Writing Samples and Descriptive Table of Contents

The portfolio includes four Writing Samples (that meet the requirements listed below) and a Descriptive Table of Contents (that contextualizes and analyzes the samples).

Samples must demonstrate mastery of English 302 learning outcomes:

1. Students will be able to analyze rhetorical situations–audience, purpose, and context–in order to recognize the expectations of readers and understand the main purposes of composing across multiple contexts relevant to their fields of study.

2. Students will understand the conventions of academic and non-academic genres, to include usage, specialized vocabulary, format, and attribution/citation systems.

3. Students will be able to apply critical reading strategies that are appropriate to advanced academic and non-academic texts of relevance to their fields of study.

4. Students will identify and synthesize multiple perspectives in articulating and refining a research question relevant to their fields of study.

5. Students will engage in a recursive process of inventing, investigating, shaping, drafting, revising, and editing to produce a range of academic and non-academic texts of relevance to their fields of study.

Do not choose final exam responses or annotated bibliographies for any of your writing samples, and do not submit writing completed in a graduate course or composed for a workplace. 

WRITING SAMPLE 1

English 302 teaches students how to engage in inquiry-based research and source synthesis (see Learning Outcome #4). Writing Sample 1 must be a project you wrote for a Mason course in your major that derives from a complex and arguable research question you developed about an issue in your discipline, and that demonstrates your ability to synthesize multiple perspectives in response to that research question. 

  • Length: 8-20 pages
  • Citation Style: The citation style should reflect that used in your discipline

WRITING SAMPLE  2

English 302 also teaches students to analyze audience, genre, and other elements of the rhetorical situation (see Learning Outcomes #1 and #2). Writing Sample 2 must be a project you wrote for a Mason course in your major that demonstrates your ability to write to a specific audience (outside of your professor and peers) and in a specific genre relevant to your discipline.

  • Length: 4-12 pages
  • Citation Style: If sources are integrated, the citation style should be appropriate for the situation

WRITING SAMPLE  3 and WRITING SAMPLE 4

These writing samples can come from any course you took as an undergraduate so long as they demonstrate mastery of one or more English 302 learning outcomes.

  • Length: 4-12 pages
  • Citation Style: If sources are integrated, the citation style should be appropriate for the situation 

DESCRIPTIVE TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Descriptive Table of Contents is a crucial part of the portfolio. It is an opportunity to briefly explain the context of each writing sample (the course and assignment for which it was written) and, more importantly, to analyze how each sample demonstrates mastery of specific ENGH 302 learning outcomes. 

You must provide a written analysis for each sample in your portfolio in which you:

  • Contextualize the Sample: Briefly identify the course by name and number, describe the focus of the course, and describe the assignment
  • Analyze the Sample: Thoroughly explain how specific features or sections of the sample demonstrate mastery of relevant ENGH 302 learning outcomes:
    • Your analysis of Sample 1 must speak to how the writing demonstrates mastery of English 302 Learning Outcome #4.  
    • Your analysis of Sample 2 must speak to how the writing demonstrates mastery of English 302 Learning Outcomes #1 and #2. 
    • Your analysis of Sample 3 and 4 must speak to how the writing demonstrates mastery of one or more ENGH 302 learning outcomes.

A cover page with your full name, G number, and major, should precede your written analyses.