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 course, Professor Hodges made it clear that receiving and giving feedback was an essential cycle for this class. The continuous cycle of feedback throughout the semester has helped me to develop skills that bettered my writing. I have always had trouble writing and putting my thoughts on paper in a way that was effective and concise. Mr.Hodges has helped me a lot by giving me feedback on how to organize my thoughts so that they were better presented and flowed smoothly. The feedback he had given me on my Editorial is a perfect demonstration of the way I practiced the recursive stage of writing. The feedback was blunt and told me exactly how I could rectify the errors of repetition I made in my writing. Because of the cycle of feedback I received and my new approach to writing, I was able to sound more logical and persuasive in my argument.

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. 

Composition I taught me how to read and analyze texts in a different manner than I did before. One of the lectures we had in class, demonstrated how there are different ways to approach writing. We learned about something called the “Bottleneck” method which is a very common way of writing. The author starts off with a broad concept and then narrows down their thoughts until they get to their main point. After that lecture, I realized that I have been using the same method when I write. Since then, I read every piece of text critically to see what their form of writing was. I practiced this a lot when writing my Op-Ed. For our Op-Ed we had to gather sources and read them critically to see if we found them compelling. In my Op-Ed, I had sources from various communities such as the Australian and British government which I then compared to find similar ideas. Using those source, I was able to create a persuasive argument that raises awareness of the Australian government’s use of facial recognition software to invade the privacy of its’ residents.

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.

The very first writing piece we did for our Portfolio was the Letter to the Editor. Our goal was to convince the audience that what we believed was the right thing and we had to use rhetorical flourishes in our writing to persuade the reader to join our side. We had to be convincing and strategical with our words when referencing other texts, since we had to be fair to them, but we had to argue with them at the same time. Reading other texts allows us to consider all sides of an argument and the possible points of views. We think of the possible counterarguments the audience could hit back with. After analyzing the purpose of the other texts, it becomes easier to come up with an argument that cannot be easily refuted. I emphasized the purpose and argument of my letter by persuading the audience to take care of their health and to keep watch of what potential toxins they could be consuming.

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.

We had a lecture on the visual rhetoric of an argument that embodies this core value. We had learned about the impact of a visual argument, when we only saw a single second of it. So many details are incased in just one second of a video that provide structure and support for the argument. After that lecture, I had learned to appreciate the value of an image to persuade a reader. I had the chance to use this practice and apply it in my Practice Op-Ed. I incorporated a piece of evidence that was purely just visual. In my Practice Op-Ed, I was using the images of a city in China which had intense surveillance over its’ residents any where they went. The visuals helped me to appeal to the emotions of my audience. I was able to locate and use the illustration to support my claim that facial recognition technology could be used in a way that was secret and unjust.

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. 

Twisting the words of an author, putting words in the author’s mouth, or purposely sabotaging the ideas of a piece of text, is unethical and disrespectful. It shows that you do not care for your ethical responsibility to be fair to the author whose text you referenced. I personally make my best efforts to never commit such mistakes. This core value is best demonstrated in my Letter to the Editor. I had to create my argument based off of an article from the New York Times, which I had to reference frequently through out my letter. I made sure to stay fair to the ideas and purpose of the text and also to the author. One of the most important and complex lectures we had in class taught us this value. We had to read a text, and then read different summaries of the text, and decide which one was fair, unfair and inaccurate. Along with this lecture, we were given a list of citation mechanics to obey in order to always cite and quote our sources accurately. These two lessons were the reason I was able to respect my ethical responsibility to stay fair to my source with appropriate citation.