Bye Bye

Thanks for a really good semester.

Here's an ending quote on learning to round the semester out:

"Whatever is worth learning cannot be taught."

Organizing the Middle Section of Essay 3

As you reflect on the sources you have read, consider when in your research process your initial views on the subject began to change.

You might organize the middle section by the insights you gained from your reading. These insights might include spots where your sources led you "off track." When we are researching the question, "Are dogs carnivores?" for example, we might be led by our reading to a section or paragraph that surprises us--perhaps because we learn something we didn't expect to find there. Once I came across a long explanation of evolution as adaptation, not as mutation, in an article about the digestive system of dogs, for example.

Are there spots where you have uncovered interesting connections, unexpected twists, paths that lead you "off the track?"

PORTFOLIO IN BRIEF

The Cover Letter that introduces the contents of your portfolio should give evidence of your work and participation in these major course requirements:

--You have improved your revision skills

--You have grown in some way as a writer

--You can give an overview of the course as you experienced it

--You can assess what was useful to you and what was not useful

--You are aware of your strengths and weaknesses as a writer

--You can make a grade recommendation for the course

The question here is: What evidence are you going to use to support your grade recommendation in each of the above areas?

Examples of portfolios done electronically (yours will be in a binder)

Nguyen's portfolio is not from any class I have taught. She was not my student. This is just a rough example of the kind of thing people do in their portfolios. You will need a cover letter that meets the requirements for the portfolio for our class. This student submitted her portfolio electronically (e-portfolio); you will submit it in a binder. It will include the following: all drafts + final drafts + reflections of Essays 2 and 3 (some are submitting Essay 1 instead of Essay 3); your Cover Letter; an essay or other piece of writing you want to showcase; at least two writings that show you have used feedback and descriptive outlines to revise; and anything else you would like to include as evidence of your full participation and your grade recommendation. There is more information on the portfolio in Announcements and in the area of Blackboard called Portfolio.

What do you like about the way Nguyen put together her portfolio and separated its contents? Does she give evidence of hard work and excellent participation in her class?

The url address for Nguyen's e-portfolio is
http://web.pdx.edu/~hang/eportfolio.html

For Fun and Edification

Like Poetry? This exercise drives home some of the concepts in Tasks 1-4
Poetry is the form of writing which uses repetition on many levels to produce a pleasing effect. As such, we can look at various kinds of repetition in poetry to illustrate how repletion of key words and phrases and sentence patterns makes your paragraphs more coherent.

You will read one of Shakepeare’s sonnets below. Sonnets are love poems written in a standard form. Shakespeare is the English language's greatest playwright, and one of its greatest lyric poets. Some of the sonnets he wrote contain lines as well known as any in the plays. One of the perennial themes of Western literature--the brevity of life--is given poignantly personal and highly original expression in many of these poems. In the first sonnet he compares the aging process to the onset of winter, to the fading of daylight and to the dying down of a fire so powerfully that one is surprised at the conclusion to realize that this is after all a love poem, expressing in a fresh way the old theme of tempus fugit ("time flies"), to tell his beloved that love can be more intense when one realizes that it is doomed to be brief.

Read the sonnet several times, and then respond to the prompt that follows.

Sonnet 73

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, (1) where late the sweet birds sang
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

(1) The empty tree branches are compared to choir stalls, or benches. where late the sweet birds sang.
(2) late = a while ago
(3) ere = before


Prompt:
1. List words, phrases and images that deal with decay:
2. List all the words and phrases which deal with time:
3. List words and phrases that deal with death:
4. What sounds are repeated?
5. Post song lyrics that contain interesting repetitions and point to these patterns. 

Preparation For Reflections on Essay 3

Respond to these questions as you are working on Draft 1 of Essay 3. Here, you begin reflecting NOW, before the actual Reflection Statement is due. You will respond to a different set of questions that target revision after you finish Draft 2.

• What did you learn about your subject that you did not previously know?
• What did you learn about your approach to writing assignments and your writing style?
• What did you learn about constructing this particular type of writing assignment?
• What are all the features of this piece about which you are particularly proud?
• What do you see as its weaknesses?
  

Post your central question(s) here and read my comments or responses when I name you in my post below.

To get my feedback, you need to post your question(s) by Saturday at midnight because your charts 1 and 2 will be due by class time on Monday.