Final Portfolio

Compile a portfolio including the following:

• A cover letter for the portfolio
• A reflective essay addressing the portfolio and your experience in the
course
• Your cover letter and resume
• Your Genre analysis
• Your Writing Guide
• Any responses, drafts, etc. that you feel adds to the portfolio’s
presentation of your writing skill and work for the class

Why? Portfolios give you the opportunity to compile a presentation of your

writing skills by redoing or revising your major papers based on
feedback and selecting other writing that adds to the overall
presentation. While most of our class has focused on the effort you put
into it, the final assessment of the documents in the portfolio will focus
on skill.

What? Completing your work on the major documents we have produced

over the course of the quarter is the main project in the portfolio;
however, the portfolio itself will require you to do some further work:

Portfolio Cover Letter: Like any cover letter, the purpose here is to
introduce and explain the documents that follow it. Your cover letter
should involve 1) requesting that your portfolio be accepted as
evidence of your SUPERIOR work in the course 2) Briefly explain the
documents included (the main purpose here is to tell me which you’ve
changed and how significant the changes are) 3) make an argument—
based entirely on the quality of the documents in the portfolio not
appeals to effort—for what grade you think each document should
receive and for the grade you think your writing deserves overall.

Reflective Essay: In your reflective essay you should reflect on each

document and explain 1) what you think are its strengths and
weaknesses 2) what difficulties, if any, you had creating the document,
and 3) why you felt the arguments you made would be persuasive
(Resumes present an argument for your qualifications for a job).

The reflective essay should also reflect on the course. Please discuss
what you found useful, what you enjoyed, what you think you’ve
learned, but also what you found useless, what you hated, and what
you wanted to learn but didn’t. (I use this part of your reflections to
help me revise the course in the future, so I value honesty—even the
brutal kind if you must).

Additional Documents: You may, but do not have to, choose other
work produced for the class, including preliminary work on
assignments, responses to readings, etc., that you feel adds to the
presentation of your writing skills in the portfolio
How? While I prefer that you construct a new page on the wiki that you
create a link to from you profession page where you provide links to
your documents on-line, or otherwise create an online portfolio, I will
accept other formats as well, including a two-pocked folder of your
work.

Here
are
assessment
guides
you
can
use
to
assess
your
own
writing
in
order
to
help
you

write
your
cover
letter
and
reflective
essay.



Resume:
Criteria Needs Improvement Satisfactory Excellent
Brief Cover Letter that 
 
 

begins to argue strongly
for your qualifications
Attractive Resume Design 
 
 

Successful and Clear 
 
 

Hierarchy
Successful use of Type 
 
 

Adherence to (or creative 
 
 

breaking of) conventions


Genre Analysis:
Criteria Needs Improvement Satisfactory Excellent
Exigency 
 
 

Clear Claim 
 
 

Background 
 
 

Conversation 
 
 

Argument 
 
 

Conventions 
 
 



Writing Guide:
Criteria Needs Improvement Satisfactory Excellent
Exigency
Clear Claim
Background
Conversation
Argument
Conventions