Weeks 14 and 15 (May 3 -14)

This last two weeks you will be finishing up final drafts of Essays 3 and 4 and putting your portfolio together. Final draft of Essay 3 is due this Tuesday, May 4, to be emailed to me. If you would like to put Essay 4 in your portfolio, try to get a final draft to me by this coming weekend (May 8 or 9), so you will have time to do final revisions for portfolio. If you do not choose to put it in portfolio, you can pass it in by the following weekend, midnight on May 16, at the latest.

I will be working on commenting on photo essays on Monday, May 3.

Portfolios will be due by Friday, May 14 at noon.

PORTFOLIO INFORMATION :

• Portfolio is due up on your blog by noon, Friday, May 14. If this is not done, you will get an incomplete in the course until your portfolio is read, sometime early in the summer.
• Remaining course work (the final draft of an essay not in your portfolio,  or any odds and ends) are due by Sunday, May 16 at midnight. There will NOT be a final in this class.
• Due to the chaos caused by the pandemic, if you’ve completed at least a couple of essays by the end of the semester, you may request an incomplete to finish work over the summer (hopefully) or spring semester.

Do this set-up of “shell” for portfolio by Sunday, May 9 for 1 punctuality point (with blank posts to be filled in as you revise essays).

“Tech” info on how to set up your portfolio (let me know if something in here doesn’t seem to fit this semester’s assignments; video created last year–I’ll post recording of one of our Zoom classes from May 3 where I go over the same info with this semester’s blog and any questions students may have.

Portfolios must be posted on your blog by noon on Friday, May 14. (You may still tweak them during the day, until midnight on the 14th), but I must be able to see that portfolios are “essentially complete” on Friday night so I can include your portfolio link on my roster.)

Portfolios must include three of the essays you’ve written this semester, plus an introductory cover letter. At least one of the essays must demonstrate your ability to do research, so generally that means Essay 3 or 4.

Any final drafts that still need grading of essays NOT in your portfolio may be passed in  by Sunday, May 16 at midnight. Please post them on your blog so you can be sure that they get to me (you may also email if there is an issue with the blogs or you want to double-cover yourself.)

Here are my suggested steps for getting portfolios ready:

1 Decide which essays you would like to include. I’m working at getting feedback to you about outstanding in the next few days (Dec. 9 or 10). Feel free to email me if you’d like my suggestions about which essays to include.

2 Revise those essays as you have time. Look back at my comments on rough and final drafts, as well as your peer reviews. To get the most “bang for your buck,” I suggest working on these three areas:

• grammar and usage issues as marked on your final drafts with yellow highlights for online class (check marks in the margin for f2f class)
• focus at both essay (thesis statement) and paragraph (topic sentences) levels
  • Look for comments on clarity and placement of thesis, particularly in Essay 2, and comments such as “what’s the main idea here? add topic sentence to unify para.” for paragraph focus.
• research skills (format of Works Cited and in-text citations)
  • Make sure you have in-text citations for any info that you read in a particular source, whether info is quoted or in your own words.
  • In-text citations should generally be author’s last name, or title of article or webpage if there’s no author. If words in a quotation are from someone other than author of source, be sure to use name of quote author in your sentence and (qtd. in <source author’s last name>) for in-text citation.
  • Use in-text citations for photos in Essay 3 (see assignment for guidelines–it’s a little tricky,so just do the best you can).
  • Make sure that each source listed in your Works Cited is actually used as an in-text citation somewhere in paper.
  • Works Cited entries should be complete with author, title of source and its “container,” date, URL, etc. (not just URLs).

If you have additional time, you may want to do more revision, based on comments on both rough and final drafts.

3. Consider the order of pieces in your portfolio. The cover letter, of course, will come first. Essays do not need to be presented in the order they were written; generally the advice is to start with your strongest piece. If you haven’t done so already, try to come up with a descriptive title for each essay, to give yourself a way to refer to the essays in your cover letter and also to focus the essay and engage the reader.
4. The next step is to compose a cover letter for your portfolio. Instructions and sample student essays from previous semesters are here. Discuss your essays in the order you will present them. I will not require that you turn in a rough draft of this letter, but I’d be glad to give you feedback if you want. For most students, it is a relatively easy task. Do remember that it is one of your portfolio pieces, so it should demonstrate your writing abilities of organization, focus, and development. It may also be a place to highlight your personal voice and sparkling wit.
5. Post cover letter and the three essays on your blog, with each piece categorized as “Portfolio.” This video gives instructions on how to do that, as well as some reminders about portfolio contents: