Dr.

Carter English 102-H, Fall 2009

Research Portfolio (20% of final course grade)

Portfolio: "A collection of material artifacts that demonstrates a learning process and includes a reflective analysis.
A portfolio can be used to evaluate progress in a fieldstudy and can be cited as source material." (FieldWork, 503)

Description: Your Research Portfolio “house[s] both the process and the product of [your] fieldwork.” Think of it as
a "behind-the-scenes" account of the field research process that led to the write up of your final project. “Naturally,
the research portfolio will include your final ethnographic essay, but your selection will also show artifacts from the
thinking process that led to this project (FieldWorking, 56-57). “To keep track of your project,” Sustein and Chiseri-
Strater suggest, “you’ll move back and forth among four key activities: collecting, selecting, reflecting, and
projecting” (57).

Portfolio contents: For the Research Portfolio you display at the end-of-term Celebration of Student Writing and
submit to your instructor, you should select “artifacts from the thinking process that led to this project. You’ll want
to represent selections from the reading, writing, and materials you’ve relied on along the way: writing exercises,
fieldnotes, interview questions, charts, methods of analysis, and whatever helped you think your way through the
final written project” (FieldWorking, 57). The following table includes the items you are required to include in your
Research Portfolio, which will be presented entirely online through Wordpress or another free site for sharing your
fieldwork and the resulting project.

placement description other relevant

details

Home (Page 1) Abstract of research project. What is your key research question? How Abstract should be
did your research project work to address this question? What are your less than 250 words
findings? total

Table of Annotated Table of Contents (see instructions for WA5, attached): The See WA5
Contents annotated table of contents is a list of the artifacts and other items assignment details
(page 2) included in the portfolio in the order in which they make the most sense for more.
given the direction taken in your final project. For your Research
Portfolio posted online, you should include a 3-5 sentence summary for
each item listed, followed by 2-3 sentences explaining the item’s
contribution to your overall project and a link to the item itself. Your
list should include at least 25 items, from the most relevant Research
Journal entries to fieldnotes taken in your own hand to artifacts
collected to summaries of each of your completed writing assignments.
The first page is meant to guide visitors to relevant artifacts, so each
item listed should link to the relevant item contained in your collection.
Each item should include a complete citation, followed by a short
description of the item itself and how it contributes to your overall
project.

Final Project Post your Final project here, deeply revised and ready for eyes beyond
(page 3) those of your classmates and instructor.

Research Tools For this section, you should include your complete codebook, digital codebook
(page 4) copies of signed consent forms, interview script, survey questions, and consent forms
other relevant research tools. interview script
survey questions
Dr. Carter English 102-H, Fall 2009

placement description other relevant

details

Artifacts (page Scan or photograph all artifacts you collected in the process of your
5) field research. Remember that an artifact is “a material object that
belongs to and represents a culture” (FW, 499). Artifacts collected in
your research portfolio might include photographs, brochures,
pamphlets, letters written from one member of the community to
another, menus, time sheets, employee reports, church bulletins,
newsletters, sketches, songs, advertisements, and so on. Also included
here are fieldnotes taken in your own hand (especially double-entry
fieldnotes), transcriptions from interviews, recordings from interviews,
maps you created as visual representation of the physical space, and any
other item collected during the research process.

Research Include all of your RJ entries here. By the end of the term, you should You’ve been
Journal have 25 complete entries. writing this all
(page 6) term. Should be
good to go here!

WAs (page 7) Include links to all your major writing assignments here, including a WA1 (Literacy
short description of WA1-WA5 . You can repeat the description offered History), WA2
in the Annotated Table of Contents above but you should make obvious (Found Literacies),
the multiple writing assignments you developed to prepare for your WA3 (Research
final research project. Proposal), WA4
(Ethnographic
Interviewing),
WA4 (Annotated
Bibliography)

Evaluation

In evaluating your final portfolio, I will be looking for all of the above elements. The following questions will guide
my evaluation:

‣ Does your Research Portfolio contain all of the required artifacts (see above)? Remember, I am looking
for at least SIX sets of fieldnotes expanded and reflected upon multiple times and numerous artifacts
representing a rigorous research process including loads of reflection and lots of time spent collecting,
selecting, coding, and interpreting these data in terms of your final research project.

‣ Does the Research Portfolio offer evidence of a meticulously researched project filled with obvious
reflection?

‣ Is the Research Portfolio organized in such a way that a visitor completely unfamiliar with the project can
easily navigate it and learn about the research question, context, methods, findings, and implications (see
syllabus for more).

Be certain your Research Portfolio meets these criteria. A draft of your research portfolio is due by
noon 12/4/09.

Send a link to your completed, online portfolio via email to Shannon_Carter@tamu-commerce.edu or

cartershannon@gmail.com
Dr. Carter English 102-H, Fall 2009

Free Sites for Storing Text, Images, and Audio

Wordpress allows you to upload images, audio, and video to your blog, but space is limited. One way around this
limit it to store your media elsewhere and embed the media player in your blog. Lots of free sites are available for
this. Here are just a few.

Store MS Word files online at http://www.scribd.com/

1. Create an account (free!)

2. Click “upload”
3. Select relevant file (browse) and upload
4. When uploaded, click link to uploaded file and find “share and embed” tab in upper, right-hand corner.
5. Click “share and embed,” then click “advanced” under the heading “embed”
6. On left-hand side, find “Wordpress.com embed code” and copy that code
7. Go to your Wordpress blog at the page where you want this file, click “edit” and the “html” tab.
8. Paste code into blog, then “update page.
9. New file should be there now!

Store PowerPoint and other slideshow presentations online at http://www.slideshare.net/

1. Create an account (free!)

2. Click “upload”
3. Select relevant file (browse) and upload
4. When uploaded, click link to uploaded file nad find “post to Wordpress” at bottom of file displayed
5. Copy code in second field (begins “[slideshare id=”)
6. Go to your Wordpress blog at the page where you want this file, click edit and then the “html” tab
7. Paste code into blog, then “update page”
8. New file should appear, embedded and playable in your blog right where you want it

Store video at http://www.vimeo.com

1. Create a basic account (free!)

2. Click “upload”
3. Same as above

YouTube is another option for video. Free and easy to use (and embed!)

Store images at http://www.flickr.com or photobucket.com

Same steps as above.