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.
After graduating ESL courses and English Composition I, I was still facing some challenges with writing. I have never come up with a topic myself to write to, so the hypothesis approach was extremely difficult to grasp. It took me several weeks of choosing one that meets the professor’s requirements. Then, I have faced a real challenge of exploration, discovery, conceptualization and development. I have found that the Rebuttal Assignment helped me find new points of view and scientific proofs on my topic. In my research paper topic such as physician assisted suicide I wrote, there was a high chance for me to fail to find solid, scientific proof in favor the idea. I believe that all the research I have done to find good unbiased evidence helped me to become a better writer. It also helped me to choose my topic sources properly. For example, I started to rely only on pear review studies and books written by doctors of their practice.
Core Value 2. My work demonstrates that I read critically, and that I planed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities.
There was no better example of reading critically and planning texts into conversation with one another than through Stone Money. Through this exercise I Professor’s Hodges blog is named Counterintuitive for a reason. There were a lot of times when professor stared us off with a riddle or some exercise that required critical thinking. For our researcher paper we all had to come up with a hypothesis to prove later on. Coming up with my own hypothesis and proving it helped me develop critical thinking mode of thinking in which I could improve the quality of thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it. Another way that professor helped me to think critically is through his comments. I seemed like with him no matter how good of a argument I provide, he would always come up with co-argument that forced me to think even more critically to make sure I cover all the possible readers rhetorical questions.
Core Value 3. My work delfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing itmonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.
There is no better example as Visual Rhetoric. The assessment consisted of 30 seconds short video clip to watch without the sound. The main objective of this exerciser was to be able to describe what we see in every second of the video and then apply rhetoric to that. Furthermore, being able to predict the idea behind the video. All I can say about this exercise that it was not hard to describe but the rhetoric part was a bit confusing at first. Gladly, our professor went over how to do it for a few more times during the semester. I have never done this type of exercise so it was very productive. In my opinion, this exercise helped me to think outside of the box and apply my own take on any situation in writing.
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.
During the semester we had multiple topic categories to write out hypothesis on. One of them was a rebuttal 1000 words paper. I consider this paper one of the strongest ones that is why I included it in my portfolio. By whiting a rebuttal argument I had to acknowledge the other side of the rebuttal position which is physician assisted suicide is not the moral way go about things. However, by finding proper research material and inflectional studies, I was be able to practice and prefect my rebuttal skills. I am far from being a great writer, but things like that do help to sound persuasive. On the other hand, in order for me to be a better writer in the future, I would want to hear out both sides of defense and see where they come from. Only then I will be able to provide a strong paper for my readers.
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.
By ethical responsibility I refer to being honest in writing and give proper credits to others. In Annotated Bibliography and a reference portion of my research paper, I was be able show what sources i used and why I used them. To me academic growth starts with differentiation a good material to read and base my writing on between untrustworthy material. In my bibliography I have sections where I show what I have used and what I left off. Overall, I am very satisfied with the work I have done and the knowledge I have accumulated by taking this course with my professor.
Counterintuitive 