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Objectives
In this lesson, you will learn what a writer's portfolio is, why it is used,
how to compile it, and how to introduce it. While portfolios may be composed
for a variety of audiences, this lesson is specifically directed toward portfolios
for writing courses. Nevertheless, the following points may also apply to other
types of portfolios as well.
What are portfolios and why are they used?
Basically, a portfolio is an opportunity for you to compile and show off the
skills, abilities, and knowledge you've gained over the course of your class,
or in some cases, from your studies as a whole. Fashion models present portfolios
of their best modeling skills; photographers present portfolios of their best
photographs; and architects develop portfolios of their most popular or interesting
buildings. Professional writers present portfolios of their most powerful and
varied writing when they seek a job or talk to publishers. In school situations,
students present portfolios of their best writing to prove that they have developed
the skills to pass a class or to graduate from college.
People often say that writing is both a process and a product. This statement
is true. Writing is a process in terms of invention, drafting, reflection, crafting
and revision. The final product is what you publish, whether that's giving your
writing to a teacher or a boss, or sending it to publishers who might formally
publish it in a book, magazine, journal, newsletter, or Internet web site.
In education, teachers generally see a portfolio as a way to monitor and review
your developing knowledge and skills. While what you put in your portfolio will
depend on your instructor's expectations and requirements, you should keep in
mind that the writing portfolio is "evidence of the process by which [your]
writing is created, shaped, revised, presented" (Burch 34). Compiling your
work in a portfolio gives you the opportunity not only to show off your final
products, but also to demonstrate how your drafts have led to those products.
In essence, a portfolio is a map of your work. By compiling a portfolio, you
and your audience can view a bigger picture of your writing accomplishments.
Types of Portfolios
Basically, there are three major types of portfolios:
(1) Reader-selected portfolios: With a reader-selected portfolio, your audience
(usually your teacher) tells you what you need to include.
(2) Self-selected portfolios: With a self-selected portfolio, you choose your
best works from those created over the course of your class or study.
(3) Combination: Of course, your portfolio might also be a mix of these types,
where your reader requires certain texts and you choose among the others to
present your best work.
Compiling a Portfolio: First Steps
"A portfolio," according to one portfolio handbook, "involves
four steps: collection, selection, reflection, and connection" (Clear Creek
2). These steps seem a logical way to conceive of putting your portfolio together.
We'll look first at collection, then at selection, and finally at reflection
and connection.
Collection:
To collect your writing for the final portfolio, your first step is to know
whether it will be a reader-selected, self-selected, or mixed portfolio. So,
you need to understand what the portfolio will require. Often, you can find
this information in your course syllabus. However, even if your teacher (or
other reader/audience) doesn't immediately outline the project, you can prepare
by keeping all of your writing, even the roughest drafts and notes, in a central
location. Don't throw away early drafts, mapping, or notes. Even these things
can be a valuable part of your portfolio. If you use SMARTHINKING's online
tutorials, your teacher may want you to print them, too, for the final portfolio.
When you keep all work you've done for your course, selection, the second
step will be much easier.
Selection:
What should you include in your portfolio? Once you know what is expected
in your portfolio, then you can begin the selection process. If yours is a
self-selected or combination portfolio, you will be making some decisions
in this process. If so, ask yourself some questions:
· What works do I like the best? These works represent your own
sense of true writing success.
· What works do I like the least? If you don't like a piece of writing,
it doesn't mean that you shouldn't include it. The trick is to understand
why it didn't work or why it isn't as strong as it could be. Being able
to identify the problems and analyze the reasons behind those less-than-successful
moments offers clear evidence that you've learned some of the skills you
need for your class.
· What documents can I use to show my progress? These texts may include
not only your course writings, but also comments from peers, tutors, and
instructors. They also include your pre-writing documents, notes, and drafts
to name a few. Generally, as long as it's okay with your instructor, you
may include anything that relates to both your writing process and products.
If, on the other hand, your portfolio is reader-selected, you can move directly
to the "Next Steps" (outlined the section under that title, below).
Reflection and Connection:
The final steps, reflection and connection, ask you to evaluate and analyze
your growth over the course of the semester. Portfolios tend to begin with
a reflective assessment of the work that's being presented. There you are
asked to evaluate and analyze your own work, often commenting on why you chose
the works you did and how those works represent your development and learning
in the class. It might be helpful to keep a journal about how you actually
conducted the development and revision work for your writing so that you have
a record of your processes when it comes time to write a self-reflection.
How should you approach the introduction to your portfolio? If, like most
portfolios, yours requires a reflective introduction, you need to consider
how to compose that reflection. This reflection might be called an introduction,
a cover letter, transmittal memo, self-reflection, self-analysis, or self-assessment.
While you need make sure you follow the guidelines your instructor has set
up, keep in mind that the introduction to your portfolio is usually analytical
in purpose: you are reflecting on your learning process during the semester
and connecting that to your learning through an analysis.
Briefly, strong self-analysis involves:
· Looking at various parts of your writing, such as structure, word
choice, tone, development, content, use of language, and writing and revision
processes;
· Developing an understanding of how those processes work individually
as well as how they contribute to the whole portfolio; and
· Explaining this understanding and contribution through examples.
Your examples will support your claims about your writing development has
occurred. These examples can come from your course objectives; texts; notes;
drafts; revisions; and teachers', tutors', or peers' comments.
To begin the process of analyzing the writing that you're including in your
portfolio, you need to think about the course's objectives, what you learned
about writing well, and the writing processes that work best for you. The
following questions will help you to develop your analysis:
· What are the course objectives?
· What have you done to show your mastery of those objectives? Be
as specific as possible when you make notes on this. Use your writing journal
and provide examples. You can quote your writing and any responses you have
from teachers or tutors, as well as the objectives the instructor outlined
early in the course.
· What were the strengths and weaknesses of your writing when you
first started the course?
· How have you developed your strengths?
· What texts best represent your strengths now?
· How have you worked to strengthen your thinking, writing, and editing
weaknesses?
· What texts represent your writing progress?
· What else has your teacher asked you to address in this self-analysis?
If you've kept a writer's journal during the semester, you can use it to
help answer these questions. Your answers to these questions will be the basis
for composing your introduction.
Like any writing, your introduction should have a clear thesis that makes
a specific point about what the documents in your portfolio show about your
progress as a writer. In other words, what did you learn from developing your
portfolio? Or, what does it show about you as a writer? The introduction should
discuss what you've included in the portfolio and analyze both your processes
and final products in light of the claim you've made in your thesis. Develop
a clear connection between your work and the knowledge you were asked to learn
over the course of the semester.
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Exercise
In a word processing document on your computer, or using pen and paper, make
a list of how your writing was strong when you started the writing class you're
enrolled in now (or the most recent writing course you took part in).
Once you've completed this list, make a second list. This time, write out the
ways in which your writing was weak when you started the class; what were the
skills that you wanted to improve?
Now, make a final list that details how your writing has developed and changed
for the better during this semester.
Save this document as "Portfolio Thoughts"; if you need to do a portfolio
for your current writing course, the lists you've just composed can serve as
a jumping-off point.
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Putting the Portfolio Together
As you assemble your portfolio, you'll want to keep the following factors in
mind:
- Visual Appeal: Your instructor may dictate how you physically present
your portfolio, or that decision may be given to you. Either way, it's important
that your portfolio shows your best work in a visually strong presentation.
Remember, the first thing that any reader sees in a piece of work is the visual
aspect of it-what it looks like. So, your final pieces (not the drafts) should
be:
- Neat with no errors or scratch outs;
- Complete with titles, page numbers, and appropriate fonts; and
- Free from extraneous (extra) material such as fancy fonts or pictures
that detract from the writing itself.
However, because writing instructors understand the messy nature of invention
and pre-writing, don't leave out early drafts just because they're not neat.
Instead, find a way to neatly integrate them into an attractive portfolio.
- Organization: Your portfolio should begin with your introduction.
One way to arrange your portfolio is based on the way you organize your introduction.
You can include documents in the order you mention them in your introduction.
Of course, you can also arrange chronologically, or by assignment or task.
You may decide to develop a cover page and a table of contents. In this case,
number each page as it falls in your portfolio. On the other hand, you may
choose to do a table of contents that lists what you've included in your portfolio
by section. This will help if you are including documents that are already
numbered or done on paper that's not suited to running thorough a printer
for page numbering. The key is logical order.
Example:
Cover letter or self-reflection
Essay 1: Presentation draft
Revised draft 2
Tutorials
Revised draft 1
Preliminary draft
Tutorials
Thinking draft and notes
Essay 3: Presentation draft
Revised draft 2 (and so on)
In the end, always check with your instructor to make sure you've formatted
and compiled your portfolio according to his or her guidelines.
Summary
In this lesson, you have learned that portfolios are an opportunity for you
to show your strongest writing. They serve to demonstrate and analyze the ways
your skills and knowledge have grown. As such, a portfolio is an excellent way
to show that you are able to analyze and understand your writing processes and
products; a requirement in many writing courses.
Works Cited
Burch, Beth C. "Inside the Portfolio Experience: The Student's Perspective."
English Education. 32 (October 1999): 34-49.
Clear Creek Amana High School. Portfolio Handbook v.1.
  
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