The portfolio and self-assessment are in many ways the most important documents that you’ll create for this class. Assembling the portfolio will help you to see your progress in spoken and written communication over the course of the semester; the self-assessment will give you the chance to evaluate that work based on your own criteria as well as the course learning outcomes.

Portfolio and Self-Assessment Due: Tuesday, December 13, 5:00 PM
Self-Assessment length: 1,000 words

Portfolio (web site):

The portfolio (your personal web site on CUNY Academic Commons) should include, at a minimum:

• The Self-Assessment Essay (Welcome Page)
• The Rhetorical Analysis Essay
• The Argument Essay
• A short description of and link to your Group’s Public Awareness Campaign
• At least four of your shorter writings from either section of the course.

Please feel free to add additional documents to the portfolio if you like. This is your space! You might want to include brainstorming notes, design elements, drafts of essays, images, or something else not listed here. Any piece of writing referenced as evidence in the Self-Assessment should be included in your portfolio (though not all items from the portfolio need to be referenced in the Self-Assessment).

While the arrangement of the web site is up to you, it should be easy to navigate. As with any web site, you want the viewer to be able to find what they are looking for without any confusion.

Be aware of the privacy settings, and make your choices according to your own comfort level. Whichever level you choose, be sure it is accessible to me!

Your web site is your space and should reflect who you are and what you think. Add an “about” section and photographs, give it an interesting name. As with any of the materials you’ve prepared for this course, the web site gives you a chance to communicate something and express yourself and your views of the world.

Self-Assessment:

The Self-Assessment should serve as the Welcome page for your personal web site. It provides you with an opportunity to reflect on how you have grown or changed as a writer during the semester and to demonstrate that you’ve understood the theoretical concepts and rhetorical terms presented in the class. In the self-assessment, you should evaluate your work based both on your own criteria and on the course learning outcomes:

A. Address Course Learning Outcomes:

The Course Learning Outcomes are listed on the Home Page (“To My Students”) of our Class Site. They are:

1. Explore and analyze in your own and others’ writing a variety of genres and rhetorical situations
2. Develop strategies for reading, drafting, revising, and editing
3. Practice systematic application of citation conventions
4. Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations
5. Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
6. Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences
7. Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias
8. Compose texts that integrate your own stance and language with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation

The self-assessment essay should address the class learning outcomes directly and provide examples from your work as evidence. The essay will not be evaluated on whether or not you have achieved any specific outcome, but on how well you link your work to the outcomes that seem most relevant to your situation. You don’t have to refer to all of them, but be as thorough as possible.

As you write, be sure to refer to the works you’ve included in your portfolio. You must provide examples of your writing and revision by quoting from your own essay(s), blackboard posts, or presentations.

Here are some example of ways to discuss the learning outcomes:

B. Address Your own Criteria:

Aside from evaluating your progress in terms of the official course learning outcomes, I also ask you to evaluate it in terms of your own ideas of your own writing and what it can and should be. Before the course, was there something you wanted to become better at as a writer, and did the course help you toward achieving that? Were there any goals of particular importance to you that the course did or didn’t help you toward? Did you feel that you may have gotten better at expressing yourself, or not?

Rubric:

• Have you addressed the course learning outcomes in detail, even if your description is that you didn’t feel that you progressed in that area?
• Have you provided evidence, in the form of your own writing, that you have developed (or not!) as a writer? Are you able to identify areas in which you have not progressed, either because you didn’t spend enough time with them or you feel that you had a strong start in those areas?
• Have you edited the self-assessment for typos and grammatical errors?
• In your portfolio design, have you maintained consistency from one page to the next with regard to color, font, and formatting?
• Is your portfolio design simple and easy to navigate?
• Are the documents in your portfolio easy to access and read?

	Score	Weight	Weighted Total
Web Site is Clear and Manageable		15.00%	0
Web Site contains 4 major assignments and >4 minor		10.00%	0
Self-Assessment addresses Course Learning Outcomes		25.00%	0
Self-Assessment addresses Personal Changes		15.00%	0
Self-Assessment Contains quotations and examples from your work		20.00%	0
Proofread, checked for typos etc.		15.00%	0
Grade		100.00%	0