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Your final assignment is to analyze all of the kinds of writing you have done in this course. The goal is to give you an opportunity to assess your progress as a writer in this course.

Rationale: Throughout the semester we have been exploring the interdependent relationship between writing and culture. In your explorations, you have conducted four very different kinds of modes of inquiry--media analysis, empirical analysis, historical analysis, and textual analysis. Each kind of inquiry yields different kinds of data for writing, and slightly different approaches. Along the way, you have engaged in a variety of invention strategies (heuristics), and reader response/revision strategies. Your portfolio analysis will provide you with the opportunity to review all of the work you have done this semester to identify the gains you have made in your approaches to writing, and the goals you would like to continue to work on. The focus, then, is on your writing and your strategies for writing.
 

Assignment and Paper Format: You will write a three- to four-page portfolio analysis. You may choose to write the analysis in one of two formats, either 1) as an essay or 2) as a letter addressed to me. See the heuristics for the kinds of information to include in your portfolio analysis. As with the other projects, the heuristics are meant to help you generate data for your paper, and are sequenced to help you move through the process of writing the paper, so don’t circumvent these. Also, don’t wait until the last minute. You will want to spend time thinking about what you are finding out through your analysis.

Due Date: Tuesday, May 6
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At the beginning of the semester you were asked to respond to the following: What do you hope to learn in this course? Write a brief account of your strengths and weakness as a writer. What specific improvements do you hope to make in your writing—both in the texts you produce and in the process you use?

1. Review your first piece of writing in which you described your strengths and weaknesses as a writer and your objectives for this course. Do you still agree with your original assessment and goals? If no, how have they changed? If yes, why do you think they have stayed the same?

2. Consider your accomplishments this term; describe the strengths and weaknesses of your work in this course in terms of both your approaches to writing and your written texts.

3. Discuss some of the steps you took to reach the objectives you set for yourself in this course. Did your objectives change during the semester? If so, describe how. What new objectives will you set for yourself for future writing tasks?

4. What strategies will you take away from this semester to use in other classes?
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Read over the following questions once quickly to provide you with a focus for reviewing all the writing you did this term, including not only your papers and drafts of papers, but also the heuristics, peer responses, plans, notes, WebBoard posts and so on. Together these constitute a portfolio for the course. Examine your portfolio closely, then carefully reread and fully answer the following questions to help you generate information for your portfolio analysis. Use this information to write the analysis of your portfolio. The organization of your analysis need not, and probably should not, follow the order of the questions below.

1. Which project(s) do you feel especially proud of? Explain why?

2. Which project (or writing experience) did you learn the most from? Describe what you learned.

3. Which piece of writing did you find particularly interesting or challenging? Explain why.

4. Describe some of the heuristics you’ve tried. Which seemed to be successful for you? Explain why.

5. Review readers’ comments (from your peers and instructor). These comments may be either positive or constructive. Identify one comment that appears on two or more of your papers. A comment that shows up on 2 or more papers probably indicates a strength or a weakness. Briefly describe how you plan to continue to build on this area, if it is a strength, or how you plan to improve in this area, if it is a weakness.

6. Review your critical reflections for each of your papers. Do you note a pattern in the problems and solutions you described? What do these responses tell you about your writing and your approach to writing?

7. Discuss how your participation on the WebBoard (constructing responses and responding to others) helped you in your writing.

8. In reviewing your portfolio, what surprises you about the writing you completed for this class? What surprises you about the approaches you’ve used to do the writing?
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This heuristic may provide you with guidance as you write but it is also meant to serve as a check on your analysis once you’ve drafted it; your responses should help you revise it. Review your analysis to answer the following questions.

1. Is the analysis complete? What else might you discuss in your analysis to provide a full picture of your progress as a writer this semester?

2. Is the analysis clearly organized? That is, is it easy to follow? How might you improve the overall organization?

3. Do you provide specific evidence (e.g., quotations and/or examples) from your portfolio to support the ideas in the analysis? Do you need additional evidence?

4. What rhetorical situation have you constructed for this piece of writing (targeted audience, purpose, context, kinds of publication)? Why have you made these choices?

5. Based on past papers you have written (here or elsewhere), what aspects of your writing do you want to look at more closely as you work on your final revision?
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