October 11, 2007 Archives

What is your portfolio? (Rescheduled from Oct 9.)

It begins with a richly-linked blog entry that introduces your reader to blog entries that you have created, and discussions from your peers' blogs in which you have participated, as part of a reflective statement on your progress so far.

Examples of portfolios from previous classes have included a no-nonsense list and a more personal essay. Either format is fine, but however you present your work, it's important to me that you specify where each of your posts falls amongst the categories listed below. The same post can count for more than one category, but if you keep re-using the same handful of posts that's probably a sign you can do a little better next time.

A presubmission report is more than detailed a proposal, but less than a rough draft.

• Include a meaningful title and a full thesis paragraph. The thesis paragraph should include a reasoning blueprint. Your blueprint presents your main points, in the order that your paper will develop them, so it also serves as the outline for the whole paper.
• Include the direct quotations that you plan to use for one supporting point. For Paper 2, include both primary and secondary sources. Include quotations that both support and challenge the point you plan to make.
• Include a preliminary conclusion (showing the relationship between your title, your thesis paragraph, and your conclusion).
• Include a properly formatted MLA-style Works Cited list.

As always, you may change your thesis after you have submitted the Presubmission Report. I won't force you to include all of the quotes that you include in your presubmission.  If, while you are working on your presubmission, your topic changes drastically, that is probably a very good sign.

My goal in asking you to write your presubmission report is to get you to commit to a thesis that you can actually investigate with the resources that are available to you.

Expect your peers and me to make suggestions for major revisions, and be open to the new thoughts that come with those new possibilities.

Length: 4-6 pages.

In addition: a 1-page informal essay calling my attention to the major revisions that you made. (Include this essay after your Works Cited page.)

Read through Chapter 23.