PART I
The portfolio for this course asks you to demonstrate your ability with the five core learning outcomes of the course: Process, Focus, Development, Rhetorical Strategies, and Conventions. Review the core learning outcomes and rubric in the Portfolio assignment, and then choose one learning outcome to discuss. Write about a paragraph that describes your understanding of this particular learning outcome, and your own progress toward it. Do you meet expectations? Exceed them? Do you still have significant work to do?
Choose Two:
PART II
This portfolio also serves as the core assessment measure for EN106 at Park University. Let’s consider for a moment that term. At Park, a “core assessment” is a required assignment that is common across all sections of a course, both online and face-to-face. This assignment is meant to serve as a tool for instructors to evaluate student learning across sections, terms, campus centers, and modalities. In other words, the portfolio is your opportunity to show off what you have learned in this course, and an opportunity for Park faculty to learn more about how our teaching works. Ideally, we use the lessons from your core assessments to inform changes to curriculum. As you prepare the portfolio, think about using it to make an argument: to use a metaphor from the law, you should make a case for what you have learned this term in EN106.
Drawing upon the categories and explanations offered by Reynolds and Davis in Portfolio Keeping, your EN106 portfolio is a “best works portfolio”—that is, your portfolio should be a collection of your strongest, most polished academic writing. It will contain three primary pieces: a reflective essay, at least two final draft academic essays of your choosing, and artifacts from your writing process. In many cases, the two essays will be the same two essays you improved through deep revision processes in Unit Four and Unit Six. But you also have the option to include academic writing from other Park University courses, provided that these essays demonstrate your understanding of academic writing as it relates to this course. I will grade your portfolio as a whole, using the rubric found at the end of this assignment, in order to assess your overall skills as an academic writer, as revealed in the portfolio.
This document will describe in more detail my expectations for each of the three primary pieces of your portfolio. But before we get there, please remember that there are many appropriate ways to approach this portfolio assignment or any particular piece of it. In fact, it might be useful to first consider your overall approach to the portfolio before considering the pieces you will include.
The portfolio should demonstrate what you know about academic research and writing. Toward that end, the choice for portfolio organization belongs to you. Let’s start there: with the rhetorical situation. You know the writer (you), the reader (me), and the purpose (to demonstrate your learning in this course). Let’s use that rhetorical knowledge to invent strategies for organization. You might consider giving your portfolio a loose “thesis.” For instance, consider the following two portfolio “theses”:
This portfolio demonstrates both my facility with research and also my skills in critically synthesizing diverse sources to enter an academic conversation.
Or:
This portfolio illustrates my growth as an academic writer over the past eight units. Specifically, this portfolio shows how I have moved beyond offering my own opinion on a subject to using both my experiences and the expertise of others to provide a fuller picture of my argument.
After you have invented a working thesis for your portfolio as a whole, consider organization. Remember, I will read your portfolio in the order you choose. So, endeavor to structure the portfolio in a manner that supports your argument.
For example, the writer of the first portfolio will probably want to include a portion of an academic article as an artifact as well as a completed summary sheet from Unit Two to show the writer’s facility with research. On the other hand, the writer of the second portfolio may want to organize the portfolio in chronological order, beginning with a rough draft of each essay and showing its evolution through peer review, revision, and editing.
Remember that Reynolds and Davis argue in Portfolio Keeping that portfolio readers tend to make judgments early in the reading process: usually in the first three or four pages! So consider putting your best work early in the portfolio. You should also think about where your reflective essay is best placed: as the first piece, in order to serve as an introduction? As the final piece, to serve as an “afterword” to the portfolio? Separated into brief sections that explicate each essay and artifact, functioning as a sort of running commentary on the other pieces of the portfolio?
Finally, you will probably want to include some kind of table of contents in the portfolio, in order to give me a clear sense of what to expect as I read your work. For instance, a table of contents could look like the following:
George S. Park
Prof. McAfee
EN106
15 July 2014
Table of Contents
The reflective essay should be an 800-1200 word essay that examines your writing in light of our core learning outcomes: Process, Focus, Development, Rhetorical Strategies, and Conventions. You may choose any number of approaches to this assignment. For instance, you can introduce your reader to any of the following:
Because your reflective essay will be relatively limited in length, you will not have space to develop a response to all of the above issues. Remember that all good writing is focused, developed, and organized—so consider choosing just one or two of the prompts to write about. You also have leeway in terms of genre. If you prefer, you could format your reflective essay as:
No matter how you choose to approach the reflective essay, it should be thoughtfully composed and carefully proofread. If you refer to outside sources, you must document your research using a standard academic format (e.g., MLA or APA).
The purpose of this portfolio is to show what you know about academic research and writing. For these reasons, I am allowing you to include work from other classes, provided that this other work shows off your academic writing skills. In making decisions about what to include, think about our definitions of academic writing and the level of quality expected in this writing course. You should also consider what writing from other college courses you are proud of and why. If you choose, however, you may include only essays from this EN106 courses. Remember that you must include at least two final-draft quality academic essays.
As you make your choices about what to include, you might also consider your reader: too many final drafts may encroach on my reading time, and including too much academic writing on esoteric or difficult topics may make it hard for me to judge the quality of your writing as it relates to this class!
Note: If you do choose to include essays from other Park University courses, you might also consider including the original assignments for each essay. That way I will have a better way of seeing how your writing fits into its original rhetorical framework.
Related to the two other primary pieces of your portfolio—the reflective essay and the final draft essays—your portfolio must also include artifacts that reflect your writing process for each final draft essay. These artifacts can include related discussion posts, brainstorming documents, outlines, email conversations, peer responses, instructor comments, or rough drafts. The purpose of including these artifacts is to give me a full picture of your writing process, which is part of the assessment criteria for the portfolio.
Required Components: As described above, the required components for your portfolio are:
Length: Your reflective essay must be between 800-1200 words. For the final drafts, be sensitive to the originally assigned length and determine the scope of your essay accordingly.
Style/Format: The final draft essays essays should be formatted in a standard scholarly format. (Most students follow MLA or APA guidelines, which are outlined in Easy Writer.) No matter what format you follow, be sure to do the following:
File format: Please submit your portfolio as a single file attachment in a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file. These formats are available in most word processors, including Google Docs and Open Office, and will ensure that your instructor is able to comment on your work.
Works Cited/References: Those essays that refer to outside sources must include a page of Works Cited, References, or whatever bibliography is required by the guidelines you choose.
