The Portfolio and Reflective Essay

Overview

All students enrolled in any writing class through the Department of English at the University of Oregon are required to complete a writing portfolio containing work from the class and including a reflective essay commenting on their work. You should save your work as it is returned to you to be included in your portfolio. Your instructor will discuss the requirements for the portfolio in more detail in class. In addition, you may refer to the guidelines for the portfolio and reflective essay included here.

Guidelines for the Portfolio

For this class, your folder with your work for the term becomes your portfolio at the end of the term. When you turn in your folder with Essay #3, it should contain everything listed on the "Portfolio Checklist" (also listed on the "Essay Assignments" page of the course web site) and is at that point basically complete except for the addition of a reflective essay, which will be written in class during the time scheduled for the final exam. This portfolio is a "working" portfolio, as it includes both formal and informal writing, and essays that are both "finished" or "unfinished." A display portfolio, which you will generally prepare later in your academic career, when you are ready to apply to graduate schools or for employment, would include only "finished" work--your best, most polished, most successful writing, for example, along with other types of examples of your work.

Guidelines for the Reflective Essay

The reflective essay is a narrative that describes your experiences as you participated in the activities of this class. It should be approximately 3-4 double spaced, typed pages and will be written in class during the final exam period. Adjust page length accordingly if you prefer to handwrite your essay. The essay is not a class or instructor evaluation, but about you as a writer.

Listed below are some guidelines for your essay. You essay should address all of these aspects, but may also include any additional comments that you would like to make.

1. Pick one or more of your essays and talk about the process of writing it. What were you thinking about during the first draft? Did your thinking change by the second draft? What changes did you make in the essay and why?
   
   
2. Discuss the peer review process. How did you respond to peer review comments? How did you approach the process of revising? What were your attitudes and thoughts?
   
   
3. Did instructor feedback and the discussion of your work during voluntary conferences affect your thinking and writing?
   
   
4. Make specific statements about your progress as a writer and use quotations from your work to support those statements. Example: If you began the term using vague, unsupported statements and by the end of the term you learned how to support specific statements, quote one of the vague statements from an early draft and a clear, supported statement from a later document. If you feel you made no progress, be as specific as you can about why and give examples from your writing which demonstrate areas where you think you need to make improvement. What barriers might be keeping you from making that improvement?
   
   
5. Evaluate your portfolio as a body of work. What do the materials in it demonstrate about you as a writer?
   
   
6. What writing do you plan to do next (other classes? other papers?)? What can you take from this class and apply to your other work? In the conclusion of your essay, talk about your future goals and challenges as a writer.

   

Last updated 12/01/00