Plagiarism

In another class, I've just gone through a bout of plagiarism. In our class, the nature of the assignments has precluded a chance to plagiarize, so I wanted to share my thoughts from the other class. Please take a few moments to read this post. Academic integrity is a lesson you *have* to learn before ENG 112.

Yesterday, a couple of your fellow students said something in the plagiarism conferences about which I spent the night thinking, namely a statement to the effect of: "It was only a single/couple of lines/paragraph. Why didn't I get credit for the rest of my work?"

First, you should know that Jen and I didn't come to the "zero/conference/allow revisions with a 'C' cap" policy with any ease. We spoke with colleagues and our program heads. We talked in the office and then spent most of an afternoon in an email exchange that included Tom. What we were looking for was a policy which would drive a crucial ethical lesson home. Many of our colleagues suggested just a zero for the paper. Some suggested dropping the offending student from the course. However, Jen and I wanted to send the message that even when compromised, reputations/images/ethos can be rebuilt. The student comments got me to rethink the policy.

When I was at the National Portrait Gallary in Washington a few weeks back, I read a quotation by John Randolph, one of your fellow Virginians. It said, "To ask any State to surrender part of her sovereignty is like asking a lady to surrender part of her chastity." Randolph's notion is that sovereignty is an absolute. One either possesses it or one doesn't. The quote stuck with me because it resonated with the basic idea behind the old joke about being a little bit pregnant. Over the past week, as I've discussed and pondered the problem of how best to teach academic integrity, I found myself thinking several times of the Randolph quotation and wondering if having a little bit of integrity is like being a little bit pregnant. I've come to the conclusion that the analogy is not a perfect one.

I think a better analogy is that of monogamy in a committed, monogamous relationship. As I began thinking of the students comments from yesterday, this was the analogy to which I returned. Suppose, in a monogamous relationship one gives the appearance of being monogamous 95 percent of the time. What happens? It is possible to rebuild a relationship based on trust into which one has introduced an element of doubt. It is even possible to rebuild such a relationship if one partner knows the other has cheated. However, in the short term, doubt colors each interpretation of the other.

If a person has integrity, then she is trusted. Her actions aren't given the additional scrutiny needed once one perceives a reasonable reason to doubt. However, once doubt in introduced into the relationship, all things change; and, at least in the short term, each word and action is weighed with the possibility in mind that the other may well act in such a way that their good intent should be questioned. Over time, doubt may be turned back into trust and one's ethos, one's reputations and credibility, rebuilt; but, everyone's life is made much, much easier if even the appearance of a lack of integrity is preserved.

Receiving a zero and a chance to revise to a "C" is meant to drive home the point that in most academic discourse your reputation, that is, the appearance and maintenance of integrity, is an assumption readers have to make. Otherwise, the ability to share research or to make crucial decisions involving the work of those one doesn't know personally disappears. Quite literally, our technological, over-populated society depends on everyone policing and protecting everyone's reputation for integrity. This policing is especially true in the academy.

Why? Because in a global world economy, we have to work at a distance. Those with whom you work don't have the luxury of knowing you well enough to use your work if there is *any* reason to distrust it. Professionals regularly make decisions which will change or cost other's lives. We depend on each other to weed out those who don't show academic integrity. There isn't any room for partial credit or even the appearance of a lack of integrity. This is the reason that those the academy accredits, that is, those the academy says are worth trusting with professional decisions, are taught to police each academic paper, to document early in the process, and when making the decision to document or not are taught to err on the side of being a tad paranoid about one's reputation.

Why the zero score for plagarism?

Yesterday, a couple of your fellow students said something in the plagiarism conferences about which I spent the night thinking, namely a statement to the effect of: "It was only a single/couple of lines/paragraph. Why didn't I get credit for the rest of my work?"

First, you should know that Jen and I didn't come to the "zero/conference/allow revisions with a 'C' cap" policy with any ease. We spoke with colleagues and our program heads. We talked in the office and then spent most of an afternoon in an email exchange that included Tom. What we were looking for was a policy which would drive a crucial ethical lesson home. Many of our colleagues suggested just a zero for the paper. Some suggested dropping the offending student from the course. However, Jen and I wanted to send the message that even when compromised, reputations/images/ethos can be rebuilt. The student comments got me to rethink the policy.

When I was at the National Portrait Gallary in Washington a few weeks back, I read a quotation by John Randolph, one of your fellow Virginians. It said, "To ask any State to surrender part of her sovereignty is like asking a lady to surrender part of her chastity." Randolph's notion is that sovereignty is an absolute. One either possesses it or one doesn't. The quote stuck with me because it resonated with the basic idea behind the old joke about being a little bit pregnant. Over the past week, as I've discussed and pondered the problem of how best to teach academic integrity, I found myself thinking several times of the Randolph quotation and wondering if having a little bit of integrity is like being a little bit pregnant. I've come to the conclusion that the analogy is not a perfect one.

I think a better analogy is that of monogamy in a committed, monogamous relationship. As I began thinking of the students comments from yesterday, this was the analogy to which I returned. Suppose, in a monogamous relationship one gives the appearance of being monogamous 95 percent of the time. What happens? It is possible to rebuild a relationship based on trust into which one has introduced an element of doubt. It is even possible to rebuild such a relationship if one partner knows the other has cheated. However, in the short term, doubt colors each interpretation of the other.

If a person has integrity, then she is trusted. Her actions aren't given the additional scrutiny needed once one perceives a reasonable reason to doubt. However, once doubt in introduced into the relationship, all things change; and, at least in the short term, each word and action is weighed with the possibility in mind that the other may well act in such a way that their good intent should be questioned. Over time, doubt may be turned back into trust and one's ethos, one's reputations and credibility, rebuilt; but, everyone's life is made much, much easier if even the appearance of a lack of integrity is preserved.

Receiving a zero and a chance to revise to a "C" is meant to drive home the point that in most academic discourse your reputation, that is, the appearance and maintenance of integrity, is an assumption readers have to make. Otherwise, the ability to share research or to make crucial decisions involving the work of those one doesn't know personally disappears. Quite literally, our technological, over-populated society depends on everyone policing and protecting everyone's reputation for integrity. This policing is especially true in the academy.

Why? Because in a global world economy, we have to work at a distance. Those with whom you work don't have the luxury of knowing you well enough to use your work if there is *any* reason to distrust it. Professionals regularly make decisions which will change or cost other's lives. We depend on each other to weed out those who don't show academic integrity. There isn't any room for partial credit or even the appearance of a lack of integrity. This is the reason that those the academy accredits, that is, those the academy says are worth trusting with professional decisions, are taught to police each academic paper, to document early in the process, and when making the decision to document or not are taught to err on the side of being a tad paranoid about one's reputation.

A Pope a Day...

... keeps the heretics away?

Since you're thinking about Popes for Prof Morrison, anyway, I submit the following for your dubious amusement: the blog of an artist who drew a line drawing of each Pope, day by day, for about a year. More interesting than it sounds:


http://www.mattkirkland.com/popes.html

The Final Week of Class

As we move into the final week of class, I want you going through multiple revisions of your portfolio and taking the time to present your *best* work. This means polishing your cover letter and writing inventory multiple time, taking the time to proofread both (again, multiple times), and making sure the pieces you pick for the evidence section do the work you want them to. Remember: the things you put into the evidence section are meant to help you prove the claims you make as to what you have learned in the cover letter and writing inventory. What you include in the evidence section doesn't have to be polished. This section can include notes, prewriting, annotations from your text, anything you've done on your blog, drafts of papers, etc. et etc.

Your cover letter and writing inventory should be as polished as you can make them.

I strongly suggest that you make at least one last past through the textbook, the class blog, and all your work to make sure you're making the best case you can for your grade and what you've learned in the course.

By the end of all this work, I suspect you will be impressed by all the information to which you've been exposed and how much you've written. Remember: the class isn't designed for you to learn everything to which you've been exposed. If you've learned how to analyze rhetorical situations, process writing, the connection between opinion, support, and evidence, and how to make yourself into a better communicator over time, I will be more than pleased.

You'll turn the whole shebang into me on Wednesday, 7 May.

You can turn this in one of two ways:

1. Add me as a collaborator for a long google doc which contains cover letter, inventory, and evidence. In the evidence section, you can include links to your blog, mindmaps, etc. Just make sure these links work.
2. Turn in everything as a physical portfolio.

I will be finished grading them by 9 May.

Regardless, once you are finished with your portfolio and turn it in, take a moment to fill out a course evaluation.

As always, write with questions.

Creating Better Presentations:

Lifehack is currently doing a series on creating better presentations. It seems timely, so:

Part One:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/presentation-masterclass-part-1-introduction.html

Part Two:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/5-key-questions-when-planning-your-presentation-presentation-masterclass-part-2.html

Taking Good Notes...

The class began with advice on how to read and take notes. This article on taking notes is now a year out of date, but note--class and otherwise--are not a genre that changes quickly. Enjoy, and file under what you know about genres.

Here's the linky:

http://lifehacker.com/software/note-taking/geek-to-live%E2%80%94take-great-notes-167307.php

Here's the link to the _Style_ article:

http://www.styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=16513

For those who are interested, a walk through the Style achieves--available for keyword search online--reveals an illuminating perspective on race, class, and the Metro Richmond area. I'm not sure I agree with all which is said, but the statistics and evidence used to back up the articles may prove useful to you, that is, if you check the sources.

For the groups doing educational reform, inequity, and class distinctions:

The 11 March edition of the local free newspaper, Style, had an article on the controversy around the new PTA President in Richmond. What's interesting are the statistics offered on the differences between the Richmond City schools and those in the surrounding counties. If any of y'all are looking for local examples of education reform, inequity, and class, then you could do much, much worse than this article.

To find the article (and others on the state of the Richmond City schools), start here:

http://www.styleweekly.com/advanced-search.asp

Search city schools.

Link to the _Washington Post_ Article

Jen said I'd forgotten to put the link in for the Washington Post article on the world recongnized violin player pretending to be a street musician. Here it is:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

Make sure to read all the posts this week.

Today, I've posted several posts, make sure to read them, especially the one on the review and writing you need to accomplish this week.

On Writing Conclusions.

Try memorizing a longish list, and you will be able to remember the first and last elements almost at once; but, it will take you multiple passes through the list to get the bulk of the material and remember it in the order it was presented. The upshot is conclusions are one of the few elements you can hope a casual reader will remember; so, you use them to make the main points you want your reader to remember.

Even though conclusions are necessary, they are often difficult to write. I write conclusions by answering a few questions and remembering a few tactics often used. Here are the questions:

• "So what?" or, as one of my past math professor's said, "Why should you give a damn?" The main purpose of a conclusion is to answer these questions and demonstrate to your reader why your thesis--the stance you take on your topic--is useful or meaningful. In a usual paper, you've just spent the body developing good reasons for your reader to believe your thesis. In your conclusion, you explain why your thesis matters, how accepting your thesis will enrich the reader's life, or explain why your thesis is important.
• "What new perspective have I offered on my topic?" Readers often read to gain a new perspective or outside viewpoint on a topic; so, one of the things you can do with a conclusion is to pose questions that follow from accepting your thesis and which you don't have time to develop in your paper.
• "What do I need to say to finish the story I began in my introduction?" I am fond of using a story to hook my reader and lead them toward my thesis statement. This tactic gives me a ready framework for a conclusion. My introduction sets up a story that explains why the topic I'm addressing is important. My body develops my take on the topic, and my conclusion then "finishes" the story I began in the introduction. I think of this approach as the "OK. Here's the moral of the story" approach.
• "How will the future be changed if my thesis is true?" If I've just spent the body of my paper proving a problem exists or suggesting a solution, then I build on this shared ground to predict the future outcomes of my thesis being true.
• "What do I want my reader to do?" Good writers write to change the beliefs and behavior of their audience; so, I often write with a desired behavior in mind. I challenge the reader to change their behavior with a move like, "OK. You've got little choice but to believe my thesis, so you now know that these actions are necessary as a result."
• "What can I do to complete the circle?" If you think of your paper as a circle which begins with your hook and moves through your thesis and body, then it makes sense to bring your reader full circle by returning to your introduction. The tactic of finishing the story I mentioned above is a variation on this tactic. If you begin with a description or a scenario, then you can end with the same description or scenario as seen through the lens of your thesis being true.

Here are some dos and don'ts which are useful:

• Don't just restate your main points or your thesis in short papers. Student writers often want to just restate their thesis and the main points of the body. Such summary is a useful tactic for the conclusion of long papers where the reader may have been distracted from your main point by subsequent points you raise, and you have more than one paragraph in which to write your conclusion. Having said this, in a short paper--like the five paragraph academic essay or an in class short essay--readers aren't going to get lost in the four or five paragraphs you've just written. Just summarizing what you've said is a tad insulting. Instead, you can use the tactic of reminding your reader of your main points fit into a larger picture.
• Don't introduce a new argument. The body of your paper is where you introduce reasons to believe your thesis. The conclusion is where you synthesize your main points and show why your thesis is important. Remember, there is a subtle but very important difference between proving your thesis to be true and discussing why it matters.
• Do pick out and echo key terms or ideas or images. One method of bringing your reader full circle without just repeating your thesis and main points is simply using key terms, ideas, or images from your paper in your conclusion.
• Do think about ending with a quotation from the research you have done.
• Do think about suggesting further research which is necessary.
• Do focus on your thesis and its importance.
• Don't focus on minor point brand new reasons to believe your thesis. It's easy to get enamored by one's own words, but conclusions are about the broad picture. If your conclusion focuses on a minor point you bring up rather than on your thesis, your reader may well get lost.
• Don't apologize. Readers read authors, that is, AUTHORities on a topic; so, don't apologize or say, "This is just my opinion, but..." or "Others may believe differently, but..." or "I'm no expert, but..." I used to collect a quarter from students who apologized for what they say. You are the author of your essay. What you have to say is important, or you wouldn't be saying it and asking your reader to read it.

Online article on tea...

Here's an online article on tea:

http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/culture-inc/food-drink/2008/04/07/Gourmet-Tea-Guide#page1

Assignments Due Sunday, 20 April

We are coming into the final few weeks of the course. This past week, I had you write a draft cover letter--like the one which will be the first element of your class portfolio--in which you evaluated your performance in the course and argued for a grade based on this performance.

This week, I want you to review the course and the material you have learned. Please, please, please take the time to make this review as past experience has shown those who do so create much, much stronger and, hence, more successful final portfolios.

Here's what you should cover in your review:

1. Chapters 1-7 of Writing for College, Writing for Life.
2. The blog.
3. Any of the reading you haven't done, do it now; this will prove one of your final chances.
4. As you read, update your writing inventory with any information that is new to you. If you need to, change the claims you make or the examples you use in your writing inventory; and, then re-read your writing inventory as evidence of what you have learned and what you have learned to apply this semester.
5. If you haven't already, go to bubbl.us and set up an account. Create a mind-map of the *major* lessons *you* have learned this semester. Under each lesson (bubble) list the evidence you can use to support a case for what you claim to have learned. To do this assignment properly, you need to go back and review what you've written this semester and think about how you might use it in your portfolio to support the claims you'll make about what you learned. This mind map will serve as a pre-writing exercise for the final version of your portfolio cover letter, and you can include it in your portfolio evidence section as evidence of what you've learned this semester. In this mindmap, be as complete as possible.

Just to clear up a few of points of logistics:

1. Create your portfolio as a long google document. Share it with me--prof.brandon@gmail.com. You can share it with classmates. This is a good way for you to learn what others are putting into their portfolios, how they are constructing their arguments, and how they've organized the content. It is also a good way to receive feedback from readers in the class you've come to trust; BUT, you are not required to share your portfolio or cover letter with anyone but me.
2. Remember your portfolio will contain:

a. a cover letter in which you will describe the major lessons you've learned. In this explanation, you will use the vocabulary you've learned to discuss and analyze your writing and you will argue for a grade. If you've turned in assignments late or haven't done assignments, here's also the place where you will explain and ask that I don't dock your participation grade (40%). I won't promise to buy your argument. If I do buy it or not will depend on its quality and the evidence you bring to bare. However, I do promise to give everything you say a fair hearing and to think about it before I assign you a final grade.
b. a writing inventory in which you discuss each of the learning outcomes for the course in terms of what you have learned and what you take each outcome to mean and/or discuss. Couch this discussion in terms of your of writing. In other words, I want you to use your own writing--particularly that which you include in the evidence section of the portfolio--as the source of examples you use to illustrate what you have to say about each outcome.
c. an evidence section that contains writing you've done this semester. Note: you are not to include ALL the writing you have done. Include writing you use to support the claims and discussion taking place in the cover letter and in the writing inventory. Pick and choose what you include. Part of what I'm judging is how and how well you pick and present your evidence. Also remember, don't just include final papers. Part of what you've been learning is process writing; so, think about including prewriting, early drafts and revisions, and proofreading copy.

3. Your portfolio should be over twenty pages in length but should not exceed thirty five pages. A page is considered the text which will fit into an 8 1/2 by 11 inch typed page, which is double spaced and whose text appears in a standard 12 point Times New Roman font.

4. Everything in your portfolio will appear in a single, long google document. Make sure to mark each new section.

5. Please use the following template to name your document: "ENG112 FirstName LastName Final Portfolio."

As always, write with questions.

Rules of Evidence: File Under Knowledge of Conventions

Just as discourse communities share conventions of genre, voice, tone, diction, etc., each has its own ideas about what kind and amount of evidence justifies a conclusion. Think, for instance, of what it takes to prove to a woman's support group and a court of law that a husband has committed adultery. You need to discover the rules of evidence for any discourse community you wish to join. Why? Logos and ethos based arguments heavily depend on evidence to support them. If you don't use enough evidence or don't employ the right type, then the credibility of your arguments suffers or, in the worse case, might be destroyed.

Academic discourse has fairly rigorous standards of evidence, because the outside community often bases their opinion and actions on the knowledge we create and propagate. As a student, you might find these rigorous standards finicky, but you want your doctors to know what is enough evidence to decide what your disease is and not make mistakes. You want engineers to know (and not just think or believe) that the steel and concrete used to make a bridge is up to the daily load of traffic over it. In other words, you don't want folks making critical decision to have slack rules of evidence.

Part of developing an academic voice is learning what rules of evidence, that is what types and amount, are sufficient for the discipline you are studying to draw a conclusion. Those of us in English might be able to construct Shakespeare's life from the scant pieces of evidence on which we have to draw, but you don't want folks using these same rules to convict you of murder.

Here are some words we use to describe and talk about evidence. Learn them:

• opinion
• hearsay
• authenticity
• physical evidence
• relevance
• germane
• authentic
• expert
• sufficient
• enough
• lack of
• sufficiency
• eye-witness
• primary
• secondary
• biased
• source of
• documented
• refereed
• long standing
• degree of certainty
• smoking gun
• circumstantial
  
• empirical
  
• qualitative
• verifiable
• quantified
  

Notes on Revision

Each semester, as I teach another course, developmental writing, I provide my class with notes on how to revise an argumentative, three hour, in-class paper, but most of these notes apply to most academic writing; so, I decided to share them with you. Find them below:

Here’s the real secret to good writing: revision. As with most profound ideas, it sounds simple, but it’s not. Good writers revise as they draft, AND they go through multiple revisions after a draft is complete. The first manner of revision is easy to get your head around. Because most of us now write on the computer, we tend to see revision as an ongoing part of writing, and we tend to believe a paper is finished when we draft the last paragraph and read back through it once or twice. This isn’t revision.

It is next to impossible to revise completely as you draft and as you proofread. My brother once told me, “If a girl is worth asking out, she is worth your full and undivided attention.” He was right. The same rule applies to revision. When you revise, you revise. Take the time. Just as with a date, you will be happier with the results. Of course, the problem is, just as with that date, if you don’t take the time to give revision your full attention, you may come to the mistaken belief that what you are experiencing is the best date out there. If for no other reason, revise because you want a higher score.

Tips for Revision:

1. Print out a hard copy of your draft.

2. Spend individual time revising, and print out a new copy.

3. Read the new copy *out loud*, and revise it again.

4. Print out yet a new hard copy, and get a second reader to help you revise it.

Here are the most important, general questions you need to answer at as you revise?

• Is there another idea(s) you might introduce which would make your claim(s) sound more reasonable or clarify your thinking?
• Could your paper be organized in a better way? For a moment, play with the idea of moving your paragraphs or sections into a new order.
• Do you provide sufficient evidence to support each of your claims, both the major claim you make in your thesis statement AND the other claims you make in each paragraph? Look at each claim and sub-claim, ask yourself, “What additional evidence could I provide?” “Do I provide enough evidence?” The secret number is three. If I provide three reasons or three pieces of evidence to support an idea, then I know—in general—I’ve provided enough.
• Do you define the terms you use and illustrate them with examples, stories, etc.?
• Do I stay on topic? Do I introduce ideas I need to cut, or do I introduce ideas to which I need to devote their own paragraph?
• Could I add a phrase or sentence which would clarify what I want to say?

Here are questions to ask of each section of your paper?

Introduction:

• Does the introduction hook the reader and draw them into the paper?
• Does the introduction lead in a logical straightforward way to my thesis statement?
• If I introduce unfamiliar terms, do I define them in the introduction?
• Does the introduction provide context for my take on the topic and my thesis?

Thesis:

• Is my thesis narrow enough? Can I fully develop this thesis in the time I have to write?
• Is my thesis too broad? Have I written a thesis which is so broad that everything I have to say about it seems vague and too general?
• Does my thesis say what I want to say about my topic?
• Does my thesis make a point worth considering? Will my reader care about my point? Do I care about the point I am making?
• Does my thesis provide the reader with a sense of the structure of the paper?
• Does my paper fulfill the promises I make in the thesis?

Structure:

• Is my structure logical?
• Are there gaps in the reasons I give my reader to believe my thesis?
• Do I require my reader to make logical leaps for which I haven’t prepared her?
• Is each of my sub-claims, points, and pieces adequately developed?
• Is each point equally developed?
• Is each point interesting?
• Is each point relevant to the case I am making?

Body Paragraphs:

• Does each paragraph have a topic sentence which controls the paragraph?
• Does each paragraph establish a single focus and stay on focus?
• Do I provide adequate transitions from paragraph to paragraph?
• Is each paragraph clearly related to my thesis?

Conclusion:

• Does your conclusion sum up my main point?
• Does my conclusion introduce a completely new idea?
• Does my conclusion leave the reader with something to think about?

In class assignment, Wednesday, 2 April

Every once in a while I pull one of those absence minded professor moments which is more of a boner than normal. Usually, it's just leaving my books, pens, eye-glasses in a room or forgetting to pick up my wallet or forgetting where I put a stack of student papers. This morning was different, and my carelessness was compounded by the fact I was half asleep.

Around 4:30 this morning, my joints are hurting; so, I wake up early and stumble into the bathroom to grab a pill which will get the pain down to manageable levels and I can fall back asleep. Unfortunately, Nance has just gotten a prescription for Ambien, a medicine for insomnia. I take it by mistake, and it's only as I get up at 5:30 and literally stumble toward my bath that I realize that something is very, very wrong. In any event, I won't be driving this morning, and if all goes well, I will soon be snooring again.

You will, however, have class. I would like you to meet in your groups and begin work on your tea papers. Brainstorm together what you might say in your paper. Go through your sociology texts and try to figure out places where what was discussed apply to the tea. If possible, work out a tentative outline for your paper prior to leaving class. You will turn a *copy* of these outlines in to me on Friday, so you have between now and Friday to work on them.

I am trusting you to stay on task and work in groups. On Friday, since you'll again be working in groups, this time on your oral presentation, I'll have more to say on the subject. Here's the short version:

Appointment someone to run the meeting and someone to keep track of what gets said:

1. Figure out a clear statement of what you need to accomplish.
2. Assign specific tasks for each member of your group to accomplish.
3. Set specific deadlines for these tasks to be accomplished.
4. Negotiate these deadlines/tasks until every feels comfortable.
5. Set a time, place, and the agenda for the next meeting.


Steve

Why Commas Matter

Writing Advice and Resources

Here's the best of the advice on writing I read this week on the web. Find below a like to StudentHack and a post with some very good advice on starting and completing a first draft:

http://studenthacks.org/2008/03/31/first-draft/

Here's a link to one of the best collection of writing resources I've seen on over a year. It's focused toward professional and creative writers, but there's lots (and I mean *LOTS*) of good stuff here for student writers:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/the-ultimate-writing-productivity-resource.html


Enjoy.

Your Last, New Reading Assignment from _Writing for College, Writing for Life_

Read: Chapter 8, "Writing to Convince."

Reading for the Portfolio

When thinking about putting together your portfolio, may I suggest you read appendix A in _Writing for College, Writing for Life_. This reading will show you an example of a student portfolio which was put together for one of the authors of the text. It will offer some suggestions for ways to organize and select materials. Pay particular attention to how the author, Chelsea Rundle, has responded to the the learning outcomes.

Steve