The Multigenre Portfolio: Personal Superlatives

Stories help us to make sense of things. For your Personal Superlatives Portfolio, you have selected
important moments from your life and information about yourself, and you have told its story in
creative ways by applying different genres. In a way, you have created a new kind of narrative that
reveals something important about you to your audience, and perhaps to yourself as well. In
essence, you have reconsidered your experiences from a variety of angles, and along the way you
have considered issues of organization, description, detail selection, point of view and audience.

RESEARCH
The main research resource for this assignment is yourself. While it may seem daunting to choose
and write about just one of many significant moments in your life, the activities you will do in and
out of class will help you sift through your history to find a rich story to tell. As you narrow your list
of possible ideas, you may find some real documents or images such as emails, journal entries, or
postcardsthat might enrich the telling of a particular story.
ORGANIZATION
Some authors experiment with headings, genre, and point of view as a way to play with a
traditional, linear plot while still telling a coherent story. For instance, think of the different ways
writers might tell about their last year in high school. If you wanted to use different genres to
organize the story, you might include a conversation in the car, a map of the school, a facebook
profile of your new classmate sitting next to you, a picture of your classroom, a journal entry about
your emotions entering your senior year of high school, an email you wrote to a teacher or guidance
counselor, a text conversation with your best friend, a selfie you took at Homecoming, etc. As this
assignment will show, writers make decisions about organization, focus, and development all the
time.
OPENING LETTER/PROLOGUE/PREFACE: The Reflection
Your portfolio needs to begin with an address to your reader. This address can be written as a
letter, a prologue or a preface. The purpose is to TELL what you SHOW in the narrative. This is
your chance to set up what is to follow. Explain your SO WHAT, WHAT, and HOW. Tell your readers
what you want them to get out of your portfolio. What did you hope to accomplish? What do you
want them to realize or know about you once theyve read your narrative? What genres did you use
and why? What is your repetend/motif and how does it connect your pieces together? Most
importantly, how does your selection of superlatives and your creative genres tell a specific story
about you?The reflection will be used as an introductory frame, in the form of an opening letter.
Ultimately, the purpose of this reflection is to communicate to your audience why this story is
significant in your life, and why you decided to tell it.Think about how everything connects, as this
is how you will create and explain the repetend.
REPETEND
A repetend is a motif or a recurring pattern that serves to link your vignettes together and tell a
specific story about you. Repetend could be a repeated genre, idea, pattern, visual etc. You will be
packaging your portfolio using an image that represents your repetend, or pattern, between your
superlatives - how does everything link together through this one image? Place the repetend at the
bottom of your opening letter/prologue/preface.

The Multigenre Portfolio: Personal Superlatives

AUDIENCE
We do not write for ourselves alone. Rather, we need to consider our narrative as part of a
rhetorical triangle that encompasses the writer, the reader, and the subject matter. Always ask
yourself what kind of reader might be interested in your project, and what they expect you to do as
a writer. How do your different genres and superlatives link together to form a story? Also consider
what your readers already know about you and what they need to know. How much background
information do you need to give to make the most impact?
ASSESSMENT
I will read and analyze your portfolio to determine your success at:
Choosing a focus among many possibilities
Conveying a personal experience in a way that is interesting and relevant to a reader
Selecting and using descriptive detail and examples appropriate to your purpose(s) and
audience(s)
Reflecting on the new perspectives you have gained since the experience
Developing and practicing flexible strategies for invention, focus, organization, and revision
Demonstrating originality and initiative that remain relevant to the assignment
Demonstrating genuine progress from one superlative to the next
Proofreading your work so that it appears neat and professional
Meeting the length requirement (at least six genre-specific superlatives, with opening and
repetend)

The Multigenre Portfolio: Personal Superlatives

Rubric For Assessing Multigenre Research Project: Personal Superlatives
Writers Name: _________________________________________
Full Title: ______________________________________________
_____Score for Holistic Impact
100-97 Knocks me off my feet, so informative, creative, powerful and emotionally moving is the
portfolio. Throughout there is evidence of original thinking, depth, specificity of detail, delights of
language or insight. The mgp is rife with excellent writing/style that includes attention to a pleasing
visage of the page, if written: action verbs, varied sentence length, effective word choice, skilled
placement of payoff information, strong leads and endings; if creative: visual and other sensory
imagery. Personal exploration is interesting, surprising, and deftly and creatively incorporated into
the portfolio.
9693 An excellent, fulfilling portfolio. Creativity abound with plenty of critical thinking, given its
depth, specific details, and language and insight. Personal style is clear and exceeds expectations of
requirements.
9287 A good portfolio. Im upbeat because of solid moves the writer makes that are
mentioned above. I learn things about the writer. While the portfolio didnt blow me away, I am
happy with its competent execution. Personal exploration and creativity is good.
7786 Portfolio is complete, but genres do not consistently employ those qualities of voice and
meaning that make portfolio and its connectivity between superlatives strong and vivid. There is a
feeling of middle of the road about it.
6976 Not an adequate portfolio. The genres show almost none of the skills mentioned
above. Some pieces seem perfunctory, as if created hastily and never revised or revisited. Content
shows little depth or insight. More telling than showing.
68 and Plummeting
An insult to turn in, an insult to the teacher, to the disciplined, creative act of writing, and to the
writers own mind.

____Required elements: opening, repetend, six genres with information table

(title, genre, purpose)

The Multigenre Portfolio: Personal Superlatives

____Title
Original, illustrative,
surprising, piques a
readers interest, may
be something
mysterious about it

Serviceable and clear,

good

Simply names the

topic (e.g. A
Multigenre Paper
about Me, the
Vampire as sole title)

No title

____Introduction/Preface/Prologue Dear Reader (the first piece after the title)

Piques readers
Informative, perhaps
interest and provides no-nonsense, not too
pertinent information, brief or too long
sets reader up well for
reading/viewing what
is ahead, something
magical, provocative,
or moving about it.
Maybe unconventional
but creativity galore.

Provides little
substantive
information, doesnt
compel reader to read
on, may be overlong
or too brief

Missing

____Unifying Element(s)/Repetend (Name your unifying element(s) with page numbers)

Connections between
pieces are easily
recognized,
surprising, creative,
moving. All link back
to repetend, and some
element of the
repetend is present in
each piece

Unifying element
present and
somewhat consistent
throughout pieces,
effective

____Visual Elements/Genres

Unifying element
present but not
particularly effective
or memorable

Missing

The Multigenre Portfolio: Personal Superlatives

Appealing to the eyes:
Spacing, type size,
readability/viewabilit
y/volume make the
reader speed along,
concentrating on
making meaning.
Contains strong visual
element(s) that
accomplishes
something that words
alone cannot.

Not at all physically

hard to read, follow,
view or listen to
genres. Visual
element(s) add some
meaning, but is
inconsistent in each
genre.

Some aspects may be

physically hard to
process (read, follow,
view or listen to
genres). Visual
element more like a
frill, maybe simply
downloaded, copied,
or pasted in, no
meaningful payoff.

Author seems to have

paid little attention to
the readers physical
experience with
reading the portfolio.
Little or nothing
appealing. May be, in
fact, difficult to read in
parts. Visual
element(s) may be
missing.

____Proofreading & Editing

No errors except
purposeful ones.

Contains few
errors in
grammar,
punctuation,
spelling,
typography

Contains more
than a few errors
but meaning not
seriously affected

Contains enough
errors to the
point of
distraction,
writer, perhaps,
has not
proofread well or
does not have
knowledge of
grammar, usage,
and spelling.

Frequent,
repetitive errors,
a copyediting
disaster

Notes follow
most genres, but

Notes that are

Notes are
missing.

____Note Table (Title, Genre, Purpose)

Each genre/piece

Notes are
informative and

The Multigenre Portfolio: Personal Superlatives

has one. Notes
thorough.
are
vital to
understanding a
dimension of the
portfolio you
wouldnt
otherwise know.
Notes contain
surprising,
informative
information on
the genre, its
purpose and/or
the process
of creation. There
is a surprising,
fulfilling quality
to the notes.

are brief and

vague without
extension.

needed are not

provided.
Questions left in
the readers
mind. Or Notes
are largely
perfunctory,
adding little
pertinent
information and
hurting the
overall effect of
the portfolio.