Teaching SCW 100 for the first time, I didn’t know quite what to expect when we were asked to incorporate the eportfolio in the classroom this past fall. I made it a priority to teach a segment on visual literacy, using an advertising analysis assignment as a way to purposefully weave together visual and textual analysis. I handed the class over to my course assistant Lindsay Nieman who taught the howtos of eportfolio, and we both did our best to connect the how to the why by discussing rhetorical choices and audience. This sense of audience was what made Alexander’s portfolio stand out. It seemed uncommonly aware of how to capture a reader’s imagination and command attention, even about something as ephemeral as the writing process. While reading his work and seeing the striking images he chose, I could tell how much he valued this chance to share his writing experiences in a public venue as he guides his reader confidently through his site and his essays, but more importantly through his progress. As audience rather than simply teacher, I learned in a very visible way that what he had learned over the term wasn’t just the writing skills he practiced so diligently; he had gained an appreciation of his strengths, which allowed him to turn his weaknesses into territories he could explore with a ruthless determination. In his final version of his writing metaphor “On Clay and Diamonds” Alexander calls himself “a master of revision,” and I love that this portfolio gives him the chance to make such a claim, and to make it public. Somehow this online presence seems to make these statements even more real. Later I received an email from Alexander asking me what other writing classes I might recommend, perhaps for the upperlevel writing requirement. I wrote back to remind him that his requirement could be filled in biology, his current major. He wrote back to say, yes, of course, but he meant beyond that; he has decided he wants to do more writing than is expected in his major. He wanted to write for writing’s sake. This to me was one of the greatest rewards of the award. Jennifer Metsker, Instructor, SCW 100 Sweetland Center for Writing
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First-Year Writing 2010