Contributors


Writing Program
English Dept

Analytic Introduction to Your Portfolio:

Analysis is as important as the writing itself. If you do not understand why you are doing the things that you do (e.g. drafting, revising, responding), then you are missing a crucial component of the writing process. As we discussed, everyone has a different process that works best, but you need to understand why it works. This introduction is your place to show us that you have made thoughtful, global revisions as you discuss the work that you have done. As you discuss this, you will also describe the process that you have come to find most useful for yourself, and why it is beneficial.

Avoid the trap of narrating the semester back to me. I know what you did, I want to know WHY. Remember the guidelines for cover letters: How did you come up with your idea. If you changed topics, tell us why. What
didn't work with the first topic any why will your second choice work better?

How did you choose to use the discovery draft? How does this help you to
organize your thoughts? What difficulties did you have as you tried to get
thoughts down on paper?

How did you move from discovery draft to first draft? How did you decide to organize it? What details did you add? What problems did you have with it? What was your goal for your first draft?

What kinds of peer response did you get? How was it helpful? How could it have been more helpful?

What changes did you make as you moved onto the second draft? Why? What did you decide to leave alone? Why? How did you choose to incorporate your peers' suggestions? What was your goal for your second draft? How do you feel about the paper at this point?

As you finish the second draft, what would you have changed if you could go back? What changes do you still want to make? What will you do differently as you begin your next paper?

Also include any other thoughts about your writing that may fall outside the above guidelines. Remember, we know the steps you took in writing this paper, we want an analysis of where those steps took you.
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In order to help you focus and get started thinking about your portfolio in a holistic manner, there is a list of questions to help you start thinking. Remember that you are discussing the whole portfolio. How do the papers speak to each other? By that, I mean how do they show progress from one to the next? How did lessons learned when writing one help in the drafting of another?

These questions are meant to help you get going. DO NOT merely answer these questions. Even putting them chronologically into a nice, streamlined essay is not good enough. Use them to help your drafting but do not use them to structure the essay. This essay can be organized in any number of ways. We strongly encourage you to write a draft and get your ideas down, and then decide how these could be best structured to achieve your purpose as you revise.

In a sense, this essay is the culmination of your writing experience this semester. It should be a thorough examination of your writing process and its evolution throughout the semester. This should be a document that demonstrates your strengths as a writer and that embodies your writing process even as you are describing it. According to the Portfolio Grading Standards for English 101 in the Course Guide, an 'A' portfolio has a reflective introduction "which demonstrates a sense of the writer's development through the semester, a sense of the writer's ability to reflect analytically and critically on his or her writing, and a sense of the relations among works submitted in the portfolio" (137).

1) Discussion of the evolution of the four papers which you are revising for the portfolio.
How did you approach each paper? (detail your process and the reasoning behind it.)

How did the paper evolve? (What decisions did you make about focus,
purpose, audience, etc., and how were these final choices different from your thinking as you began the paper?)

What global revisions did you make to the paper in order for it to achieve your goals?

What did you learn while writing this particular paper? Were there any special difficulties involved in this paper? How did you
resolve them?

2) Discussion and analysis of a paper you have written for another class this semester. (See the Course Guide page 26)

What was the assignment for the other class? How was it similar or different from writing assignments for this course? How did you approach the paper? Did you have the opportunity to revise?

3) Discussion of your evolution as a writer throughout the semester.

What was your conception of writing at the beginning of the semester? Of revision? Of peer response? What is your conception of writing now? Of revision? Of peer response? How has reading and responding to your peer's papers improved your writing and revising skills? Has anything that you do in this course changed or influenced your writing strategies in other courses? What is the most important thing that you will take from this course? What have you learned about your strengths as a writer?
How have you learned to compensate for your weaknesses?
How would you trace your progression as a writer throughout the semester? (your cover letters may be especially helpful here)
What, if anything, do you still hope to improve on as a writer?

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