top of page

COLLEGE COMPOSITION I

FINAL PORTFOLIO

FIRST-YEAR%20WRITING%20PROGRAM_edited.pn

STUDENT

RESOURCE

GUIDE

ABOUT THE CCII PORTFOLIO


At the end of the semester, you will submit a portfolio of formal written work, including rough drafts and revisions, that is evaluated by your instructor. Your portfolio will take the form of a binder, folder, or electronic collection (see your instructor for specific formatting instructions), and it will contain a selection of the writing you have completed in the course. The portfolio will also include a reflective statement: a personal discussion on how your writing has met the goals of the course. Your instructor will collect your portfolio during the last two weeks of class. During Finals Week your instructors will set up a conference with you to return your portfolio and discuss its evaluation and your final grade for the course.


Your CCII portfolio makes up the major portion of your grade for the class. Depending on your instructor’s course policy, it will count from 60% to 75% of your grade. The rest of the grade will be based on other assignments and requirements as defined by your instructor.


The portfolio is designed to demonstrate your progress over the course of the semester. During the course, you will engage in multiple stages of generating, refining, and revising your writing projects until they form focused, coherent, and purposeful pieces of writing. In your portfolio, you will include your early drafts as well as your polished, final drafts, in order to demonstrate how your writing has developed over time.

HOW DO I PREPARE FOR MY FINAL PORTFOLIO?


As you write and turn in essays throughout the semester, your instructor will provide comments and feedback to guide your revision. Your instructor will also give you some indication of the overall quality of each essay. Regardless of the marks you receive on your drafts, your portfolio evaluation will be primarily based on your final, polished writings, and the improvement of your drafts over time. Be sure to consult your instructor during the semester for more specific feedback on your progress and revision strategies.

PORTFOLIO EVALUATION


Your portfolio will be evaluated on the basis of the five Core Values of the First-Year Writing Program. Your performance in the course will be determined by the degree that you demonstrate your comprehension of the Core Values through your course writings and activities, as well as how well you articulate your comprehension of these values in the reflective statement. 


Your instructor will collect your final portfolio during the last two weeks of class. During finals week your instructor will set up a conference with you to return your portfolio and discuss its evaluation and your final evaluation for the course.

WHAT GOES IN THE PORTFOLIO?

Your final portfolio will likely consist of 4-5 items, including: two major writing projects completed in the course, a cumulative Annotated Bibliography, and your Reflective Statement.


While all CCII portfolios look very much alike physically, the specific assignments you will prepare for your portfolio may be different from the assignments your fellow students complete in other sections of CCII. There are always differences in how individual teachers design their courses; however, all course instructors develop their courses and assignments in response to the Program’s common values, goals and desired outcomes.


Items 1 & 2: Two written arguments with at least one instructor-commented draft each


You will write at least two major argument-driven writing projects and revise two of these projects at least once. Each of the two revised essays/projects you include in the portfolio will represent a different argumentative approach, such as a definition, evaluation, causal, rebuttal, or proposal argument. 


Your CCII portfolio essays need to meet the following requirements:

  • Each major project/essay must be a minimum of 900 words.

  • Your argumentative projects/essays must have been submitted to your instructor and revised.

  • Your portfolio must include one instructor-commented-on draft for each of the final revised projects/essays.

  • Your projects/essays must incorporate sources — a minimum of two and a maximum of four — and use appropriate in-text citation and include References pages.

  • Your portfolio projects/essays need to represent two different argumentative types.

Item 3: The Reflective Statement


The Reflective Statement is your opportunity to describe and assess your work in the course. In this statement you explain how you have met the course expectations—those items identified as “do or demonstrate” in the five Core Values. The Reflective Statement serves as a guide to your portfolio in that it gives you and your instructor a clear, specific sense of what you have achieved in the course.


Your CCII portfolio Reflective Statement should demonstrate how your skills have grown and developed since I/CCI. Consult your instructor for specific instructions and requirements for the Reflective Statement, and see the explanation below for more info.

Item 4: An Annotated Bibliography


Your annotated bibliography will consist of 8+ sources that you have engaged in your research this semester. Your instructor will provide you with the specifics for the documentation style, guidelines, and expectations. However, every CCII Annotated Bibliography will be expected to meet the following requirements: 

  • All the items on the bibliography should be college-level and credible sources, written by experts or important voices in the field. This means no unattributed sources (sources without an author), general knowledge or simple encyclopedias (e.g. About.com), or websites without credible authors and/or editors.

  • Your bibliography should include a variety of types of sources—from traditional academic sources to more popular sources, which can include multi-media sources (such as film documentaries and even YouTube videos).

Item 5 (Optional, based on instructor's discretion): A Multimodal Rhetoric Assignment


Your instructor may ask you for one additional project in the final portfolio, focused on multimodal rhetoric (i.e. making arguments in modes outside of exclusively text-based genres, using visual, auditory, audiovisual, etc. forms.) You will be required to either create a multimodal argument or analyze a multimodal argument. Depending on your class assignment, you will need to include in your portfolio:


The multimodal argument you created (if the piece is online, include a link) and an explanation of the argument (250 to 500 words)
OR
Your analysis of a multimodal argument with an image of the visual itself (500 to 800 words)

THE REFLECTIVE STATEMENT 


In your Reflective Statement, you are required to address each of the five Core Values and identify how the work included in your portfolio or completed in the class shows that you understand the course expectations and have achieved them. Your instructor will provide you opportunities throughout the semester to reflect on your work in order to build your understanding of what you are learning in the course and in preparation for writing this culminating statement.


As you move through the First-Year Writing program sequence, your understanding of the five Core Values should expand and develop. In CCII, you will be expected to demonstrate a more sophisticated understanding of each Core Value than you demonstrated in CCI. To see how the learning objectives for each Core Value change from CCI to CCII, view this printable chart.


The Reflective Statement is a very important component of your portfolio and has a significant effect on the final evaluation of the portfolio. Therefore, it is important to carefully craft this statement. Give yourself ample time to complete the self-reflective statement. This assignment requires you to analyze and reflect upon a semester’s worth of work—a significant project. Also, carefully analyzing your work may help you identify an issue in one of more of your essays that you can improve upon through further revision. If you have taken another course in the program, you may not recycle content from your previous reflection statement. You are expected to write a fresh reflection on your work from the current semester.

PORTFOLIO POLICIES
 

  • You must include a draft with instructor comments for each major assignment included in the final portfolio.​
     

  • Your portfolio should be complete and contain all required items. If anything is missing, this will significantly impact your grade on it.
     

  • Your instructor will only accept your portfolio if you have not exceeded the allowable number of absences as defined by our Attendance Policy (see Policies). If you have life circumstances interfering with your ability to attend class, you should communicate with your instructor about this ASAP as those life events arise to see if they can accommodate you.​
     

  • You must have a passing (D- or higher) final course portfolio to be eligible to pass the course. A failing course portfolio will earn a failing grade (F) for the course, regardless of your grade(s) on your non-portfolio work.

How do I prepare?
Portfolio Evaluation
What goes in the portfolio
The Reflective Statement
Portfolio policies
bottom of page