IUPUI/W231/Portfolio I Description

Course Goals

Upon completion of each W231 project, students' work is assessed by a portfolio that demonstrates the degree to which they fulfilled the following objectives:

1. Write reports, research tools, letters, and memos that are comparable to effectively written documents in nonacademic settings, evidenced by the student's ability to:

Make purpose and audience for writing apparent in the document

Use only relevant content

Use writing style that is appropriate for the rhetorical situation

Use conventional formats correctly

Control the technical elements of writing that include sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation

Use visual cues as organizing devices to facilitate comprehension and rapid reading

2. Conduct applied research using both secondary and primary sources to obtain and create information to fulfill a previously defined purpose, evidence by the student's ability to:

Use relevant sources that contribute to the development of the student's purpose for writing
Summarize secondary information and critically evaluate it for relevance and application in a local organizational setting
Write open-ended questions for interviews with reliable primary sources to solicit information and expert opinion relevant to the research purpose
Select methods and design appropriate primary research tools to collect information from primary sources.

3. Write reports that analyze and synthesize information obtained through research to fulfill a previously defined purpose for a designated audience, evidenced by the student's ability to:

Apply secondary research findings to a local problem situation
Identify the purpose for writing problem solving reports in terms of the reader's frame of reference and need for the information
Organize content to lead readers through logic and evidece to accept the conclusions drawn as reasonable and accurate
Recommend actions that arise logically from conclusions
Select relevant information from accumulated data that support and/or amplify meaning
Integrate unexpected, surprising research outcomes by relating them to purpose or elaborating purpose appropriately
Contextualize discussion of research findings to support larger generalizations
Establish for readers the relative credibility of research sources
Document sources fully and correctly in academic style
Acknowledge conflicting evidence and counter argument

4. Conceptualize, plan, and manage a research-based writing project, evidenced by the student's ability to:

Define a community-based research objective
Link the research objective explicitly to an audience problem, need, or concern
Describe a research plan that fulfills the defined research objective in specific terms
Identify relevant and accessible secondary and primary research sources
Complete all phases of the project according to deadlines