Final Checklist for Writing Portfolios

In class on Wednesday, each of you will submit your writing portfolio. For a professional impression, it is best to use a solid color, two-pocket folder. Don’t forget to fill out the information on the label I gave you in class on Friday, and affix the label to the front of your portfolio.

For your portfolio, please choose your best in-class essay and your two best essays written outside of class (one of which should show your ability to use sources), and place them on the right side of the portfolio. You would also do well to affix a Post-It note marked “for evaluation” to the top copy of each of your chosen essays. All other work goes on the left.

For essays written outside of class that you wish to have evaluated, you should have a clean copy of the essay on top. For all essays, all drafts should be assembled in reverse chronological order and paper-clipped together. The pages of each individual draft of the essay should be stapled together.

Your completed portfolio will contain:

1. two or three in-class essays
2. the assigned op-ed piece
3. an essay evaluating the arguments in the issue you chose from McKenna and Feingold
4. an article evaluation essay
5. a research essay

Research essays and portfolio plans

If you are planning to use your research paper as one of the
selections you’d like your portfolio readers to look at, please send me an
email letting me know that. I will make every effort, for those of you in that
situation, to have your commented essays available for you outside my office
door by the end of the day on Monday so that you have a little time for any
last-minute revisions you might wish to do. 

If you are not in that situation, you can expect your essays
back in class on Wednesday; all we’ll need to do is slip them into your
portfolios.

Schedule for the remainder of the semester

11/29: One-on-one/small group tutorial

11/30: One-on-one/small group tutorial

12/3: One-on-one/small group tutorial

12/5: One-on-one/small group tutorial

12/6: One-on-one/small group tutorial

12/7: Research revision due; discussion of candidates and issues for the 2008 elections

12/10: Loose ends; last-minute questions

12/12: Final assembly and submission of portfolios

Change in office hours for Monday, 26 November

I will be holding office hours on Monday, November 26. However, due to a scheduling conflict, I will hold them from 3:00-4:30 instead of the usual time.

REMINDER

Next Monday, November 19th, is set aside for an in-class essay.

We will not meet in our usual location. Instead, we will meet in the Media Center classroom in library. That’s the computer classroom next to the vending area near Trumper.

You are welcome to type your essay if you wish, but you are not required to do so. I will bring blue books for those who prefer to write longhand.

Link to the “flat outlining” process

If you’d like to review the flat outlining process discussed in class today, you can find a link to Cal Newport’s article here.

Questions for the in-class essay for next Monday

1. According to Krugman, the campaign to cut taxes will make it difficult for politicians to raise taxes in the future. How, according to him, will the revenue gap caused by tax cuts be closed? Do you agree or disagree with his assessment? Why?
2. In your estimation, is it Shlaes or Krugman who builds the most convincing case about the desirability of tax cuts? Choose the most compelling argument each of them makes, and compare those arguments. Explain which of the arguments you think is stronger, and why.

Zotero screencast

If you’d like to use Zotero with Microsoft Word but you’re having difficulties, this screencast may help.

Events of interest: Wednesday, Nov. 14

This Wednesday, from 4:30-5:30 in Vander Vennet Theatre, there will be a presentation titled “Careers in International Diplomacy.” The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Career Opportunities and the Departments of Political Science and Modern Languages. Dr. Brian Flora will be the guest speaker.

That same day, at noon in Stapleton Lounge, Dr. Flora will deliver a keynote speech titled “Representing Your Country Abroad.”

Dr. Flora is currently Senior Diplomat in Residence at the University of Illinois in Chicago where he represents the State Department and recruits for the Foreign Service in the upper Midwest. He has served as Consul General in Bern and Berlin, as well as Chief of the Embassy’s Political Section in Bonn and Ottawa. He graduated from Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts in 1968, and received a Doctorate in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Link to “A Strong Essay/A Weak Essay”

You can find a copy for your reference here.