Week Three

In the syllabus, you're told that your "final project" for this class will be a final, digital/electronic portfolio. The full instructions for your final portfolio will be available on the Week Fifteen-Finals Week page in the coming weeks. In the meantime, you'll want to do a few things as the semester progresses:

• Read chapter 24 on Writing Portfolios in your textbook, How to Writing Anything (HTWA)

• Keep all versions of your projects (i.e., save drafts separately, do not copy over versions when making changes)

• Be thinking about what web builder you want to use to create your website portfolio (if you are not familiar with building a website, Google "free web builder" and play with the different options; examples include Wix and Weebly).

In Week Three, we learned that reflection is a part of the writing process, though it is used in a variety of disciplines.

From earlier readings, we learned that good academic writing generally has three characteristics: clear evidence, a prevalence of reason over emotion, and an imagined reader. Think of these characteristics as applying to all academic writing. As the semester progresses, we'll learn about different genres of academic writing that have additional characteristics specific to the genre.

We'll start with Essays because your first major project (4.1) will be a reflective essay. The full instructions for 4.1 are available on the Week Four page because the final version is due at the end of Week Four; however, you'll be expected to submit a draft this week in the 3.1 discussion board.

Before getting started on your reflective essay draft, complete the following tasks:

• Read chapters 1, 25-26 in HTWA, which reinforce characteristics of academic writing as well as critical thinking and reading

• Read chapter 15 in HTWA and chapter 11 in the Student Companion (SC) on Essays

• Review the slideshow on Essays below

After completing these tasks, you'll be ready to prepare your draft and submit to the 3.1 discussion board (see below).