Portfolio Assessment Team
Spring 2007
First-Year Writing Program Portfolio Assessment:
Reflective Cover Letter Guidelines
The First-Year Writing Program has several example Reflective Cover Letter handouts,
available in the program office. These instructors have given their permission for us to copy
from these, so feel free to stop by and pick them up!
There are particular kinds of questions/prompts that will especially help all of us (remember,
instructors rate the portfolios for the program assessment too!) assess these portfolios and learn
more about our students’ perceptions of themselves as writers. Please follow the guidelines for
each course, below.
For English 90, reflective cover letters should address the areas of growth, confidence in
approaching writing, and development of writing processes. In addition to any questions you
might ask for your class, students should address the following (these may be reworded to sound
like you):
Using your portfolio contents as evidence,
 What has been your growth as a writer this semester?
 What piece represents your best work and why?
 Has your conception of your writing process(es) changed this semester? If so, in what
ways?
For English 101, reflective cover letters should address the areas of audience awareness,
development of writing processes, and source use in writing. In addition to any questions you
might ask for your class, students should address the following (these may be reworded to sound
like you):
Using your portfolio contents as evidence,
 Discuss the process of at least one of the included pieces that is written for a specific
audience. How did you write and revise the piece to address that audience?
 Discuss how you have drawn on the ideas of others, either directly or indirectly, in at
least one of the included pieces.
 Has your conception of your writing process(es) changed this semester? If so, in what
ways?
For English 102, reflective cover letters should address the areas of audience awareness,
development of writing processes, and source use in writing. In addition to any questions you
might ask, students should address the following (these may be reworded to sound like you):
Using your portfolio contents as evidence,
 Discuss how you are able to write for different audiences and purposes. What kinds of
decisions do you make? How?
 Discuss your evolving sense of yourself as a researcher, as represented in this portfolio.
What kinds of research can you do that you couldn’t do at the beginning of the semester?
How is that represented in your portfolio pieces?
 Has your conception of your writing process(es) changed this semester? If so, in what
ways?