Portfolio Essay Prep

Step 1

For each assessed assignment, answer the following questions, looking especially for patterns:

  1. What are the positive aspects of this work?

List what you feel is good about your finished work (not necessarily those parts you found easiest to do). For example, you might want to refer to certain critical points which you made: interpretations that you thought were insightful or ‘original’ (based on a personal response to the text(s) rather than drawn from lecture notes/secondary reading). You could also comment on more general qualities of the essay (e.g. that it answered the question well).

  1. What are the negative aspects of this work?

You might want to include here any things that you felt unhappy or dissatisfied with in the final work that you submitted, and/or difficulties or problems that you had in the process of writing the essay (e.g. structuring all of your ideas; understanding the text(s); knowing what the question meant etc.).

  1. What would you do differently?

This could include things that you thought you did well in this essay, which you would like to try to develop in the future (e.g. you used certain critical terms, concepts or theories in analyzing the text; you did a certain amount of background reading, read other texts by the same author, or read other comparable texts from the same period). Equally, you might want to write down a few things you thought you did not manage so well, which you would try to rectify next time (e.g. spend more time analyzing the question and working out what it meant; do more background reading; try to structure the essay’s argument more effectively).

Specific Questions to help develop the positives, negatives, and areas of growth:

  1. Does the paper answer the assignment correctly?
  2. Is the discussion effective?
  3. Are source examples effectively and accurately used and cited?
  4. Is there enough detail to support each point?
  5. Is the structure of the essay logical and coherent?
  6. Is the essay of a sufficiently high standard in terms of spelling; grammar; vocabulary; referencing; bibliography; proof reading?

 

 

 

 

Step 2

Understanding the Course Objectives:

    • Critical thinking skills
      • How does your writing demonstrate your understanding of how to analyze and evaluate rhetorical situations (i.e. audience and purpose) and how to develop innovative ways to address those situations through writing?
      • How does your writing demonstrate knowledge of how processes of evaluating, selecting, and synthesizing evidence from sources responsibly are important steps in writing?
    • Communication skills
      • How does your writing show that you can organize and express explanations and ideas effectively?
      • How does your writing show that you can organize an explanatory or analytical paper (e.g., transitions and arrangement of paragraphs)?
      • How does your writing demonstrate your ability to use Standard American English (e.g., grammar and mechanics, proofreading)?
      • How does your writing demonstrate your use of effective style (e.g., appropriate tone, diction, and sentence structure)?
    • Personal Responsibility
      • How does your writing demonstrate your commitment to the writing process (e.g., prewriting, drafting, peer review, revision) and ability to meet deadlines?
      • How does your writing show your awareness of using sources ethically (e.g., summarizing fairly and avoiding plagiarism by giving proper credit to sources using MLA/APA style)?
    • Quantitative Literacy
      • How does your writing demonstrate your quantitative literacy and numeracy skills?
      • How does your writing effectively communicate the results of quantitative analysis?
      • How does your writing show that you can draw conclusions from data for argumentative purposes?

 

Step 3

Review Examples of effective portfolio writing-

  • Critical thinking skills—“My writing demonstrates my ability to analyze and evaluate rhetorical situations, specifically, in “Advertising Sells,” stating, “The purpose of the You Are Not A Sketch advertisement is to inform, not only women, but also the general public, about eating disorders, particularly Anorexia, while addressing the unattainable body type portrayed by the media to modern day women” (Arbuckle 18).
  • Communication skills—“I try to observe even the most difficult and commonly overlooked grammatical rules such as avoiding concluding a sentence with a preposition, as seen in the sentence, ‘At the same time, however, a disagreement between two men will often affect only the area of their relationship to which it is related, and not destroy the relationship altogether (Lieberman)…’, written in my gender essay” (Canales 4).
  • Communication Skills—“For example, in my first essay Game Time: How Video Games Affect the Youth, I can tell that the sentence “Since the late 1940’s video games have increased rapidly in popularity, and as a result has influenced the entire entertainment industry…” is a very boring sentence compared to my third essay’s topic sentence “It is evident that the number of children diagnosed with autism also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is clearly on the rise.” Simply putting in more effort to add assertive tone to the sentence changes the dynamic aspect of the essay from a boring intro to an entertaining intro. The change I made in tone by cutting out all the unnecessary words and use of persuasive language gives the reader a clearer understanding of what the essay is about while keeping them seeking to know more about the topic” (Cade 2).
  • Personal Responsibility- “Despite having an A in the class, I struggled with time management, which contributed to procrastination. Therefore, many of my essays did not follow the writing process…For example, my annotated bibliography draft consisted of only two sources, whereas the final draft consisted of seven sources. This was, again, because of poor time management skills, procrastination, and laziness.”
  • Quantitative Literacy- Using data in my essay allowed me to show conclusions from the analysis, rather than just using the numbers: “Based off of this data, we can conclude that the volunteering rate directly correlates with the education level. Those who are more educated are more likely to volunteer. This trend in the data shows us that the curriculum in our schools is important because it teaches increased awareness of social issues and non-profit organizations and allows for first-hand experience that results in personal connections that will continue with more exposure” (Smith 4).

 

Step 4

Develop Thesis and Outline and begin Drafting:

  1. Intro- your writing, college writing, and lead to a thesis
  2. Communication Skills-how can you explain and provide examples of the growth in your communication skills? Where do you need to further develop these skills? Provide examples of weak communication.
  3. Critical Thinking Skills-how can you explain and provide examples of your ability to effectively analyze an issue and make projections and conclusions? Where do you need to further develop these skills? Provide examples of weak critical thinking.
  4. Personal Responsibility-how can you explain and provide examples of how you are an ethical writer? Where do you need to further develop this skill? Provide examples.
  5. Quantitative Literacy- how can you explain and provide examples of how you are effective at using quantitative literacy? Where do you need to further develop this skill? Provide examples.
  6. Conclusion-where do you go with writing from here?

 

 


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