WRT 105
Fall 2005
Karen Oakes
Unit 4: Portfolio Assignment (10% of semester grade)
This portfolio assignment offers you an opportunity to showcase some of your best work, while
also demonstrating your skills at analysis and revision. I would like you to begin by brainstorming—take
a few minutes to think about your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Consider mechanics, style, level
of analytical thought, all those aspects that contribute to the quality of your work. Once you have
identified these areas, take a look back over the pieces you have written for our class this semester, and
select those that you think most clearly demonstrate your strengths, as well as those that reflect
opportunities for improvement.
Once you have selected your essays—and I would like to see at least one of the larger essays (you
can include two if you’d like) and between three and five of the shorter informal writing assignments—I
would like to see you reflect on these pieces. Start with the papers that you feel represent your weaker
points as a writer. In a brief personal response (a paragraph will probably suffice), explain why you
selected this piece, how it shows an area that you would like to improve upon, and how you might do that.
Then I want you to do that—select one of the pieces, and revise and rework the essay so that it better
reflects your skills as a writer. This should involve more than fixing comma mistakes or misspelled
words; take the chance to really enhance the piece and make it do more. Then take some time to consider
the pieces that demonstrate your assets as a writer. In a brief response for each essay (again, one
paragraph is probably enough), explain why you selected the piece—what about it makes you proud, what
important strengths does it illustrate? Be specific and detailed—don’t simply say that you feel you did a
good job on this assignment. This is an opportunity for you to analyze your own work, using all the tools
you have accumulated this semester. Remember how much there is to be gained from thoughtful
analysis—you will arrive at a fuller understanding of yourself as a writer.
Once you have completed these segments of the assignment, you will produce a new piece for the
portfolio. I would like you to write a two to three page reflective essay in which you provide an honest
and comprehensive assessment of your writing and your performance in the course. How have you
improved? What have you learned about analytical writing? About yourself? Where would you like to
focus your efforts in the future (in WRT 205, for example)? It may be appropriate for you to address the
service learning and learning community aspects of the course here, as well; consider what you have
learned from this particular arrangement.
The final tasks involved in the portfolio assignment are organization and following instructions.
Please assemble your portfolio carefully. Make sure that all pages of individual assignments are
numbered and stapled (but please don’t staple the entire collection together). You may use the original
copies with comments/grades—you don’t necessarily have to print out new ones. Make sure to group
together each piece and your reflections about it. It will be helpful for you to place your response
paragraph (typed, please) before your piece, so that I can know why I’m reading it (why you included it).
Clearly label each piece, so I will know what it is. For the first set of selections, also be sure to indicate
which is the original and which is the revised piece. I would like your work assembled in the order that I
have laid out the assignment —pieces representing your areas for improvement first, followed by
discussions and examples of your strengths, and then your 2-3 page self-assessment. Please place all of
this into a folder (not a three-ring binder, but an ordinary cardboard or manila folder) clearly marked on
the outside with your standard heading (your name, my name, course and section number, and due date,
which will be 8 December 2005). Please include a brief table of contents inside the folder, so that I can
see at a glance what you have included (and quickly make sure that it’s all there and complete). These
instructions are designed not to torture you with endless detail, but to enhance readability and make it
easier for me to you evaluate your work. The more user-friendly it is, the better.
And so, I hope that this will be a useful assignment—an opportunity for you to see your own
improvement and for you to convey that accomplishment to me. Your portfolio will be due on
Thursday, 8 December at the very beginning of our very last class meeting. Good luck.