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.

Over the course of the year, I have practiced more and more on going back into my writing and refining what I have already done as well as doing more research for the topic of the piece. The writing piece that best reflects this core value out of all that I have written so far would have to be my Op-Ed. Throughout the highly opinionated conglomeration of rhetorical analyses I had many supporting articles linked into it which worked to strengthen my side of the argument. I have went back and fixed multiple lines of confusing text to help the reader better understand my side. I had to dive into many different topics and read each article to help my case and in doing so, I learned many ideas I had not known before.

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. 

Core Value 2 most similarly reflects the writing done in my Letter to the editor. In this piece, I analyzed the writing of another author and shared my own opinion of what they had discussed. My letter to the editor was written on how disgusted I was at the Trump administrations action of furthering the use of energy depleting light bulbs are opposed to those who are much more energy efficient. I pulled out specific quotes from the reading and context was given each time as to why it was pulled from that original source. My opinion was purely generated from the reading of that article. Had I not read it, I would honestly not have known about the light bulb crisis that we are currently enduring.

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.

Authors write so that others may read, and being able to understand how to speak to the audience is an important theme to understand when it comes to argumentative writing like all that we have done thus far. My editorial on how Earth Cannot Satisfy Greed I believe did the best job at speaking to the audience and getting the attention that it needed. It pulled on a couple heart strings as well as with the use of logic and facts from a variety of sources all found through independent study into the topic. In my writing, I showed a clear stance on what was being addressed and in doing so led the readers either to agree with me and continue reading, or simply disagree and keep reading so that they might find ways to defend their own opinion.

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.

As brought up before, my Op-Ed on What We Can Do to Bring Them Back shows clear support for each claim made. Multiple sources were used for each instance and explained as to why the source was included into the essay. I proved using logical persuasions that the problem at hand, a reduction in the bird populations, is something that we all should be worried about and should not take it as lightly as it has been taken in the past. For example, in the essay I showed how birds an environmental indicator species and if they are dying out rapidly just as a lot of other indicator species such as frogs, it could mean that the ecosystems are beginning to collapse.

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. 

My piece of writing in which this was best demonstrated was in my short summary. The goal of a summary is to not be unfair to either side and simply shorten what was said down. This means to leave the opinion of the author alone and keep it short and sweet. The summary was on an article explaining how there was a new epidemic of nicotine related devices called juuls and they seem to have been released without much testing of the effects, both short-term and long-term, that they may do to a person. All information presented in the summary was information given in an article and was not in any way shaped by that of my own opinion.