83

Purpose of a Portfolio 

The purpose of a portfolio is to showcase your final drafts and to do a self-assessment to evaluate what you have learned.

Organizational Instructions

The following is a set of instructions of what is expected in the portfolio. It is listed in the order that the portfolio should be organized.

• Title Page
  • Title the portfolio with a creative title representing the entire collection of fiction you’ve written. Example: Fiction: Believe It or Not
  • Include your first and last name
  • Include the name of the class: ENGL 1465 – Creative Writing
  • Include the due date.
  • Include a photo of yourself working on one of your stories on a computer.
  • Font size should be 24 pt. or 36 pt. Choose a font size that makes the title fit on one line. Also, choose a font that is readable.

• Table of Contents
  • The titles of the stories should be left-justified near the one-inch margin edge.
  • Page numbers should be right-justified near the one-inch margin edge.
  • Dots between the titles and page numbers are optional.
  • The first entry on this page should be the portfolio essay title.
  • Do not list the title page or the table of contents page on the table of contents page.
  • Use an easy-to-read 12 pt. font.

• Portfolio Essay
  • Step back and look at your work critically.
  • Write an evaluative essay (500 – 1,000 words).
  • Your evaluative essay should address the following questions. Each bullet list of questions becomes a paragraph in the portfolio essay, a total of five paragraphs.
    • Which story is your best work? Best work does not necessarily mean your favorite work. Best work means the one that is written well. How did you go about writing it? Why is it your best work? Cite specific examples from the story to defend why you think it is your most effective piece.
    • Which story would you just as soon forget or trash? What problems did you encounter with it? Why is it your least effective piece? Cite specific examples from the text of the story to prove why you think it is your least effective work.
    • What are you able to do as a fiction writer that you couldn’t do before taking this class? Be specific by identifying more than one example. What in the class helped you the most with your writing?
    • What did you learn about yourself by completing this portfolio?
    • What are your writing goals for the last half of this semester?

• Final Drafts
  • Make a section title page titled Final Drafts.
  • Rank your six fiction pieces from most effective to least effective. The six pieces are as follows:
    • Character Story
    • Setting Story
    • Dialogue Story
    • Three Point of View Flash Fiction Stories
    • At this point, you need to separate the three point of view flash fiction stories into three individual pieces, so that you have a total of six stories.
  • Copy and paste the graded final drafts into the portfolio from the most effective to the least effective story. Do not include the rubrics in the portfolio. You will need that information, however, for the next step.
  • Revise all final drafts in the portfolio before submitting your portfolio. Follow the directions provided on the graded assignment as well as the rubric. It’s a good idea to compare your original final draft submission with the graded final draft in order to understand what kind of revisions have been made by the instructor and what kind of revisions still need to be made.

Formatting Instructions

• The portfolio project must be typed in a Microsoft Word document (.docx).
• Use an easy-to-read 12 pt. font for all the sections except the title page.
• Use 1″ margins.
• Double-space all pages.
• Put page numbers in the lower right-hand corner. When page numbers are at the bottom of the page, you do not need to include your last name.
• Leave the name heading on the final drafts of your stories in the top left-hand corners.