Final Portfolio Directions

Creating a portfolio of your work, and a self-assessment that examines that portfolio, is a way to take charge of your educational experience. Not only will the instructor assess your work; you will also assess your work and your experience with writing and reading. The portfolio will give you a fair indication of how you’re doing at this point in the class, so that you can better determine what you’ll need to do in the second half to meet your goals.

This portfolio will be scored by a group of Seton Hall writing instructors in order to give you a more consensual assessment of your performance. The possible scores are High Pass, Pass, and Fail (may be A, B+, B, etc.--still being negotiated among the instructors). The portfolio is due Friday, Dec. 15, at 9:00.  Instructors start scoring at 9:30 that morning.

The final term portfolio is comprised of three separate parts:

1. Two revised essay with attached drafts. One of these essays must be either of the last two essays you wrote for your class. The final revision should be a clean printout, if at all possible, so as to eliminate the bias that would come from the outside scorers seeing your instructor's comments and/or grade. You may further revise this essay for the portfolio.

2. The in-class essay you will write Thursday, Dec. 14.

3. A self-assessment (2-3 pages). The ability to write about your writing and reading skills is one factor in promoting your future growth and will affect your overall portfolio score.

4. The self-assessment you included in the mid-term portfolio.

Place all the above pieces in a manila folder or the like.

Directions for Self-Assessment

1. What specific writing skills have you learned in this class? Briefly explain how these skills have helped you as a writer by citing parts of the revised essays, especially the last one.

2. Assess the writing difficulties you faced, primarily since the mid-term, and discuss what you have done to remedy those problems. You could discuss one or two problems you have dealt with successfully and one or two problems (that you identify, perhaps after an honest analysis of the problems you still see in the revised paper in the portfolio) you’re still struggling with. (You might want to combine #2 with #1 above.)

3. Evaluate your experience with the revision process. You could write about how you’ve learned to use feedback from your instructor, your classmates in peer review, and your tutor; what you’ve learned about writing through the process of revising; and how your idea of revision has changed (if at all), especially since the mid-term.

4. Discuss how, and to what extent, the reading skills you’ve learned in this class have helped you with the reading you’ve done both in and outside of this class.

5. Make an evaluation of yourself as a writer outside of this writing class. How have the skills that you've learned in this class been useful in other courses?