TBD due dates go here 

This assignment asks you to do two things: write a 3-4 page double-spaced (750-1000 words) Self-Assessment Essay, and compile the work you’ve written and revised this semester in a Digital Portfolio. Both of these assignments will help you see your progress as a writer over the course of the semester, and to evaluate your writing based on your own criteria as well as our list of course learning outcomes (CLOs). Plus, you’ll create a personal website that you can use, change, and add to once you’re out of our class (for job applications, internships, etc.). 

Your audience for both parts is your professor, your classmates, and other members of the CCNY English department. 

The Self-Assessment Essay asks you to show how you’ve developed as a writer and thinker this semester. You will make claims about what you’ve learned and support those claims with evidence. Evidence could be a retelling of a specific learning moment, or screenshots of your first drafts versus your final drafts, for example. You are welcome to write about your successes as well as your challenges. 

Most importantly, your Self-Assessment Essay should answer this question: “To what extent have I achieved the course learning outcomes this semester?” You must directly quote and respond to 5 of 9 of our CLOs: 

• Explore and analyze (in your own and others’ writing) a variety of genres and rhetorical situations 
• Develop strategies for reading, drafting, revising, and editing 
• Practice systematic application of citation conventions 
• Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations 
• Examine how attitudes towards linguistic standards empower and oppress language users
• Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of the writing process 
• Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences 
• Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) using the library’s databases and on the internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias 
• Compose texts that integrate a stance with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation 

In this essay, you will not be evaluated on whether you have achieved the course goals, but on how well you demonstrate your understanding of the goals you have (or have not) achieved. 

You are encouraged to personalize the delivery of your essay as you see fit. You decide the order, tone, style, and language choices that will best reach your audience. As always, native, home, and other languages are welcome! 

The Digital Portfolio is composed on a WordPress site that is housed securely on the CUNY Academic Commons, a password-protected CUNY server. Your portfolio must include revised, final drafts of the following assignments:

• The Self-Assessment Essay 
• The News Feature  
• The Second Genre
• Elevator Pitch
• LinkedIn Profile
• Personal Statement

It must also include 4-5 multimodal elements: photos, links, audio clips, video clips, etc. 

Beyond those requirements, you can also choose to include additional documents (or screenshots/portions of documents) you composed this semester that help you demonstrate how you’ve met the course learning objectives and developed your writing. Consider including earlier drafts of essays, examples from homework, peer reviews, etc. It’s up to you! 

You do not have to personalize the design of your Digital Portfolio, though you are welcome to. As with any website, you want viewers to be able to find what they’re looking for easily and accessibly—so keep that in mind with your color choices, font choices, etc. 

Other things to keep in mind: 

1. How effectively does your Digital Portfolio present the content so that it is easy to navigate and appropriate for digital audiences;maintain stylistic consistency from one page to the next;use color and contrast to make things simple for digital audiences;use font and page layout to create a neat, easy-to-read text?

2. How effectively does your Self-Assessment Essay make claims about what course learning outcomes you achieved this semester; identify (if relevant) any areas in which you have not progressed (e.g., because we didn’t spend enough time with them or you feel that you had a strong start in those areas);quote and address 5 of the course learning objectives (even those that you feel we did not spend enough time on);provide evidence (in the form of quoting your own writing and/or retelling specific learning moments) to show how you have achieved our learning outcomes and developed as a writer?

3. How effectively and sufficiently have your assignments been revised?

4. Were all general requirements for length and due dates met?

One last thing…

You are encouraged to visit the Writing Center for any and all coursework. WC visits also count as grade “bump-ups” in our class! If you visit the WC for this assignment (in person, on Zoom, or asynchronously), please have the WC send a confirmation email to Prof. Gandhi and she will “bump up” your grade accordingly 🙂

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