Portfolio Time

It's portfolio time. So here's what I want in your portfolio:

• One of your two revised short stories, formatted exactly to submission standards, ready to go on submission. (Times New Roman, 1 inch margins, page number with your name on the top right--I will put a sample of this in Dropbox.)

• A query letter for said story. (see the post immediately before this one for an example)

• A SASE (stamped), if you are sending out via snail mail.

• A larger manila or priority envelope, if you are sending out via snail mail. (I will pay postage.)

• A letter to ME, about your progress and analysis of the class, which I will keep.



• 2 of your very best workshop responses.

All of these things can be turned in at the ASH lobby between 12:00 and 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday the 13th OR in your specific student folder (the one with your name on it) in the Dropbox. Just make a folder for yourself entitled FINAL PORTFOLIO and clearly label everything that goes in that folder. If you are sending your submission via the internet, please send me a screenshot of your confirmation that you have submitted the story. Visit this website if you need instructions on how to take a screenshot.

Final Letter Guidelines

 The idea behind the final letter is to show a context for the class.  The point of teaching in a portfolio style is that I, the instructor, am able to evaluate you, the student, based on your process as a young writer, not on the final products that you produce.  Here is your chance to explain your process and effort to me, before I grade your work.

            The letter should answer some or all of the following questions:

1)      What was your attitude about writing (and publishing) before you entered this class?   

2)      How were these ideas about writing (and publishing), listed above, challenged or affirmed in this course?  What challenged them?  What was your favorite Conversational Topic?

3)      What was your writing process like during the course?  What did you feel was your biggest achievement?  How did you grow as a writer?

4)      How would you evaluate your “level of engagement” in the course?  How intellectually engaged were you with the readings we read, the workshops, and finally, your own work?   

5)      How did the readings impact your own sense of creative writing?  What were your favorite pieces?  What were the pieces that most affected you, challenged you, made you see another way of thinking?  What pieces did you struggle with the most, and how did you respond to that friction?

6)      (mandatory) How did Jerome Stern affect your ideas about writing?  How did you see his ideas working through the published stories that we read?  Give at least one clear example of something Stern wrote about that you could apply to one of the stories that we read.

7)      What do you want me to know before I read your portfolio?  How do you want me to consider it?  What grade do you believe you deserve in this class?  Why?

The best final analysis letters are the ones that vividly show me your process as a writer, using specific texts, making specific reference to moments in the class or moments in your writing, referring to and even quoting your own work and the work of others.  In other words, specificity is the key.  Don’t write this letter in general terms, saying that “this was good,” or “I didn’t understand this. . .”  Dig deep into your experience.  Ask questions, and try valiantly to answer them.