ePortfolios

To ensure that students have an engaging and rigorous intellectual experience, all students create an ePortfolio during their time as a major.

The ePortfolio facilitates communication between you and your advisor and serves as a place for you to formally and informally reflect on your work in the major. Your English advisor will use your ePortfolio to guide you and periodically assess the quality of the education we are providing. He or she will ensure that the ePortfolio is complete with all eight required parts before clearing you for graduation.

The ePortfolio is designed to be helpful to you, too. You may personalize it and upload copies of your best work. You may add additional content areas (for example, you might want to keep a list of all of the books you read during college.) You may also share your ePortfolio with other professors as you ask for letters of recommendation in support of applications to graduate programs, jobs or internships.

Content Areas on the English ePortfolio

You should compile your ePortfolio as Word files (or PDFs) that can be sent to your advisor via email. Content areas 4, 5 and 6 correspond directly to English major learning objectives.

1. Welcome (With Photo)

Please provide a few sentences about yourself, with the goal of helping your advisor get to know you. Useful information might include:

your background and hometown
areas of special interest in the major
extracurricular activities, including sports and internships, or
paid employment.

Please also include a photo of yourself!

2. Major Courses Taken

Provide a list of the courses you have taken, organizing the list according to the area and historical requirements of the major. (For example, which pre-1700 courses have you taken? Which course for the “minority” literature requirement?)

Make a notation as well of the course(s) you took as a prerequisite to the major. This information will be vital to you and your advisor as you review the English major requirements, as well as your personal goals of study.

3. Prospectus

Compose a one-page answer to the question, How will my planned course of study in English ensure that I fulfill the three learning objectives of the English major?

In other words, use the prospectus to think about your choice of courses in relation to the goals of Literary Traditions, Critical Analysis and Argument/Close Reading. This prospectus should be uploaded within two weeks of declaring the major.

4. Learning Objective: Literary Traditions & Diversity

Upload one or two examples of writing you have done for a GW English course that exemplifies your ability to recognize and demonstrate knowledge of the traditions and global diversity of literature in English. In addition to uploading your document(s), write a brief explanation of why you have chosen these particular documents and how they speak to the Literary Traditions learning objective. If you want, you may also use this content area to reflect on the writing assignment itself.

Note: You may upload clean copies of your work, scanned versions of commented-on papers (if applicable), or copies of your work and instructor comments from Blackboard or another source.

5. Learning Objective: Critical Analysis

Upload one or two examples of writing you have done for a GW English course that exemplifies your ability to analyze texts within their cultural, historical, and aesthetic contexts. In addition to uploading your document(s), compose a brief explanation of why you have chosen these particular documents and how they speak to the Critical Analysis learning objective. If you want, you may also use this content area to reflect on the writing assignment itself.

Note: You may upload clean copies of your work, scanned versions of commented-on papers (if applicable), or copies of your work and instructor comments from Blackboard or another source.

6. Learning Objective: Argument/Close Reading

Upload one or two examples of writing you have done for a GW English course that exemplifies your ability to write lucidly and compose compelling arguments based on close reading and informed critical reflection. After you have uploaded your document(s), compose a brief explanation of why you have chosen these particular documents and how they speak to the Argument/Close Reading learning objective. If you want, you may also use this content area to reflect on the writing assignment itself.

Note: You may upload clean copies of your work, scanned versions of commented-on papers (if applicable), or copies of your work and instructor comments from Blackboard or another source.

7. Reflections on the English Major

Complete this section of the ePortfolio during your last semester of study. First, reread the prospectus you wrote when you declared the major. Then, answer the question, How has my course of study in English enabled me to fulfill the three learning objectives of the English major?

Use this reflections section to think about the choices you have made within the major. How have you fulfilled the goals the department set for you? How have you fulfilled your own goals? How are these two sets of goals related? How will you think about your English major in two years? Five years? 10 years? 20?

8. Résumé

Please upload a version of your résumé (or CV) as a Word document or PDF. It is understood that your résumé is a work in progress; uploading it here will give your advisor more information about you.

These guidelines have been approved by the English Department and are official for all majors declared after January 1, 2010. Students who have declared majors before January 1, 2010 are strongly encouraged to work with their advisors to compose a partial portfolio spotlighting their best work and reflecting on the department’s goals.