Portfolio Reflection: Guidelines

In an informal, two-page essay, describe your personal experience as a writer and your ideas about writing. Illustrate your remarks by citing specific elements of the essay(s) you’ve revised

What have you learned about writing and about yourself as a writer? For instance,
  • Which writing and research tasks do you most enjoy?
  • Which aspects of writing and research do you dislike or struggle with?
  • What is the most useful thing you’ve learned about writing this semester?
  • Has your writing and research process changed over the course of the semester? If so, how?
  • What are your goals as a writer—what skills do you seek to develop over the course of your college education?
  • What qualities do you admire in other people’s writing, qualities that you’d like to emulate in your own writing?
How does the work in your final portfolio illustrate your understanding of yourself as a writer? Point to specific features of the revised essay(s), addressing such questions as the following:
  • How did your ideas and essay evolve during the process of writing and revision?
  • What specific parts or aspects of the essay did you revise? What were you seeking to achieve through these revisions? (For example, were you focused on strengthening or deepening your argument? On creating a more effective introduction? On improving sentence clarity? etc.)
  • What were some of the challenges you encountered in writing this essay?
  • How was your peer workshopping experience? What, if anything, did you learn from the workshops?
  • What aspects of the essay are you particularly happy with?
  • How does the essay exemplify the qualities you strive for in your writing?