INFO 289 Required Content

Overview

Required Content — INFO 289

To begin, study:

Your first section of each competency essay will be an explication of the competency statement itself, so it is important that you study each one systematically and thoroughly, taking notes that you can later turn into your competency essays.

Be sure you examine and address each phrase or clause of the competency statements in your essays. See example e-Ports (passwords: sjsuslis; jobpathways)

Read carefully the document entitled: Hints, reminders, and clarifications for writing specific competency essays

For each of the 14 Core Competencies, you will write an essay with the following three sections:

●Section 1: Introduction

There is a 500-word minimum and the recommended length is 500-750 words. There is no maximum unless explicitly stated by your faculty advisor.

Each of your competency introductions should have two parts:

  1. What do you understand the competency to mean?
  2. Define it and explain why it is important to you as a professional and to the profession as a whole.

For most competencies you will be expected to include some quotes or references from professional and scholarly literature pertinent to that topic. These references likely will be drawn from the reading you did in your courses and should not require additional research on your part.

There is a minimum of three references required for each competency essay.

Be sure that you cover all major concepts, components, and/or perspectives to a reasonable depth and be specific enough to show that you clearly understand all parts of the competency.

Imagine that you are explaining these competencies to a friend who is intelligent but not an LIS person, so you will need to be clear and give thorough explanations. For example, if you use a specialized term like “RDA” you need to explain what RDA is since it is not common knowledge.

2nd Component: Areas of Competency

Your first section of each competency essay will be an explication of the competency statement itself, so it is important that you study each one systematically and thoroughly, taking notes that you can later turn into your competency essays.

Be sure you examine and address each phrase or clause of the competency statements in your essays. See example e-Ports (passwords: sjsuslis; jobpathways)

Read carefully the document entitled: Hints, reminders, and clarifications for writing specific competency essays

For each of the 14 Core Competencies,

  • There is a 500-word minimum and the recommended length is 500-750 words. There is no maximum unless explicitly stated by your faculty advisor

Each of your competency introductions should have two parts:

  1. What do you understand the competency to mean?
  2. Define it and explain why it is important to you as a professional and to the profession as a whole.

For most competencies you will be expected to include some quotes or references from professional and scholarly literature pertinent to that topic. These references likely will be drawn from the reading you did in your courses and should not require additional research on your part.

There is a minimum of three references required for each competency essay.

Be sure that you cover all major concepts, components, and/or perspectives to a reasonable depth and be specific enough to show that you clearly understand all parts of the competency.

Imagine that you are explaining these competencies to a friend who is intelligent but not an LIS person, so you will need to be clear and give thorough explanations. For example, if you use a specialized term like “RDA” you need to explain what RDA is since it is not common knowledge.

●Section 2: Evidence

There is a 500-word minimum for your evidence section. Typically, students write 1-3 paragraphs per piece of evidence, so the recommended length of this section is also 500-750 words. There is no maximum unless explicitly stated by your faculty advisor.

There is a required minimum of three pieces of evidence per competency essay. Faculty advisors are looking for at least 3-4 pieces of evidence per competency.

There are also two main components to your evidence section for each competency:

  1. Discuss what coursework/work experience prepared you for understanding and being able to perform the competency.
  2. For each of your three or more artifacts, provide both a description and a justification:
    1. Your description will explain the artifact itself clearly.
    2. Your justification is the part that clearly explains how each of your artifacts connects to the competency and supports your accomplishment of that competency.

In your justifications you need to show specifically how the artifact demonstrates that you are competent in this area. Please note:

  • Describing your pieces of evidence without explaining specifically WHY you selected them and HOW they justify that you are competent in this area will not be satisfactory.
  • For example, you might have a topic sentence at the beginning of one of your evidence paragraphs as follows, “My first piece of evidence to show my mastery of competency B is my internship report for INFO 294 (comp-b_internship.doc).” Then describe the relevant content of the artifact, and then make a clear and convincing argument regarding how this artifact proves that you are competent in this area
  • For group projects, please be sure you explain what your role/responsibility within the group was. You need to be clear which parts of a particular piece of evidence were your responsibility.

The e-portfolio is designed to be an integrative and a culminating exercise, so try to use as many different types of evidence as you can. Try to draw broadly from all the courses you have taken (or are taking). One piece of evidence may be applicable to more than one competency; however, try not to use it more than twice, and be sure that you present the evidence differently for each of the competencies.

Keep in mind that evidence can be class assignments, skills gained from an internship, academic work from a previous degree, it can be a work product from a current or previous job, it can be something from a volunteer or recreational group of which you are a member (e.g., you developed and maintain the website for your running club), or it can be an original piece of work that you do to satisfy one of the competencies. Work products should not be more than two years old and should include proof that the work was completed by you. For more information view examples in the ePortfolio Handbook.

  • Section 3: Conclusion

The minimum length is one paragraph (three to five sentences). There is no maximum unless explicitly stated by your faculty advisor.

Your conclusion paragraph should specifically answer two questions:

  1. How might you apply this competency to your future career?
  2. What specific professional resource(s) will you use to remain current going forward?

Citation Style

When writing your competency essays, your introduction, and your conclusion, please check with your faculty advisor if they want you to use a specific citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago, or another established style) and use this one style consistently. The default iSchool citation style is APA format.

If some of your pieces of evidence are not in this citation style, you do not need to go back and reformat; you just need to be consistent in the new material you are creating specifically for the e-Portfolio.

Affirmation

Each e-Portfolio must close with a statement from the student affirming the following:

  1. All introductory, reflective, and evidentiary work submitted is mine alone (except where indicated as a group or team project), and has been prepared solely by me.

  2. I am protecting the privacy of the contents of my e-Portfolio by password protecting it or by sharing the URL only with my e-portfolio advisor.

  3. Before making my e-portfolio public I will respect the privacy of others by removing mention in this e-Portfolio of information that could lead to the identity of individuals (team members in group projects, internship supervisors, interviewees, etc.) and institutions

  4. [Your name]

You may use the exact wording above for the Affirmation.

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