Johnson County Community College English 122: Composition II Portfolio
Assignment #2 Spring Semester 1999
Assignment: Submit a writing portfolio May 3, 1999. The portfolio is worth 250 points.
This second portfolio is worth 25% of your class grade, so take time to put it together
carefully. The portfolio should include the following items below – make sure that
you place them in the same order as well.
- The first item in your portfolio should be a memo from you to me that introduces the
essays included in the portfolio and reflects upon your writing thus far in the semester.
Consider the following three issues as you write your memo.
- Describe your essays. Open your memo up with an introductory paragraph that
describes the contents and purposes of the Critical Review Essay and the Argumentative
Synthesis. Here are some questions to get you thinking: What is the purpose of reviewing
an essay? What is the purpose of synthesizing a number of sources when defending an
argumentative position? Why did you choose your specific topics? What difficulties, if
any, did you face as you set about to write your essay?
- Describe the revision process. Here you will want to discuss what changes you
made to your essay and why you made those changes. Consider the following questions: What
changes did you make on your revisions? What were some of the challenges you faced in
revising the assignments? How did you overcome these challenges? What did you learn from
revising the earlier essays? For example, how will you apply the craft of revision in the
future? Why do you think the revised essays are better than the originals?
- Describe and critique the portfolio system. This section is new
for this portfolio memo. Here you want to discuss what you see as the purpose of the
portfolio system of evaluation. Discuss the positives and negatives of the portfolios as
methods for grading your work. Discuss what you liked and what you did not like. Offer any
suggestions for changes to the system.
Your memo should follow the correct style for a memo. You may use one of the templates
in Microsoft Word. If you are not using a template, then you should place the following
headings on the first page:
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
SUBJECT:
Your memo should be 1-2 typed pages in length (single-spaced, double-spaced between
paragraphs).
- At least two drafts of the Critical Review.
- Draft 1: In-class draft with my comments. No portfolio
will be accepted without this draft
- Draft 2: Your final revision to be graded.
- At least four drafts of the Argumentative Synthesis:
- Draft 1: Peer Review Draft.
- Draft 2: The draft I read and commented upon.
- Draft 3: You have a couple options here. This could be a copy
of Draft 2 that you have marked up with a pen or pencil, or it could be a draft that you
printed from the computer with the changes highlighted. To use this last option, save
Draft 2 under a different file name, and then go under Tools in Microsoft Word, go to
Track Changes, and then check all the boxes under Highlight Changes. After you have made
all the changes to your draft, print it out with the
changes tracked. If you are happy with the changes, go back to Tools,
go to Track Changes, and then to Accept or Reject Changes. For more information, see the
instructions on the last page of this assignment.
- Draft 4: The final draft that incorporates all the changes you want to make. This draft
should be a clean copy that follows the correct formatting requirements. Make sure it
still follows the assignment. This is the draft I will grade.
- Prewriting for Critical Review. For more information, check the bottom of the assignment sheet.
- A list of positives and negatives on the essay you're reviewing.
- Discussion and evaluation of the writer's use of the three appeals.
- Outline
To receive full credit for these activities, they need to exemplify some effort on
your part. For example, an outline that looks like this:
I. Introduction
II. First topic of comparison
III. Second topic of comparison
IV. Conclusion
does not reveal much effort or thought.
- Prewriting for Argumentative Synthesis. For more information, check the activities
for Week 11.
- Make a list of argumentative topics that you could use as the basis for your
essay. Come up with at least ten topics.
- Pick one of those topics and discuss how you will integrate logos, pathos,
and ethos with that topic.
- Outline for your essay.
Point distribution:
- Essay 1 = 100 points
- Essay 2 = 100 points
- Memo = 25 points
- Prewriting = 15 points
- Complete Portfolio (all drafts, prewriting, memo, everything in the proper order, etc.)
= 10 points
For more information on revising and using the Track Changes feature of Microsoft Word,
check the Portfolio 1
assignment sheet.
Comp 2 Home Page