revise

Final Portfolio Assignment Sheet

We’re quickly approaching the conclusion of this semester—which I consider to be both a positive and a negative thing. Positive in that we’re almost done, ready to move on to different challenges; positive that we get to pause from our creation of new material and reflect on what we’ve learned and accomplished in this class. But negative that we’ve got a lot of work (and possibly stressing) to do. This assignment sheet provides an up-to-date description of the final portfolio process. 

Revisions for the portfolio

I’m grading your portfolio based on 1) what you originally got on your essays, and 2) how much revision you do on them. If you do the base level of revision, as described below, you will receive the same grade you originally got on the essay (which I will average against your other essay scores for a full portfolio grade). So if you got a C on essay #1, then a B on essay #2, and an A on essay #3, your portfolio—assuming you did the base revisions and cover letter—would average out to be around a B. Here are the base revisions I require to keep the grade you got:

Base-Level Revisions:

• Not only address (or attempt to address) all the grammatical issues that your peers or I marked, but also address a number that we missed. I didn’t mark sentences that were border-line awkward, so I guarantee that there’s something for you to work on.
• Improve all the easier-to-fix recommendations, as well as the more difficult to address, global issues that you, your peers, or I noticed.
• Try something new and creative on one of your essays: re-write your introduction, conclusion, or add something different. Perhaps a “zoom-in” descriptive paragraph, a story, illustration, graph, etc. (includes essay #3).

What are “easier-to-fix” recommendations? If you got an A, you may need to work harder than if you got a C-. If you don’t change anything, I’ll average out your essays, then subtract a full letter grade (so if you average an A-, your portfolio will drop to a B-). I want your cover letter (more on that below) to argue that the changes you made were at least base-revision, or the more difficult higher-level revisions.

Higher-Level Revisions:

• Complete all the base-level revisions, but to a greater degree. Depending on the original state of your essays, a majority of the sentences on at least one essay should be cut or improved, with entirely new, moved, and/or rewritten paragraphs on each of the essays.
• Add more quality research to your essays. Maybe it’s filling in an aspect of your essay that you missed or skimmed over, or maybe it’s getting better sources that were already pretty good.

Higher-level revisions will boost your grade depending on their thoroughness, need, and quality. You may move from just barely getting the page length to getting right in the middle (still don’t go over though). If you’re concerned about your grade, this is a great opportunity to make up some lost ground. Also, as a side-note, I will consider the final quality of your pieces, but I tend to more greatly value to quality of the revisions. So, for example, if you started out with a C piece and ended up with what I would normally grade as a B (but your revisions were significant and along the right path for the most part), you’ll probably get a higher grade than that on that piece. Also, I don’t expect as much revision for your essay #3, which I will most likely still have.