Final Project ENGL489 Advanced Portfolio Workshop
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LEE TORDA Acting Dean, Undergraduate Studies & Associate Professor of English 200 Clement C. Maxwell Library 508.531.1790 Teaching Website: www.leetorda.com [email protected] [email protected] www.leetorda.com |
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By Appointment. Email me at [email protected] with times/days you'd like to meet, and I will respond within 24 hours. HOW TO ATTEND ZOOM CLASS: Click here to attend. Zoom room opens at 4:30. “Let’s save pessimism for better times” --Eduardo Galeano (Who is Eduardo Galeano? ) |
Overview
The idea of this being a capstone experience means that, by the end of it, you should be ready and willing to work on a major final project. I realize that some of you are in this class at very different moments in your academic careers and are here for very different reasons. But the idea of the final project still holds. During the second half of the semester, you will conceive and write a project of your own design. We can (you and I) discuss the scope and nature of your individual assignment, but, in the end, it will be your choice.
I would suggest that you select a project that could have meaning to you beyond this class--a text you might use to apply for a job, for an MFA or MA, for a teaching portfolio, for publication. But, as I said, I know that not all of you are at that place in your life. The other option is to write something you've just always wanted the chance to try and write. There are some risks to a choice like that: you might not produce a final text that is as polished as it might be if you had spent a lot of time previous to this class writing in the genre. But that's OK. The most important thing about your assignment is that it be something you really want to write, really want to commit to, and are ready to work on and get feedback on.
Final projects will get workshopped once by the whole class. And you can use some of your conferences with me to get additional feedback. You'll pass out or email this space or via email the week before it is to be workshopped. Folks will read it and write you the same kinds of comments I have modeled for you in class and that you, presumably, have been writing to each other for the rethink/revise project. Folks who are workshopped earlier in the semester will have draftier drafts than those folks being workshopped closer to the end of the semester. Workshops will be the second to last class of the semester.
At midterm, as a part of your midterm portfolio, I will ask you for an overview of what you are doing for a final project. I'm asking you to do this so you don't do what I might do: put off making a decision, put off the writing, put off the work. Once you pick, you will need to make an extraordinary argument for changing. Here is what I am asking you to do as part of your midterm portfolio (this is lifted directly from the portfolio page on this website:
A proposal for your final project. In the midterm portfolio, I would like for you to include a 500 word discussion of what you your final project is going to be. You'll post this to our class discussion board. Tell me about the following in your 500 words:
I know that this doesn't really give you a lot of rules to follow, which can be maddening, but I am available to talk through possible topics. And a final project shouldn't be about rules; it should be about you. Most of all I just want this to be a successful, meaningful experience for you. I want you to write something you are proud of.
The idea of this being a capstone experience means that, by the end of it, you should be ready and willing to work on a major final project. I realize that some of you are in this class at very different moments in your academic careers and are here for very different reasons. But the idea of the final project still holds. During the second half of the semester, you will conceive and write a project of your own design. We can (you and I) discuss the scope and nature of your individual assignment, but, in the end, it will be your choice.
I would suggest that you select a project that could have meaning to you beyond this class--a text you might use to apply for a job, for an MFA or MA, for a teaching portfolio, for publication. But, as I said, I know that not all of you are at that place in your life. The other option is to write something you've just always wanted the chance to try and write. There are some risks to a choice like that: you might not produce a final text that is as polished as it might be if you had spent a lot of time previous to this class writing in the genre. But that's OK. The most important thing about your assignment is that it be something you really want to write, really want to commit to, and are ready to work on and get feedback on.
Final projects will get workshopped once by the whole class. And you can use some of your conferences with me to get additional feedback. You'll pass out or email this space or via email the week before it is to be workshopped. Folks will read it and write you the same kinds of comments I have modeled for you in class and that you, presumably, have been writing to each other for the rethink/revise project. Folks who are workshopped earlier in the semester will have draftier drafts than those folks being workshopped closer to the end of the semester. Workshops will be the second to last class of the semester.
At midterm, as a part of your midterm portfolio, I will ask you for an overview of what you are doing for a final project. I'm asking you to do this so you don't do what I might do: put off making a decision, put off the writing, put off the work. Once you pick, you will need to make an extraordinary argument for changing. Here is what I am asking you to do as part of your midterm portfolio (this is lifted directly from the portfolio page on this website:
A proposal for your final project. In the midterm portfolio, I would like for you to include a 500 word discussion of what you your final project is going to be. You'll post this to our class discussion board. Tell me about the following in your 500 words:
- What genre are you writing in?
- How would you briefly summarize the writing you will be doing in the project?
- Why this project and not some other project?
- What are you nervous about as you undertake this project (talk about yourself as a writer here; don't tell me about how you are worried about graduating or fitting all the work in--all that is a given)?
- What might you do to help you know how to do this project better (what kind of reading, what kind of research, what kind of exploration)?
I know that this doesn't really give you a lot of rules to follow, which can be maddening, but I am available to talk through possible topics. And a final project shouldn't be about rules; it should be about you. Most of all I just want this to be a successful, meaningful experience for you. I want you to write something you are proud of.