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Bachelor of Arts in English Upper Division Portfolio

General Description of the Upper Division Portfolio

The Department of English has adopted a portfolio requirement for its upper division students pursuing the BA in English. The portfolio provides a tool to measure our joint successes. You will be better able to judge how well you have met the goals of the department, and the faculty will be better able to make decisions on the curriculum based on the information the portfolios provide.

The benefits of the portfolio project are many. It will clearly show your own growth as a developing English major by keeping your work in one place as you progress through your upper division courses. It will help build a strong relationship between students and faculty and ensure timely progress toward completion of your degree. It will provide you with a collection of your best work in a format that you may be able to adapt as part of a job search or as partial fulfillment of application requirements for graduate or professional school.

The Portfolio Development Process and Deadlines

The portfolio will be a selection of your writing produced in your upper division coursework and a single piece of writing created specifically for the portfolio. You may begin selecting the portfolio's contents during the first semester of your junior year. After compiling your work in conference with your instructors, you may submit individual portfolio items any time before the appropriate deadline.

If you are graduating in December, the completed portfolio must be submitted by 15 November.

If you are graduating in May or August, the completed portfolio must be submitted by 15 April.

Guiding Principles

The portfolio requirement is based on the following general principles:

• Portfolios address the goals of the department. Students select materials that show they have accomplished these goals.
• Portfolios rely upon student initiative and responsibility. In consultation with instructors, students select and present the portfolio's contents.
• Portfolios are flexible. They must meet certain requirements, but they are designed so that students can address the goals in a variety of ways.

English Department Goals

Graduates of the Angelo State University BA in English program should:

• know how to interpret and analyze a literary text . They should be able to apply literary concepts and terminology in interpretation and analysis of a literary text, and they should be able to respond to current scholarship in literary studies.
• know how to produce rhetorically, stylistically, grammatically, mechanically, and conventionally effective writing. They should be able to produce rhetorically, stylistically, grammatically, mechanically, and conventionally effective writing; they should know how to choose audience-appropriate organizations and styles and follow common standards of written English.
• know how their course of study in English provided the fundamental content knowledge necessary for an English major. They should be able to describe their knowledge of the interrelationship among authors, texts, genres, literary movements, and common themes in both British and American literature; demonstrate this knowledge through analysis of examples provided.

Submission Requirements

Prior to submitting the portfolio, you must complete the online BA without Teacher Certification survey located on the Department webpage.

You must include in your portfolio materials a file containing a statement affirming you have completed the survey.

You must submit materials for the portfolio in MS WORD files saved on a 3.5 disk or jump drive. A cover sheet (see the attached form) accompanying the disk should contain:

• your name;
• the title(s) of the submission(s);
• the category(ies) of the submission(s);
• the course name(s) and number(s) in which the submission(s) was (were) written;
• the name(s) of the instructor(s) of the course(s).

The disk and cover sheet should be turned in to the Department Secretary.

The portfolio's table of contents must be saved in a separate, clearly titled file.

NOTE: YOUR NAME, A FACULTY MEMBER'S NAME, OR A COURSE NAME SHOULD NOT APPEAR ON THE TABLE OF CONTENTS SHOULD NOT APPEAR ON THE TABLE OF CONTENTS OR ON ANY PORTFOLIO ITEMS.

Introductory Material

The introductory material will include a Table of Contents for the portfolio. This file must include:

1. the file title containing the affirmation statement regarding the BA survey;
2. titles of submitted works;
3. categories of submission for the works.

The Body of the Portfolio

The body of the portfolio must include:

1. three submissions from Category One;
2. two submissions from Category Two;
3. one submission from Category Three.

The categories for submission are:

1. Responding to Literature: three papers written in advanced English classes. (Papers written in English 2329, Introduction to Literary Studies, may be included.) The submissions must be taken from the following areas: American literature, British literature, World literature. Within the papers, you must apply a variety of literary concepts, terminology, and theories in your analyses of literary texts of varying complexity and representative of a variety of genres, cultures, genders, and races from American, British, and World literatures;
2. Writing Competency: two papers (different from the papers submitted in Category 1) from any advanced English course whose organization is characterized by fluid expression; ideas clearly stated/supported; succinctness; logical sequencing; cohesion; style is characterized by an authentic voice; sentence variety; effective word choice and usage; grammar and mechanics are characterized by a mastery of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, agreement, tense, pronoun usage, prepositions, and the use of negatives.
3. Overall Knowledge: an essay (4-6 pages, double-spaced with normal margins) in which the writer demonstrates knowledge of the interrelationship among different authors, texts, genres, literary movements, and common themes in both British and American literature. Within this essay, the writer must demonstrate knowledge of the interrelationship among a wide range of authors, genres, texts, movements, and themes in American, British, and World literatures; support this knowledge by providing and analyzing examples.

Instructors' Roles in the Portfolio Development Process

While compiling the portfolio's contents is the student's responsibility, instructors should be sources of clarification during the process. Instructors expect to see student progress during each academic term and can therefore help assemble the portfolio.

Confidentiality

Once submitted to the Department of English, the portfolio and its contents become the property of the Department of English and will not be distributed beyond the faculty assessing departmental effectiveness. Further, the portfolio and its contents will not be returned to students who submit the portfolios.

The content of each portfolio will be archived by the Department of English and reviewed only by faculty assessing the department's effectiveness. All portfolio materials will remain in locked files to protect the integrity and privacy of those materials.

 

 

Cover Sheet

Upper Division Portfolio

Department of English

Angelo State University

 

Your Name:

Please fill in the table's columns with the appropriate information :

1. your submission's title

2. the course number (e.g., 3331, 3332, etc.) in which the submission was written;

3. the last name of the instructor of the course;

4. the category number (e.g., 1 or 2) of the submission.

 

If the submission was written in an American literature class, please put a checkmark in the column titled "American."

If the submission was written in a British literature class, please put a checkmark in the column titled "British."

If the submission was written in a literature of other cultures class, please put a checkmark in the column titled "Other Cultures."

If the submission is your essay demonstrating your overall knowledge, fill in only the title and category columns.

 

Submission Title	Course Number	Instructor	Category (1, 2, 3)	American	British	Other Cultures
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.