Grammar, Presentation, & Self-Assessment in the Portfolio
The Process Essay with the remainder of the Portfolio is due in hardcopy during the Lab on the following dates: |
Monday section on July 26 |
1. What are some ways in which I can improve the English composition?
2. How can I add to the Presentation quality of the Portfolio?; and
3. What should I say in evaluating the research and writing on the self-assessment form?
The College evaluates your use of standard English composition in all of the essays in the Portfolio, when you submit the final Process Essay. Your writing of the annotations for the Descriptive Essay is included in the evaluation. The following quote provides the reason for the College emphasis on writing --
"...the number one skill employers say they want to see in job candidates is good communication skills: the ability to write and speak clearly. Unfortunately—in spite of requesting this skill year after year, many employers also report that college graduates lack good grammar and writing skills." |
(Source: National Association of Colleges and Employers. (2006). Job outlook 2006: Student version. In NACE Research. Retrieved from http://www.jobweb.com/joboutlook/2006/JO6Student.pdf) |
Provide the original, instructor-marked copies of your Narrative and Descriptive essays in the portfolio. You can attach them directly behind each revised essay, or insert them in a pocket in the portfolio. You and the instructor should be able to see where you have revised the earlier writing.
Here are recommendations for improving the grammar --:
· Use shorter sentences and paragraphs.
· Begin each sentence with a subject.
· Match a plural/singular form of the verb with the subject.
· Match the singular/plural form of a pronoun with its noun referent (that to which the pronoun refers).
· Check to see that each of your pronouns has a clear referent in the same sentence or the prior sentence. If the pronoun may be ambiguous to a reader, substitute a descriptive noun for the pronoun.
· Use commas before subordinate clauses, such as those clauses beginning with “because ... .“
· Place a colon before a list of examples, such as: Auditor, accountant, tax consultant, bank clerk, and bill collector
· Avoid connecting long complete sentences with the conjunction, “and.” The result is a run-on sentence in which your main idea becomes obscured.
· Use a spell and grammar checker.
· Indent first lines of each paragraph.
Here are some recommendations for improving your writing generally, including its academic (intellectual) honesty –
· Read your essay OUT LOUD to yourself, and then someone else.
· HAVE A FRIEND IN CLASS READ IT OVER- PEER EDITING HELPS!
· Ask someone to proof-read a page in your essay, such as the staff of the Pathways Center in the Library. Ask the proof-reader to explain what s/he thinks is the most common type of grammatical error in your paper.
· Plagiarism and Fair Use –
o If you copied over the maximum of one sentence per source, paraphrase the excess.
o If you forgot to add quotes around a copied phrase or sentence, add the quotes.
THINK YOU ARE DONE? YOU KNOW YOU AREN’T. GO BACK AND PROOF READ IT AGAIN!
Make some Grammatical
Improvements in the Earlier Essays of the Portfolio
Take these steps in revising your original Narrative and Descriptive essays –
ü Fix-up the marked grammatical errors;
ü Find other non-marked errors in light of the recommendations from the instructor’s and from SmarThinking;
ü Revise also the grammar inside the annotations of your Descriptive Essay;
Instructions for Activity --
Identify a place in your essays in which the grammar can be improved. You may ask the instructor or someone near you to check a page in your essays. Make the sample correction.
Sample errors in grammar & writing: | Corrections in grammar & writing: |
A sample spelling mistake:   medical assitance Sample poor grammar: J. Neil he believes (2005) registered nurses finds fewer job opening than medical assistants. Their higher salaries are difficult for some medical facility to afford. | A sample spelling correction (boldfaced for emphasis): medical assistance Sample corrections (boldfaced for emphasis): J. Neil (2005) believes registered nurses find fewer job openings than medical assistants. The higher salaries of RN’s are difficult for some medical facilities to afford. |
If You Quoted MORE THAN ONE LINE: (and you know you did!)
Make sure you fix it by a Paraphrase (Your Own Words)
Make sure you fix it by a Paraphrase (Your Own Words)
Look for a long quote. You were asked to quote only a sentence from a particular source in your essays, You might find several sentences or an entire list, which you copied literally from a source. Substitute your own words for the extra sentences and phrases. When you use your own words in a paraphrase, remember that the source must still be cited in-text.
Have you copied more than one sentence from a source? If so, practice a paraphrase (with an in-text citation) on the following line:
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… .
Making it Look Good: Presentation of the Portfolio
The College scores a student highly in the Presentation of his/her portfolio insofar as the following conditions are met:
· The essays have an “aesthetic” appearance:
The essays look professional when combined in a portfolio.
The essays are presented behind tabbed or labeled (typed) dividers inside a clean binder, such as a properly sized, three-ring notebook.
· The essays have an APA page format:
Each page has the proper short title (running head) and page number.
All spaces and lines are double-spaced.
Margins are consistent (1 or 1.5 inches), and font is consistent (Times New Roman, size 12).
· The essays were submitted in a timely way.
The Essays were provided during the lab time on the scheduled due date.
· The self-assessment is complete:
The Self Assessment form is complete.
Each category of evaluation has an honest, relevant, and succinct response about my experience with the research and writing.
Acquire a binder before your next class:
The best binder is a thin three-ring notebook. Alternatively you can use a heavy-duty folder, which has fold-over aluminum prongs to hold each essay. A hole-puncher will be available for preparing pages to fit securely in a three-ring notebook or in a heavy-duty folder. Alternatively you can use pre-punched, clear sheet protectors. Do not use the large accordion file (“container”), which is distributed in the Portfolio Development Day workshops as a depository of samples of your work in different courses.
Acquire four dividers, and type the labels for them:
Set up the Portfolio before the class meeting with typed labels on the tabs for a “Narrative Essay,” a “Descriptive Essay,” and a “Process Essay.” Add another label for a section, which has your self-assessment.
You can acquire easily dividers with tabs. Some tabs are plastic sleeves into which you can slip a label. Labels can be typed neatly in small font in Office Word for slipping into the sleeved-tabs. Choose the Insert tab, and then select the ribbon for a simple textbox. Size the text-box with a height so that you can fold the label to fit securely into your tabs. Duplicate the text-box four times. Then type the name of each essay and the self-assessment into the text-boxes, as in this example:
 |
FF Fold here
An acceptable alternative to tabbed dividers for each essay is an extra-heavy sheet on which you type in large font the name of the essay following the heavy sheet. Clear sheet protectors are an alternative. Many page covers contain already holes for a three-ring notebook. To save the expense and bulk of a plastic cover per page, slip two back-to-back pages inside each cover. Another option is to slip each stapled, revised essay inside a plastic cover, which has holes for a three-ring notebook.
Before the lab make a final check of grammar and presentation in the essays, including the following --
o Revise grammatical errors In the bodies of the three essays and in annotations in the Descriptive Essay. You do not need to do the research again. You do not need to fix-up errors in the citations and References.
o Place quotes around any sentences, which you forgot to quote in the earlier Narrative and Descriptive essays.
o Paraphrase any sentences, which are over the maximum limit of one quoted sentence per source.
o Include the original copies of the Narrative and Descriptive essays with the instructor’s comments inside your portfolio. Keep the old, attached rubrics with the original essays.
Insert the revised narrative and descriptive essays inside the binder. Place the old, marked copies of the two original essays behind the revised narrative and descriptive essays, or in a pocket in the binder. Withhold your Process Essay so that you can insert it after revising the rough draft of the Process Essay during the Lab in next week’s class. The Process Essay is the only one in the Portfolio for which you do not have an earlier scored copy. You are expected to perform better on the writing and grammar in the Process Essay, since you learned about your more frequent errors from the marked spots and corrections on the original copies of the Narrative and Descriptive essays.
