portfolios ENGL226 Writing About Writing
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LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 [email protected] www.leetorda.com |
FALL 2013 Office Hours
Monday & Wednesday: 3:30 to 4:30 Tuesday: 2:00 to 3:00 and by appointment. |
Overview. In the real world of working writers and writing that does work, a portfolio is the thing that represents you professionally. If you are a journalist you have a clip book. If you write for advertising you call it, simply, your book. If you are applying to graduate school, they will ask you for a portfolio of your writing. This course should be the start of a significant portfolio of work that you put together from your time in the Writing & Writing Studies Concentration. Hopefully, as you make your way through the concentration, you'll direct your energies in specific directions and by the time you get to 489 or your Writing Studies Seminar you'll have a polished collection of material that you can take with you into the working world--material that might help you get a job, get published, or get into grad school.
In the classroom, portfolios are, simultaneously, both a way to collect and reflect on your material, as well as a method of evaluation. Your portfolio will do both in this class. You'll turn in material to me in a portfolio twice this semester. At midterm, your portfolio will be a modest collection of materials. At the end of the semester, you will turn in a more substantial collection of new and revised material. When I give you back your materials, you will get a "grade-so-far" at midterm and a final grade at the end of the semester.
Midterm Check-in Portfolio
Your Midterm Check-in Portfolio consists of three pieces:
Final Portfolio, Last Class, Final Exam Information UPDATED1) DURING OUR LAST CLASS OF THE SEMESTER, in-class we will share our Author Interviews—what you learned, what surprised you, etc. The directions for this are pretty clear if you will only just read them. You will turn in the hard copy in your portfolio.
2) On MONDAY, during the exam period, you will write your portfolio cover letter. I talked about this in class, but I will go over this here. The cover letter should be roughly two, typed, double-spaced pages. I want you to explain to me how all—ALL—of the quotes on the homepage of my teaching website that seem to be about baseball are actually about writing. What am I trying to get you and all of my students, no matter where they are as writers and thinkers, to understand about the writing process with these quotes?
***Please bring your laptop to class.
3) ALSO On MONDAY, in your final portfolio, you’ll turn in the hard copy of the author interview, any new blog posts you’ve contributed to the blog since midterm along with a reflection on the joys and burdens of keeping a blog (see below), and your final version of your Writing in the Profession piece. I will give you a manila envelope to put everything in.
4) During our Monday final exam, we will have roughly an hour to write the cover letter and blog reflection, and roughly an hour for lunch and for reading selections from our final pieces (roughly five minutes per reader—or two and a half double-spaced pages).
5) I would like to be able to create a little online publication from our class. If you can send me your final piece, I will create an online journal of our class writing. Tomorrow in class I will solicit possible titles for our journal. We’ll vote on Monday, and the work will debut before the end of the semester.
And again, just for good measure, here are the descriptions of the two things you will write during the final exam period of our class:
PORTFOLIO COVER LETTER: The cover letter should be roughly two, typed, double-spaced pages. I want you to explain to me how all—ALL—of the quotes on the homepage of my teaching website that seem to be about baseball are actually about writing. What am I trying to get you and all of my students, no matter where they are as writers and thinkers, to understand about the writing process with these quotes?
BLOG REFLECTION: This need only be roughly half a page, single-spaced, typed. Please reflect on what it was like to write for a blog this semester. Write about the joys and the less joyous things. Write about what it made you think about keeping your own blog. Write about what you think a good blog is and how are blog faired in comparison.
In the classroom, portfolios are, simultaneously, both a way to collect and reflect on your material, as well as a method of evaluation. Your portfolio will do both in this class. You'll turn in material to me in a portfolio twice this semester. At midterm, your portfolio will be a modest collection of materials. At the end of the semester, you will turn in a more substantial collection of new and revised material. When I give you back your materials, you will get a "grade-so-far" at midterm and a final grade at the end of the semester.
Midterm Check-in Portfolio
Your Midterm Check-in Portfolio consists of three pieces:
- Any part of your Writing in the Professions material--except for the social media plan--can be revised for the portfolio. You can revise the web material, the print material, or the powerpoint. You can revise as a group if you choose, but you are welcome to revise the material on your own as well. You need to include the original of whatever you revise (tricky if you are doing web revision, but doable).
- Your completed Writing Studies Annotated Bibliography and Cover Letter. Include your workshop drafts of annotations and cover letter along with the completed draft.
- Your Bird-by-Bird moment. We will will read a chapter of Anne LeMott's book on writing and life Bird by Bird. The title of her book and our assignment refers to the moment when LeMott learned one of her most valuable writing lessons. I want you to write a 500 word most valuable writing moment of your own. You have some lee-way with this assignment (pun totally intended). You can take liberties with the story you tell (maybe you are still waiting for your valuable moment--maybe you have more than one) and you can take liberties with the structure you tell it in (powerpoint bird-by-bird moment? bird-by-bird sonnet?) It is due the day the portfolio is due, and you should expect to share it with your classmates in class. As I say on the syllabus, I'm happy to print out enough copies for everyone in the class as long as you get it to me by noon the day of the midterm portfolio materials are due.
Final Portfolio, Last Class, Final Exam Information UPDATED1) DURING OUR LAST CLASS OF THE SEMESTER, in-class we will share our Author Interviews—what you learned, what surprised you, etc. The directions for this are pretty clear if you will only just read them. You will turn in the hard copy in your portfolio.
2) On MONDAY, during the exam period, you will write your portfolio cover letter. I talked about this in class, but I will go over this here. The cover letter should be roughly two, typed, double-spaced pages. I want you to explain to me how all—ALL—of the quotes on the homepage of my teaching website that seem to be about baseball are actually about writing. What am I trying to get you and all of my students, no matter where they are as writers and thinkers, to understand about the writing process with these quotes?
***Please bring your laptop to class.
3) ALSO On MONDAY, in your final portfolio, you’ll turn in the hard copy of the author interview, any new blog posts you’ve contributed to the blog since midterm along with a reflection on the joys and burdens of keeping a blog (see below), and your final version of your Writing in the Profession piece. I will give you a manila envelope to put everything in.
4) During our Monday final exam, we will have roughly an hour to write the cover letter and blog reflection, and roughly an hour for lunch and for reading selections from our final pieces (roughly five minutes per reader—or two and a half double-spaced pages).
5) I would like to be able to create a little online publication from our class. If you can send me your final piece, I will create an online journal of our class writing. Tomorrow in class I will solicit possible titles for our journal. We’ll vote on Monday, and the work will debut before the end of the semester.
And again, just for good measure, here are the descriptions of the two things you will write during the final exam period of our class:
PORTFOLIO COVER LETTER: The cover letter should be roughly two, typed, double-spaced pages. I want you to explain to me how all—ALL—of the quotes on the homepage of my teaching website that seem to be about baseball are actually about writing. What am I trying to get you and all of my students, no matter where they are as writers and thinkers, to understand about the writing process with these quotes?
BLOG REFLECTION: This need only be roughly half a page, single-spaced, typed. Please reflect on what it was like to write for a blog this semester. Write about the joys and the less joyous things. Write about what it made you think about keeping your own blog. Write about what you think a good blog is and how are blog faired in comparison.