12.10.13

Portfolio Intro

1. Organize your portfolio in a way that is meaningful to you and create a Table of Contents. (Feel free to be creative here too—or offer relevant info/abstract/descriptions of which assignment the piece grew out of).

2. Flip through your work (again and again) and think about the various processes you went through this semester. 

3. Write a HIGHLY descriptive Introduction to yourself and your work (3-5 pages). You may choose to write this in any style you see fit (think our meta-assignment if you like)—first or third person... formal, informal… etc.

           

4. Explain how you have arranged the pieces and what you learned about yourself as a writer and as a human being this fall. Address all of these issues:

            A. The reading (professional and craft-oriented and your peers’)

            B. The writing (both the original process and revision)

            C. The critiquing (as peer-partner and as line-editor/as a critiquer and as a critiquee)

           

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*At the beginning of each piece you offer—please include a brief explanation of why you chose the assignment and what your revision process entailed—no more than a paragraph is necessary. BE as creative as the spirit moves you to be. Strike that—be more creative. But be INSIGHTFUL. Look at your own work with the critical eye that you have been developing all semester. BE HONEST with yourself (the risk I am looking for).

Feel free to highlight, sticky-note, underline and use visual aides.... feel free to GO CRAZY, as long as you reflect upon and analyze honestly your development as a writing human.

Do not use easy phrases such as “I’ve learned a lot about....” and “I have improved as a writer because...”  Instead, point me to the places of interest in your writing, your FAVORITE places. Talk to them, not about them.

Take responsibility for the work you did this semester. Offer compliments to peers whose work was particularly valuable to your process, and ask yourself what you might have done to suck more marrow from the bones of this class and the world. Candid, constructive, and generous critique is what I am looking for. No blowing of the smoke.

YOUR PORTFOLIO IN ITS ENTIRETY IS DUE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17^th IN MY MAILBOX (or stop by and hand-deliver)

Enjoy your break.