English Portfolio - ENG 4098
Senior English majors (including those with concentrations in creative writing, education, and film studies) will register for ENG 4098: English Portfolio in their final semester of enrollment. ENG 4098 is required, but it must be taken in the semester of your graduation, only.
To satisfactorily complete ENG 4098, graduating seniors create and reflect on a portfolio of written work from UHD English courses. ENG 4098 is highly independent. The course offers no credit. It costs nothing. It holds no formal meetings, but you are encouraged to communicate with the Coordinator of the B.A. in English should you have questions or concerns or if you wish to brainstorm any ideas. You must log into the Canvas site for ENG 4098 in the first week of classes to read the directions and expectations provided there about how and when to submit the portfolio and how to prepare for your exit interview.
The English Portfolio is an opportunity for majors to reflect, both personally and critically, on the original thinking, reading, writing, and research completed in your UHD English courses. Select what you wish to showcase as a collection of your writing and, as you do so, reflect on how the written work meets the Student Learning Outcomes for the B.A. in English.
Student Learning Outcomes for the B.A. in English
As graduates of UHD’s B.A. in English, students will be able to:
- Critically analyze literary, cultural, or scholarly texts
- Synthesize textual examples, or synthesize techniques from models of creative writing, to compose original, college-level writing
- Evaluate multiple sources to advance an original argument
Purpose of the Portfolio
As a writer, thinker, reader, and researcher, the portfolio will be useful for you in several ways.
The English Portfolio:
- helps you recognize and assess your own progress as a writer and scholar of literature and culture
- provides you with an organized sample of student writing expected by some employers, or the kernel of a writing sample usually required for admission to graduate programs
- functions as material evidence of advanced learning in literary studies, creative writing, film studies, textual analysis and interpretation, essay writing, and other critical and creative fields in the discipline of English
- serves as your entry in the annual UHD B.A. in English Portfolio contest
Your submitted portfolio also enables English faculty to assess how well the B.A. in English fulfills its educational goals
Submission of the Portfolio
Each semester, the deadline for submission will be announced on the ENG 4098 Canvas site. The portfolio is digital and turned in through an online system called Tk20. Step-by-step directions for how to upload the portfolio will be provided through the Canvas site for the course. Questions or concerns about any technological issue with Tk20 go to UHD’s IT department – 713-221-8540.
Each portfolio component has a tab displayed across the top of the portfolio. To include
the required components in your portfolio, click on the tabs and upload an appropriate
document file.
Portfolio Components:
- A simple letter: This letter informs the Coordinator of the B.A. in English that you have completed the portfolio. Be sure to include reliable contact information for you after you graduate (email, phone number, mailing address).
- Four to five essays from UHD English courses only: Expectations for how to choose your four to five essays will be posted in Canvas.
- A reflective essay: This is the only new piece of writing for the portfolio. Expectations for the reflective essay will be posted in Canvas
Once you have met the due date with all components of the portfolio submitted, you have satisfied this portion of ENG 4098.
Exit Interview
After you submit your portfolio, you will find a sign-up sheet in Canvas for your required online exit interview (through Zoom). Expectations for the exit interview will be posted on Canvas. This is a chance to hold a conversation with English professors about your experience of the B.A. in English at UHD – your classes, your professors, your extracurricular participation, and the other ways you engaged with the department, the program, and the opportunities offered.