Final Portfolio: Frequently Asked Questions. This is a must read.

Frequently asked questions about the final portfolio?

How much of my final grade for the course will it count? 60%. The other 40% is determined by your class participation.

When is the portfolio due? 19 December, 1:30 PM.

Should I continue to do the weekly rhetorical analysis and comments while I work on the portfolio? Only if you have some which you didn't complete; otherwise, no.

What goes into the portfolio? 1) a 5-10 page cover letter; and, 2) a 10-25 page collection of work. Total length should not exceed 35 pages.

Can I turn it in after 19 December? Only if there is substantial evidence of hardship. A crashed printer, failure to backup, or catching a cold doesn't count. I expect you to plan for such events and to have started early.

How to turn the portfolio in? You can turn your portfolio in either as a long google doc, which you share with me, or in a manilla folder, which you turn into me by 1:30 PM at my office, 231 Massey, Parham Road Campus. If you go the google documents route, name your document: "Your Last Name, ENG 111, Fall 2008." You fill in your name and section number. At a later date, I'll let you know which hours I will be in the office on 19 December.

Can I turn my portfolio in early? Of course. Make arrangements with me. Having said this, remember, your class participation grade will continue to play a factor in your overall grade. Finish early and bail on your group, and you will take a hit on your final grade. Part of your job is to make sure everyone in your group succeeds.

How can I receive my portfolio back? If you turn in a physical copy, include a self-addressed large envelop, and I will mail your portfolio back to you; otherwise, I will leave comments in the google doc of your portfolio.

How will I know my grade on the portfolio? Grades will be posted once the school processes them. If you wish, you can include a note in your google doc portfolio giving me permission to state your grade for the portfolio and/or course in my comments. Remember to edit your share list accordingly. Those with whom you share your docs based portfolio will be able to see any comments I make and your final grade. In either case, please remember how harried I will be. Because I want to give you as much time as I can to help you succeed, I'm giving you up until the last day possible to turn in your portfolio; this means, I am only giving myself a day or so to read them, review them in the context your work over the semester, and turn in your grade. I won't have much time to chat in comments. Please do feel free to contact me after to the grading period for more extended comments or to discuss any questions you have about writing in the future.

How many pages long should a portfolio be? No longer than 35; no shorter than 20. Don't panic. You've written more than enough to meet these demands. In fact, you will be surprised how much you have to week out to meet them. Now, give yourself a pat on the back, and the next time you are asked to write a lot, remember how much you can write...if you use the right process and if you spread the work out.

How long is a page? A page is double spaced. It is written using twelve point typeface. The spacing between paragraphs is the same as that between lines within a paragraph, that is, double spaced. Each page has one inch margins side, top, and bottom.

How should I format my reflective cover essay? Start with the date, drop down a couple of lines and open with, "Dear Steve,...: End with something like, "Sincerely, ..." You've written a letter. This one is just typed, double spaced, and written to convince me to give you a specific grade. Remember, the object is to convince me you have earned the grade for which you argue. Try to anticipate any objections I might have to your argument, and address them in your reflective essay. Such concerns will be about class participation, if you've taken advantage of the opportunities to learn which have been offered, if you've learned the material in the course, and--most important--if you've learned to become a better writer and communicator.

Why is the cover reflective essay SO long? The cover letter serves the same learning function as does a final. That is, to allow the student to review all the material covered in the course, to provide the chance for the student to integrate the material covered, and, last and least, to allow the teacher to judge the students learning and performance in the course. It needs to be long to cover the various material you've learned and to allow you space to provide sufficient detail and evidence to convince me you've learned it all.

Then why not a final? It's a course in writing and communication. You need the practice, and this is a *difficult* rhetorical situation you'll encounter later in life. Such self assessment happens every year in annual reviews. In this case, in the process of putting together the portfolio, I get you to review what you should have learned, get you to gauge and assess your learning (hence, making sure you really learn instead of just memorize), and I get to give the knowledge and skill set one last chance to set.

What tone should I use in the reflective essay? Use first person, that is, "I." You should have figured out by now, I am fairly informal, but I am your professor, and as an audience, I'm charged with making sure you have learned to write well. This means I'm looking at everything involved with your writing, including your grammar, usage, and punctuation. After all, you are supposed to have learned some tricks to help you in proofreading and revision in this course. It's only fair you should practice them. Having said this, I am more concerned you learned the concepts in the class, including Kaizen and how to improve your writing--including surface level polish--through researching specific problems and fixing them. I also expect you've improved in how well you proofread. After all, you've been practicing revision, critique, and proofreading all semester.

What style should I use in the reflective essay? The KISS/SVO<24. style="font-weight: bold;">What should I say in the reflective essay? Your essay will consist of a series of claims backed up with support. You main claim or focus for the letter will be what grade you deserve in the course, but you will need to make a series of lessor or sub-claims (and back these up) for you to convince me your major claim for a grade is valid. Prove your major and sub-claims using evidence from the writing you have done this semester. To figure out what sub-claims you need to make, think of the major ideas, terms, and skills you have had an opportunity to learn this semester, and make claims about these. For instance, one of the major ideas you had a chance to learn involved rhetoric. You might make a sub-claim like the following:

"I understand rhetoric better than I did at the beginning of the semester, and I have learned how to use rhetorical analysis to gain a richer critical understanding of the communication which happens around me and to build on this understanding to become a better writer and communicator."

You the evidence you might use to prove this claim might be taken from on of your rhetorical analysis. You might compare your early work this semester with your later work, or a draft version to a final version you have revised. You might discuss each of the primary ideas in a rhetorical analysis, to show me you understand them, and then quote from different rhetorical analysis to show me how your understanding of the terms has grown. You might tell me a story about day-to-day communication this semester and how rhetorical analysis helped you understand and be a better communicator in a communication situation in which you found yourself.

Your cover letter will be made up of different claims you make concerning what you have learned and how you have performed in the class--not just rhetoric. Make sure you develop each of these claims with more than adequate support. Remember, one of the main things I am judging you on is on the quality of your claims and how well you develop the support for each claim you make.

What advice can you give me about what to say in the reflective essay and how to approach writing it?

1. Make good, solid believable claims. Don't try to snowball me. If you screwed up in working with your group or in terms of getting the work done, don't gloss over this screw up. Instead, make it a part of what you discuss in your letter. Remember, I am not interested in excuses or reasons. I am interested in how you used a place where you messed up to learn and to get back on track. I am interested in how you recovered and what you learned in the process. You can turn having done poorly into an asset by discussing it in terms of what you have learned about Kaizen and process, how you corrected your mistakes, or--at the very least--how you might correct them in future.
   
2. Having taught freshman writing most of my adult life, I have very well defined BS meter. Don't make the BS meter go off.
   
3. Don't inflate how much you have learned or the grade you feel you deserve. You might be tempted to say, "I deserve an 'A,' when you feel you deserve a 'C.'" You'll get more credit if you make the claim for a "C." Remember, one thing I am judging is your ability to make effective claims you can backup. If you claim an "A," but can't back up your case, it will count against you. To work, claims must be honest and realistic.
4. In the same vein as 2, be creative in how you back up a claim. You've got all the work and thinking you have done this semester as potential evidence to back up your claims. While I expect the majority of your evidence and support to be grounded in the writing and work you have done for the course, don't forget that you've been learning to think about your writing as a process. This means notes you've taken, email clarifications, revisions and proofreading you have done all are potential evidence to help you support your claims about process. You might also tell stories which illustrate a point you want to make, or you might point to a piece another student has written. Your choices, while not endless, are very wide ranging; so, my best advice is to spend at least as much time going through and figuring out how you will back up your claims as you do. To do this well, go back and review *all* the work you have done for the course and *all* the reading you have been asked to do. Take notes. Your grade depends on how well you do these pre-writing tasks. You can also bring in--up to 1/4th of your evidence section from writing you have done for work and in other classes. Show me how you've allied the lessons from this class to other work, and I *will* be impressed.
   
5. Work with your group. A good pre-writing exercise for this assignment is to go through and review the reading and writing for this class and to take notes on claims you can make about your learning and how you can use writing from and to the class as evidence to back up your claim. Another effective pre-writing exercise is to then get together and share this information as a group. They *will* have had ideas about claims and how to support them which you haven't, and their idea might be the difference between a high and low grade. You might also think about getting your group to critique your claims and the development of them, and when you are finished with an initial draft helping you proofread.
6. If you try to draft this essay and turn in your initial draft in a single pass, you will fail. You have over two weeks to revise and perfect this reflective essay. It counts a *lot* of your final grade. Take the time to do it right. Use process writing. Revise multiple times over the course of the next two weeks. Get an initial draft done early,in the next few days, so you can add ideas to it and let it develop into your best work. Rush this process, and chances are, you will be disappointed in the result.

What can go into the evidence section of the portfolio? Any of the work you have done this semester. I don't want you to include it all. Go through it looking for the work which will best help you make a case for the grade you think you deserve in the course. Think of the evidence section as evidence you can point to in your cover letter to help prove your claims. It's one thing to say, "I've learned to work better with groups and to use others to improve my writing." This is a great claim, but think how this claim comes alive if you point me to a particular email exchange or place in a google document where you really and truly helped another person in your group or they helped you. A good evidence section is a collection of such places in your learning this semester. The writing and work you include should help you make the case for your claims *and* show off your writing and communication and what you have learned.

Do surface level issues count in the evidence section? Yes, but not as much as they do in the reflective essay or as much as the deep content. If you have to make a choice about what to proofread carefully, make the choice to proofread your reflective essay. Do this last carefully using multiple passes. Know the best choice you can make is to pick good evidence and work which shows you off at your best or which helps you make the case for each claim.

Does this mean I should re-type and proofread everything I include in the evidence section? No. For instance, you might decide to back up a claim you make about having taken the time to read the material in the course carefully, actively, and thoroughly by including a photocopy of notes you took on a hard copy of the reading. Don't retype these notes just to show me you can type and proofread. Include a copy or a link to a scanned pdf. It would be silly to re-type them. The same applies in other instances. Use your best judgment. If you include an analysis you have written or other type of written work, then, yes, revise and proofread. Your measure here is: "Will retyping or proofreading make my audience more likely to respond to my message in the way I hope?" AND "Is this better response worth the time and effort to retype or proofread?" Learning to balance such questions is what the course has been about.

What do I do if I don't see an answer to a question I have about the portfolio? As always, write with questions.