Final Portfolio

Due Wednesday, May 8

For your final portfolio, you will
  1. Write an informal reflection on your experience as a writer (here are guidelines for your portfolio reflection).
  2. Substantially revise at least one essay, by, for instance,
    • incorporating discussion of a new secondary source
    • reorganizing your discussion to strengthen your argument or clarify your idea
    • analyzing additional evidence or a new example
    • incorporating discussion of a new idea, such as expansion of your argument to consider another implication or explanation
For each new revision you submit,
  1. Provide an outline of your revisions—a detailed account of the changes you made, in which you indicate what you added, took out, and rearranged, and explain why you made these changes. For instance, maybe you’ll
    • Add
      • A motive to clarify the purpose of your essay
      • Specificity to a thesis statement to clarify the purpose of your argument
      • A new example or evidence to reinforce or illustrate a point
      • Analysis of evidence to refine or develop your discussion
      • A topic sentence to highlight the new thought a ¶ presents and clarify the step-by-step logic of the discussion your essay unfolds
      • A paragraph break to divide one sprawling paragraph into two more tightly unified ¶s and in so doing highlight the movement of your thoughts
      • Specificity to a topic sentence to differentiate a new point from the previously presented point
      • Transition language to a ¶ opening to express the logical relationship of the new ¶’s point to the prior ¶’s
    • Move
      • A Sentence from the middle or end of a ¶ to the beginning to highlight the new thought a ¶ presents
      • A paragraph to create a clearer or more logical progression of ideas
    • Cut
      • Irrelevant (off-topic) evidence or analysis to keep the discussion focused
      • Unnecessary words to improve clarity
      • Sentences that repeat points made elsewhere in order to improve clarity
  2. Turn in a print copy of your essay
  3. Upload a copy to the portfolio module on our canvas website
Note As we’ve discussed, you may further revise more than 1 essay