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.

The ideas of core value one could be demonstrated throughout many of the assignments that were given throughout the semester. The most notable example is the research argument essay we were assigned. This is a compilation of one thousand word essays. They are broken down into three different parts, all with different ideas. Whether it be the definition, causal, or rebuttal argument, each was given a due date and then the professor would go in, read our essays, and provide us with feedback. We were then told to go back in and make revisions to our essays. Essentially, the professor made sure that our arguments were clear and more importantly, concise. These stages of revision were monitored by the professor who would offer students feedback, as requested. Overall, the entire class was based on the ideas of development and conceptualization.

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. 

In the annotated bibliography assignment that we were given, we were told that we would need multiple sources. These sources needed to be legitimate and ethical, while also supporting our claims. We needed to analyze each source and find ways to take the information in them and relate it to the point that we were trying to convey. This was first asked of us when we did our purposeful summaries. These were assigned to us with the intention of reading and analyzing different sources. We could make connections and relate them back to our main ideas and concepts that we planned on putting into our essays. Overall, this assignment definitely helped students plan out their essays and find sources that were credible and reliable. 

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.

Something that we did that demonstrated core value three was our visual rhetoric assignment. This was a task we were given to analyze a thirty second clip without sound. Here we were told to describe everything that we were seeing. We did not listen to sound, and instead had to describe what we were seeing and make assumptions of what we thought was happening. This challenged our visual capabilities. This was definitely a difficult assignment having to focus on every single bit of movement and what I presumed was the purpose behind it.  It definitely made me focus on what the purpose of the argument was. Whether I was right or not, I had to argue my case. This is similar to the concept of the white paper. You have to write from the context of someone who knows close to, if not nothing about the topic. So, you have to make sure that you explain things thoroughly, while still being concise.  

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 became prevalent in both the visual rhetoric assignment as well. The visual rhetoric assignment supported the ideas of incorporating illustrations and evidence into my own ideas. I had to describe what it was that I was seeing and make assumptions on nothing but the visual aspect of a clip. I also did this in my persuasive essay. Since my main focus was on sports equipment, I would often have to give visual descriptions of specific equipment that I was referring to, or I would have to go into detail on the types of materials that were used. This way, the reader is able to get a better understanding of what it is that I am describing. 

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 five was demonstrated in multiple assignments throughout the semester. In the definition argument, we had to research complex scholarly articles. We would then need to take the information that we gathered and develop ideas that did not copy, but instead provoked the ideas from the scholars. In our rebuttal, we needed to develop complex ideas that people could use against our argument, and eliminate the possibility of them using that as a counter argument for the point we were trying to convey. While our professor left us to work and develop ideas on our own, he often provoked thoughts that we could use to elaborate on, or spark new ideas to support our claims. Overall, finding these sources allowed us to have support for our claims and promote thinking from both the reader and writer.