Instructor: Student's adviser
Credit: 1
Schedule: Thursdays 11 am, H403 (meets as a group four times during the semester)
Prerequisite: Minimum of 90 credits
Offered: Fall, spring of every year
Grading: S-N or Audit

Course goal
This is a required capstone course for all Writing Studies majors. Students will assemble portfolios that showcase the work they have produced during their studies in the major, working with their adviser as a way of preparing them for the steps they will take after graduation and to reflect on their growth and development.

Objectives

1. Learn the importance of a professional portfolio and its role in the job search.
2. Learn through their own initiative (and using existing campus resources) how to use a content manangement system to create an online portfolio.
3. Create a professional online portfolio that is a collection of student work demonstrating a range of skills and abiliites.
4. Offer a guide to the material that includes reflection on and promotion of the work in a way that will allow the portfolio to "stand alone" when it is accessed remotely.
5. Meet with adviser in a final portfolio presentation that will be akin to a mock job interview.
   

Class format
This course is an independent study and does not meet regularly. The student and the adviser will agree on a plan and meeting schedule.

Required elements
Each major in the Department of Writing Studies will have a portfolio that is specialized depending on the student's areas of interest, focus of study and perceived strengths. Each student's target audience will also influence what is included in the portfolio. Some may be going on to graduate school; some may want to place greater empahsis on their visual skills; others may want to showcase their writing; others may be more interested in new media work. It is up to the student and the adviser to agree on a portfolio that shows versatility coupled with a high level of mastery and polish. All work in the portfolio should meet a high personal standard for innovation, originality, creativity and craftmanship.
It is expected that each portfolio will include:
- A professional resume
- Roughly 5 to 10 projects produced while enrolled as a student in the Department of Writing Studies that demonstrate mastery of Department Learning Outcomes (see below).

During the course you’ll use ePortfolio to create a showcase of your work that demonstrates what you’ve learned on your way to a Writing Studies major. This is a one-credit class that’s graded pass/no pass

Here’s what you need to do to complete the course.
1. Choose at least one sample of your work to demonstrate learning for each of the Writing Studies program’s seven learning outcomes. You may duplicate samples across the learning outcomes, but choose a minimum of five to put in your portfolio. These samples can be written documents such as news stories or grant proposals. They can be brochures or newspaper pages that feature your layout skills. They can be photographs or videos or other multimedia. Think broadly.
2. With each shared sample of your work, write a reflection that explains, specifically, how the attached document demonstrates learning for that outcome. Your reflection should cite specific examples from the shared work to show evidence of learning. Explain how the sample demonstrates your mastery of the outcome. Also, you have the opportunity in these reflections to explain something to the reader that may not be apparent by reading /observing the attached work. (The seven outcomes for the major are on the back of this sheet.)
3. Make a brief, informal oral presentation of your portfolio to the faculty and your
classmates.

Schedule
February 17
We meet again as a group. That’s Thursday of week 5 of the semester. Before that meeting, you have two tasks to complete.
• Choose the samples of your work that you plan to include in your portfolio.
• Write a draft of one reflection for one of the chosen samples (as explained above) that you plan to include in your portfolio. That week we'll meet as a class to talk about your progress and answer questions.
April 4—April 15
During week 11 or 12 of the semester, you’ll meet one-on-one with your adviser to look through your nearly-completed portfolios. This gives you time to make changes or additions that your adviser suggests.
April 28 & May 5
These are the last two Thursdays of the semester. We'll meet as a group on these days to hear students present their portfolios.

Writing Studies B.A. Program Outcomes
Graduates with a B.A. in Writing Studies will be able to:
Articulate foundational concepts in the discipline of Writing Studies.
Students will be able to communicate theoretical and historical principles fundamental to the discipline of Writing Studies, including, but not limited to, the history of literacy, writing systems, and writing technology as well as contemporary writing, linguistic, rhetorical, and journalistic theories.
Conduct research proficiently.
Students will be able to locate, evaluate, interpret, and synthesize both primary and secondary (print and electronic) sources as well as be familiar with and able to use fundamental research methods. Students will be able to read critically, thereby enabling them to make ethical, responsible choices in response to and
support of specific rhetorical tasks.
Compose well-written documents for specific rhetorical situations.
Students will be able to identify and analyze the interplay among writers, diverse audiences, media, and subjects to produce suitable and persuasive texts, both independently and collaboratively. Students will be able to make appropriate technological and stylistic choices to carry out these writing tasks efficiently and
effectively.
Engage in a writing process that results in effective documents.
Students will be able to plan, draft, revise, and edit text in response to self-assessment as well as feedback from others using a recursive process, resulting in a document that achieves its goals given the rhetorical situation presented.
Recognize that writing is a tool for lifelong learning.
Students will learn to see thinking as inextricably linked to writing, identifying and practicing writing as a lifelong tool for complex critical thinking and problem solving tasks.
Employ writing as a tool for civic engagement.
Students will be able to identify situations in which writing can be used to influence the thoughts and actions of social, cultural, professional, and political organizations and groups and ethically respond to these situations using the appropriate writing medium.
Write Edited Standard Written English.
Students will be able to produce text that is free from the kinds of spelling, usage, grammar, and punctuation errors that hinder clear communication.

Portfolio structure and format
Students are strongly encouraged to use UMD's content manangment sysgtem, ePortfolio, which guarantees that items will be protected for a lifetime at no cost to students. Students can also receive free training on this program through the campus Knowledge Managment Center.

Portfolio Examples
Example 1
Example 2
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4

Recommended reading: An overview of frequently asked questions about the journalism job market.

Academic Integrity
Issues of academic integrity are taken very seriously. In professional writing (and in life) all we have is our credibility. When it is gone, it cannot be recovered. You can expect that I will strictly follow the university’s procedures regarding violations of these rules.
If you find yourself in trouble or worried about a situation, come see me immediately and be honest. I will do all I can to help you out.
Prohibited Conduct (from Academic Integrity Policy):

1. submission of false records of academic achievement
2. cheating on assignments or examinations
3. submitting sentences or ideas as your own without proper acknowledgment or citation (plagiarizing)
4. altering, forging, or misusing a University academic record or forging the signature of any member of the University community
5. taking, acquiring, using, or circulating test materials without faculty permission
6. acting alone or in cooperation with another to falsify records or to obtain dishonestly grades, honors, awards, or professional endorsement
7. facilitating academic dishonesty by knowingly assisting another student to violate the Student Academic Integrity Policy, such as providing course work for another student to turn in as his or her own effort or taking an exam for another student
8. presenting as one’s own a plot, succession of ideas, or list/outline of another without proper acknowledgment
9. attending a class, completing an assignment, or taking a quiz/test in the name of another student
10. altering or viewing computer records, dispensing or releasing information gained via unauthorized access, modifying computer programs or systems, or interfering with the use or availability of computer systems or information (refer to UMD policy)
11. purchasing or otherwise presenting work as your own when it was done by another person
12. submitting the same paper or work (or generally similar papers or work) to meet the requirements of more than one course without the approval and consent of faculty
13. depriving another student of necessary study or research materials or in any way impeding another student’s work and pursuit of education
14. submitting falsified data, such as bibliographic resources and experimental data or altering graded academic work/quizzes/tests and resubmitting them in order to get a higher grade
15. use of electronic devices for the unauthorized assistance in academic work, quizzes, or tests

Disabilities
This publication/material is available in alternative formats upon request. Please contact (name, department, address, phone number).
It is University policy to provide, on a flexible and individualized basis, reasonable accommodations to students who have disabilities that may affect their ability to participate in course activities or to meet course requirements. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact me to discuss individual needs for accommodations.

Sexual Harassment
University policy prohibits sexual harassment as defined in the University Policy Statement (http://www1.umn.edu/regents/policies/humanresources/SexHarassment.html) adopted on December 11, 1998. Complaints about sexual harassment should be reported to the University Office of Equal Opportunity, 419 Morrill.