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Project 4: Professional Portfolio

Understanding Public Subjectivity

Some formal guidelines for the Rhetorical Rationale:

• The questions below are meant as a guide for you to discuss the story of your composition. Please don’t answer
these questions bullet by bullet, but rather use them as areas of consideration to discuss how and why you
composed your project the way you did. What drafts did you go through? What feedback did you receive from
your peers? What changed your thinking on your project?
• Please compose your document in prose/paragraph format, and do not turn your rationale in as a series of
bullet points.
• I consider it of high importance that you connect with the scholarship that we discuss in class. How have
the concepts we discussed in class informed your composing process? This is not a formal research report; your
quotes will not have to be in MLA/APA format (just page numbers is fine), but I expect you to consider how
the critical concepts we discuss in class are present within your project.
• For this project, your rhetorical rationale should run between 1000-1500 words. Please also upload your
rationale as an MS Word document. Your written document should adhere to standard formatting (1” margins,
Times New Roman font, etc.).

1. Rhetorical situation
• What is the exigence(s) for your professional portfolio? What is the problem, or the pressing issues,
which you are trying to address?
• Why did you create this portfolio (other than to satisfy an assignment and earn a grade); what
purpose does this text serve? Defend your rhetorical goal.
• Who is your audience? In what ways is your audience diverse? What shared values are present? How
does your web text address a public audience?

2. Content
• What content did you add to your portfolio and why? Defend your selection.
• What content did you add to individual pages and why? Why did you arrange the content the way
you did?
• Did you include any recurring symbols/icons/logos? How do these symbols add to your brand? Did
you repeat any key phrases or words? How does that represent you?
• What content do you intend to include in the future? What do you plan to remove?

3. Arrangement
• How do you inform your audience about the contents of the portfolio? How do you influence or
constrain the way the portfolio is “read”?
• How did you arrange the original pages within the menu bar and why?
• How did you arrange given elements within a given page? How does this add to the overall
experience?

4. Style
• What style of language (i.e. prose style) do you use and why? What is the voice you use to speak to
your audience in? Why? Is the language you use (word choice, syntax, etc) appropriate for your
genre and audience? Why or why not?
• How do you construct an ethos (credibility) for yourself? What choices did you make to create that
credibility?
• How did you use typography and design? Is you use of typography consistent? Is your typography
easy to read and appropriate for your audience?
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Project 4: Professional Portfolio
Understanding Public Subjectivity

• What color scheme did you use and why?

5. Reflection
• This is the most important question you will answer in your rationale. What is the identity that you
are trying to convey to your audience? How close is this to your real identity? What choices did you
make to create that identity?
• What did you learn from doing this project?
• What is your perception of the professional portfolio as a genre?

6. Techne
• What considerations did you have before you composed your portfolio? What considerations do you have
to contend with after you composed the portfolio?
• How will you encourage or constrain the circulation of your portfolio?
• How did you demonstrate techne in your web text? What technical knowledge was required?
• What cultural values are represented in your portfolio? In other words, how does your portfolio fit into
a larger cultural discourse?

7. Etc.
• Did you run into any complications/limitations/problems with the project that you would like to
discuss?
• Is there anything else you would like to share about the project?