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.

From the beginning of the semester, I wasn’t able to identify my purpose of what to write about my 3000-word research essay until I found an idea as time went on. I was in the dark until I discovered my definitive argument by seeking guidance from my professor through Zoom meetings and gaining feedback from the people at my workplace. I was relieved that my first definitive topic about caffeine being a psychological drug was superior to my second topic about online and traditional classes. I used my chance to implement this course for my other assignment in a different class where I had to gather interviews from people to gain feedback on the project based on what my team and I were working on.

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. 

I believe that I have obtained the goals of critically reading, and analyzing other people’s work to fully understand where their argument stands. I admired the method of acknowledging your “enemies”, and settling a dispute where you would have to stand firm and strong to your argument. The idea of noticing your “enemies” will be part of my routine thinking since there will always be two sides that will clash with each other. I’ve used real-life examples for my rebuttal rewrite like the pandemic of COVID-19 where their opinions about using caffeine can act like a chemical drug when my argument is that caffeine is psychological. Another example is how I can confirm that there is more than one author who shares the same idea of caffeine being a physical drug so that I’m not trashing or curbstomping just one person.

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

I had experienced analyzing the purpose, audience, and context before my visual rewrite which I was looking forward to doing the assignment. Before this assignment, I took the rudiments of art class where I was assigned to identify the meaning and purpose of why the artist chooses a specific color or why a certain object is in the frame. By doing the visual rewrite exercise, I felt that this assignment enhanced my analysis skills on a video that I’ve selected. I analyze the video in as much detail as possible by pointing out the smallest things that could make a huge difference. In the first paragraph of my visual rewrite, I identified the use of color and the theme that the director was going for to shift our focus onto the subject that is in front of us.

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.

I met this goal by searching for sources related to my argument and comparing my sources to verify that their reports align with each other. I’ve checked their references to further dive into their own sources to see if their claims aren’t made-up or fake for my bibliography. I even studied and gained background information from my sources to fully understand what I wanted to inform my readers by sharing my knowledge on what I have found. I specifically studied caffeine effects, heroin, drug addiction, and drug abuse to give myself a firm idea for my argument that my findings aren’t all bluff, or fake and the sources are verified and are credible to my cause. Without these sources, I wouldn’t validate or explain my ideas to my readers without solid proof to support my argument.

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. 

In my research essay, I demonstrate my ethical responsibility of giving credit to my sources by acknowledging their studies for their theories through their test results. I made sure I didn’t fully take credit for the information I gained from my sources by stating that I solely got the information myself. I paraphrase and cite my sources by acknowledging that I have used certain words from my articles that I intend to share with my readers. I genuinely try to formulate my own words and knowledge from articles that act as a guideline for what I want my readers to know about my personal, supporting, and opposing arguments. It was a difficult task to find enemies that opposed my argument, but a simple conversation with people can help me get a reaction of how I feel, and be mindful of their opinion to that subject.