and how the

processes of writing and reading create and interpret meaning.

Students learn to appreciate that writing—their own and others’—is a process that creates, shapes, and conveys meaning. They learn that texts present meanings in different ways in different settings, including disciplinary ones.

–       How exactly is it that texts represent meaning? I could write a whole page full of text that is absolutely meaningless. How the processes of writing and reading create and interpret meaning, I have no idea. Through  these processes, writers and readers may proclaim and interpret ideas, but neither the processes nor the people create meaning. The idea of the writing process creating meaning implies that the topic was totally meaningless until it was written about, and that it is not the writer’s. If there is anything to write about a given topic, it must already have meaning. The writer can express his ideas and opinions, and inferences about the meaning of the content, but he cannot create meaning, which is why our professor chose meaningful topics. The last sentence of this core value is disgustingly awkward and open for misinterpretation. It could mean we learn that different texts present the same ideas in different ways but never in the same setting, or it could mean that every text presents its meaning in different ways depending on the setting, or maybe it means that each text presents multiple meanings, but each in a different way within a setting that is different from that way. They also fail to clearly communicate whether it is the setting, the the way it is presented, or the text itself that may be disciplinary.

Core Value V. Understand the role and use of information in writing.

Students should become aware of the status of various kinds of individual knowledge, including experiences, perceptions, and opinions, as information, and understand the ways in which individual knowledge is the starting point of who students are as writers. They should begin to expand the ways in which they construct their knowledge and identity to engage with external sources of information. They should develop an understanding of how external sources of information connect with and affect their individual knowledge. The kinds of external knowledge that students are encouraged to work with should include both those that allow them to most readily form these connections and relationships to their individual knowledge base and those that develop, challenge or even disrupt their individual knowledge base.

–       I believe I have found Captain Obvious, and he is writing Comp II core values. I’m not sure how a person could possibly get this far in his life without the ability to recognize individual knowledge as information. All that this first sentence really says is that every person has a unique personality and viewpoint. Writing is nothing more than information arranged in a logical progression, and learning is nothing more than expanding individual knowledge through external sources. This core value is really just a big fat wordy failed attempt to explain something that we have all understood and practiced for years, and all humans do naturally- learn.

Core Value VII. Understand the power and ethical responsibility that come

with the creation of written discourse.

Students become aware that writing is an outer-directed, meaning-making activity with personal,public, and social ramifications; that writing, is in essence, an ongoing conversation with their and others’ ideas and writing. As such, students develop the ability to conscientiously engage in topics to understand their complexity and ramifications to others and, to thus, engage in meaningful discussion.

–       Captain Obvious returns! Any kid who has ever been punished for saying or writing something inappropriate understands the “responsibility that comes with the creation of written discourse.” Just as we learned as children to watch what we say, we must choose our written words even more wisely to insure that our writing is clear and appropriate for its intended audience and context. I think this core value may have been stolen from my sixth grade English syllabus, then filled with big words to make it seem more important. The ridiculous prospect from core value I that the act of writing itself creates meaning is restated here in a massively awkward run-on sentence, accompanied by the blatantly obvious assertion that writing is “outer-directed.” Writing is not always a conversation, sometimes it is just a story or emotional expression, as in fiction or poetry. Argument writing is always part of an ongoing discussion, but if that’s what they meant they should have specified. The last sentence here claims that we should develop the ability to conscientiously engage in topics for the purpose of understanding that they are complex and what they mean to others, but makes no mention of expressing our own claims or opinions.

Upon return from my voyage into the dark shadowy realm of ambiguity and glorified proclamations of the obvious that is the CC2 guide, I came to reflect on my actual progress this semester. The concept of counterintuitive topics is a brilliant way to stir up controversy, argument, and the deep thinking that ensues. My efforts to analyze and understand every facet of such complex issues felt like a workout for my brain. I exercised my critical skills by interpreting and misinterpreting each claim made in the course reading material and I learned to test claims for clarity by misinterpreting them. I then turned this critique on my own writing to insure that my own claims are clear and concise. I’m still working on  adjusting my tone to sound more academic and less like a ranting blogger, which is a challenge to my opinionated nature. Through making and analyzing compelling arguments, I learned how to make quotes mean what I want them to mean and how to successfully and respectfully demolish and incorporate into my own argument even the best rebuttals of my stance. Best of all, I have greatly improved my ability to instantly recognize unclear, ambiguous, wordy writing and check my own writing for such symptoms.

As Composition II reaches the end of the semester, a reflection on the lessons that it has taught us is in order. While Composition I incorporated all seven of Rowan’s core values for the first year writing program, Composition II placed much more focus on three core values in specific that are related more closely to the research process in writing.

The first core value to be addressed – Core Value III – calls for students to “understand how texts represent meaning and how the processes of writing and reading create and interpret meaning.” This core value is probably best executed in my Definition Essay. In the essay, I wrote about how the belief that employers or law enforcement officials being able to see our Facebook pages is an invasion of privacy is entirely dependent on what is truly considered an “invasion” of privacy. While on the surface it seems obvious to say that unintended audiences viewing our profiles is a complete intrusion into our private lives, I offered the suggestion that perhaps the invasion is more of a tool for our benefit than it is for our demise. I explained how companies are able to better target advertising to our specific interests by tracking our Facebook activity; I also exposed the way that the British government is using a national data collecting system that invades the privacy of British citizens’ lives, yet is being used as a force for protection and national security. Both of these points place the concept of privacy into a much broader category, interpreting its meaning in a way that is different from what is obvious on the surface. Through my research, I was able to “create and interpret meaning” of what is truly considered an invasion of privacy.

The second core value – Core Value V – says that we must learn to “understand the role and use of information in writing.” This value was most crucial for the final research position paper mostly because of the lengthiness of it. I used a total of ten cited sources in my final paper, which was a lot of material to sort through to find what pieces of them would work best in my paper. Without an understanding of the “role” of information in my writing, I would have never been able to construct a meaningful 3,000 word essay that successfully utilized the research I found. Understanding the proper use of any information and incorporating it into an essay is probably the most crucial lesson to learn for writing in college.

The last core value – Core Value VII – is to “understand the power and ethical responsibility that comes with the creation of written discourse.” This value was also probably best highlighted in my research position paper, again because of the length of it. In all the shorter argument papers, I only discussed individual aspects of the larger focus that my entire research paper was about. In the complete paper, I was able to deliver a more substantial argument, giving much more background information and incorporating all aspects of the topic into one longer paper. I used the power of related factual information to responsibly report on a current issue.

All seven of the core values were inevitably used throughout the course of the class. But these three values were the most essential for building arguments and fulfilling extensive research. Taking Composition I and II has undoubtedly made all of us better writers, and we are now well equipped to be successful in the remainder of our college endeavors.

Before comp 2, I was not a very good writer by any means but my time with Professor Hodges has drastically improved my understanding of many essential goals needed to achieved during writing, the significance of credible writing, and also the importance of counterintuitive thinking. His use of focus, logic, reasoning along with interesting and controversial topics, and also a easily used and accessible online blog have drastically improved my understanding of these important core values.

 Core Value III. Understand how texts represent meaning and how the processes of writing and reading create and interpret meaning.

Comp 2 has helped me improve my ability to analyze and evaluate multiple types of persuasive writing and pull out the effective elements of argumentation and research quality evidence. We looked at visual arguments from Ad council and we were taught important skills on how to acquire specific arguments from something like a short video that doesn’t actually just come forward state the argument they present. We had to observe the setting, characters, and actions presented by the characters to come to an understanding of the argument. Another important skill learned is the most effective ways of evaluating a published text, obtaining evidence of research quality, and also explore the complex issue and create our own point of view and expand on their discussion. I feel I show I have accomplished these things best in my rebuttal argument where I took a debate between Richard Branson and Ian Blair over the decriminalization of drugs. I took both sides of the debate and picked out the main points and actually combined the two into my own argument creating my own original perspective and expanding on the subject with my own knowledge acquired from other texts. Even though I am for the side of decriminalization of drugs I was able to use the opposing sides information to show the oppositions view and even use certain ideas brought up to prove my own points.

 Core Value V. Understand the role and use of information in writing.

         Understanding this value helps you overcome the emotional and opinion parts of an argument to define the strictly informational aspects of the text. This is very important because a well-placed piece of info like a statistic can help change unimportant or uninteresting claims into a strong fact with the ability to change the mind and effectively persuade readers. I believe I showed this best in my research paper where I stated how the American Drug Commission had examined the drug war considered it a fail and were looking at place like Portugal (where drugs are decriminalized) for ideas. I turned this semi-bland observation into an important fact by providing the statistics related to Portugal’s drug use since decriminalization “Heroin use among 16- to 18-year-olds fell from 2.5% to 1.8%. New HIV infections fell by 17% between 1999 and 2003. Deaths related to heroin and similar drugs were cut by half.” Most people have some connection to drugs and drug addiction or at least realize heroin and HIV are terrible things and showing that they can possible be reduced is a good way to get readers on my side.

 Core Value VII. Understand the power and ethical responsibility that come with the creation of written discourse.

         This value deals with not giving false information or claims and being specific in citing and using credible sources so there are no discrepancies in a piece. All semester long this was a big point I could tell professor Hodges wanted to get across. We were asked to use all types of sources from videos, advertisements and different sorts of texts. We were taught to use recourses like Academic Premier as to make sure the information we received was un-bias and definitely credible. I believe my research paper shows best that when asked to correctly cite sources in my works, create detailed bibliographies and also include easily accessible links to my sources of choice I can provide ample evidence, and credibility. All Used to make sure the reader knows the information used is ethically responsible and correct.

New Experiences Create New Skills

As College Composition 2 comes to a close I realize how I have grown throughout this year. I started off the year using poor grammar, not using the grammar guidelines provided to the class by Professor Hodges, and rushing through assignments just to get them done and not really becoming interested in them and really giving them my best effort. These traits that I use now are all thanks to Professor Hodges and the curriculum of College Composition 2. At first when I walked into the class room on the first day of the semester I looked and I was in a computer lab. I had no idea why and what I was going to do for a semester of English in a computer lab. The first day was a culture shock, I had never even been onto a blog before let alone was an author for one. The first month was an adjustment period for me, and after that I got very comfortable using the Counterintuitivity Blog. Along with using the Counterintuitivity Blog I also adjusted to the Core Values of this course, and by now I feel as if I have achieved the Core Values.

The first Core Value I feel I have achieved is Core Value III. I demonstrate that I can understand others’ work as well as my own and can appreciate it, also I can read something and understand someone else’s perspective of their work  and have my own perspective or rebuttal on their topic. One specific example of this would be in my portfolio in my definition essay. I created a definition essay on the “winning statistic” in baseball, and I thought that it was written very well. I asked Professor Hodges to comment on my essay to see if there was any way that I could make it better than it already was. He responded by saying that my definition of the “winning statistic” was not the clearest and that if I could get a better definition of it that would make my essay stronger, and not as confusing. I took his advice into consideration, and I also asked one of my fellow classmates to read the paragraph with the definition in it to see if they were not clear on the definition as well, and he also was unclear of what the definition meant. I then went back and took a more clear definition from a different source, and then went on to explain it in more depth as well just to make sure it was as clear as possible. This made a big difference in my essay and in my grade. Another example of this Core Value would be reading each others’ essays in class  and then commenting on them. This was a good exercise to do because it got other people’s perspective on your topic, if it caught their interest, and if it was clear to what your topic was about and if there was anything that should be changed.

I have learned to understand others’ work, but I also learned to understand information of sources into my own writing and that is Core Value V. For this Core Value I have multiple examples that I would be able to use, but the best one would probably be my research position paper. This paper was  divided into three smaller papers, but then combined into one research position paper. For each of the three parts we needed to use many different sources that would support our argument, and also refute our argument. Having a strong argument that could be defended and opposed was a good start to writing this paper, but the paper needed to have the sources to make the paper great.  Learning all the new information from each source was good, but I also had to become careful too because if you learn the same information in a couple sources some people could think that they do not have to source it now. When in reality that is how  many people get caught for plagiarism. From all the sources I learned from my research paper I now know about sabermetrics in baseball and formulas to calculate different statistics. Watching baseball is now a different experience for me than before because now I am thinking about how every pitch can affect a pitchers statistic and every hit or walk will affect  the batter’s statistic. Now that I have also used all the sources that I have used if I ever wrote a paper and were to somehow involve something on sabermetrics, statistics, or baseball I would have background knowledge on the subject and also know which sources are good to use. I also learned from my topic that all sources do not have to be written journal entries, or encyclopedias. Many of my sources were tables, diagrams, and formulas. I had trouble at first understanding some of the tables and formulas, but now I am able to use them and my knowledge has grown in multiple areas such as reading tables and dissecting formulas.

Core Value VII was the most difficult for me to accomplish, but throughout the year I felt myself getting better and better at it. This course focused a lot in my opinion on this Core Value because we were always reading different types of articles, listening to interviews, or watching short videos and then developing an opinion or argument on the topic and had to defend our self with specific examples.  There were also many discussions in class that the whole class engaged in and Professor Hodges would tell us to use specific examples from the text, audio, or video to defend our opinion, and then he would use an example to either refute or agree with us, but when he refuted people would look for even more specific examples to refute Professor Hodges.  An example that everyone had to do in this class that was closely related to Core Value VII would be the definition essay. The definition essay had to deal with picking a counterintuitive topic that you can either refute or defend, while supporting your topic with evidence in sources. This essay needed to have more facts and defending of the topic rather than opinionated views because the purpose of the essay was either refute or defend the topic at hand such as mine which was that sabermetrics is a vital point in drafting players and that it helped teams chose players that would give them a better percentage to win. I did not give my opinions on if I believe this is true or not and if I would use sabermetrics. I just defended the view that sabermetrics is a vital part in drafting players and how it would help teams win.

Overall this semester has been successful in my opinion because I believe that I have become a better writer due to this course. I also know that since I have used skills such as reading an article and writing my opinion or argument on the article and using specific examples defending my views I will be able to use this skill in the future. The skill does not only have to be used in an English class either, it can be used in a debate if I were to ever get into one, or also in any other class that I would need to defend my opinion on something. This class was taught very well by Professor Hodges also, he gave me a great environment to learn, he provided help anytime needed, and he was great at giving advice even if you did not want to hear that your paper was not up to par he would tell you and help you fix  it to ensure that you get a grade you are proud of and worked hard for. College Composition 2 is a class that I can honestly say I have learned skills I will use in the real world and not only in a classroom environment.