Reflective Statement

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.

With technology taking over the writing practice, it is now easier than ever to apply social and interactive practices to my writing. Throughout the semester, all of my writing was conducted on a blog providing instant availability to not only my professor, but to my class as a whole. With instant access to everyones anonymous work, I was able to take advantage of not only the feedback provided to me but the feedback provided to anyone who submitted an assignment. Overflowing with feed back, I found myself going back and editing substantially more than I ever imagined. This recursive process of development was most prominent on my first piece of work of the semester, Stone Money. This work needed more revisions than any other piece simply because this was my first essay of the semester which I wrote lacking some key writing skills. This was easily corrected though, with the mountains of feedback and unique in class lessons that were always at my fingertips.

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 reflect my new found ability to synthesize individual ideas into one elaborate argument through my research proposal. This paper was written over the course of the entire semester and nearly nothing that I originally started with remains; yet through the lessons learned and constant revisions, I was able to combine 3 unique papers into 1 effective claim. Each individual argument took its own stance, yet together, they spoke as one. This provided my readers with a unique balance of research and rebuttal in which they were left to form their own accurate opinion about what the military looks for in its recruits. I am fortunate enough to have firsthand experience with the military allowing me to easily paint the picture for my audience. This added touch allowed my papers to communicate with each other giving me a piece of work that I could not be more proud of.

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.

My visual rhetoric provided me with an awesome opportunity to literally rhetorically analyze a commercial without hearing the message they were trying to portray. Through analyzing the video frame by frame, I was able to come to a conclusion about the overall message of the video. To do this, I picked apart every scene to gather as much information about the message as possible. Attention to detail was crucial here in that if I missed one small aspect, I could completely miss the whole point of the video. The lesson in this piece of work was interesting because I learned how important every detail is to the audience of a video, and therefor a reader.

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.

While trying to find sources to back up a proposal that hasn’t been talked about all that much, I found difficulty. My issue was not the lack of sources available to me, but instead, being trapped and incapable of thinking outside the box. My escape to freedom didn’t come with a topic change, it came from a random Facebook post from someone complaining about how difficult it was for them to be accepted into medical school. While medical school is very different from the military, they have similarities, one of them being the high attrition rate. Sources were scarce relating to the military but were abundant when it came to medical school and by relating the correlation between the two, my proposal came together easily. Access to any academic source can provide a great advantage to a paper, even when not directly speaking about the topic at hand. For this reason, my bibliography is filled with sources that have nothing to do with the military, yet clarify my point more than experience ever could.

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. 

Respect is due where it is earned. This common phase is passed around the military like none other and goes well with the writing community. Providing a source proper credit is crucial in the effectiveness of the argument being made. If lacking, the argument could be delegitimized resulting in a loss of trust between the author and the audience. Though my citations were a bit shaky in the beginning, I was quick to change any bad habits I had throughout the semester. Citations are crucial and even work to the advantage of the  author. Citing legitimate academic writers throughout my research proposal gave my paper an edge. Along with that, I avoided any skewed data that could mislead my readers. I provided all of the information available to me to my readers to that they could form their own appropriate opinion about the subject at hand.