Final Portfolio Procedures and Requirements

English Composition 1030/35

Portfolio Procedures

A portfolio is a collection of written work with a reflective introduction. We will use this as our assessment model for English Composition 1030 because it emphasizes process, revision, and reflection, fundamental concepts in writing. The portfolio counts as 50% of your total grade for this course.

Contents

The portfolio must contain the following pieces:

§ An analytical essay (ex. determining the strategies used in an ad or editorial to affect the audience). For this essay, students must include:

· Planning work (ex. brainstorming, freewriting, listing)

· At least one rough draft

· A final, unmarked draft

§ A persuasive/argumentative essay (ex. advocating a position, proposing a solution to a problem, or evaluating an action). For this essay, students must include:

· Planning work (ex. brainstorming, freewriting, listing)

· At least one rough draft, preferably with instructor comments

· A final, unmarked draft

• One assignment that shows ability to summarize and respond to a text
• The endpoint essay
• An introduction (Reflective Letter), set up as the portfolio’s home page, in which you reflect on what you learned in the course and explain how the portfolio demonstrates that learning.

Professor Kiefer’s hints for writing the Reflective Letter

The purpose of the Reflective Letter is to offer you an opportunity to reflect on and assess your growth as a writer. Specifically this letter will give you an opportunity to show where you most struggled, explain how you overcame those difficulties, what you have learned, and explain how the essays in your portfolio illustrate your growth as a writer over the semester by analyzing each essay in the portfolio.

Introduction

Open your reflection with a short introduction that sets the context and tone for reporting the development of your work.

Body

Then divide the body into paragraphs that discuss the essays in your portfolio: Summary/Response or Project I, Analysis (Project II) and Persuasion (Project III.) You may choose to explain how the essays in your portfolio demonstrate the qualities on which they will be evaluated/graded.

Conclusion

Close your reflective/self-assessment letter by explaining how, overall, your portfolio shows your skills and growth this semester (i.e. Consider the parts of your portfolio and your self-analysis of these, what conclusions a reader might draw about you as a writer and reader, from examining your portfolio.)