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Writer's Portfolio
Spring, 2007 / #55-3300 / Thursdays: 8:30 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
624 S. Michigan / Room # 804
Instructor: Kristin Scott, MFA, A.M.
Fiction Writing Department, Columbia College Chicago |
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Course Description |
In this course students develop and build a writing portfolio that showcases strong examples of their writing done in Fiction Writing Department classes and elsewhere to present for possible employment or application to graduate school. Students will learn about professional portfolio presentation and the role portfolios play in persuading employers and graduate admission committees in the fields of writing. Students will rewrite pieces of their own writing, including a range of various writing forms that are key to a successful portfolio, and that they wish to include in their final portfolio project. Examples could include cover letters, letters of inquiry, research on publishing markets, stories and essays. Additional forms may include resumes, clips of feature writing, writing for media, advertising, scripts, business and other forms of writing that show the student's writing strengths. It is open to all students and is a capstone course for the BFA in Fiction Writing degree.
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Prerequisites |
Fiction Writing I (55-1101) AND Fiction Writing II (55-4102) AND Prose Forms (55-4104) AND Fiction Writing: Advanced (55-4106) OR Fiction Writing I (55-4101) AND Fiction Writing II (55-4102) AND Prose Forms (55-4104) AND Fiction Writing: Advanced (55-4106)
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Goals and Objectives |
In order to best prepare students for a career in writing, this class focuses on three sets of issues: the process of identifying potential career and freelance opportunities, the development of the portfolio itself, and the effective and persuasive presentation of one’s work to potential employers. Students will also explore their career goals and opportunities both within class and through group and one-on-one workshops with a variety of writing professionals tailored specifically to meet the needs of the class and have opportunities to receive individual feedback on portfolios-in-progress by writing and industry professionals. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
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Create a final body of work (portfolio) that reflects their talent/s, goals, and education.
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Review their work and select the pieces that not only best exemplify their creative and professional skills, but also select work that best addresses specific professional contexts.
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Learn how to keep their portfolio current through the process of assessment, reflection, and revision.
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Effectively articulate, within a professional context, how their portfolio reflects their goals and potential.
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Format |
This class has a lecture/discussion/workshop format, with primary emphasis on workshops. Guest industry professional speakers and various portfolio-related events will also be a large part of the format of this course.
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Academic Honesty |
The Columbia College Chicago Catalogue states that "The College prohibits the following conduct: all forms of academic dishonesty, including cheating; plagiarism; knowingly furnishing false information to the College; forgery; alteration or fraudulent use of College documents, instruments, or identification." If you misrepresent another's ideas and/or written work as your own, then you will earn an "F" for the course. Academic dishonesty is not worth the penalty it incurs.
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Required Texts/Materials |
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Conaway Center Statement |
Students with disabilities are requested to present their Columbia accommodation letters to their instructor at the beginning of the semester so that accommodations can be arranged in a timely manner by the College, the department or the faculty member, as appropriate. Students with disabilities who do not have accommodation letters should visit the office of Services for Students with Disabilities in room 520 of the Congress building (312.344.8134/V or 312.360.0767/TTY). It is incumbent upon the students to know their responsibilities in this regard.
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Attendance & Lateness |
The Fiction Writing Department’s policy on attendance states that if you accrue more than three absences in a class that meets once a week, you will fail the course. You are permitted two (2) absences. I will lower the final grade of any student who is absent from more than 2 classes or who is consistently late or leaves early. You can be (AND WILL BE) charged with a half-absence if you miss more than 10 minutes of any one-class session (that includes being late and/or leaving early).
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Summary of Work Expected |
A. Specific reading, writing, re-writing, and other assignments aimed towards portfolio production will be given during the course of the semester. In order to gain maximum benefit from course and ultimate goal of putting together your writer’s portfolio, you are expected to complete all work and engage fully in workshops and professional events.
B. Unlike most other writing classes within the fiction writing major, there is no minimum page count required for this course, as assignments are specifically geared towards the production of your portfolio and therefore less reliant upon page count than the quality of work contained within your portfolio. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that you complete all assignments. Each assignment is specifically geared towards assisting you in creating and producing the best possible writing portfolio – one that will not only reflect your past and current writing, but one that also illuminates your future potential. Missing assignments therefore will inevitably have a large impact on the quality of your final product, and thus will similarly impact your final grade.
C. All written work must be handed in utilizing the following:
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Typed, double-spaced, and within the standard 12 point font.
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While you typically utilize Courier font for other writing classes, for this class, I recommend TIMES NEW ROMAN font, as most of your writing will be cut and paste directly into your web-portfolios and is most easily done with TIMES NEW ROMAN.
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Make sure that you put your name, the class, the instructor’s name and date of assignment on the paper in the upper left hand corner. See visual example/s of proper formatting. -
Put your last name and page number on all succeeding pages.
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All work must be neat and thoroughly proofread (particularly important for final revisions, as they will be going directly into your public portfolio).
D. You are responsible for reflecting on readings, discussions, projects, and all other assigned work in the class blog (online).
E. Make sure that you keep all work on a separate disk, which will later be utilized to create your digital/web portfolio.
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Grade Distribution |
Grades for this course are holistically determined and are informed by the following:
A. Attendance and Promptness: No more than three absences. Not negotiable. Remember that each tardy (arriving more than 10 minutes late or leaving more than 10 minutes before class ends) also counts as a half-absence. Since each class period will be covering a very specific element of your overall portfolio development, any absence is strongly discouraged and may affect your final grade.
B. Page Counts: 60 pages of writing and/or rewriting exhibiting reasonable effort and response to class assignments. Not negotiable.
C. Assignments: Full and on-time completion of all assignments will count heavily towards final grade.
D. Overall Progress: the overall quality, improvement, and engagement with the process of portfolio production will also count heavily towards final grade.
E. Revision: as the life-long writer’s process of portfolio production relies heavily on the continual re-vision of one’s portfolio, the polishing and improvement of unpublished work, artist’s statements, and other necessary materials, a good portion of the overall grade will reflect the progress each student makes during the process of revision.
F. Class Participation: Good effort and full engagement with class activities and with peers is a necessary part of the course and impacts not only one’s final portfolio, but also final grade.
G. Integrity: Any student caught plagiarizing work will receive a grade of F (failing) for the course. For a copy of the College Academic Integrity Statement, see The Informer student handbook. Furthermore utilizing another’s images, sound, etc. (the “unwarranted appropriation of work”) for a public portfolio (i.e. a web-portfolio) without permission and due credit, as well as the misrepresentation of oneself (i.e. background and experience), similarly represent a serious lack of artistic and scholarly integrity and carries the possibility of failure in a course or a lower grade, depending on circumstances.
NOTE: Plus/Minus grades will be used in this course.
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Grading Policy | |
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A |
96 - 100 |
A - |
90 - 95 |
B + |
87 - 89 |
B |
83 - 86 |
B - |
80 - 82 |
C + |
77 - 79 |
C |
73 - 76 |
C - |
70 - 72 |
D |
60 - 69 |
F |
below 60 | |
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