Helpful Suggestions, Hints, and Tips for Composing your Portfolio

Scoring criteria

The readers of your portfolio are all experienced teachers of college writing. When we score the portfolios submitted to us, we use the learning outcomes of English 111 and English 112 as the guide. Before completing your portfolio, you should spend time reading your portfolio with an eye toward whether your writing demonstrates these outcomes. While we make changes from year to year, the major criteria remain the same, and you should be familiar with them.

The learning outcomes of English 111 and English 112 are that students will:

Tone and Style

Portfolio readers suggest that students while students need to show mature and insightful thinking and writing, they should also present themselves naturally, not artificially. Evaluators suggest that students should not be afraid to use “I,” and that “their own voice(s) should not be drowned by research.”

We have recommended in the past, and we continue to encourage you to “write as yourself,” not as the student you think college professors want you to be. We look for evidence that you think about how you fit into the world, about how issues you write about relate to your personal situations (social, racial, gendered, economic, regional, religious, etc.). Instructors suggest repeatedly:

“Consider your audience of portfolio readers. We’re real people who can see through stereotypic, immature arguments. We appreciate critical thinking and self-awareness in each piece, not just description.”

Raters are interested in what you think and see and how you see those things in relation to broader issues and concerns. Evaluators tell students to “think about how the pieces you write connect, and talk about them as a whole, not just as random pieces.” Also, “think seriously about ambiguities, feelings, and problems. Revise, rewrite and show that you are thinking about your audience.”

While you should keep audience and aim in mind as you develop your portfolio, you will benefit as well from more specific advice and suggestions our portfolio scorers offer below.