Jordan Engelke

1526 21st Ave S APT 102

Fargo, ND 58103
11 December 2014
NDSU English Department Assessment Committee
Fargo, ND 58102
Dear Assessment Committee:
My name is Jordan Engelke and I have been a student in the English department at
NDSU since spring of 2012. I will graduate in May of 2015 with a BA in English and a
minor in Women and Gender Studies. The following portfolio is a demonstration of my
best work during my years in the English program. I will identify each document, why I
think they are the best demonstration of the work I have done, what elements could be
revised, and how each document represents my ability to fulfill the English department
outcomes 3 and 4. I will also discuss how these documents relate to my growth as a
student, scholar, and researcher.
The first document in my portfolio is my McNair Honors Paper. While this paper was
not done specifically for an English class at NDSU, I still used many of the skills I
learned as an English student to complete it. This paper was part of a larger research
project I conducted as a McNair Scholar during the 2013-14 school year. I think this
represents some of my best work because it was the first major research paper I had to
write. It was also the first paper that was longer than ten pages. I put a significant
amount of work into this paper, and spent months researching and drafting.
Some things could still be revised in this paper. Specifically, the introduction could be
shortened, and the conclusion I think could use a little more work as far as clarity and a
wrap up of my overall points. This paper effectively demonstrates my successful
fulfillment of the English major outcomes. For Outcome 3, I effectively conducted
research, as evidenced by the extensive and diverse works cited page (pg. 16). I made use
of several academic sources and peer reviewed/scholarly articles. I also incorporated
them into my paper well; I rarely used direct quotations. Instead, I changed much of the
information into my own words. I also documented my sources according to standard
guidelines, though this paper was more difficult than others because it had to be in APA
format rather than MLA format which I have used my whole life.
The second document I have included is my final project for my Writing in the
Humanities and Social Sciences class (ENGL 358) in the spring of 2014. I think this
represents some of my best work because it was a combination of what I learned from
my ENGL 766 class, Teaching Literature, and my McNair project. While much of the
research articles were the same, I changed the scope and final product significantly.
Instead of focusing on pedagogical theory as I did in my McNair paper, I put that
research to use for the ENGL 358 paper. I created a teaching philosophy and a sample
assignment for a short story unit. This paper effectively demonstrates my successful
fulfillment of Outcome 4. For example, I demonstrated my ability to manage
sophisticated writing. This was an upper-level writing class and I had to utilize an
academic tone without being dry or dull. The teaching philosophy is a piece of work that
needs to be quite formal.
My third paper is a brief response paper I wrote for my ENGL 330: British and
American Women Writers class for the Fall 2014 semester. The assigned reading was
Anita Loos novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Given the chance, I would have liked to

expand this paper in order to more fully explore the themes and perspectives at work in
a novel like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I compared the women in the novel to the
emerging concept of the New Woman in 1920s American flapper culture. This work is
too an example of sophisticated writing, as put forth in Outcome 4, but in a much
shorter context. The three-page limit was a welcome challenge for me.
The fourth and final document I have included is my research project for Capstone
which I took in the fall of 2014. It is entitled: Crossing the Line: Transgender
Pedagogy. I think this represents some of my best work because it is a combination of
the research I feel very passionately about. If I could revise it, I would probably tighten
up some of the wording in the paragraphs on pages 5-6; these paragraphs tend to get
wordy and a little sloppy. This paper effectively demonstrates my successful fulfillment
of Outcomes 3 and 4. I used a variety of research strategies and sources. My methods
were to make use of several academic, scholarly articles, two books, some news articles,
and a personal interview. The outcome was an amalgamation of information that
appropriately covered my topic from several different angles. I also used the analysis
skills I learned in my literature and literary analysis classes. I used feminist and queer
theory lenses in order to accurately analyze the articles that were geared toward a more
general class, rather than a transgender literature class.
I know statistics show that students typically only cite information from the first couple
pages of an article, and will frequently avoid longer articles. Therefore, I documented
my sources according to standard guidelines, but also made a deliberate effort to use
sources better than most students. For example, I read past page three of these articles
(as evidenced by my citations) and the majority of my articles were longer than ten
pages. Furthermore, as stated in Outcome 4, I was able to manage sophisticated
writing with my Capstone paper because it was a very intense research undertaking. It
took several months of research and writing. In fact, I submitted three drafts of my
paper to my mentor before submitting my final paper. I also demonstrated my
planning and completing abilities through my proposal and progress report. I made
use of a checklist and stayed ahead of schedule for the entire project. I met every
expectation my mentor and I set for my project. Finally, I completed this project ontime and within the constraints of the project by exceeding all of the expectations for
the assigned tasks. (I did, however, exceed the page limit by nearly ten pages, but I do
not think the clarity of my paper suffered because of the added length.)
Throughout my work as an undergraduate at NDSU, I have successfully fulfilled
Outcomes 3 and 4 for English majors in diverse ways. I hope you are able to see that in
the work I have included here. Thank you for taking the time to read my portfolio.
Sincerely,

Jordan Engelke
Web Portfolio URL: www.jordanengelke.wordpress.com