If you get anything from this term, I hope it’s the idea that composing isn’t just for college – it’s a tool you use in community, personal, and professional situations as well. And once you learn how to analyze a rhetorical situation, you can start to figure out what someone wants you to write — and how they want you to write it — no matter what the situation. Now it’s time to reflect back on what you’ve done this term.
There are two parts to the Final Portfolio (which is worth 50% of your course grade):
Final Revisions of Units 1 and 2 (worth 20 points)
A Final Reflection on the work you did and the progress (however you want to define it) you made over the term (w0rth 30 points)
NOTE: You can also upload any other work that you did this term that you’re proud of (OpenLab posts, Unit 3 project and/or Artist’s Statement, something you wrote in one of the in-class Google Doc activities). I won’t grade on them specifically, but they can only help!
Final Revisions (20 points)
So… what we want you to do is, first, revise your first two units. We’d have you do the third too but we just finished that one, so we don’t really have time — but if you have some changes you need to make, you’re welcome to do so. We’ve talked about revision throughout the semester — Anne Lamott tells us that the first draft of an article is just the beginning; we want to work at making it what she calls “dental,” something that’s ready to show the world (not just your teachers.)
For each revised unit, you MUST add a paragraph at the beginning explaining what you did to revise it and why (or didn’t, and why not). You need to mention what you got from the feedback you received (from me and from your colleagues). You also need to explain why you either incorporated what we said or didn’t, and why.
Both Units One and Two must be revised (or explained why it wasn’t)!
Final Reflection (30 points)
This is the longer (minimum of 1000 words), and ultimately more important, part of the Final Portfolio… because this is the time to think back on where you started, what you’ve done, what you’ve learned (or not), and what you think you might be able to take from this class going forward to other classes and into your work and community lives.
As a way to begin your reflection, look back through your compendium of work (posts, drafts, Padlets, annotations). As you browse through your work, ask yourself about and take notes on the following questions:
- What were your early assumptions/beliefs about yourself and writing? Have they since changed? Explain.
- How would you compare/contrast work done early on in the semester to now?
- What was your favorite/least favorite assignment and why?
- What are some notable lessons that have stuck with you after completing certain assignments?
- What changed in your writing (and reading and thinking) as the genres changed?
- How did you make decisions in your assignments about content and design?
- What was your experience revising assignments?
- Was there any peer feedback that stands out to you and why?
- What was particularly challenging for you in our course this semester and how did you overcome it (or attempt to)?
- How do you feel about where your education is now that you’ve been doing “school” via Zoom for the past couple of years? What’s been the good, the bad, and the awful of it? What can you take away from it that might help you in the future?
Don’t simply answer the above questions in your final reflection; they are just meant to help you brainstorm ideas. You’re writing a personal essay about you and writing, and about you and your journey this term — not just a list of thoughts. Think about all of the things we’ve read about writing this semester—some of them certainly hooked your interest while others… probably did not. The ones that did were well-written, they had a point, the writer had a voice that you felt was worth listening to. Try to do that in your own writing here. Remember that this isn’t just you writing off-the-top of your head; this is a finished piece of writing. Treat yourself as a respected author who has lived through a difficult time: you are someone with something to say.
NOTE: if you have very personal things to say in the Final Reflection, that’s fine, but you absolutely do NOT have to share them in the SFD we’ll be doing. Save them for the Final Portfolio itself since that will be private between you and me.
Here’s what I’ll be grading the Final Reflection on:
- There’s a “so what?” to it. Make it make a point, an overall idea. Don’t just list off a bunch of random opinions about your writing. And don’t try to flatter me (won’t work!); I care about what you think about your progress, not what you think about me (okay, I do, but not like that, and definitely not here!).
- Attention to organization. This does not have to be a traditional organization, but you should have paragraphs (not just a 1000 word paragraph, please) and some reason for why they’re in the order they’re in! Want to use subheads, be my guest.
- Evidence and analysis. If you tell me you learned something about yourself as a writer, show me proof! By proof, I specifically mean quotes from your own writing. All reflections must have at least three quotes from your own writing this semester although it doesn’t matter from what (homework, finished essays, anything will do). Don’t just drop those quotes in there and expect your reader (me) to figure out why you’ve chosen them. Explain why that passage is important to your “so what?”
- Care. Proofread. Make sure it’s long enough. As usual, you can use whatever language you see fit to use, but make decisions about your language—that is, the words that are there should be there for a reason.
Bottom Line for the Final Portfolio:
- Final Revisions of Unit 1 Portrait of a Word AND Unit 2 Feature Article. Make sure each revision has a paragraph at the beginning explaining what you revised and why.
- Final Reflection that talks about your journey this term.
- Any other work that you’re proud of and would like me to consider.
- Uploaded to the Final Portfolio folder on the Google Drive. You can create a new folder with your name on it within that Final Portfolio folder and upload all the documents individually into it.
- Due EOD Monday May 23. No late work!
