Portfolio project. Your final project in this class is a portfolio. This assignment provides you with the opportunity to rethink some of the work you have completed for the class. While the grade for the portfolio will not replace the grades you received on your papers, compiling the portfolio is your opportunity to demonstrate that you've made significant progress with your writing and that you have prepared yourself for ENGL121 or the demands of writing for a profession if ENGL121 is not required of you.
What the portfolio is. The portfolio is a collection of writing samples and some commentary about those samples. Each paragraph or essay within the portfolio has been thoroughly and thoughtfully revised. Superficial revision is unacceptable. That means that if you just fix the errors I brought to your attention in my comments, you'll get an F. Rather, rethink the development, organization, focus, topic sentences, conclusions, and/or attention to audience so that the paragraph or essay demonstrates to me that you are a competent, sophisticated writer. You may think that the paper that you turned in was your best work. It likely was your best work at the time. Looking at it now, I bet you will be able to see some things that could be changed in order to make the paper better. The portfolio is your opportunity to change those things.
What the portfolio is not. It is not your sole responsibility to fix superficial errors like comma splices, comma use, run-ons fragments, capitalization problems, or word choice. To do only those things shows me that your thinking is static - that you aren't able to rethink the big things, e.g., focus, organization, or development, in order to make a paragraph or essay better. Think of it this way: if you wash a car with a cracked block, it may be pretty, but the fundamental problem is still there. Invest your time where it's going to do the most good: fix the big things. The most common error students make with the portfolio is just fixing superficial problems. Go further with it.
What you're required to revise. You must choose four writing samples for the portfolio: two essays and two paragraphs. Choose the assignments would like to work with - don't choose what to include just based on your original grades because since the portfolio grade doesn't replace the original grade, there's no sense in doing that.
Ways to make a revision thorough and thoughtful. Here are some of the things that were suggested by my face-to-face class that qualify as thorough and thoughtful revision:
- Change an essay into a paragraph by paring down the discussion of each of the body points.
- Change a paragraph into an essay by expanding the discussion of each of the body points.
- Focusing a paragraph or essay by elaborating on one specific detail, e.g., focusing on the physical appearance of a person in the descriptive paragraph.
- Organizing a paragraph differently, e.g., applying chronological organization to a paragraph where the ideas were emphatically organized in the previous draft.
- Changing the topic sentences of the body paragraphs in an essay so that each topic sentence better connected to the essay's thesis statement.
- Providing better transitions between the detail sentences in a paragraph or paragraphs within an essay.
These are only some of the changes that you could consider making. For each assignment, just make sure that you're spending adequate time. As this is a major project, it deserves your attention.
Format. For this assignment, I am requesting the following format so that I can (and your peers can) easily assess your work:
- The whole thing is one document
- Heading, headers, margins, title, etc. per MLA style
- Sample 1
- Original copy - paragraph
- Plan for revision that discusses the changes you will make, the reason for those changes, and the effect you're going for with those changes.
- Revised copy - paragraph
- Sample 2
- Original copy - paragraph
- Plan for revision that discusses the changes you will make, the reason for those changes, and the effect you're going for with those changes.
- Revised copy - paragraph
- Sample 3
- Original copy - essay
- Plan for revision that discusses the changes you will make, the reason for those changes, and the effect you're going for with those changes.
- Revised copy - essay
- Sample 4
- Original copy - essay
- Plan for revision that discusses the changes you will make, the reason for those changes, and the effect you're going for with those changes.
- Revised copy - essay
- Final assessment paragraph - now at the end of this semester, how do you feel about your skills? Are you confident as you enter into ENGL121? What is one major way in which your writing has improved?
Peer review. As you work on your revisions, it's a good idea to get feedback from another person. Use the group area to do peer review, like you did for your persuasive essay.
Quiz review. The final quiz will be open from the 7th to the 10th at 11:55PM MST. The quiz is comprehensive. That means that you should expect questions covering topics from the whole semester. You will have two opportunities to take the quiz, but those opportunities will be one day apart - same as before. Expect around 40 questions on the quiz, plus additional questions for extra credit - like before, the quiz will be worth around 200 points, but there will be an opportunity to earn more than 200 points. Because the portfolio deadline shifted, there will not be time for me to grade fill in the blank type questions before grades are due to the registrar's office. Expect this quiz to be entirely multiple choice.
I advise you to study and review the following topics:
- Coordination and subordination (QA page 217) - expect around 10 questions on these topics
- Pronoun-antecedent agreement (QA page 174) - expect around 5 questions on this topic
- Parallel structure (QA page 226) - expect around 2 questions on this topic
- Plagiarism (QA page 370), quotation (QA page 376), summary (QA page 385), and paraphrase (QA page 386) - expect around 5 questions on these topics
- MLA-style parenthetical citations - expect around 5 questions on this topic
- MLA-style Works Cited page entries - expect around 5 questions on this topic
- Transitions appropriate to various modes of development - expect around three questions on this topic
- Matching mode of development to a writing sample - expect around 5 questions on this topic
I adivise you to be aware of the following topics for extra credit - consider having your catalog handy while you take the quiz:
- Dates pertinent to the coming semester, e.g., registration, beginning of the semester, etc.
- Details about your program
- Important people around campus
- Various college policies