Portfolio Selection Advice
As an English major, you should try as early as possible to gather information about the assessment procedures of the department. Contact your advisor in English as soon as you declare yourself an English major. Dedicate a special folder or box for printed versions of the essays and a zip disk for electronic copies of the essays. Make sure you backup all your work on disks!
How do you decide what goes into the portfolio? Begin by looking at the “Goals of the Major in English at UW Oshkosh” to help you identify the abilities, knowledge, and attitudes that you should expect to achieve. You want to written work for the portfolio that demonstrates your development in the major. For example, an essay on Sherley Anne Williams’s novel Dessa Rose may indicate that you are able to write interpretive essays and may also indicate that you are developing a sense of the significance of texts by ethnically diverse writers. This latter development in your own awareness of the multiple texts that comprise the canon of English studies may be especially important if you expected to study a steady diet of Shakespeare and grammar during your time as an English major! You will also want your essay selection to demonstrate how you have set your own goals, how you have challenged yourself, and how you have grown intellectually over time. Be honest in your selection. Select work from different types of courses and different semesters. Not all the work in the portfolio needs to be exemplary.
SEE ALSO
- 481 portfolio introduction guidelines
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