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.

When I started this course, I did not have much familiarity in critical writing, and one of the first lessons I learned was the importance of having clear intent before the beginning of ANY work, whether its writing or anything in life. This became very evident during the process of selecting my first proposal for my research paper. Initially, I chose the the topic of why walking benefits health, which in hindsight is clearly far too general and not counterintuitive. In an attempt to refine my focus of discussion to something else, I tried to make a connection to why walking may be superior to running, particularly in longevity. However, the process of finding sources that discussed this, combined with the lackluster topic did not help. This whole series of events taught me how to identify a topic that was interesting to me, but aligned with the professors expectations of researching something counterintuitive. I finally developed the idea of writing about weightlifting for children, which is a much more debatable topic and something of great interest to me.

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. 

Our research paper that came full circle at the end of the semester demonstrates these traits perfectly. Over the course of the semester, we wrote three, one-thousand word essays. All of different purpose, while relating to the same topic. When the research essay was finally compiled of all three essays, I found it very easy to connect the intent of each essay, with each other, to support them. One particular standout was when I connected the statistical injury rates that was stated in my definition argument into my rebuttal argument. These statistics were extremely beneficial when I had to address the immaturity issue mentioned in my rebuttal argument.

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.

A particular piece of work that I really think exhibited rhetorical analysis of my writing was the purposeful summary assignment. This was the first assignment that helped me truly understand counterintuitive writing. In my first draft of this, my writing made it clear how I personally felt about the photo. However, I did not properly draft any statements that explained why the death of Fabienne Cherisma was counterintuitive, I stated it was counterintuitive for her body to be still warm as the photo was taken, yet my actual intent was to tell the reader it was ironic she survived a natural disaster to be hit by a stray bullet. In the end I revised and revised until I realized the actual counterintuitive topic was that a photo that was serialized enough to support Haiti, was the result of polices’ failure.

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.

The visual rhetoric assignment best demonstrates this core value. The intent of this assignment was for us, the students, to evaluate the visuals of a video second by second, with no sound and explain the argument to someone without any context. In my first draft it was EXTREMELY clear I only summarized the videos illustrations without, if any, consideration for the rhetoric argument of the video. This was mostly due to a failure of reading assignment instructions and an early morning lecture, but even after reading them I struggled to find an argument to discuss. So I revised based off my professors feedback, which were extremely helpful. It was a simple answer, it was to tell the audience how these illustrations felt to me, even how negligible it may have seemed, to realize I made judgements without realizing it, but I failed to portray that to my audience. This really helped me understand how to support my ideas and interpretations of a video through writing alone.

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. 

I try my best to have data or arguments from a source that would support my argument, however there may had been neglect in my ability to do proper citation. But upon the many lectures where we discussed the proper method of citation, it benefitted me greatly. I made a strong conscientious effort to understand what the intent of the sources author was, and try to refrain from paraphrasing it. Our bibliography is the culmination of all the sources we used in the three one-thousand word essays we wrote, and then some. Because even if we didn’t quote a source but mentioned it in any writing, proper citation was given.