Bill Klein's Homepage
UMSL English Dept.
UM-St. Louis
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The Writing Portfolio is a well organized, neatly bound collection of written work that both you and I can use to gauge your performance and effort in this course, and to gauge the progress you have made as a writer. Assembling this Writing Portfolio will give you the chance to reexamine some of the assignments you did in this course, and to reflect on what you learned from them. Your in-depth, reflective comments, placed in the transmittal and in section introductions throughout your portfolio, will help me understand precisely what you feel you have learned. Revisions of assignments will offer proof. Consider the persuasive element in this assignment: because the portfolio weighs so heavily on your final grade, you should present it‹and the work inside‹in a way that best illustrates your progress, or growth, as a writer. Consider how content, style, arrangement, and delivery can help you achieve this purpose. Parts of the Writing PortfolioA binding system. There are many to choose from: comb binders, loose-leaf binders, paper cover binders, etc. Choose one that (1) you can afford, and (2) makes the appropriate impression. Your binder must be labeled with a title, your name, my name, the course number, and the date.A title page. On this page include not only the title of the portfolio, but also your name, my name, the course number, and the date. A transmittal letter or memo. In this 2-3 page letter or memo, you have three tasks: First, reflect in detail on what you have learned about writing and about yourself as a writer during this semester. A table of contents. This table should list all contents and indicate in some way how and where to find each item listed. Most tables of contents use page numbers to do this, others uses colored tabs. Can you think of any other ways? Writing assignments and their revisions. Arrange both original and revised versions in your portfolio in a way that best shows progress, growth, or development. Arrangement need not be chronological. Introduce each writing assignment with a section introduction that can be referenced by the table of contents. The section intro should include the title of the section and a description of the assignment, what you attempted to do in it, what you learned from it, why it¹s important, and (perhaps) how that learning is demonstrated in the revision. While the section intro may echo some of the things you said in the portfolio¹s overall transmittal, it should expand further at a more detailed level. This is where you can point to specific parts of assignments and revisions and argue what you have learned. In the revision and the analysis of your progress, you should avoid focusing simply on superficial stylistic matters: your revision should help the paper do its job better at the same time it points out your progress as a writer. The Email Archive. You will need to print out all the email you post to EN313 during the semester, then bind it within the portfolio with a section intro explaining what you learned from using email this semester. The Web Site Project. I will need to see one paper copy of the html code you used in your web project. Each team should select one team member to turn in this copy. Other team members should identify that person in their portfolios so I will know where to find the paper copy. In the section introduction, assess what you learned in developing the project. Include the URL, a disk copy of the site (one disk copy per site). Also include an assessment of what you contributed to the group project, and your impact on the groups effort. |
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Bill Klein's Homepage
UMSL English Dept.
UM-St. Louis