Write Place Hosts Help-a-thon for Sophomores Completing Writing Portfolios

As part of Carleton’s emphasis on producing graduates capable of communicating information and analysis to others, the college requires each student to complete a portfolio of papers from classes taken during the freshman and sophomore years. With the deadline for completing this portfolio rapidly approaching, on Wednesday, May 4 The Write Place hosted an all night help-a-thon to give students a extra hand in completing, or in some cases beginning, this important task.

“The entire process isn’t really all that difficult but most students don’t realize the benefits of revising old papers, fixing simple errors and strengthening arguments,” noted junior writing assistant Mike Austin from Sacramento. “Once students stop complaining and actually do the work, they find it’s not difficult and can actually help them develop as writers.”

More than 100 students dropped by The Write Place before the help-a-thon finally ended at 6 a.m. on Thursday morning, some with their portfolios nearly completed, asking only for a second set of eyes to review their work, others with hands empty, still slightly unclear about the process.

“I picked out some papers over break but I haven’t had any of them authenticated yet. Still I’m not stressed—I think everything will work out fine,” said sophomore Aki Peterson from Redmond, Wash., who had just started revising her papers and was making rapid progress.

Sophomore Ethan Singer from St. Louis Park, Minn., was slightly less optimistic. “Well, one paper that I need for my portfolio I never got authenticated and I just learned the professor is in Prague this term. So that’s going to make things a bit difficult to say the least but I have until the 13th, so there’s still a glimmer of hope.”

Once completed, the writing portfolio contains between 3 and 5 papers authenticated by the professors to whom they were submitted for a grade. These papers must cover at least two of Carleton’s curricular divisions (Arts & Literature, Humanities, Social Sciences, Mathematics and Natural Sciences) and demonstrate that the student can observe, analyze and interpret several different types of data or research. In addition, each student must write an essay reflecting on how his or her abilities as a writer have developed over the first two years at Carleton.