The Sociology Undergraduate Program requires all majors who took Sociology 206 in the Fall 2003 or later must submit a portfolio, as part of the department's ongoing assessment of its majors' academic growth and development. You will submit your completed portfolio at the end of your senior year, in Senior Experience (Soc. 300). The portfolio will be a collection of papers and assignments you completed over the course of the major. At a minimum, it will include at least one paper or assignment from each of the core courses (Soc 206, 270, 271, 275, 292, and 300) and one paper from each of the elective Sociology courses you have taken at Illinois State.
The Sociology department believes that the portfolio is a valuable tool to help students assess their own progress in the major. Moreover, by reviewing students' portfolios, the department will be able to better assess student growth and development. Your academic growth in a number of crucial areas will be evident in your portfolio; for example, it will show development in your writing skills, critical thinking skills, analytical skills, and your ability to apply the Sociological Imagination. In addition, the portfolio will aid you in your job search and/or the graduate school application process.
At the beginning of your first semester in the Sociology major, you should purchase a 3 inch, 3-ring binder. You will need tabs for each semester and year so that you can organize the materials you will be placing in the portfolio. Each semester you are enrolled in Sociology courses (required courses and electives), you will place selected papers and/or assignments in the portfolio. You will include only those papers and assignments with recorded grades. Be advised that certain professors may require you to include certain materials in the portfolio. If you have a paper or assignment that you are not required to include, but you believe it to be especially good, feel free to include that as well.
Select at least one paper or assignment from each core Sociology course you have taken. The papers will be organized in chronological order by semesters, so that a paper written in Sociological Inquiry (Soc. 206) is in the front of the portfolio, and your final Senior Experience (Soc. 300) paper is at the end of it. You can include a paper from Introduction to Sociology (Soc. 106) if you desire. However, include papers from Illinois State Sociology courses only, not from Sociology courses you took at another university.
At the end of your last semester, before turning in the portfolio, you must complete the following and include it with the portfolio:
