Curation

Overview

It’s time to begin sorting and arranging your work. Part of that is going back through your archive and copying work to a folder, maybe renaming files so you know what class they came from, maybe creating a rough table of contents or set of notes that includes an assignment prompt that points to a name of the relevant file. You need to collect ALL of your work for the Infographic assignment, even if you only need certain works for your portfolio.

You aren’t turning in your “curation”—this is for you, so there is no due date. However, here is some helpful advice.

1. Keep your originals in a safe place. It’s ok to have multiple copies of the same file in different places to help your organization, but keep backups in case you accidentally lose a file.
2. Think about file naming. If you have folders filled with “assignment5.docx,” that doesn’t help. Here are two ways to think about it:
   1. Create folders and name them by genre. So you might have a lab report folder, a poetry folder, and an essay folder. Rename the files by class and assignment (writ2000 one story two perspectives.docx).
   2. Create class folders and rename files with keywords for your organization theme, and then use the search function in Mac Finder or Windows Explorer to find all “essays” or “lab reports.”
3. Think in categorization schemes. One could be genre (the type of writing). Another version would be task or purpose (argument, inform, entertain). Another might be audience (self [e.g., notes, reflective], academic, popular, civic). You cannot do all, but design something that works for you.

You want to then begin curating or selecting the work for the portfolio. Generally, you want the best or most representative work from a class. Nobody is going to read five poems from your Applied Writing class, and two research essays in your major. Each work is a showcase of your abilities–the fewer the better.

What you are looking for

1. Select one piece that you are going to do for the Revision assignment. The original can be a piece that you plan on also including in your portfolio, and that may even show your rhetorical versatility.
2. Select one piece from an Applied Writing course you took in the Writing Minor
3. Select one piece from a Theory, History, Research in Writing course you took in the Writing Minor.
4. Select one piece from the Theories of Writing course (WRIT 2000).
5. Select one piece from a class in your Major
6. Select one piece from WRIT 1122/1622 or WRIT 1133/1633/1733
7. Select one piece from a Common Curriculum course other than WRIT (FSEM, AI, SI, ASEM)