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 met this first core value throughout the semester in all of my papers because I was able to make rough drafts, revise, edit, and improve my writings based on feedback that I was given. I took that feedback into consideration and continued my research and writing until I had the best version possible. I learned that the first draft of any paper that you will write will be far from perfect and will always need some sort of improvement, no matter how well you think you have written it. An example would be in my Rebuttal Argument because I misunderstood the prompt and wrote a whole first draft using the wrong format. After receiving feedback and clear instructions I was able to go back and fix my mistake and make a better argument. It was still not perfect so I revised it multiple times and continued my research for it to make it the best version I could.

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. 

For the second core value I was able to demonstrate it in my writings by reading and synthesizing tons of sources ranging from articles, movies, newspapers, and databases. I learned how to take meaningful value out of what I was reading and made sure to incorporate the important information in my papers. For my Definition Argument I had to read various articles on the background and history of whales and I had to decipher which information was important by synthesizing ideas from various sources and then combining the information that had the most meaning into conversations in my paper. I looked at various sources ranging from articles that agreed with my thoughts to articles that disagreed with my thoughts and they were both very helpful to read.

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.

For the third core value I was able to demonstrate this by keeping my audience in mind when I wrote my papers and by making sure what I was saying was in an appropriate context for my readers. I also made sure to use the sources that best suited my audience so that the readers could relate more. I made sure to use proper word choice and style that would make it easy for my readers to understand the points that I was trying to make. In my Visual Rhetoric I wrote my descriptions of what I was seeing in full details to make sure my reader would be able to get a picture in their mind without having to see or hear what I was watching. I made sure to chose my words carefully and to use a lot of imagery to allow my audience to see what I was seeing. I made sure to include the smallest of details because they could be important for my reader to know to be able to fully understand the visual.

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.

In order to demonstrate core value four you have to research your topic and find articles that are valuable to your argument. This means that you have to learn the importance of evidence to support your own ideas and interpretations of the texts that you analyze. You have to be able to locate, evaluate, select, and incorporate appropriate information from the texts to be able to develop a paper that will have good information from reputable sources. In my Causal Argument I was able to read a variety of sources and incorporate them in my paper through quotes and summaries of the articles by giving credit to the author. I was also able to develop my own opinions on what I was reading and use that as well throughout my paper.

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. 

For the fifth core value I was able to understand that writing includes gathering information and reading material from other sources. You have to be able to represent the ideas from sources through citation and academic honesty. When you want to incorporate something that is not your own words you have to credit the author through a proper citation. To demonstrate this I was able to recognize and justify my own point of view by writing my own thoughts and then citing the thoughts of someone else through a quote and a citation in the works cited page By doing this you have to ethically include credit for the words of the sources that you are citing. I was able to demonstrate this core value in my Research Argument by including a works cited page at the end that listed all of the sources I used information from. I also included various quotes throughout my paper by giving credit to the author and the article by introducing what I was going to quote.