The Introduction

For this assignment you should, literally, introduce and refer to the work included in the portfolio. You can imagine a specific audience to write to and describe your writing process and product. Where did you struggle and what are you proud of? Use your own work as evidence of struggle or success by quoting from your own essays and research.

Were there any significant events that had an impact on you–a certain assignment that you loved or hated, comments from peers and/or instructors, a great new way to find sources, trouble getting evidence, trouble putting your ideas into words, or structuring your work? Use those events as a way to shape your narrative.

Remember to consider, and include, rhetorical terms like speaker, audience, purpose, tone, choices, and appeals as they form the basis for all communication. Did an understanding of those terms play a part in the composition process?

Do you have any advice? Give your imagined audience (and yourself) some tips that might ease this process. Is there something you do in the process that’s unique and might be helpful for people to know? Or, is there a way for you to make things go better?

You don’t have to refer to every text in the portfolio, but you should include (and quote from) a few.

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If you’re struggling with the vagueness of the assignment prompt, you could place your work in the context of the course learning outcomes. Describe how the course learning outcomes can be seen in your compositions.

READ SAMPLE INTRODUCTIONS

VIEW RUBRIC

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The digital platform required for the portfolio submission allows for a creative presentation of your work and personality. Please feel free to design and customize the portfolio in any way you’d like. There are no limitations or requirements about how the portfolio should look (other than that all your work must be housed there) and it should reflect the purpose-an academic e-portfolio. Text-design, multi-modal elements and media additions are encouraged.

 

Portfolio Requirements
The introduction to your work should be on the “home page” of your portfolio (the url link you provide should be connected directly with the landing page).
Content: You should include, at minimum, your class facilitation presentation, the researched narrative, the CCNY Demands PSA w/ presentation materials,  reflections, your elevator pitch, Brideges to Success Writing Assignment, and personal statement. But, it can include much more–anything else from the topic section class, peer reviews, survey, source report etc. Anything you refer to in the introduction should be included in the portfolio.  Each of the texts you post should have some sort of introduction on the page. You could use your reflections for this purpose or write a short paragraph introducing the work.
Genre, formatting, and voice: your choice.
Sources: You need at least two…but you wrote them. You should treat your own compositions as sources for this assignment. You should refer directly to, quote, or paraphrase from your work.
Accessibility: think about how audiences “read” web-based writing. Use links to layer content in your portfolio introduction. While reading your introduction, your audience might like an opportunity to view the composition as a whole. Providing that access is efficient web-writing practice.
Appearance: The portfolio is academic and design should reflect the context. Images and widgets should be relevant to the content on the site (or be removed). Headers and titles should be edited to reflect content (or removed). Design choices (including color and text) should be uniform across all pages.
Navigation: It should be easy to access all content on the site from the main menu. Maximum number of main menu tabs is six. Dropdowns can be used to categorize your work efficiently.
Length of introduction: 500-750 words