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Advanced Strategies for Rhetoric and Research
The Practices of Memory
English 190.9
Spring 2004

midterm Portfolio and Writing Project Revisions

Assignment
The purpose of the portfolio is to allow you to reflect upon the work you have done in this class and the material we have covered. The specific purpose of the midterm portfolio is to allow you to take stock midway through the course and to allow you to go through the process of putting a portfolio together before the end of the term. Your portfolio will consist of two sections: 1) a cover letter with supplementary material, and 2) a revised writing project. The entire portfolio needs to be turned in inside a folder.

Portfolio Essay and Supplementary Material
The purpose of this section is to persuade your reader that your portfolio demonstrates your learning and achievement in this course to date. This section will contain the various documents necessary to help you make your case as well as a cover letter in which you make your argument and a table of contents to help make your portfolio clear.

• Cover letter: While your cover letter should come first in your portfolio, it is the last thing you should work on. As you prepare your cover letter, you will want to look at the work you have done for this class and for other classes and/or activities that you believe have benefited from what you have learned in this course. Using your supplementary material as well as your revised writing projects as evidence, construct a argument which seeks to persuade your reader that your portfolio represents your learning and achievement to date. Your cover letter will need to make specific reference to the work you include. When referring to specific passages in your supplementary material, use the title of the piece and its page number. If a piece doesn't have a title on it, please write one on it to make it identifiable. Your cover letter should be 3 - 5 pages in length.

• Supplementary material: In addition to selecting pieces which you believe represent your best work, consider including early drafts, papers that you struggled with, examples of where you learned something about your writing, peer-review or instructor comments, whatever you think will be useful to help you make your case. Realize that in addition to comparing and contrasting effective and ineffective pieces of writing, you can also uses items that indicate you are aware of and working on particular issues. For instance, if you have a problem with passive voice, or your writing often lacks specific details, or you're starting to work with the paragraph shaping we've discussed and you have evidence that you are working on these issues, include them. Such evidence can include peer reviews that you write for others (being able to identify your own writing difficulties in others writing is a significant start), handbook exercises, and even multiple versions of the same paragraph reworked in different shapes can all count as evidence.

• Table of contents: Your table of contents should list all your supplementary material by title in the order they are placed within your portfolio and it should be placed before your cover letter. (See below for the order of everything.)

Revised writing projects
With your midterm portfolio should be a revised writing project. Based upon my comments, revise either Writing Project 1 or Writing Project 2 to the best of your ability.

Order of portfolio materials
Your portfolio contents should be as follows:

1. Table of contentsfor supplementary material (each item listed in order by title)
2. Cover letter (2 - 5 pages)
3. Each piece of supplementary materials in the order they are listed in the table of contents
4. Revised writing project with all drafts and comments not already included as supplementary material
   

Grading
Your midterm portfolio will receive a grade and your revised writing projects will receive a grade. As the midterm portfolio is a practice run for the final portfolio, the midterm grade will only be used to calculate your midterm grade. While your midterm portfolio grade will not be used to calculate your final grade, you should consider it an indication of the effectiveness of your portfolio and plan and prepare your final portfolio accordingly.

Likewise, consider the grade on your revised writing projects as an indication of how the final revised writing projects will be graded. If you are happy with the grade either of your revised writing projects receive, you are more than welcome to turn one or both of them back in unchanged with your final portfolio. Likewise, if you wish, you are allowed to revise these writing projects yet again and resubmit them with your final portfolio.

Due date: 29 March 2004, noon

Last Updated: 13 March 2004

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