EWRT211-27: portfolio ingredients

Your portfolio will have three ingredients.

• A reflective essay. This essay goes first. Include only a clean final draft. The requirements for the reflective essay are on the handout. Remember to use specific examples from your writing to show what you've learned and be sure to mention what you plan to keep working on.
• An in-class essay. This can be put second or third. You cannot rewrite this paper; it must be the original one you did in class. Remove my comments sheet, but otherwise don't change anything. So choose either essay 2 (multiculturalism and assimilation) or essay 4 (writing).
• An out-of-class essay. This can be put second or third. You can and should rewrite this paper. Include only a clean, rewritten draft; do not include previous drafts or notes. Choose either essay 1 (family) or essay 3 (media) to revise and include.

Also, keep in mind that what the instructors want to see is that you can write an analytical essay. The portfolio instructions state that you must include at least one analytical essay. Out of the essays we have written, only essay 1 is not analytical. Still, you want to have an essay that shows that you can do more than just summarize something you've read. Here's the department's definition of an analytical essay: "An analytical essay seeks to explore a central idea or question based on a text(s) and a student's engagement with that text. Key to the analysis is breaking down the text into components and showing the relationship between the subordinate arguments and overall controlling ideas. It must move beyond summary, description, or narration." So which essay of yours does what is described above the best? Include that essay in your portfolio.

What order should you put the in-class and out-of-class essays in? That's up to you. Though I would suggest putting the stronger essay first. Instructors read the portfolios quickly. If you put a weak essay in the middle (after the reflective essay), then the instructor may assume you are a weak writer and so it will be up to your last essay in the portfolio to change the instructor's mind. If you have your strongest essay in the middle, then the instructor will know you are a capable writer before she/he begins to read your weaker essay. It's better to convince an instructor early that you are a capable writer.