Instructor: Kevin Lyon
WRD 103
Assignment: Final Portfolio
FQ 2012

PURPOSE: As we prepare for the closing of the quarter, you are given the opportunity to again reflect on the work you have done and to recognize any goals you have yet to achieve in your writing. Additionally, you are expected to revise the work you have done over the quarter to reflect the ideas and developments we have covered for the quarter. Because the portfolio should be cumulative for all of the work you did this quarter, please continue adding on to the portfolio you created for the midterm. You will have the opportunity to improve on any of the elements you included in your midterm, and to add in new elements of the work and the reflection for your work in the course overall.
The student writing portfolio. (Taken from the FYW Handbook)

“A cornerstone of our pedagogy, the student writing portfolio provides the opportunity for students to demonstrate the degree to which they have achieved both the program’s learning outcomes and their own writing goals. DePaul’s FYW program requires that students create digital portfolios using the Digication portfolio platform that has been created for DePaul’s FYW program. Required of each student in every FYW course, writing portfolios necessitate that students keep track of their work (collection), take responsibility for selecting pieces of their writing that represent their achievements (selection), and reflect on their own work in the course (reflection). In this way, students are accountable for their choices; they must consider what they have and haven’t learned; and they must take stock of their role in this learning.
Digital portfolios embrace an enhanced model of literacy that includes digital literacy. While building upon modalities with which students are already familiar, digital literacy has currency both within the university and outside it, figuring importantly into students’ academic, professional and personal lives.
Faculty in various units at DePaul—including WRD and FYW—have been using Digication for the past several years. This platform has proven to be flexible and easy to learn and use, enabling students to present both conventional academic essays but also to work with image, audio and video. Digication is supported both by the university and within our department.” ASSIGNMENT: You will be completing the remainder of your Digication portfolio. The final version of this portfolio will serve as the comprehensive final for the course, and will include ALL work completed from day 1 (in and out of class), as well as reflections on the specific course goals and First Year Writing Learning Outcomes (available in this document and on D2L). The portfolio will be your chance to show multiple drafts of all your papers, and to reflect on these pieces in order to describe the design choices you made, and to show what you have (or have yet) to learn from WRD 103 and First Year Writing. This is also your opportunity to reflect on what may not have worked out well for you, or what you still want to work on as you move ahead in the First Year Writing program and beyond.

Your portfolio will be graded on all aspects for this final submission. This means that first and foremost, it should be a comprehensive and critical reflection of your work in this course. Secondly, it should be complete, with all requested elements in place, with a logical sense of order that controls the flow of the portfolio (i.e. each section should have a clear organization and purpose). Finally, it should be visually appealing, using images, video, or audio where appropriate to enhance the work that you are displaying or reflecting upon (please do not include frivolous images, videos, text, or any other element that does not add to the work you are presenting—remember, multimodal writing seeks to convey a message effectively using multiple forms of communication or semiotics. By including