At the end of the term, I will evaluate your portfolio based on the following.  A "C" Portfolio:

• will contain three final drafts from Portfolio Assignments 1-5
• will have final drafts that demonstrate care, effort, thoroughness, and quality in all aspects of writing--content, style, organization, format,  documentation, grammar, mechanics, punctuation--so that they meet the minimum expectations of their audience and achieve the writer's (s') purposes;
• will have a thoughtful reflective essay.

Also an "A" or a "B" portfolio will demonstrate the writer's range:  his/her ability to write successfully in a variety of rhetorical contexts, to write on a variety of topics, and/or to use a variety of voices, approaches, styles, genres, etc.  To be more specific, a portfolio could get an "A" or "B" if a couple of the final drafts emerged from the same essay(s) in the course pack or from on line or if a couple of the essays seem similar in approach, style, etc., because I want you to have the opportunity to fully develop ideas, approaches, etc.  But if all three essays are relatively similar, it is unlikely that the portfolio would get more than a "C," no matter how solid the writing is.

Finally, "A" and "B" portfolios will demonstrate fluency:  they will contain essays that go into depth and detail.  Although I wrote earlier that the essays will be 5-8 pages, that's a prediction not a proscription, but don't equate quantity with quality.  Four-or-five focused and tightly written pages always beat eight incoherent and wordy pages.

Portfolios are due in my mailbox in 3161 Angell Hall no later than noon on December 15, 2000.  If you miss that deadline but get the portfolio to me by no later than noon on Monday, April 18, 2000, it will lose one full grade.  I will not accept portfolios after noon 12/18/2000.

The Portfolio will account for  70% of your final grade.