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

The portfolio gives you a chance to select examples of your work that demonstrate your development and growth as a writer. It should primarily contain work from this class, although it might include a limited amount of writing from other classes. The portfolio allows an extended amount of time for you to review and revise your work, though work does not have to be revised to be included in the portfolio, as this portfolio is a "working portfolio." Writing included may be "finished" or "unfinished"; it may be as diverse as you choose. You may want to include a revised essay, to show one piece of work from start to finish and to have one essay that is ready to be included in an eventual display portfolio which includes only finished work. The portfolio must also include a reflective essay.

The course calendar notes a number of specific assignments that should be included in your portfolio; additional materials are included at your option, though, as noted above, these should be primarily from work completed in this course.

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 at least three but no more than six pages (handwritten, as the reflective essay will be completed in class during the time scheduled for the final exam). The essay is not a class or instructor evaluation, but about you as a writer.

Listed below are some guidelines for your essay.

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 01/06/00