Final Portfolio Project
100 points
As you know, there is no final exam in this course. Instead, your last major project is to prepare
and submit a final portfolio that showcases what you’ve learned this semester. One of the
underlying assumptions of this course has been that writing is a complex process and that it
often takes a lot of time, energy, and thought—as well as a willingness to take some chances
and to rethink your work—to do well. Your final portfolio is your opportunity to revisit the work
you have done in this class one last time, considering the revisions you have made.
In your efforts to illustrate your progress, your portfolio will include the following documents:
1. A reflection essay in which you reflect on and discuss the different aspects of your work
in this course;
2. The final draft of your research paper; and
3. Three (3) informal writing assignments you completed for our class.
Getting Started: The purpose of this final portfolio is not only to reflect on all that you have
learned over the past sixteen weeks but also to document your improvement and to show that
you have successfully met all the expectations outlined in the syllabus. Ultimately, your goal is
not only to produce the best final project that you can, but also to demonstrate that you have
met most, if not all, of the learning outcomes specified for this course. Upon the successful
completion of ENG 102, each student will be able to:
• Develop, practice, and reflect on reading, writing, and research processes in response to
a number of rhetorical situations;
• Engage and interact with texts and perspectives rhetorically in order to learn and
practice the academic “moves” for making and supporting different kinds of arguments,
including how to use a range of evidence to support claims;
• Ask effective questions and conduct focused research using a range of resources,
including the library catalog and databases of scholarly articles;
• Recognize, evaluate, and reflect on the various types of research methods and sources,
including primary research methods, that inform effective researched writing;
• Assemble a set of appropriate sources relevant to the issue being investigated and
acknowledge clearly when and how the ideas and phrasings from these sources are
used;
• Demonstrate authority, focus, development, source engagement, and English language
use appropriate to varied contexts and audiences.
• Assess one’s own writing and the writing of others for effectiveness within specific
rhetorical contexts and give and act on feedback through flexible revision strategies.
You will also need to write a reflective essay that explains your revision process for assignments
and precisely what these finished documents say about the things you have learned this
semester. That is, you will need to write at some length (and in specific detail) about how the
learning outcomes listed above both influenced and are reflected in your portfolio. *In other
words, your reflection essay needs to make an argument regarding your writing and
learning outcomes, using your revisions as evidence to back up your claims.*
Putting It Together:
Because the goal of your portfolio is to all that you’ve accomplished this semester, your
reflective essay combined with your research paper need to provide enough specific evidence
to persuade me to consider your writing and learning in a specific light. Thus, in addition to
reflecting on your revisions and some of the most significant things you have learned about
writing this semester, you will probably want to write in your reflective essay about how you
learned whatever it is that you feel has helped you. In other words, you should talk about
specific exercises or activities you did in class, ideas or strategies you gained through course
readings, any help you received while visiting the Writing Center or working with someone
outside of class, and anything else you may have gotten from class discussions or from working
with your peers that contributed substantially to your success.
Rhetorical Considerations: Your final portfolio will be the last thing I read, so you will want to
make sure that it reflects your best efforts in all ways. Your reflection essay is about providing
evidence to show that you have met the outcomes of the course. Part of this will be evident in
your discussions of your revisions. The other aspect of the essay will involve you using your
own writing and experiences to explain how you have met the outcomes of our course. This
reflection essay will need to be at three pages to address all of these factors.
You will need to submit your final portfolio via Canvas as one document. Please let me know if
you have questions regarding how to combine your documents.
