Midterm Portfolio Assignments

Personal Essay
Summary Essay
Synthesis/Analysis Essay

Portfolio Requirements [Note Important Date Changes!]

Personal Essay

For your first essay, you have two options. In either case, you should write 2-3 pages, typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides. Even though this essay will be more personal, I still expect you to have a clear controlling purpose or thesis that shapes your paper. You should also have clear, focused, well-developed paragraphs. Basically, you should follow the standard guidelines of "good" writing that you have been learning here at UIC (or wherever else you have been studying composition). We will, of course, talk more about what makes a strong, well- developed essay as class goes on. A complete draft of this essay is due at the start of class on Thursday, January 28. If you do not turn in a draft or it's late, the final grade on your midterm portfolio will be lowered by half a letter grade (from B+ to B, B- to C+, etc.)

Option One
If you choose, you could write an essay that explores how you first learned about AIDS. There are several questions you could explore. How did you first learn of HIV/AIDS? What was said to you by your parents, the media, or in your Sex Education or Health classes? What did first hearing about it make you think or feel? Who is the first person you heard of, famous or not, who had HIV or AIDS? What did you think about how that person was represented or discussed? What are the early rumors you heard about the disease? What did you think of them? This option is meant for those of you who want to chance and space to discuss something personal or to explore aspects of your own life that you haven't really thought about, but would like to try.

Option Two
If you don't feel like you have a lot to say about your own life, or you don't feel comfortable doing so, that's certainly fine. Feel free to examine your personal reaction to the novel we are reading, The Gifts of the Body. What does reading the book make you think or feel? What surprises you? Which characters do you like or not like? What do you believe is valuable about this book? What do you think is problematic? Most importantly, why do you feel what you feel and think what you think?

It's also possible to combine both options. You could write about the book and use what you say to delve into some aspect of your personal experience. Feel free to do that if it feels right to you. That's what you should do with this and all of your papers: choose an angle that you feel comfortable with and that you believe you can cover under the guidelines provided. Don't forget that you can visit the Writing Center and speak to me throughout the process of writing this and all of your papers.

Summary Essay

With your first essay, I wanted you to do some more formalized "brainstorming." In other words, I wanted you to do some general thinking about the topic of AIDS, start doing some writing, and just get some ideas swirling in your head. Now, we'll start working on the writing skills that often define academic writing and always go into a research paper. We begin with summary. As the Director of the Composition Program here at UIC says in her book, Writing and Learning in the Disciplines, "Whenever you summarize, you are putting the source in your own words and in a more concise form than the original" (367). You are probably thinking that summary is really simple and that it's pretty insane to write an essay that just summarizes something. Well, trust me; you'll see the bigger point as we go along..

Write a one page (no more, no less) summary of Chapter Two, "Connection," of Surviving the Fall: The Personal Journey of an AIDS Doctor by Peter A. Selwyn.

Sounds simple? Well, in a way it is, and in a way it isn't. First, I am limiting you to one-typed page because that starts to represent the kind of summarizing you will do in your final research papers: concise and focused. In other words, you will often be summarizing key texts for a paragraph; this assignment is designed to replicate that task. Second, your summary actually will do two things because there are two types of summaries.

Objective Summary: In this type of summary, you focus on describing what the author has to say while leaving out your own ideas and opinions. Though using your own words, you are supposed to focus entirely upon conveying the author's intended message.
Evaluative Summary: In this type of summary, you add your own opinions, commenting on the text you are summarizing. You provide your own framework that enables your audience to read or understand your text in a certain way.

In this essay, I want you to combine both. The easiest way to do this is to do your evaluation at the start and end of your essay. But you can also weave both throughout. Take a look at the "Guide to Summarizing" in your packet. This paper is due on Tuesday, February 9.

Synthesis/Analysis Essay

Skills of synthesis and analysis are two of the most important and useful skills that you can develop as a thinker and writer. For the last paper in your midterm portfolio, and the last you will write before you begin the work that will lead to your final research project, you will write an essay that utilizes the skills of synthesis and analysis.

In at least three (3) pages (though probably more), write an essay that analyzes some particular aspect of Rebecca Brown's The Gifts of the Body. In this essay, you should use three (3) other sources that we have read in class.

In this essay, you will need to find and establish and clear and specific focus. You can analyze any aspect of the text such as Brown's representations of people with AIDS, the style she uses to tell her story, proving who you think her audience might be. Pick anything about the book that you want to discuss. We'll talk about this essay more in class, but remember that this type of essay is supposed to address how and why Brown does something in her text.

Use the other sources from class to provide ideas and questions to use in your analysis. Using Simon Watney or Sarah Schulman, you could analyze Brown's use of language. You could compare Selwyn to Brown (as long as the emphasis remains on Brown's novel). This paper should follow the same format assigned for all essays in this class. In addition, I will expect to see quotations from all of the texts that you discuss, and you should use proper MLA style in both your quotations and your Works Cited page. See chapter 46 of Longman for help in this aspect of your writing. Also, check out the guides to synthesis and analysis that are in your course packet.

You should bring three (3) copies of a draft of this essay to class on Tuesday, March 2 for a peer response session. A draft that I will comment on is due Thursday, March 4. Because your portfolio is due the following Thursday, I will have all responses completed by noon on Monday, March 7; they will be in an envelope in the blue folder outside my office door. Please pick them up so that you can complete revisions before your portfolio is due on Thursday, March 11. If you do not turn in a draft or it's late, or if you do not participate in the peer response session (or show up late that day), the final grade on your midterm portfolio will be lowered by half a letter grade (from B+ to B, B- to C+, etc.)

Midterm Portfolio Requirements

As I mentioned in class, I have made a change to the Midterm Portfolio requirements. And, it sounded like the majority of you are happy to see this change. Here is what is due when.

On Thursday, March 11, you must turn in clean copies of your revised personal and summary essays. In addition, make sure to turn in the previous drafts with my comments and early grade. Both the rough and final drafts are required before you will receive a grade. You also have the option of turning in any other drafts, daily writing assignments, or other notes to show how you have completed and revised these essays. You may also want to write a short note--or process letter--to me that describes how you have revised, highlighting how these various notes and drafts helped you to complete your final version. Put everything into a folder or large clip. It should all be attached in some way and not loose.

On, Tuesday, March 30, you must turn in a revised copy of you synthesis/analysis essay. Make sure to attach the draft with my comments and grade range. Again, you may attach other drafts, notes, and/or a process letter if you wish. Clip these together and I will put them with your other essays. This is the same day as your annotated bibliography is due, so don't wait until the last minute for either assignment. You will get everything back with your final portfolio grade on Tuesday, April 6. The general framework I use in grading makes the personal and summary essays each worth 30% of the portfolio grade with the synthesis/analysis essay worth 40%.

I think this is a little late to get a grade, but I also want to make sure that you have an ample opportunity to work on the synthesis/analysis essay because the skills you are working on in that essay are essential to your research essay. I will not be unreasonable when I grade this essay, but I am going to take it seriously and go over it carefully. If you have any concerns about your grade or about how to get the grade you feel you need, any concerns at all, see me. Portfolio grading helps you complete your best work and ultimately receive the best grade possible. Use it to your advantage.

To repeat what was on your earlier synthesis/analysis prompt, a draft of your essay is due on Tuesday, March 2 (3 copies). A complete draft is due on Thursday, March 4. I will return it with comments and grade range on Tuesday, March 9. I will be away from campus for Spring Break and the week after. You may contact me by email with any questions or concerns that come up when revising your synthesis/analysis essay (though I will not have access to email from March 23 to 28 when I am at the Conference on College Composition and Communication in Atlanta; I'll answer questions then when I get back on March 28).

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Created by Nels P. Highberg (nhighb1@uic.edu)