Gail Bennett 2015
W270 Portfolio Three Guidelines (Final Portfolio)
The Final Portfolio for W270 is worth 45% of your course grade. Your third and final
portfolio should include the following items in the order listed.
Part One (use sub-dividers)
O This sheet (portfolio 3 guidelines) with the items checked in the circles to the left. (This
will substitute for a table of contents.)
O Course Retrospective Argument. Instructions for this will be given separately.
O A 10+-12 page, fully developed Researched Argument on a topic related to economic
inequality. The Works Cited page (which does not count toward the 10-12 pages) should list
a minimum of 8 sources that you actually used in your paper). Of these 8+ sources, 2 must
be books, 3-5 must come from peer-reviewed journal articles from found through different
IUPUI library databases, and the others may be from any of the above or from popular
magazines, newspaper sources, sponsored web sites, government documents, or other
relevant, credible sources. The Researched argument is to be based upon the structural
enthymeme that you devised in class.
Please note: Arguments that do not meet length requirements (a minimum of 10 full
pages, not counting the WC page) will be reduced by one full grade. The use of sources
that are not credible or plagiarizing sources can result in a failing argument.
Part Two
O Your Prewriting Tool(s) (a Cluster or a Gage Sentence Outline or both)
O Your 9-10 page draft of your argument, submitted two+ weeks before the end of the
course, along with any written comments I gave you.
Final Portfolios are due Tuesday, April 29th. (One full grade deduction for each day late;
each weekend day counts as one full day—DO NOT be late).
Please supply a large, self-addressed, stamped envelope (weighed in advance, with correct
postage) if you want me to return the portfolio and portfolio evaluation to you after it is
graded. Otherwise, you may collect both from my office at the beginning of next term.
I’ll look forward to reading your final argument!
Hints for Your Consideration When Writing
and Revising Your Formal Researched
Argument
Content
1. Position Paper: You have been asked to research and support a position (the American Heritage
Dictionary says “position” means “1) a place or location or . . . 5) a point of view”) you’ve
reached concerning a controversial topic related to the first amendment to the United States
Constitution. In the researched argument, you assume a “place” in the conversation about the
topic you’re researching; your position is your point of view on that topic. This position is
reflected in your enthymeme. As a result, the researched argument should be based upon the
structural enthymeme that you decided upon in class.
2. Informed Position: An informed position stems from the reading and research that you’ve done
on your topic. The enthymeme you have crafted represents where you position yourself along a
continuum of possible positions writer/researchers may take on that topic, a continuum with
extreme positions at either end of the continuum and modified, qualified stances in between.
Remember, your task has been to become informed about your topic, searching for the best
reasons for belief. Your position should be based upon this assessment of the reasons you’ve
uncovered.
You have been asked to support this claim in the body of your researched argument by bringing
in appropriate reasons and evidence from your research and by anticipating and then effectively
refuting counterclaims to your argument. This is not a Literature Review, and you are not
reporting on the views of the audience. But you will draw upon appropriate quotes,
paraphrases, or summaries, on occasion, as they are useful to your effort to develop your line of
reasoning in support of your position, and you will clearly credit sources for their words or ideas.
Your argument must use a minimum of 8 sources. Of these 8 sources, 1 must be a book, 3 must
come from peer-reviewed journal articles from databases, and the others may be from any of
the above or popular magazines, newspaper sources, sponsored web sites, government
documents, or other relevant, credible sources. Most arguments of this kind incorporate
around 2-3 brief, clearly relevant quotes into each page, and the sources should clearly support
the points you make about your position by adding statistics, offering a well-phrased
authoritative opinion, or supplying other useful data.
Voice and Tone
4. Presence: This is your argument, and the intensity of your convictions and the presence of your
values add strength to your paper. This will be visible to your readers through the diction and
language conventions that you choose.
5. Narrative: Because it is your argument, your personal experience is sometimes relevant to the
essay. Narrative can enhance your credibility and increase reader interest, but you need to be
sure that your personal example functions either as a piece of evidence for your argument or as
a motivation for your investigation (it explains your interest), rather than the narrative
becoming the focus of the paper or off topic.
Note: You may write narrative segments in first person, but minimize the amount of narrative in
an essay directed to an academic audience. (The rest of the argument should be written in third
person.)
6. Audience: Remember this “academic audience” at all times as you write, and keep the language
and tone appropriate for such an audience. You will focus on the logic of your position,
represented by the evidence you have uncovered during your investigation, tailored to this
audience. Avoid slang, name calling, derogatory or condescending terms, overstatement, or rash
promises. Be accurate, concise, thoughtful, develop each important idea in your line of
reasoning fully and clearly, make your good ideas explicit for your audience.
7. Asking Questions: Use questions carefully and with restraint. A series of provocative questions
used thoughtfully and sensitively at one point in your paper can be an effective “appeal” to your
audience, but over use of questions results in a weak argument. Avoid introducing a series of
questions that your paper will discuss, for example, and avoid the over use of questions as a
rhetorical devise that assume a “yes” answer. (If your audience answers the question differently
than you expect, you will have lost them.) Instead, make your point through the logic of your
assertive statements.
8. Revision: Revision is, first, “rethinking” your essay, not editing, proofreading, or correcting
typos. Rather, it is rethinking through your argument and improving it. You have been revising
ever since you first formulated the initial draft of your enthymeme, and you will continue to
revise until you have completed the final draft of your argument.
9. Style: Style, as John Gage says in The Shape of Argument, is like logic in that clarity and
effectiveness depend not only on what is said but also on how different ways of writing may
appeal to certain readers. Style is a matter of finding an appropriate way of writing for a given
audience.
Form
10. Reasoning: The key organizational rule is that form is generated by reasoning. You need to earn
the claim in your enthymeme by supporting it with a good reason that is undergirded by specific
and relevant evidence, and this evidence needs to be presented in a logical order. Ask yourself:
what logically needs to come next in this essay if I am to earn my claim with this audience?
11. Structural Models: Various models (classical argument, definitional arguments, etc.) have been
suggested that can help you organize your material effectively. Use these models to serve your
purposes, but don’t become a slave to them. Feel free to combine parts of several models, if this
works for your paper.
12. Hills and Valleys: Consider the “hills and valleys” approach to writing an essay. If you’re fans of
Tolkien’s writings (as I am) you may remember a scene in The Lord of the Rings where, after
being lost for too long in a very dark wood, Frodo and his friends climbed a tree on a small hill to
get a view of the horizon. The imagery—returning to the heights periodically to get your
bearings--is what the Hills and Valleys approach does for your paper. The hills represent your
enthymeme, restatements of your enthymeme (often rephrased), restatements of parts of your
enthymeme (your claim or reason), or reminders of your main point(s). They help your reader
rise up out of the minutia and see the whole. The valleys are the details, your evidence,
counterarguments, rebuttals, source support, etc. You need to descend into the valleys for most
of the paper, but periodically, you also need to rise up to the hills to help your readers maintain
their focus on your position and the key points in your line of reasoning.
13. Final Questions: At the end, ask yourself:
Content Questions
 Is my enthymeme valid, strong, and original?
 Does my claim (at least) appear somewhere in my opening? Does my reason appear near
the beginning of the body of my paper and/or does my complete enthymeme appear
elsewhere, such as in or near the conclusion?
 Do I earn my claim through the logic of my reasoning?
 Does my evidence support my reason, is my evidence arranged logically, and do I address
relevant counter-arguments where they would most likely be posed by my audience?
 Could the major divisions and sub-points in my paper be presented in a better order?
 Are the sources I refer to as I make my argument synthesized into my argument in a manner
that is natural and effective? Do I always use MLA style proficiently and properly? (If you still
struggle with MLA style, go to the UWC for help!)
 Do my transitional sentences, phrases, and words make the connections between my ideas
explicit for my readers? Do they lead the reader from one section to the next, from one
paragraph to the next, and from one sentence to the next? Is the paper coherent and
cohesive?
Style Questions
 Have I eliminated first or second person, except in a rare narrative section?
 Are my sentences fluent, tight, and well constructed? Is my overall style clear and cogent?
 Have I chosen my words carefully, so they flesh out my ideas and make them interesting to
my readers?
 Have I eliminated all wordiness and grammatical errors? Have I sought to make the
document letter perfect?