You’ll complete this first half of the semester in the form of a well-organized portfolio; the goal of your portfolio should be to demonstrate to your reader how you are experiencing English 240. That is, you should aim to tell your story of the course thus far—challenges, successes, breakthrough moments, changes and continuities in your opinions, ideas, and/ or attitudes. Ideally, your portfolio will demonstrate writerly growth, which includes attitude, confidence, risk, application, adaptation, and engagement in the processes of reflection, analysis, and revision with relation to the writing tasks completed over the course of the first half of the semester. Your portfolio will include:

• A Table of Contents (ToC);
  • Your portfolio should begin with a ToC to help your reader visualize and understand how you intend them to engage with your work; beyond placing your ToC at the beginning, you may organize your portfolio however you like.
• A Writer’s Memo;
  • This serves as a cover letter for your portfolio. It need not take the form of a letter, and it need not be written in formal language. However, it should be a polished piece: thoroughly spell checked, formatted appropriately, etc. More information is below.

• All assignments thus far, their drafts, planning/ brainstorming notes;
• All relevant planning, brainstorming, and research notes, write-ins, and/or worksheets;
• All projects thus far, their drafts, planning/ brainstorming notes;
• All feedback you received from me, our WA, and your peers;
• Reading Reflection and/or Class Discussion Materials, if applicable;
• The final polished drafts of your Projects 1 and 2.

 

The Writer’s Memo serves as a cover sheet to your portfolio. In the memo you should describe your purpose and strategy in writing the projects and assignments contained therein, including the reading reflection and/or leading class discussion, if applicable; additionally, you should reflect on your writing workshop experiences, course readings, and ask any questions about the writing and/or course materials that you may have. This is your opportunity to provide some context for the writing but also a chance to ask your reader directly about the effectiveness of the pieces your portfolio includes. You may also consider looking forward in your memo by identifying and articulating goals for future writing in this course and beyond. Finally, in this midterm portfolio’s writer’s memo, please include one paragraph about one course material (reading, assignment, or activity) that you believe should be kept in future iterations of the course and why. This is an opportunity to think carefully about Professor Kelenyi as your audience as well as future Lafayette students as future scholars in this course. Use evidence, reasoning, and argumentation that considers the purpose, context, and audience of this course to make a compelling argument for your course material to remain in the course. The memo should be 2-3 pages double-spaced.

 

Some questions to consider as you write your memo are below; you do not need to answer them all:

• How did the earlier assignments from Units 1 and 2 inform your final projects?
• What was interesting about the readings, activities, and/or assignments from these units?
• What was difficult about the readings, activities, and/or assignments from these units?
• How have your ideas, opinions, and/or rhetorical thinking and strategies changed over the course of Units 1 and 2?
• What do you want your audience to take away from your portfolio?
• How did you capitalize on the affordances of the various assignments in these units to express your ideas, influence your audience, and accomplish your purpose?
• What challenges did you face in the revision process?
• What successes did you experience in the revision process?

• How did your work and feedback from previous coursework and throughout these units inform your revisions for each project?

 

To earn a Pass on your Writer’s Memo, you should ensure your memo does the following:

• Your Writer’s Memo is 2-3 double-spaced pages long.
• Your Writer’s Memo discusses similarities and differences between first and final drafts included in your portfolio.
• Your Writer’s Memo articulates your projects’ and/or assignments’ strengths (what worked well and how you know).
• Your Writer’s Memo describes your challenges in these first two units (what was challenging and how).
• Your Writer’s Memo articulates goals for building upon strengths and addressing challenges in future work for this course and/or beyond.
• Your Writer’s Memo makes direct reference to comments to and/or from peers, our WA, and/or Professor Kelenyi. 
• Your Writer’s Memo includes one paragraph about one course material (reading, assignment, or activity) that you believe should be kept in future iterations of the course and why.

 

Submission Guidelines

• File uploads: All files should be uploaded as a single document.
• File format: All uploaded files must be submitted in doc, docx, or pdf format only.
• Document formatting: You must follow MLA formatting guidelines (see syllabus).

 

Meeting these requirements and guidelines is your responsibility. Missing elements will result in grade penalties; submissions with improper file types will not be graded. Note that, because your instructor is only human, I may not see a problem until I am ready to grade your submission. Your portfolio will only be “on time” if it is both on time and something I can open.