The portfolio is meant to gather your best writing into one place for a collective grade (to count 3/5ths of the total course grade).  From the six papers you have written so far, you will have had an opportunity in class to revise three separate papers and to discuss your revisions with your classmates and/or the instructor.  When you prepare the portfolio to be handed in, check the following list to see if you've met its requirements.
 

• The portfolio itself should be a plain tan file folder with your name on the tab (last name first, first name last).  Do not use a binder, a notebook, a plastic cover with a spine, staples, or other forms of binding. Do use paper clips for the individual papers.

• Enclose for each of the three revised papers both the draft with teacher comments and evaluation returned to you earlier in the semester (no matter what its condition may be after the revision process) and also the final revised draft of the paper.  In addition, enclose the other two unrevised papers with comments and evaluation.  There should be nine papers in all in the folder.

• Be sure the final drafts of the three selected papers have your name and the date in the upper left hand corner of the first page, a title centered below the name and date, and the text beginning two or three lines below the title.  Be sure the final drafts are typed or run off on a printer with a dark ribbon and double-spaced.

• Provide an annotated table of contents with your name and date--that is, tell me what's in the portfolio and what you've done to it.  Example entry:

Communications Portfolio Chuck Darwin

1) Communication #1: Frog Play (Acceptable Second Draft)
2) Communication #1: Frog Play (Revised Final Draft)
 

The second draft corrected major text preparation problems and focused the conclusion more than it had been in the first draft.  For the portfolio, I revised the second draft by dropping the section on how my brother broke his leg, which didn't need so much detail, and expanded the explanation of what the frog play was about and how we got the frogs to "act" in it.  I also changed the ending again to keep it closer to the performance.
 
3) Communication #2: Turtle Island (Acceptable Second Draft, Unrevised)
4) Communication #3: In the Rain Forest (Acceptable Third Draft)

In the course of revising a paper which you have already handed in and received back with instructor's comments, you should take the following steps:
 

1)  Re-read the assignment.  Underline or emphasize the key terms or major requirements of the assignment.

2)  Re-read the paper (preferably out loud).  Consider in particular the ways it meets the major requirements of the assignment.  Try to write down in one sentence what the paper is about.  Then write in one sentence how the paper relates to the assignment.  Be certain that it does.

3)  Read the instructor's comments.  Try to understand what they suggest in terms of concrete changes of organization, development, style, and sentence structure.

4)  If necessary, confer with the instructor for further clarification of his comments.

5)  Revise your paper on the copy of the paper returned to you, in order to eliminate certain items and preserve those sections of the paper worth preserving. (A revision is a change in the draft of the paper, not a brand new draft on the same subject.)

• Consider first what changes in organization or structure you need to make.  Indicate where you want things to go by numbering paragraphs or re-numbering pages or making a new outline of phrases or sentences from existing paragraphs together with hints of new paragraphs or using arrows, insert cues, and other change indicators.  Cross out what you no longer need or what is irrelevant to the new structure.

• Next consider development.  Add new description, exposition, dialogue and dramatization, and narration where necessary.

• Next consider language.  Read the paper carefully, aloud preferably, and work to make sentences clear and direct. Make clear transitions between ideas and major parts of the paper.  Make certain the language at the beginning of the paper (the "introduction") expresses concerns the paper actually addresses.  Make certain the language at the end of the paper (the "conclusion") really relates to the material which has been the central focus of the paper.

6)  When you have re-structured, further developed, and clarified the language of the paper, you have revised it.  Now edit it by reviewing the editorial comments on grammar, punctuation, and spelling, correcting where indicated on the original material still extant in the revised paper and reviewing the new material for the same mechanical problems. (Don't bother correcting material you no longer want to use.)

7)  Re-type the paper or type in changes to the computer copy. Proofread it carefully, particularly reviewing it for the kinds of problems of form the earlier draft displayed. Check it against all the text preparation sheets you've filled out in the course.  Run the spell-checking program and grammar-checking program on your word processing program.

8)  Check the formatting of the paper: double-spacing, titles, author information, page numbers, hanging indentation where necessary, and so on.  Print out clean, clear copy and read it through for errors one more time.  Correct and reprint as necessary.