Course Overview and Policy Statements
The second portfolio, due Dec. 5, includes your work on an individual topic this term. It will count for 50% of the final grade. You must include two polished papers on approved topics, totaling approximately 15-18 pages. The audience and purpose of each paper should be noted at the top of each final draft.
You will also need to include photocopies of all articles you cite in your final drafts, as well as required workshop sheets for the portfolio.
Please remember to clip all the drafts of these arguments to the final versions, with the final draft on top of the stack. All final drafts must be typed in a readable font (12 point Times New Roman works well), double-spaced, with 1 inch margins.
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Criteria for the Portfolio
Topic: Your topics must be related to science in some way, and topics must be researched. If you aren't sure your topic will work, check with me.
Audience: You specify the audience. Sometimes it's easiest to think in terms of possible publications to detail the intended audience. The only audience you cannot write to in this portfolio is experts in your field.
Purpose: You specify the purpose appropriate to your audience. One element of final evaluation will be how well you fulfill your purpose for the specified readers. The only limitations on purpose are
Development: Support your claim(s) with specific detail from sources. Unsupported assertion isn't an acceptable approach in these papers. Moreover, details stick in readers' mind and make your point more effectively than do general statements. Check each point in your paper and make sure you back it up with adequate support. You may include your own analytic thinking and personal experience where appropriate.
Organization: Arrange your paper in a coherent, readable, logical manner. Avoid merely providing summaries of sources.
Sources and Documentation: Don't ignore experts at CSU or contacts through the CSU/county extension service. We also have experts on campus who will be happy to talk to you about specific issues.
We'll talk in class about options for citing sources. In general, plan to use in-text citations and a Works Cited page. No footnotes. You must clearly cite your sources, including interviews and any informal survey data. If you haven't used parenthetical citations before, be sure to see me. Each paper in portfolio 2 must have a Works Cited list giving bibliographic information about the sources cited in the paper.
Style: Write in a style that is clear and readable with few, if any, grammatical, mechanical or usage errors. Make stylistic choices appropriate for your audience or the target publication.
Layout: Although visuals and headings are not required for this portfolio, you may find that they help you. Headings can often signal the organization of your paper, particularly helpful for readers if your claim is complex or your paper exceeds eight pages. Visuals--graphs, tables, charts, pictures--can all enhance the appeal of your papers, so use them if they're appropriate given your audience, purpose, and target publication.
You don't need a separate title page. Begin your Works Cited (with this heading) list two or three spaces after your text ends. Be sure to leave one inch margins all around but, otherwise, don't waste paper.
Back to Individual Topic Assignments