how to write a portfolio essay

Portfolio Essay

Portfolio essay generator.

A Portfolio Essay is a unique narrative that showcases an individual’s skills, experiences, and personal growth. Our guide, enriched with a variety of essay examples , is tailored to help you construct a compelling portfolio essay. This type of essay is crucial for students and professionals alike, as it provides a platform to reflect on and present one’s journey and achievements. The examples included will guide you in highlighting your accomplishments, insights, and learning experiences, crafting an essay that truly represents your personal and professional narrative.

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Common questions to sked whenever you are tasked to write an essay are “how do I start?” and “what would this be all about?” Or let’s just say you were asked to write something that is a portfolio essay. What is a portfolio essay? How to write a portfolio essay? Portfolios, by definition, a

re the collection of the best works depending on the field you are in. You can be in the field of art, poetry or any kind of writing. This is not just about collecting. You have to exert effort to analyze it by the use of an essay. What to do next? Lets begin to tackle and make things clear.

1. Portfolio Essay

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2. Student Portfolio Essay

3. College Portfolio Essay

4. Portfolio Summative Reflection Essay

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5. Student Portfolio Essay

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6. Reflective Portfolio Essay

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7. Absolutism and Revolution Portfolio Essay

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8.Visual Art Portfolio Essay

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9. Portfolio Introduction Essay

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10. Portfolio Assessment Essay

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11. Portfolio Narrative Essay

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12. Portfolio Conclusion Essay

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13. English Portfolio Essay

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14. Sample Portfolio Essay

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What is a Portfolio Essay?

A portfolio essay is like a reflection paper that gives an analysis over a particular work of an author. You are to observe yourself with regards to how you feel and what you think with regards to your work portfolio. In simple terms, you are to reflect on your work whether you write for what is good and what is not good for them. You also have to make an observation of the progress of your writing skills whether they have developed or not including the factors that causes it and the motives.

Things to Consider When Writing a Portfolio Essay

You should be focusing on your portfolio essay alone

You don’t need to think of a special topic for your portfolio essay. Maybe your professor in school have already told you to write something about personal portfolio essays . Your essay must have a very clear focus. It may be all about your progress as its own writer or on your other writings. Make sure that you have understood everything especially those things that are being required from you.

Pick writings according to a criteria

The criteria are as follows: chronological, thematic and style. Chronological means based on sequence of events. Thematic means having your essay centered on a particular problem. Style means your writing style or a literary movement.

Find some time to introduce yourself

Every essays begin with an introduction. Present your introduction in a paragraph between five to ten sentences. Take note that portfolio essay is very different from an autobiography so you do not have to make a long list about your life. This type of essay is an advertisement to sell your work, so you better have to show all its assets.

Describe your writings

In order to present your writings, you always have to read your writings over and over again. This is because it is recommended to read them prior to your portfolio essay writing. You have to make sure that all aspects are clear especially in the title of your work, style, genre, main idea and even the methods that you used.

Come up with a conception about the writings

It is best to inform the readers about what is special in your work. You may also consider answering questions on your own such as about the development of your writing skills , factors that influenced your writing and more.

Style and Grammar

You may try to ask for a friend to read your paper to receive feedbacks if there are some necessary changes regarding it. Make sure that you work well on your grammar and the punctuations.

What is the first thing that you should do before writing your portfolio essay?

The first thing to do is to select your piece. Without knowing what the content of your portfolio, you will be having a hard time writing the essay.

What could be the process when you are writing your portfolio essay online?

Online writing portfolios should be done in any medium relating online. You may pass your documents through email instead of putting them all in a folder.

What will you do if your professor will not give you any guidelines about portfolio essay writing?

You may try to show all your work using any medium as possible.

Students, in some event in their school life, have already experienced creating portfolios of their individual achievements. In the case of a portfolio essay, you are required to read first your piece before having each of them assessed. Even though your portfolio essay doesn’t need to have a topic on its own, it is much better to work for it as clearly as you can and as precise as possible.

Text prompt

• Instructive
• Professional

Reflect on your academic achievements this year in your Portfolio Essay.

Discuss the development of your writing skills through various assignments in your Portfolio Essay.

How to Write a Portfolio Essay

How to Make a Portfolio for School

Throughout students' academic careers, they may be required to create a portfolio of their achievements after completing various stages of school. For instance, a student graduating from sixth grade may need to create a portfolio featuring their favorite projects and assignments from the year, as well as any tests or exams they were proud of. College students, on the other hand, may need to create a portfolio showcasing the best work they've done, which is very common in art and teaching majors. Before submitting a physical portfolio or an online writing portfolio, however, it's necessary to write an essay to summarize what's inside.

Select Your Pieces

Before you can write your portfolio essay, you must select the pieces you want to include inside of your portfolio. Without knowing what's going to be inside of your portfolio, it's difficult to write the essay. In some cases, your teacher or professor will tell you what pieces needed to be included in your portfolio. If it's an online writing portfolio, you'll need to upload the documents instead of putting them into a binder. Whatever format your portfolio will be in, there's also a chance that your teacher may not give you guidelines at all and will merely give you suggestions. If this is the case, then try to showcase your work through as many mediums as possible. Portfolios are best when there is a bit of a variety.

The About Me Portfolio Page Focus

Even if your portfolio is diversified, it's necessary that you choose a focus in order to write your essay. Otherwise, your portfolio essay may be a bit unorganized. Your portfolio is a conclusion of everything you've done over the last year or semester. Think about why you chose the pieces. Was it because it was your best work, or was it because it was an assignment which challenged you? Considering these things can help you design your about me portfolio page, where the reader can really get a glimpse of what kind of student you are. Therefore, try to have a solid topic to focus on that is directly related to your experiences with the course.

Write an Introduction

Once you've gathered the materials that you'll put in your portfolio and decided on your focus, it's time to get started on the actual writing part. The best way to start an essay is by writing an introduction first. And, unlike most other essays, you can actually write the portfolio essay in the first person (unless your teacher says otherwise). This is essentially a formal version of an about me portfolio page, in which you're both the narrator and the subject. Start your introduction by telling the reader who you are, what your portfolio is centered around (for instance, the name of the course or "My Fifth Grade Year") and offer a little description of what's to come.

Talk About the Pieces Inside

In the body of your portfolio essay, you can briefly discuss what the reader can expect to find inside. If you write three body paragraphs, the first paragraph can discuss what you felt before going into the class or year, such as your worries, concerns and what you were excited about. The second body paragraph can be about certain things you remember learning or doing throughout the year that stuck out to you, while the third paragraph can be a reflection on what you gained from the course and how you've grown because of it. Each of these paragraphs should mention a piece inside your portfolio that's directly related to the content within the paragraph. For example, if you're talking about the concerns you had before starting the year, you can mention a piece you've included that showcases this, perhaps a letter you wrote to yourself on the first day of school.

Devise Your Portfolio Essay Conclusion

Finally, in order to wrap it all up, you can write your portfolio essay conclusion by discussing your proudest moments and your strengths alongside your desired improvements for the coming year. You can discuss a challenge and how you overcame it, or one of your best achievements from the year or semester. You can even talk about the experience of creating a physical portfolio or online writing portfolio because in some college programs, your portfolio is like your thesis. This can be part of your third body paragraph or a separate conclusion.

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• Solid Essay: How to Write a Portfolio Essay
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Hana LaRock is a freelance content writer from New York, currently living in Mexico. Before becoming a writer, Hana worked as a teacher for several years in the U.S. and around the world. She has her teaching certification in Elementary Education and Special Education, as well as a TESOL certification. Please visit her website, www.hanalarockwriting.com, to learn more.

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The Reflective Essay

The reflective essay serves two key purposes in your portfolio:

• First, it gives your reviewers some insight into your development as a writer and the role writing has played in your Carleton education.
• Second, it allows you to tell your readers about each individual essay in the portfolio–where and how you came to write it, why you included it, what it reveals about you as a writer, etc.
• Third, and perhaps most importantly, writing the reflective essay allows you, the writer, to stop and consider what you have gained from your varied writing experiences at Carleton and how you intend to develop your skills going forward.

These three purposes mean that the reflective essay is perhaps the most important single component of your portfolio. Since it’s the only item you will write exclusively for the portfolio, it’s the only opportunity you will have to connect directly with your reviewers and draw their attention to the most important qualities of your writing. Furthermore, the reflective essay provides you an opportunity to take stock of your own writing and draw your own conclusions about its strengths and weaknesses, rather than relying on the assessments of your professors. Thus, the amount of time and effort you put into your reflective essay will often determine whether you find the portfolio process to be a valuable experience or just another hurdle on the way to graduation.

The questions below should serve as a guide for your reflective essay. You do not have to address the questions in any particular order, nor do you have to give them all equal time and attention (though you should try to address them all in some way).    Furthermore, if any of the questions simply do not apply to your experience, feel free to skip them or reframe them. In the end, your reflective essay as a whole should read as just that—a single essay with a clear flow of ideas throughout, not a series of short responses to each of the questions below. The primary goal here is to provide your readers with useful context for your writing, not to answer these particular questions in this particular order.

• Note: these need not be specifically writing skills, just skills that helped you as a writer . For instance, you may have found that your time management skills were a significant asset as you began to tackle college-level writing assignments.
• What challenges (if any) did you face in meeting the expectations for writing in your Carleton classes? How did you meet these challenges?
• How have you grown or developed as a writer over the past two years?  How has the writing you’ve completed fit into your overall progress as a student, scholar, or thinker at Carleton?
• How do you expect writing to fit into your academic work in the future? What aspects of your writing do you plan to develop further?

Your reflective essay should also explain how each of the essays you selected from your Carleton classes fits into the overall narrative of your development as a writer. You can address this over the course of the essay, as part of the overall narrative or argument, or you can include a series of paragraphs at the end of the essay that addresses each piece in turn. Either way, some questions you might address here are:

• How does each essay demonstrate major skills you’ve acquired or improved? (These do not necessarily need to line up with the portfolio requirements — analysis, interpretation, observation, etc. — you can also just state in your own words what you feel you gained from writing each essay.)
• Do one or more of them represent significant “turning points” or moments in your development as a writer?  
• Do one or more of them illustrate something about your individual style or approach to writing?

You should write at least a sentence or two about each essay in the portfolio, but you can certainly write more if you have more to say about a given piece. Regardless of how much you write about each essay, though, it is extremely important that you address what each piece brings to the portfolio, because this allows your readers understand what  you  want them to see when they review your work.

Length and Format

There is no minimum or maximum length for the reflective essay, but as a general guideline, it should be roughly 500-1200 words (~2-3 standard, double-spaced pages). Anything less than 500 words and you are unlikely to address the key ideas in enough depth to engage your readers. Anything more than 1200 words and readers are likely to begin “skimming” fairly heavily as they read.

Regardless of length, your reflective essay should be double-spaced and written in an easily readable 12-point font.

Titles are encouraged, but not required, though you should at the very least clearly label the document “Reflective Essay” at the top.

Additional Guidelines

Your reflective essay should:.

• Make an overall argument about how you have developed as a writer since your first term at Carleton.
• Use details from your personal experience to support your conclusions.
• Address how each of your essays in some way illustrates your development.
• Be roughly 500-1000 words long (roughly 2-3 double-spaced pages).
• Maintain a generally academic tone. It’s okay to be light or even humorous in your essay, but you should avoid being glib or dismissive of the portfolio process.
• Stay focused on your experience — i.e. it should not read as an evaluation of your individual classes or Carleton as a whole (though you’re free to express positive or negative opinions about the college that are relevant to your experience).

Your Reflective essay should NOT:

• For example, you might mention that an essay came from your A&I course in order to explain how it illustrates some of the writing abilities you brought with you from high school, but also illustrates some weaknesses in your writing that you improved upon in later essays–ideally essays that are also included in the portfolio.
• Simply restate basic ethos of the college (e.g. “I believe that writing is essential in a liberal arts education…”) without explaining how these ideas apply to your experience. Your goal is not to prove that you have internalized the “Carleton philosophy” of liberal arts education and the importance of writing. Rather, your readers want to see how you have experienced and grown from your time here.

Your Reflective Essay CAN:

• Point out areas where your writing has improved over time. You might, for example, acknowledge that a more recent essay in your portfolio has a better argument or more refined language than an essay from several terms back.
• Discuss your experiences as a writer before Carleton, particularly if you transferred to Carleton from another college or university.
• Recognize particular challenges you’ve faced in developing your writing skills, such as learning English as a second language or not having significant experience with academic writing before Carleton.
• Express criticisms or disappointments with your experiences at Carleton. While you should keep your audience (Carleton faculty and staff) and the context (an assessment of your academic writing skills) in mind, you do not have to be a “cheerleader” for Carleton. If you feel that there are gaps or shortcomings in the education you’ve received over the past few years that have made it more challenging for you to develop your writing skills in the way you wished to, you are welcome to say so.

The Portfolio – Culminating Activity (Your Final)

Portfolio assignment.

EN 111 Final Portfolio

The portfolio is a selection of work that demonstrates your writing abilities and knowledge about writing and critical thinking at the close of EN 111. For the purposes of this class, this assignment will be considered the final.

What goes in the Portfolio?

• Title page (title + optional picture and/or quote)
• Reflective Essay (~2 pages)
• A final (2nd) draft copy of all essays completed during the semester (Experience, Compare/Contrast, Issues) and the prior drafts for all essays.
• Selected Artifacts (2-3)

You should title the portfolio in a way that captures your sense of yourself as a writer and critical thinker at this point in your educational journey. You can include a picture and/or quote on the title page as well. A quote can come from anywhere (any text, movie, lyrics, etc.) but should illustrate your perspective about writing and/or critical thinking. You will discuss the significance of your title (picture and quote too if you included them) in your Reflective Essay.

Reflective Essay for Portfolio

The Reflective Essay is a self-assessment that examines the entire body of your work (all of your writing up to this point) rather than a single subject and/or inquiry thread. Your task is to examine, or reflect on , your own writing and situate your observations and interpretations within the context of our discussions about writing and critical thinking skills. The portfolio, in essence, is a presentation—a somewhat persuasive demonstration illustrating how you approached writing and critical thinking before EN 111, and how you see yourself, as a writer and thinker, now, in relation to these same abilities/skills at the close of the course.

What goes in the Reflective Essay?

This essay should be a fairly polished and focused piece of writing that supports its claims and reflections with specific evidence (i.e. cite yourself). It will run ~2 pages in length. All reflective essays should take into account the following, but not necessarily in the order presented here:

• The significance of your title (and picture and quote, if included).
• What you now understand about effective writing and how it is achieved and what the portfolio reveals about your writing and your abilities to think on paper. (Refer to your included essays and selected artifacts).
• What you now understand about writing and critical inquiry that this portfolio might not reveal. (You may understand more than your portfolio reveals).
• What the portfolio reveals about you as a writer and critical thinker at this point in your educational journey (Refer to your included essays and selected artifacts).
• What challenges you continue to face as writer and critical thinker. (What is hard for you? In what areas have you gotten stronger and more confident? What immediate goals have you set for yourself as you continue to develop as a writer and critical thinker?)
• (Optional) Discuss, document, and evaluate the extent to which you were actively engaged in this class (i.e. determine how much time/effort you put into this course and whether your writing reflects that same time/effort).

You are to include final (2nd) draft copies (at minimum) of all the essays you have written in this course. In including your essays, you will be expected to discuss why you have included them in your Reflective Essay, and explain specifically what they illustrate about you as a writer and critical thinker. As such, I recommend that you discuss how the essays reveal your analytical skills at work—your abilities to develop, examine, and communicate an informed perspective.

Selected Artifacts

I am asking you to include 2-3 artifacts from the course (or outside of EN 111) that are significant to, and reflective of, you in terms of yourself as a writer and critical thinker. You may select anything from your Informal Writing Collection (freewrites, peer exchanges, etc.), your formal writing (part of your essay(s), or parts of them as a sequence from the first draft to the final draft stage) or other texts (a particular paper or assignment from another class you found pertinent to your overall growth).

How Do I Submit It?

You should submit the portfolio, in the dropbox on the preceding page,  as a Word document or a PDF so that I may open it in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• Portfolio Assignment. Authored by : Jason Brown. Provided by : Herkimer College. Project : AtD OER Course. License : CC BY: Attribution

Home » Writers-House Blog » Tips on Writing a Portfolio Essay

Tips on Writing a Portfolio Essay

At some point, students need to create a portfolio that will demonstrate their achievements at different stages of their education journey. For example, when a student graduates from the sixth grade, they may need to include their favorite assignments, exams, projects, and tests in a portfolio. College students need to write a portfolio much more often, especially in teaching and art majors. You may create an online or physical portfolio. No matter what type of portfolio you’re working on, you should summarize its content in an essay. Writers House experts prepared these tips to help you write a good essay.

Choose What to Include

Before writing a portfolio essay, you should decide what pieces you’re going to include in it. It’s hard to write an essay without understanding what it will be about. Sometimes, professors provide students with recommendations on what to include in their portfolio essay. Otherwise, you should select things you’re proud of. When creating an online portfolio, you should upload the necessary documents. No matter what is the format of your portfolio, be ready that you won’t receive any guidelines from your teacher. In this case, make sure to convert your portfolio to different formats so that you can choose the right one.

What to Focus on

Even if you have a diverse portfolio, you should choose the main focus to write an essay to make it well-organized. A portfolio includes everything you’ve done during a certain period of time. Think of why you’ve selected certain items. Were these assignments challenging? Did they allow you to demonstrate your strongest skills? If you answer such questions, it will be easier for you to write a comprehensive portfolio while also helping your readers better understand what kind of student you are. Make sure that the main topic of your portfolio is related to your experiences.

Introduction

Once you’ve collected the necessary materials and decided on the focus of your portfolio essay, it’s time to get to the writing process itself. We recommend that you start by writing an introduction. One of the main differences between portfolio essays and other types of essays is that the former allow you to use the first person. In portfolio essays, you’re both the subject and the narrator. First, tell your readers who you are, what this portfolio is about (for example, provide the name of your course), and briefly describe the main points.

Describe Your Experiences

In the main body, briefly discuss your experiences. For instance, you can write three body paragraphs, devoting the first paragraph to your concerns, worries, and excitement that you’ve experienced before going into the class. In the second paragraph, describe the most memorable moments. In the third paragraph, reflect on your experiences and think of how they helped you improve your skills and grow personally. Make sure to mention particular items from your portfolio that illustrate the content of each paragraph. For example, when writing about your worries, you may include a quote from your diary.

Write a Conclusion

Wrap it up with a conclusion that highlights things you’re proud of and your strengths. Write about things that you would like to improve in the future. Describe your biggest achievements and think of how overcoming certain difficulties can help you in the future. You can even mention the very process of creating a portfolio because a portfolio serves as a thesis in some college programs.

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How to Write a Portfolio Essay

A portfolio is a collection of your best works, whether in the field of art, poetry, prose, etc. This collection is never taken in itself; you have to comment and analyze it in a portfolio essay. Tweet This

Writing a portfolio essay – 8 important things to consider

1. portfolio essay definition.

The specific thing with a portfolio essay is that it includes reflection . A young gifted author or artist should always analyze his/her works and be able to assess them. Reflection means observing yourself, your own feelings, emotions and thoughts; a process of going deep inside your own personality. If taken to extremes, such a process would lead to psychological self-analysis. Still, such thing is not required from you; all you need to do is to reflect on your works, to write what is good and what is not that good in them; to observe the process of development of your writing skills, the factors and motives behind it.

The current guide will only deal with writings; if your paper is related to art, you could also make advantage of the advice available here.

2. Focus of the portfolio essay

A portfolio essay does not have a precise topic, so you do not need to figure it out. Your instructor should have told you what exactly to prepare; let’s say, essays from the current academic year. Thus, your portfolio essay will have a clear focus: either on your development as a writer (within the last academic year), or on your writings on a certain subject. Ensure you have understood what is required from you. When you have selected the essays/writings, show them to your instructor in order not to waste your time and efforts. Afterwards you can continue with writing the paper.

3. Select a few writings

Pick up the writings according to the criteria set by your instructor. Amongst them are the following: 

• chronological - from the present year, from college, from high-school, etc.;
• thematic - centered on a given problem (society, human nature, etc.);
• style - writings written in a given style and/or belonging to a given literary movement (i.e. surrealism);

There could be also other criteria. Let’s say you need to select your best short stories. That means you have to choose them according to your personal perception of them. Remember that whatever the criteria are, you should select only the writings which are of good quality; if you need to present all essays written during the academic year, and you personally do not like some of them, you are not obliged to submit them. You need merely to explain in the introduction the reasons for your choice.

4. Introduce yourself

The portfolio essay should begin with your introduction. Who are you? Why have you chosen the given course/class? What attracts you in writing? You have to present this information in one long paragraph - from five to ten sentences long.

However, do not be too long - this is not an autobiography . The portfolio is a kind of advertisement; in order to sell your product (in this case to have higher grade), you have to show its best sides.

5. Present the writings selected by you

Now you need to describe the writings one by one. Some students write descriptions before each writing - this is wrong! A portfolio essay consists of two main parts: introduction which includes the description, and the writings themselves. In order to present them properly, you have to read them prior to starting to write the portfolio essay. Yes, you may remember your writings, but it is recommended to read them once again! Write down some notes and use them to write the descriptions. Each description should comprise one paragraph. You need to make the following parts clear: 

• the title of the writing;
• its style and genre;
• main idea; characters (if applicable);
• methods and tools used.

6. General idea of the portfolio essay

After the description is made, you have to come up with a conception about the presented writings. Tell the reader what exactly is so special in each of them, and what makes them similar or complementary. Answer some of the following questions: do you see any development or change in your writing skills? Are they improving? Are the factors influencing your writing the same all the time? What mistakes you see now in your past works? What would you have changed if you could?

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7. Comments and remarks

If your instructor has reviewed your writings earlier and you have made some changes due to his/her remarks, you need to have a separate section explaining the changes you have made. You should write what ideas you have added or removed, what characters you have changed, and so forth.

8. Style and grammar

There is no need to say that your English grammar must be perfect. In order to avoid typos or other type of mistakes, handle your paper to a friend or someone who is an expert in English grammar. Moreover, it is good to work on your grammar and punctuation skills, especially if you want to become an author, including copywriter, journalist, etc.

PORTFOLIO ESSAY EXAMPLE

Introduction

I have been writing short stories since I was in high-school. Short stories are the best way to express personal feelings and observations. I am able to make the reader focus on one central idea, to offer a problematic situation and to make the reader figure out a solution to it. My works do not seem finished but that is because I want to make the reader active instead of passively perceiving the information presented in the story.

The current portfolio essay represents some selected short stories written in the last five years. They are ordered chronologically.

Description

Story 1 was inspired by my personal experience. It involves two young people who feel sympathy for each other but are not prepared to go further. The central symbol of the story is the invisible wall existing between both persons, a wall which prevents them from fulfilling their relationship.

Story 2 is a retrospection of a series of events in my life. It rather describes than analyzes. Plenty of situations are interconnected and the transition from one to another is shown as not having clear borderlines. This story shows that I have turned at that time to more introspective methods, influenced by the concept of “stream of consciousness.”

Central idea of the essay

The presented collection of short stories demonstrates my internal drive to move towards introspection, thus ignoring all details of physical appearance and description of nature. At the same time it shows the diversity of my styles, methods and tools used for writing the stories.

Let’s say it again, a portfolio essay may include different genres of writings as well as art (photography and other types of images). Hence, you should adapt the tips given in the current guide to your profession and subject. 

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13 Reflection and Portfolios

The final assignment in your English course will include a reflective essay in which you describe your growth as a writer over the course of the semester. This activity of reflecting on your growth and performance is what is called a metacognitive activity: one in which you think and write about your learning.

Writing a formal reflective essay may be a new thing for you, so this chapter will provide an overview of why we write reflections on our learning and how to approach a reflection assignment.

Student reflection about their thinking is such a crucial part of the learning process. You have come to this course with your own writing goals. Now is a good time to think back on your writing practices with reflective writing, also called metacognitive writing. Reflective writing helps you think through and develop your intentions as a writer. Leveraging reflective writing also creates learning habits that extend to any discipline of learning. It’s a set of procedures that helps you step back from the work you have done and ask a series of questions: Is this really what I wanted to do?  Is this really what I wanted to say? Is this the best way to communicate my intentions? Reflective writing helps you authenticate your intentions and start identifying places where you either hit the target or miss the mark. You may find, also, that when you communicate your struggles, you can ask others for help! Reflective writing helps you trace and articulate the patterns you have developed, and it fosters independence from relying too heavily on an instructor to tell you what you are doing.

Reflective Learning

Reflective thinking is a powerful learning tool. As we have seen throughout this course, proficient readers are reflective readers, constantly stepping back from the learning process to think about their reading. They understand that just as they need to activate prior knowledge at the beginning of a learning task and monitor their progress as they learn, they also need to make time during learning as well as at the end of learning to think about their learning process, to recognize what they have accomplished, how they have accomplished it, and set goals for future learning. This process of “thinking about thinking” is called metacognition. When we think about our thinking—articulating what we now know and how we came to know it—we close the loop in the learning process.

How do we engage in a reflection? Educator Peter Pappas modified Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning to focus on reflection:

This “taxonomy of reflection” provides a structure for metacognition.  Educator Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano has modified Pappas’s taxonomy into a pyramid and expanded upon his  reflection questions:

By making reflection a key component of our work, students realize that learning is not always about facts and details. Rather, learning is about discovery.

How is reflective writing in the academic setting different from journaling or writing in a diary?

If you write in a diary or a journal, recording your thoughts and feelings about what has happened in your life, you are certainly engaging in the act of reflection. Many of us have some experience with this type of writing. In our diaries, journals, or other informal spaces for speaking – or writing- our mind,  write to ourselves, for ourselves, in a space that will largely remain private.

Your reflection essay for college courses will contain some of those same features:

• The subject of the reflective essay is you and your experiences
• You can generally use the first person in a reflective essay

But writing academic reflections, like the one that is due for the English 100/101 portfolio assignment, is a bit different from journaling or keeping a diary:

What can be gained from metacognitive activities that ask you to reflect on your learning and your performance as a writer?

One of the major goals in any First-Year Writing class is to encourage students’ growth as writers. No one is expected to be a perfect writer at the end of the semester. Your instructor’s hope, however, is that after 16 weeks of reading, writing, and revising several major essays, you are more confident, capable, and aware of yourself as a writer than you were at the beginning of the semester. Reflecting on the process that you go through as you write – even if your writing is not perfect – can help you to identify the behaviors, strategies, and resources that have helped you to be successful or that could support your future success. In short, reflecting on how you write (or how you have written during a particular semester) can be quite powerful in helping you to identify areas where you have grown and areas where you still have room for more growth.

How can I write a reflective essay?

As with any essay, a reflective essay should come with its own assignment sheet. On that assignment sheet, you should be able to identify what the purpose of the reflective essay is and what the scope of the reflection needs to be. Some key elements of the reflective essay that the assignment sheet should answer are:

• What, exactly, the scope of the reflection is. Are you reflecting on one lesson, one assignment, or the whole semester?
• Do you have detailed guidelines, resources, or reference documents for your reflections that must be met?
• Is there a particular structure for the reflection?
• Should the reflection include any outside resources?

If you are struggling to find the answers to these questions, ask your professor!

Another wonderful resource for writing a reflective essay comes from  Writing Commons , in the article  “Writing an Academic Reflection Essay” . This article offers great information about the following:

• What it means to be “academic” or “critical” and at the same time personal and reflective
• How you can achieve focus in a reflective essay
• What “evidence” is in a reflective essay

Prior Learning

Fast and well-traveled roads may make for a quicker trip, but they also miss the nuance and beauty of the scenic route. For some, the long way around is just worth it. The adventures, mishaps, connections, and coincidences that happen along the way are a teacher like no other.

If this sounds familiar to you when you think about your journey in education, then this textbook is for you. Let’s take another look at those years of experiential learning along the scenic route: your work, travel, volunteering, community involvement, entrepreneurship, and whatever else you’ve explored while not in the traditional classroom setting.

Let’s reconsider that experience as Prior Learning, and dig in to see what you’ve learned on the way.

The portfolio is composed of an assortment of documents and artifacts demonstrating previous college-level learning.

• Examines your personal motivations and educational goals in the context of learning and how you will achieve them.
• This portion should address each course objective found on the course syllabus, and demonstrate that you have mastered the objectives. Showcase how your learning applies to the objectives for a specific course.
• You will need to supply documentation to support the narrative.
• Documentation is as individual as the learner, and it may include items such as sample work products, training certificates, workplace evaluations, letters of recommendation, and/or photographs.

The Educational Narrative is asking for a very specific thing from you so that your reviewers can understand the learning you’ve done and relate it to the course you’re challenging.

What is that thing it’s asking for?

A story . Several stories, actually.

The word Narrative means “story,” of course, so this component is asking you to tell the story of your learning. To tell that story, you’ll need to have several examples that clearly demonstrate your expertise with the course’s subject matter. And these examples need to be  specific . Here’s why:

In creative writing, teachers often say that the universe is in the specific. The more detailed the description, the better the reader can visualize the characters and scene. Take, for example, this line:

We got dressed up and went to the concert.

Who are they? What’d they wear? How old were they? What kind of concert was it? Who was playing? None of that is apparent, so every reader sees something different.

But what if that line was written like:

We teased our hair to the ceilings, doused it in White Rain, snapped on spandex and pleather. We tore out of the suburbs, left a mile-long streak of rubber on our way to go see Twisted Sister at CBGB’s.

Now can you see it? From the first description, it could’ve also easily been a black-tie evening at the Philharmonic, or a 7th Grade Band Concert, or… It’s the specifics that make the example come alive.

That’s  your task in the Educational Narrative.

Though, of course, you’ll be writing about your class experiences and not an 80s hair band (unless you are drawing connections from when you were a member of an 80s hair band…).

ATTRIBUTIONS

• Content Adapted from Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL). (2020).  Excelsior College. Retrieved from https://owl.excelsior.edu/ licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-4.0 International License .
• Content Adapted from Composition II. Authored by : Alexis McMillan-Clifton.  Provided by : Tacoma Community College.  Located at :  http://www.tacomacc.edu .
• Reflection.  Authored by : Daryl Smith O’Hare.  Provided by : Chadron State College.  Project : Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative.  License :  CC BY: Attribution
• Image of woman against wall.  Authored by : VisualAge.  Located at :  https://flic.kr/p/CScnK .  License :  CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
• Content Adapted from Composition II.  Authored by : Elisabeth Ellington, Ph.D..  Provided by : Chadron State College.  Located at :  http://www.csc.edu/ .  Project : Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative.  License :  CC BY: Attribution
• Image of Taxonomy.  Authored by : Peter Pappas.  Located at :  http://www.peterpappas.com/images/2011/08/taxonomy-of-reflection.png .  Project : Copy/Paste.  License :  CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial
• Content Adapted from   A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing  by Emilie Zickel is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License ,
• Image of pyramid.  Authored by : Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano.  Located at :  http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/06/20/reflectu00adreflectingu00adreflection/ .  License :  CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Content Adapted from Prior Learning Portfolio Development  by Baker Lawley is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

English 101: Journey Into Open Copyright © 2021 by Christine Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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How to Write a Portfolio Introduction

Last Updated: June 21, 2024 References

This article was co-authored by Shannon O'Brien, MA, EdM . Shannon O'Brien is the Founder and Principal Advisor of Whole U. (a career and life strategy consultancy based in Boston, MA). Through advising, workshops and e-learning Whole U. empowers people to pursue their life's work and live a balanced, purposeful life. Shannon has been ranked as the #1 Career Coach and #1 Life Coach in Boston, MA by Yelp reviewers. She has been featured on Boston.com, Boldfacers, and the UR Business Network. She received a Master's of Technology, Innovation, & Education from Harvard University. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 376,377 times.

The introduction to your portfolio is a great way to tell your readers who you are and briefly explain what you'll be talking about. If you're using your portfolio to attract customers, it's important to give a few examples of professional accomplishments and make your introduction stand out by adding a couple of personal details. If you're writing an educational portfolio, summarize your main talking points and explain what makes you stand out. Don't forget to edit your introduction once you're finished so it looks professional!

Tips for Writing a Portfolio Introduction

Begin by introducing yourself and your credentials. Include a few brief summaries of your work so readers get an idea of what you’re capable of. Add a few fun facts about yourself to give your portfolio a friendly, yet professional tone. Remember to proofread when you’re done writing.

Template for a Portfolio Introduction

Writing an Introduction for a Professional Portfolio

• You might say, “I’m Kelly Smith, and I design websites for small businesses. While I’m based in Austin, Texas, I help build websites for people all over the world.”

• You might say something like, “Over the past five years as a photographer, I've taken pictures for graduation ceremonies, weddings, and birth announcements."
• Choose experiences where you were in charge of the project, or that had a positive impact on you and your company.

• Keep the personal details short and to the point, as their main purpose is to add a little life to your introduction.
• You could mention you have three children, love cooking, or learned to code when you were seven years old.

• Avoid using slang in your introduction to make it more presentable.
• Write in the first person for a more personal feel.
• Keeping your introduction conversational will make people more likely to feel like they can reach out to you.

• Wear professional clothing related to your job, and smile in the picture to look friendly and welcoming.
• Make sure the picture isn’t blurry or too dark.

• Check the layout of your introduction if it's online, making sure all of the wording and any pictures show up normally.

Writing an Introduction for an Educational Portfolio

• For example, you could say, “My name is Steve Johnson, and my portfolio is a representation of all that I've learned and accomplished as a science and engineering student."
• This should only be 1-3 sentences. You can write in the first person to engage your reader the most.

• Avoid listing everything you’ll be talking about in the portfolio. Instead, you can use a table of contents for this.
• Include any major themes you'll be talking about, or the main message of your portfolio.

• You might write that your student experience is unique because you’ve spent 3 years working in a lab researching cancer, or your poetry is published in several different magazines across the country.
• Include this near the end of your introduction to keep it fresh in the reader's mind.

• Roughly 2-3 paragraphs is an ideal introduction length.

• If your teacher didn’t give you any guidelines, ask them if there are specific things they want you to include.

• Reading your introduction out loud can help you find any mistakes you might have missed.

Expert Q&A

• Use fonts that are readable and professional-looking, such as Times New Roman. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0
• Mention any awards or special accolades you've received, if desired. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0
• Talk about a few of your strengths to make yourself stand out. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://skillcrush.com/2013/03/25/the-five-essential-ingredients-of-a-great-online-portfolio/
• ↑ Shannon O'Brien, MA, EdM. Life & Career Coach. Expert Interview. 24 September 2021.
• ↑ https://www.format.com/magazine/resources/photography/online-portfolio-about-page-step-by-step-guide
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrBRfKvLQhY#t=40s
• ↑ https://www.theclassroom.com/write-introduction-educational-portfolio-8681477.html
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrBRfKvLQhY
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5TN2wvWCKA

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Home » Planning & Creating » How to create a writing portfolio

How to create a writing portfolio: 7 fundamental steps

The point of a portfolio is to give viewers a sense of what you can do for them. And portfolios can look very different while still getting that job done. Some of our Blurb writers have gotten hired by emailing screenshots of Facebook posts—while others have opened up professionally bound layflat photo books during interviews. Keeping in mind your end goal (selling yourself) will help ground you in this process.

Here are seven steps to help you create the perfect writing portfolio:

1. Introduce yourself

If your portfolio is your full sales pitch, think of your introduction as your elevator pitch. This sets the tone and context for your work. State your name, the type of writing you do, and any relevant background information that describes who you are.

Remember, this is a writing sample, too.  Make it unique, valuable, and memorable—and from your natural voice. This is your chance to tell your story from your point of view. Make it count.

2. Organize your writing samples

Gather up all relevant writing samples you have. These can be everything from Super Bowl ads you’ve scripted to op-eds you’ve written for your high school newspaper. And if you don’t have enough, you can create hypothetical projects for brands that exist or that you make up to showcase your skills—just make it clear they’re examples and not paid work.

Once you have all your writing samples gathered, it’s time to organize them. Keep in mind who you’re showing your work to and include the type of samples they’re most interested in. If you’re angling to carve a niche, consider grouping your work into topic or format clusters. If you’re showing off versatility, group them by medium.

Here are the top ways to organize your writing portfolio:

• Chronologically: If you have a wide range of writing samples or a linear progression in your career, consider arranging your work chronologically and share how your skills have evolved.
• Topic: If you specialize in particular types of writing, you could group your samples by topic. For example, you could organize your work by industry for your technical writing or trade book writing—or by sections dedicated to industries, verticals, or genres.
• Medium: If you write for various mediums and channels, be it journalism stories, ad creative, UX writing, storytelling, or blogging, organize your work by these key pillars to help readers understand your versatility as a writer.

No matter how you organize your work, start and end with your strongest samples. Recruiters spend less than three minutes per portfolio , whereas most hiring managers spend five to 10 minutes. Either way, that’s not a lot of time. Make sure your portfolio makes a splash to start and is easily scannable.

3. Cull your writing samples

Once you’ve compiled all relevant writing samples for your portfolio, now comes the difficult task of narrowing them down. If you’re in the early stages of your career, you may not have a lot of work to distill. But for experienced writers, it’s important to whittle down your samples to showcase only your best work. 

When making the final selection of samples to include in your writing portfolio, consider the following:

• Diversity: Depending on the structure you envision for your portfolio, consider choosing samples that capture your range and versatility as a writer. For example, creative writers might want to include a mix of short stories , screenplays, essays, or novels .
• Relevance: Your writing samples should reflect the type of writing you want to do in the future. If you’re interested in writing for a particular publication, highlight samples that overlap with that publication’s style and tone.
• Quality: As a rule, only include your best work when creating a writing portfolio. It can be helpful to recruit a mentor, friend, or colleague to get different perspectives on what others view as your highest-quality samples.

4. Craft your navigation

As you organize and narrow down what work samples you’d like to include, you can start identifying patterns for structuring your writing portfolio. In doing so, think about how you’d like viewers to navigate your book.

A table of contents, menu, or sections can provide guideposts for viewers to better travel through your writing portfolio and understand what it includes. In addition to thematic structure and the general flow of your portfolio, consider design elements like thumbnail images for each piece or major section. This adds a visual appeal and a touch of creativity that goes a long way in grabbing your prospective readers. Other fundamentals include:

• Sections: If you have ample writing samples to include, divide your portfolio into sections or chapters. This will make it easier for readers to find the pieces they’re most interested in.
• Navigation: Make sure your table of contents or website menu is simple to understand. In a digital context, you can include links to each section or piece of writing for easy navigation.
• Design: Your portfolio should be clean, clear, concise, and easy to read. Set the mood appropriately and use a consistent font, color scheme, and design elements for your sections, headlines, and menus to make them cohesive with the rest of the portfolio.

5. Design a layout

Once you have all of your writing samples selected and organized, you’ll need to think about how to best present your work in a way that’s visually appealing and on-brand with your particular style and tone. This is where the design of your portfolio comes in. When designing your portfolio, consider the following:

• Choose a format that’s creative yet easy to navigate. Whether creating a hardcopy portfolio or a website portfolio, you want to choose a format that aligns with your writing style and the context of your samples but also one that’s easy to navigate. Be creative but don’t let the design distract readers from your portfolio’s content. 
• Use a clear and readable font. Make sure that the font you choose is easy to read, both in print and digitally on the screen. It’s best to stick with very simple, legible fonts that won’t distract from your writing.
• Incorporate images or graphics. Consider adding visuals to your writing portfolio that capture the context of your work. Whether they’re symbolic photos or images that truly correspond with your samples, consider imagery that relates to your writing and engages your readers. Just be sure that they don’t detract from your copy.
• Keep it consistent. While you want your writing portfolio to be visually engaging, you also want to ensure that it’s professional and on point with your personal brand. Often, less is more. So, avoid using too many colors or fonts , and put together a design layout that’s consistent and aligned.

6. Summarize your work

Depending on the length of your writing portfolio, it can help to provide some context for your samples—especially if you can prove your worth with impressive stats. Similar to a novel’s blurb shown on the back cover of a book, these could be short summaries that introduce individual samples, case studies that outline your business results, or thematic sections of your portfolio that add color to your writer’s journey.

Writing short summaries or blurbs of your work gives readers a sense of what they can expect from each piece of writing. While not a requirement for writing portfolios, these blurbs can help guide the overarching story behind your experience. When writing these short summaries, consider the following elements:

• Overviews that summarize your work. You can include the genre , topic, purpose, brand, or writing style.
• Your intentions or goals. Break down the problem you solved with your writing pieces, like whether your objective was entertaining, educating, or persuading your readers, and who the project was for.
• The scope of the project and your role as a writer. Make sure you highlight whether your work was part of a larger publication or your own personal blog. Talk about timelines, titles, and how you contributed to any large-scale projects or group work.
• Any key performance indicators (KPIs). Hiring managers on marketing teams will be very interested in the results of your work, like how much traffic a piece earned, how much engagement it received, or how your work led to a particular business outcome.

7. Include your resume and contact info

When using your portfolio to land your dream job, including your resume (or a version of it) is a good supplement to showcase all your experience. You could include it at the beginning or end of your portfolio. In any case, it should be easy to find and relevant to your target audience.

You’ll also want to include a way for viewers to contact you, like your professional email address or social media account. Depending on the context of your portfolio, you may even consider adding a link to your LinkedIn or Instagram profile so employers can see more information about you and easily get in touch. If you print your portfolio, add links or QR codes to your professional website or digital portfolio, too.

Tips for creating a writing portfolio that wows

Now that you’re familiar with creating a writing portfolio, several additional points are worth calling out. These are general best practices and things to consider when bringing your portfolio to life.

Quality over quantity

Less is often more, as it’s generally better to showcase a small collection of high-quality writing samples rather than inundating your readers with numerous less-than-stellar pieces. Be selective with the work you choose, and aim for a diverse range that emphasizes your strengths and genres of focus.

Know your target audience

Identify your target audience for your writing portfolio, as this can help determine the specific writing samples you include and how you organize them. Keep in mind that you should tailor your portfolio to suit the needs of your potential clients or employers. Print on demand allows you to swap in and out samples that best align with each client or employer—or you can tailor your digital portfolio with specific landing pages for each application or industry.

Keep it clean, simple, and error-free

Your writing portfolio should be easy to navigate, visually appealing, and error-free. Use a simple design and make sure your writing samples are well-organized and clearly presented. Your portfolio’s overall design layout and format will help readers digest its contents. 

And since you’re a writer, typos are usually unforgivable. Get a friend or mentor (or both!) to proof your work before you send it out.

Create digital and print writing portfolios

There are many pros and cons for digital and hardcopy portfolio books . While having a digital writing portfolio might be needed for digital applications and remote positions, a print version will definitely have you standing out while attending in-person meetings and interviews. Ultimately, the decision should depend on your personal preference, the needs of your target audience, and your intended usage of the portfolio.

However, we’d suggest both. You’ll need digital samples to get through the initial stage of most applications, but few things are more impressive than a perfectly bound physical portfolio in face-to-face interactions.

Keep your writing portfolio up-to-date

Your writing should always be fresh and relevant, so don’t forget to regularly update the contents of your portfolio with new pieces or achievements. Also, it’s a great idea to tailor your portfolio for each interview. Doing this will help demonstrate your interest and commitment to the company or client.

What makes a strong writing portfolio?

Certain characteristics make for standout writing portfolios. Consider these five cornerstones of strong portfolios:

• Showcase the depth and diversity of your writing ability, including various genres and styles, to help demonstrate your versatility and range as a writer.
• Maintain consistency in your tone and presentation throughout your portfolio, even if you showcase work with different styles for different brands.
• Feature work most relevant to your primary target audience and the type of writing jobs you want to land in the future.
• Choose the most engaging writing samples that reflect your style and focus, highlighting your marketable attributes and unique skillset.
• Assemble your portfolio in a clear, cohesive, and organized manner, making it easy for readers to navigate and absorb your content.

Above all, remember that your writing portfolio reflects you and your abilities as a writer. Take the time to create something unique and memorable. We believe in you!

If you’re interested in creating a print version of your writing portfolio, Blurb offers the tools to make a professional, bookstore-quality portfolio book that will impress. 

Get started using a beautifully designed portfolio template, or create your own custom layout. Not only can you print as many books as you need on demand, but you can choose from a variety of formats, from large layflat portfolio books to smaller and more affordable options that make great leave-behinds.

portfolio , writing portfolio

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Final Portfolios: Ending the Year with Meaning

“All in all, this year was tough but I made it through. I learned a lot about culture, society, and religion. Society shouldn't determine who you are as a person because who [can] judge us? We as individuals can only judge ourselves.” —Excerpt from Long Nu's final portfolio

One way that I attempt to help make meaning of a year, give students the final word about their learning, and achieve a collective sense of completion is by assigning a portfolio project as the final major assignment of the year.

Portfolio Overview

With or without access to technology, final portfolios are opportunities for students be creative as they reflect on, describe, analyze, and interpret their own work and learning from the year. Instead of being told what they should know, students have an opportunity to articulate their learning and their realities in their own words as they create a product of personal and emotional value.

“This class has really made me think about where I fit into the world, and how I can use my position in the world to incite change.” —Excerpt from Ruby’s final portfolio

“At first I never knew stepping out of my comfort zone would make me feel like a new person.” —Excerpt from Monisha’s final portfolio

The Process

I begin the process by having students read over their work from the entire year. Each student sits, claiming a section of table to her/himself. Spread in front of them is their work from the year -- papers spilling out of graded work folders, worn journals overflowing with entries, large pieces of chart paper, and many open tabs on their laptops display assignments, docs, and websites that they have created. This first stage reminds students of all that they have accomplished. "Remember this? I forgot all about it!" is a frequent refrain. At times students are impressed by their work, and at other times disappointment is clear: "Ugh. I didn’t do so well on this."

I want them to read through their work and notice multiple things that they may not have previously realized. For this reason, I don't tell them all the details of the project at the outset. Instead, I ask them first to record at least 15 quotes of interest from their own work. The quotes must be from different assignments and significant to them for some reason. (Maybe one quote contains a powerful idea, another is something they now disagree with, a third is a quote where they appreciate the style of the writing, etc.) By completing this first assignment, they are beginning to develop larger ideas and insights into their learning from the year.

The next day, with their collection of quotes in front of them, I ask them to sit in groups and create a list of General Understandings that begin to summarize their learning from the year. I make it clear that they can think about both whatthey learned and how they learned. I give examples to get them started:

• Multiple perspectives help develop different understandings of reality.
• Discussions can lead to insights and learning not possible for an individual.
• Struggle is a necessary part of transformation.

I am intentional about modeling with complex and varied General Understandings. For each General Understanding, I have students take notes about units, assignments, projects, and memories of class activities that can be used to support the statement. During this stage, each student contributes ideas, and group wisdom helps develop individual ideas farther. Ultimately each student will choose his or her own General Understandings based on the wealth of ideas and possibilities that each group has generated on the chart paper hanging in different parts of the room.

Incorporating Creativity and Individualization

The next step is for students to draft and write the portfolio essay, the introduction to their selected body of work from the year. For my high school version of the project, students write 500 words focusing on two to three General Understandings. Each General Understanding must be supported by quotes from their own work throughout the year. By using their own work as sources, students continue to review, acknowledge, and accept the authority, power, and connections in their work from the year, while also identifying where there is room for growth.

If technology is available, portfolios can be created as blog posts. Quotes from student work can link directly to pages with those assignments. I require that students include links to at least five different examples of their collected work.

With or without technology, artwork can be a powerful element in portfolios. I have had students use a word cloud generator to create word art that represents their learning from the year. Students can create many different expressions this way.

Final Thoughts

Every year, final portfolios give my students a structure for evaluating themselves and articulating the most important aspects of their learning and growth. The day that the portfolios are due, we sit in a circle and hear an excerpt from each student. The range and variety of essays is a poignant reminder of the value of creating individualized learning experiences.

Final portfolios can be a reflective tool not only for students, but also for teachers. Reading portfolios rejuvenates me, helps me realize and understand things that I had not realized about different students and their experiences in my class, and helps me to identify my own areas for growth as I continually work to refine and improve my teaching practice. Creating structure that encourages students to develop individual, insightful voices can provide a powerful reminder of why the work of teaching matters.

“There’s different sides to ourselves that we don't really see at a first glance. Those parts of us can be brought out when we create poetry and view things about the world in different lenses. We not only learn about ourselves, but we learn sides to people surrounding us and people who are thousands of miles away. Throughout the year, I've been able to see parts of myself that I haven't seen before. Some parts surprised me and some parts led me to believe that there is something inside of me worth searching for and worth continuing beyond [the] classroom.” —Excerpt from Symone’s final portfolio

WEBSITE ESSENTIALS

12 best writing portfolio examples and how to create your own

• Brandi Hunter

Get started by: Creating a website →  | Getting a domain →

When it comes to starting a business  around your writing, visibility is everything. The more well-curated and attention-grabbing your writing is, the higher the chance that potential clients and publications will notice your talent. Making a website  that presents your writing portfolio can help introduce the industry to your talent and invite new work.

You may be thinking, “I’m a writer, not a website designer”—that’s where Wix can help. Its templates and beginner-friendly website builder make getting started as straightforward as it can get. To get the creative juices flowing, here are 12 writing portfolio examples from Wix users. Later on, we’ll provide a more straightforward step-by-step guide to building your own.

Start building your online portfolio  with Wix today.

12 writing portfolio examples

Jed Donahue

Sam Carlson Creative

Lauryn Higgins

Jessica Van Devanter

Madison Gray

Jane-Ellen Robinet

Christina Sterbenz

Bryn Dippold

Charlotte Kho

Emma Newell

Maddie Pfeiffer

Rachel A.G. Gilman

01. Jed Donahue

Jed Donahue’s website is a great example of how speaking to your client’s pain points can compel them to reach out. The homepage header copy, “When you need great content, I’m here to help,” focuses on the customer’s needs. Testimonials from previous clients provide proof that Jed can deliver results. Meanwhile, the “What I can do for you” section gives a practical breakdown of the workflow and services that clients can expect.

02. Sam Carlson

Sam Carlson takes his writing portfolio a step further by putting his client work front and center. He highlights his creative flair and prowess as a copywriter by including engaging introductions for each case study. Every project page boasts a concise and clever summary, followed by the client's logo and key project assets. Additionally, his "Fun" page, which presents his personal projects, offers a glimpse of his hobbies and talents outside of writing.

03. Lauryn Higgins

If you, like Lauryn Higgins , have an extensive writing portfolio that includes several bylines with well-known media companies, you can strategically add publication logos to your website and link them to your author pages to show off your credibility. On her “Awards and Publications” page, she features snapshots of some of her best clips, along with several awards.

04. Jessica Van Devanter 

If you don’t have any visual content to display and don’t want to go through the process of finding a set of free-to-use visuals that match your branding and content, take a look at Jessica Van Devanter’s writing portfolio. By making the site’s design the focal point, she bypasses the need for external graphics or images that may not align with her branding. 

Her logo, a shrewd-looking fox, serves as the background for the large header, which captures the viewer's attention upon arrival. Below it, a mountain graphic underlays the main content area, providing a sense of continuity without overpowering the text. 

The structure of each page is reminiscent of a timeline, with her written works positioned as milestones, guiding visitors through her professional journey. The bright green and white font colors provide a deliberate contrast against the muted blue background, ensuring readability and drawing the eye to her written work.

Use Wix’s logo maker  to start building out your personal brand.

05. Madison Gray

As a writer and an artist, Madison Gray masterfully demonstrates both skill sets throughout her portfolio. Pairing her highlighted works with original images draws visitors in and creates a visually engaging narrative of her talents. Each project page indicates which skills she utilized to complete the project, offering a comprehensive understanding of her multifaceted abilities.

06. Jane-Ellen Robinet  

Jane-Ellen Robinet limits her writing portfolio to a page to help website visitors get the information they need quickly. The above-the-fold section summarizes her unique value proposition (“INSIGHT + PERSPECTIVE + EXPERIENCE”) and provides specific job titles for the services she provides (“Editor | Writer”). The header features anchor links to each section of the page to ensure easy navigation. 

07. Christina Sterbenz

Rather than categorizing work by publications, Christina Sterbenz structures her portfolio page around writing topics and pairs each section with a compelling image from one of the relevant clips. This strategy adds visual appeal and gives each topic a personal touch, making the stories more approachable and intriguing to visitors. The images, paired with informative captions, humanize the subjects, enticing readers to delve deeper into her work.

In terms of website design, the portfolio benefits from a clean layout and a modern, minimalist font, which together enhance the site's readability and aesthetic appeal. Visitors can effortlessly scan the pages, finding what they are looking for without feeling overwhelmed. Additionally, the consistent use of design motifs—such as circles and lines throughout the site—contributes to a cohesive and memorable brand identity.

Like this format? Use this creative CV website template  to get started.

08. Bryn Dippold  

Bryn Dippold uses Wix’s blog maker  to showcase her work samples. This approach of republishing content directly on her portfolio, rather than merely linking out to external publications, serves as a strategic method for keeping visitors on her site for longer and providing a comprehensive view of her work.

Many Wix website templates already come with an integrated blog. Alternatively, you can choose to add the blog feature to any template, tailoring it to fit your unique style. Wix allows you to customize the blog settings, enabling you to curate and present your best work in a manner that aligns with your professional image and goals. 

09. Charlotte Kho 

Charlotte Kho uses neutral colors, layered design elements and striking imagery to introduce herself as a digital and creative storyteller. The “Resume” page provides a lot of information, but its clean layout is easy on the eyes, and you have the option to download her CV. On the “Work” page, Charlotte offers a small selection of her best work, plus links to view more of her published pieces.

Like this layout? Make it your own as Charlotte did by customizing this business CV website template .

10. Emma Newell 

Emma Newell's website demonstrates a balance of simplicity and engaging elements, creating a visually appealing and user-friendly experience. The site employs subtle animations that add a dynamic touch without overwhelming the visitor. Notably, when you click on any link in the menu bar, the content below appears to swipe out of view as new content takes its place. This seamless effect maintains the homepage's structure and provides an uninterrupted browsing experience.

11. Maddie Pfeifer

Maddie Pfeifer effectively leads with her experience by featuring her resume on the homepage. It details her past work, highlights her skillset and lists the awards she has received in the course of her career. We appreciate that she prominently placed her contact information above the fold for easy accessibility.

Her website is a model of organization, making excellent use of Wix’s advanced menu features . The dropdown functionality in her navigation bar allows for an expanded array of options, enhancing the user experience. Visitors, when exploring the “Portfolio” page link, are greeted with the option to select content categories like “Event coverage” or “Crime & courts,” tailoring their browsing to their interests.

12. Rachel A.G. Gilman 

Rachel A.G. Gilman elevates her homepage's simplicity with a playful, animated headshot, contrasting colors and a classic font choice, creating a dynamic first impression. Under the “Writing” tab, her comprehensive archive is meticulously sorted into distinct categories, making it easy to sift through her published work and accomplishments.

How to make a writing portfolio of your own

After exploring some of the best portfolio website examples , you’re probably eager to get started on learning how to make a portfolio  of your own. Whether you're a seasoned writer or just getting started, these tips will help you present your work in a way that captivates and communicates your unique voice and skills. 

01. Identify your target audience

To properly tailor your site design to your audience, you need to identify who you’re looking to impress. For instance, if you’re using this type of website  to pitch to editors, you might consider spotlighting your best features or most impressive bylines. On the other hand, if you’re cultivating a professional portfolio  for freelance clients, you might want to put testimonials or a list of services front and center.

02. Establish your goals 

Setting clear goals is crucial to track your progress and success. If your objective is to boost engagement with freelance clients, you might measure this by the number of inquiries or project offers you receive through your portfolio site. On the other hand, if increasing your visibility as a writer online is your goal, you could focus on monitoring website traffic, page views, or how long visitors stay on your site. Regularly assessing these aspects will help you understand what's effective and what needs improvement in your portfolio.

03. Choose the right platform

When looking for a platform for your online presence, choose a portfolio website builder  that aligns with your technical ability and the amount of time you can dedicate to maintenance. Although creating a bespoke website might be impressive and a simple clippings curator (such as Muck Rack) would be convenient, it’s a better idea to go for a builder that combines the best of both worlds, offering both customizability and convenience. 

With Wix, you’ll have hundreds of customizable templates to choose from and AI tools that make designing and filling it with images a breeze. Furthermore, Wix enriches your website with features like built-in forms, custom email addresses, and newsletter capabilities, ensuring you can easily connect with your audience and maintain those connections effortlessly.

Check out this selection of Wix website templates for writers .

04. Decide how you want to structure your showcase

When building the “Works” or “Clips” section of your online writing portfolio, your focus should be on showcasing your writing as well as highlighting the outlets you've collaborated with. Select pieces that represent your best work and reflect the type of work you aspire to continue doing. Remember, it's always about quality over quantity. A handful of outstanding pieces will have a greater impact than a multitude of average ones.

If you're at the beginning of your career and lack professional bylines, don't hesitate to include your best work from college or independent projects. Additionally, consider starting a blog that reflects the kind of work you aim to do professionally. 

05. Build an archive

Imagine losing your most valued work if a website goes down or a publisher removes your article. To prevent this, create an archive on your portfolio site. By uploading and publishing posts using the Wix content management system, you not only safeguard your work but also boost your site’s SEO and engage visitors more effectively. However, remember to check your contracts, as some publishers may restrict this. If time is limited, consider downloading your articles as PDFs and linking to them on a dedicated page. It's best to maintain this archive separately from your featured works, ensuring they continue to be the main attraction.

06. Flesh out the rest of your site

Your writing portfolio is more than just your work; it's a complete presentation of your professional persona. Each page on your site plays a critical role in telling your story. Here's how to make them count:

Home: The homepage is your portfolio's front door, welcoming and guiding visitors. It's crucial that this page clearly communicates what you offer as a writer. Make sure visitors can instantly understand your area of expertise and writing style.

About: On your “About” page, detail your professional journey, educational background and skill set. This page is an excellent place to infuse personality into your resume. Consider including a PDF version of your resume so hiring managers can add it to their databases.

Contact:  The “Contact” page is your open invitation for communication. Offer multiple methods to reach you, such as a contact form and an email address. Consider using scheduling software  to make it easy for potential clients to set up consultation calls. 

When writing the copy for these pages, make sure your tone is consistent, engaging and speaks to your desired audience. If incorporating imagery, make sure they’re high-quality, complement the text and reinforce your professional image. Each element should seamlessly blend to form a cohesive and inviting online presence.

07. Test and publish

Broken links, grammatical errors or faulty contact forms may lead visitors to doubt the quality of your work or discourage them from reaching out. Make sure to do a thorough assessment of your site, and consider sharing your writing portfolio with others to get their feedback.

08. Update your website

Regularly update your portfolio with your latest work. This keeps your site fresh and shows potential clients your active involvement and range of skills. A current portfolio can also inspire new project ideas among visitors.

Top tips for your writing portfolio

When it comes to planning, creating and maintaining your writing portfolio, there are a number of tips to help you create a great one.

Tailor your portfolio to the specific writing niche or genre you're pursuing. Include samples that demonstrate your expertise and writing style in that area. Your writing portfolio is a showcase of how well you with with words and content, make sure it reflects that to the best of your ability and experience.

Prioritize showcasing your strongest writing samplespieces, even if it means having fewer samples. Choose work that highlights your skills, versatility, and ability to meet client expectations.

Each piece in your portfolio should tell a story. Briefly explain the project's context, your approach, the challenges faced and the outcomes achieved.

Include testimonials from satisfied clients for the purpose of adding social proof and to demonstrate the quality of your work.

Make your portfolio easy to navigate. Use a clear menu, categorize your work and implement smooth transitions between pages.

Let your personality and writing style shine through. Use visuals, tone of voice, and layout to create a cohesive and memorable brand identity that reflects you and your work.

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How to Build a Writing Portfolio with No Experience (+ 10 Great Examples)

Jessica Michael

So you're a writer, and you want to take your writing career to the next level. What kinds of tools do you need to start landing jobs and clients ?

One of the first things you'll need is an online writing portfolio. In this article, we'll share how to build a writing portfolio that will impress clients and employers, even if you have no experience.

What is a writing portfolio?

At its most basic, a writing portfolio is a collection of your writing samples that you can share with potential clients and employers. Often, it will also include information about you, your work and educational background, and the types of writing services you provide.

Most writing portfolios are online writing portfolios hosted on websites. This makes it exceptionally easy to share and to update. It also makes it into a marketing tool, as you can connect your social media and add things like email sign-ups to your portfolio.

What should a writing portfolio look like?

A writing portfolio can be a website with a single scrollable page that includes bio, work samples, and contact information. Or, it can include multiple pages that display your work and other information separately. You can make your portfolio as complex as you like, as long as it's well-organized and easy to navigate.

It's important to remember that the purpose of an online writing portfolio is to showcase your writing skills, so you don't want to create a portfolio design that's so elaborate that it's hard to tell what it's about. That being said, writing portfolios that create visual interest through photos, graphics, logos, and color schemes are more impactful.

How to create a writing portfolio

As you choose your layout, design elements, and color scheme, you want to keep your brand identity in mind and create an aesthetic that matches. You'll also want to keep it consistent across your site. This is easier if you use a website builder with pre-designed templates and themes, so you don't have to think about it.

Website builders that feature templates for portfolios, or website builders such as Journo Portfolio that are specifically for portfolios, make it easy to upload your information and design a professional-looking and complete portfolio within a short period of time.

All you have to do is gather the material you want to upload to your portfolio!

What to put in a writing portfolio

1. about me.

An About Me section or page talks about your writing experience, educational background, and writing style. You can add a few personal details to make it more personable and we always recommend a professional bio photo.

2. Work Samples

This is the most important part of a writing portfolio, whether you're designing a creative writing portfolio, a content writing portfolio, or a digital marketing portfolio. You'll only want to include your best work here.

3. Contact Info

Clients and employers need a way to contact you if they want to work with you, so add a contact page or email address .

4. Services

Some writers like to include a detailed breakdown of the services they provide, with or without pricing included.

A more detailed CV is great to link to your writing portfolio if you are looking for in-house work or you have relevant expertise stemming from your work experience.

6. Social Media Buttons

Including links to your social media accounts turns your writing portfolio into a marketing tool. Just make sure you only link to your business accounts .

A blog is another great way to use your portfolio for marketing, and it can add more writing samples for clients to check out.

8. Embedded video or audio clips

This feature is especially important if you write content for multimedia platforms such as scripts or ads. Make sure the website builder you choose allows for this option.

9. Testimonials

Nothing is more convincing than testimonials from previous clients, employers, or editors!

10. Case studies

Case studies take one project from inception to completion, showing each step along the way. This shows clients that you can take on more complex projects and gives you a chance to show how you work.

How to build a writing portfolio with no experience

Creating a writing portfolio with no experience can seem overwhelming, but you probably already have most of what you need, like an About Me and contact information. You may even already know what kinds of services you want to provide and have created social media accounts for your work.

The most common issue is not having enough work samples.

There are a few great ways to create work samples for your writing portfolio even if you've never been published.

Mock work samples- As long as you define that the work sample is a mock-up, these work great for building out writing samples for the type of work you want to do. If you're stymied, there's also multiple online programs that can help you build out mock samples.

Mock case studies- Similar to above, you can use a faux company to create a detailed case study that exemplifies the type of work you do.'

Including a blog- Including a blog on your site means you can self-publish articles through your portfolio that can act as samples.

Guest posting- You can also guest post on other people's blogs to add to your credentials.

Writing projects through school or training- You may already have some impressive writing samples from your schooling or through writing certification programs you've taken.

Remember, most people are going to be looking at the quality of your writing and not the number of publications you've been in or the number of companies you've worked with. Spend time developing quality work samples and you'll soon find yourself landing clients and getting published!

10 brilliant writing portfolio examples

1. beth fand incollingo.

Beth is a freelance content marketing writer who specializes in Health and Sciences writing and messaging for universities and academic institutions.

Best Features: Beth has divided her work samples onto separate writing portfolio examples pages. Her health and sciences articles, university articles, and human interest articles all get their space to shine. This not only shows potential marketing clients that she has a depth of experience in multiple areas, but it also makes it easy for them to find writing samples specific to the type of work they want her to do.

Pro Tip: Create consistency across portfolio pages by using the same grid design. This keeps pages clean and connected.

2. Anthony Coppola

Anthony Coppola is a certified technical writer and screenwriter.

Best Features: In order to create technical writing samples for his online writing portfolio, Anthony invented a mock software company named SEIFER. He then wrote multiple examples of technical writing products such as a user guide and brand style guide to showcase how he would handle those types of technical writing projects from a client.

Pro Tip: Using one mock company to showcase a variety of writing skills while maintaining brand consistency is a great way for new or transitioning writers to create writing samples for their portfolio.

3. Triana Garrett

Triana is a content writer and ghostwriter with over 5+ years of experience in a multitude of industries.

Best Features: Triana has used her writing portfolio to not only display her writing samples but to create a clear brand identity. Using an elegant and intriguing black and gray aesthetic, she creates visual interest across pages. She also has a recognizable brand voice that she uses throughout her text. 

Pro Tip: If you have wide ranging experience or an extensive professional background, try linking your CV with all the details rather than attempting to stuff all that information onto your About page. This keeps your portfolio clean while still giving clients access to your full credentials.

4. Rochelle Messner

Rochelle Messner is a copywriter with over a decade of experience with both in-house and freelance copywriting.

Best Features: Because Rochelle has worked across multiple industries, she focuses on the types of copywriting that she does with a list of her services on her home page. She's also created separate writing sample portfolio pages that are likewise divided by project type (blog writing, website copywriting, etc). These are nested under Copywriting Services in her Nav menu which keeps it clean and easy to find.

Pro Tip: Rochelle's home page features a great graphic logo that immediately gets your attention and defines her brand. Even though a writing portfolio is about writing, it's important to create visual interest for visitors to your writing portfolio website.

5. Rachel Oliver

Rachel is a brand strategist and creative copywriter who has worked with national broadcasters and charities.

Best Features: Rachel has made her writing portfolio super accessible by including an FAQ, defining in detail her writing process, and including a "Why work with me?" section that talks about her work philosophy. This makes her portfolio seem conversational, and with the inclusion of buttons that lead to her contact page, she is just an email away.

Pro Tip: Rachel offers a free 30-minute consultation, which she makes easy to book by including a button that leads to her contact page. Making it easy to connect with you makes it much more likely that a potential client will reach out.

6. Alanna Reid

Alanna Reid is a creative writer and screenwriter in the UK.

Best Features: Because Alanna's creative writing portfolio focuses on their creative fiction, nonfiction, and screenwriting, they've designed a portfolio that's equally unique and imaginative by featuring a collage art header and footer. They keep the rest of the design simple, so the art can speak for itself, which also keeps the website easy to read.

Pro Tip: Alanna includes an impressive award they received on their homepage, so it's one of the first things a visitor sees. Showcasing your accolades and awards on your landing page is a great way to immediately establish validity for your work.

7. Amy Rutter

Amy is a copywriter and copy editor with a post-graduate diploma in magazine journalism.

Best Features: Amy takes full advantage of her About Me page by building it out into sections. She covers her educational background, why she started writing, and her writing experience. She even includes a "Three fun facts" section, which gives potential clients a little more info about her personality. She sticks to her own well-developed brand voice, which is a great way to show clients that you understand brand messaging while letting them get to know more about your style.

Pro Tip: Amy includes brand photos as part of her online writing portfolio. It may cost a bit to work with a photographer, but it helps evoke an immediate sense of professionalism. 

8. Amanda Monterroso

Amanda Monterroso is a freelance content writer and copy editor with a background in creative writing.

Best Features: Amanda includes a Services page where she outlines the writing services she provides. She includes a brief intro with each service that provides information on her approach as well as a list of the types of projects she works on (white papers, social media copy, etc). This makes it easy for a potential client to understand what Amanda has to offer and how she approaches her work.

Pro Tip: In case there isn't an example of the type of project a client may be looking for on Amanda's Portfolio page, she includes her contact information at the top if someone would like to request a specific sample. This is a great way to make sure you're not ruling anyone out if you don't want to include every project you've worked on.

9. Mike Anderson

Mike Anderson is a content marketer, freelance writer, and award-winning journalist based in Iowa.

Best Features: Mike’s created a visually impactful online writing portfolio by using photography and design elements to create interest. He uses large photographic headers on each of his pages that are connected by theme and aesthetic. He also makes use of a carousel scroll section for featured articles on his Home page.

Pro Tip: Mike includes many work samples and articles on his Portfolio page. While this might be difficult if you are just starting out, as you build your experience, you can use your portfolio to organize all of your work and create pdf backups for the future.

10. Ashley Carter Cash

Ashley is a narrative nonfiction writer who also writes advertising copy for clients in the spirituality, lifestyle, and addiction recovery spaces.

Best Features: Ashley's Home page is stunning with a crisp white background showcasing photo buttons in an asymmetrical grid design. Each photo links to an article, and hovering over a photo reveals a text description of the accompanying story. She also includes an embedded podcast interview with her, which creates a dynamic multimedia presence on her website.

Pro Tip: Ashley makes good use of an email sign-up option by enticing visitors to sign up for her VIP List for exclusive perks. This is a more compelling way to attract subscribers because it implies a return for their sign-up.

Ready to build your online writing portfolio website?

Now that you know how to build a writing portfolio and you've seen some great writing portfolio examples, it's time to design your own. Journo Portfolio is the online writing portfolio website builder that has all the features you need for your site, like automatic article backups and pre-designed templates that have writers in mind. Get started today!

How to Build a UX Writing Portfolio and Our Best Examples to Get You Inspired

Robyn Petrik

Our favourite online portfolios by copywriters.

Jamie Mendes

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I Made My Old iPad a Distraction-Free Writing Powerhouse

Here's why i stopped editing my smartphone photos, and what i do instead, why listening to podcasts at 2x speed is ridiculous and unnecessary.

As a freelance writer, it's beneficial to have a portfolio of your work, so potential clients can review your work and learn about your area of expertise. Before starting to work on your portfolio, you should consider the writing you want to do.

Whether you're a copywriter, a ghostwriter, writing literature, or a journalist, that should be clear when people view your portfolio. One of the first things to consider when creating your portfolio is your niche, and determining your niche can help you select your articles and the layout.

6 Steps to Creating Your Writing Portfolio

Here are the six steps to creating a writing portfolio that will help you get noticed by readers and potential clients:

1. Choose a Portfolio Host

In today's virtual world, having an online portfolio is a must for most creatives. You get to decide whether you want to host your portfolio on your website or prefer to have another company host it.

You can create your portfolio using a platform like Wix, Weebly, or WordPress. If you'd rather have your portfolio hosted by a site specializing in online portfolios, you can choose from sites such as Clippings, WriterFolio, or JournoPortfolio. You might be interested in these free platforms to showcase your freelance writing portfolio .

2. Determine Your Niche

If you're struggling with selecting the type of writing you want to focus on, it may be a good idea to review your previous work and see which ones had the most impact, response, and reach. If you want to focus on ghostwriting, you may want to clarify what type of content you can write. This can range from real estate to gardening, holistic medicine, or another industry in which you have writing experience.

As a copywriter, do you enjoy creating sales pages and other marketing copy, like landing pages, newsletters, and email sequences? What kind of literature do you write if you're a literary writer? You can focus on romance, fantasy, horror, or any other genre. What type of news do you write about if you're a journalist? Do you write about current events, celebrity gossip, or financial or political news? The possibilities are endless.

3. Create Your Author Bio

Your author bio aims to introduce yourself to potential clients who enjoy your work and want to learn more about you. The content you include in your bio should match the formatting and design of the website. The elements you should consider including are:

• Where you're from originally.
• Where you call home currently.
• Your academic writing credentials, if applicable.
• Your notable publications.
• Any accolades and awards you've won.
• The subjects or themes you cover.

You can include your social media links if you're comfortable, and they highlight more of your written work. If you're creating your site for the portfolio, you can choose to include the bio on an about page or have it as your homepage.

You may consider adding a photograph of you since it can increase the chances of people reaching out to you. You may be interested in learning tips on how to write an about me page in your online portfolio .

4. Select Your Best Work

Once you've decided on the niche you want to focus on, you can review your completed work and choose the best content that fits that specialization. You can include work past clients have succeeded with and their feedback.

Your potential clients want confirmation that you can produce well-written content about the content you're stating is your specialization. It may be helpful to verify the terms of the work you've written to determine whether you can post the entire content as a part of your portfolio or if you'll have to provide links.

If you provide links, specify the publication and when it was published. You might be interested in learning how Google Docs can help organize your writing portfolio for the next step.

5. Organize Your Work Into Segments

You can divide the work you want to include in your portfolio by niche, or the type of article, using clear descriptions. Categorizing your work makes it easier for potential clients to find samples of the work they're looking to hire you for when you separate them by niche or type. Examples of categories include landing page copy, white papers, and blog posts, to name a few.

Your descriptions for your categories should be brief. If the content you want to share was done as a ghostwriter and didn't include your byline, you should include the term ghostwriter in the work description to clarify it.

6. Ensure Your Contact Information Is Easy to Find

Your online portfolio must make it easy for potential customers to connect with you. Whether they want to express appreciation for an article you wrote or wish to discuss a business opportunity with you, finding your number or an email address shouldn't be challenging.

Engaging with as many people as possible is an excellent way to expand your online profile. You can use a contact form on your website, or you can provide your email address.

The key is to ensure that the information is visible and easy to access, whether they're using their phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer. If you decide to share an email address, you may want to create a new account, since having an email published publicly can leave you vulnerable to excessive amounts of spam.

Writing Portfolio Examples

Before you begin creating your portfolio, reviewing what some writers have created for themselves may be helpful. You may also want to check out the blogs every freelance writer should read to get some inspiration, regardless of how long you've been writing. Here are some examples of writer portfolios with some commentary on their design:

1. Elna Cain

Elna's portfolio tells you that she's the writer you're looking for to meet your business needs. She lists publications where readers can find her work and shares testimonials from past clients.

She has numerous ways to connect with her, whether you want to discuss business opportunities or follow her online. She also has a link to her blog, so you can stay current on her work.

2. Tyler Koenig

Tyler uses his website to add value with an email list, courses, webinars, and tips on his blog. He has paid and free resources, highlighting his expertise to potential clients. The site is well-designed and easy to navigate.

3. Jennifer Fernandez

Jennifer uses a grid-based theme to display links to her writing samples, using a title and a thumbnail photo for each. She organized her writing samples in sections based on her lifestyle, design, and travel content niche. Jennifer showcases the type of writing she has experience in and makes browsing easy.

Get Started With Your Creative Writing Portfolio

Before you make your portfolio live, you may want to review it and have friends or colleagues look at it. Sometimes we can be so close to our project that we miss little things. The last thing you want is to publish a writer's portfolio with spelling or grammar mistakes.

If you're looking for work, you want to get as many eyes as possible on it to increase your chances of getting hired. You might be interested in learning how to source clients as a freelance writer now that you have a portfolio to share.

• Work & Career
• Writing Tips
• Online Portfolio

17 mins read

The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Successful Writing Portfolio

Step-by-step guide to creating your writing portfolio. Tips, examples, and everything you need to make a writing portfolio clients will love!

Protim Bhaumik

Director, Content Marketing

Written by Protim Bhaumik , edited by Shreya Bose , reviewed by Eric Hauch .

25. Aug 2022 , updated 20. Nov 2023

This guide covers everything you need to know for building a professional writing portfolio, and will help you if you are:

• in the freelance writing business
• a staff writer working as a full-time writer
• or working in content marketing or digital marketing

I'll first cover why you need a professional online portfolio , then dive into what makes for a great writer's portfolio and how to make the perfect portfolio , learn from a few examples of excellent portfolios , and finally round it off with a look at a portfolio page builder .

Why do you need an excellent freelance writing portfolio ?

Over the last decade, I've run an advertising agency and worked in content marketing for hundreds of clients and stakeholders. When I had to hire writers or present my own writing to potential clients, the writing portfolio was the first step in the process.

As a writer and creator , a writing portfolio allows you to do the following:

1. Present your writing

A writing portfolio allows you to present your writing skills and put your best foot forward, primarily when you've written for several different publications in numerous domains.

Your portfolio can and must coalesce all of that into a central hub where you can curate your content for the right audience.

2. Source clients and projects

It's essential to ensure that your work is showcased in the most aesthetically appealing way possible. Potential clients will likely want to look at your writing samples before hiring you.

3. Save your writing

You should be protecting your writing from disappearing forever.

I've had instances where sites have gone down, and the relevant Word doc from three computers ago was no longer accessible. On other occasions, I've found it quite inconvenient to showcase ghostwritten work to a prospect.

In both cases, an excellent online writing portfolio can back you up. (More on this later on.)

What goes into an excellent online writing portfolio?

Let's break down what makes a great portfolio. There are dozens of website and portfolio builders out there , all vying for your attention, but what makes a portfolio really stand out?

1. Should be easy to set up and use

As writers (especially freelance writers), we have to be focused on writing and networking. We need a portfolio builder that's super easy to set up and maintain. Additionally, Authory’s actual setup process is exceptionally easy and low-effort. Once you enter your email, the system automatically extracts not just your name, but also the sites on which your bylined work is currently published .

Let’s say that your pieces are published in the NY Times and The Washington Post. On feeding your email into Authory’s signup, it will automatically add “ nytimes.com ” and washingtonpost.com as “sources”. You don’t even have to manually have to enter your sources. Authory will even do that for you. You get an industry-best portfolio after putting in about 2 to 3 minutes of manual effort.

If you’re curious, here’s how you import online content (created by you) for your Authory portfolio.

2. Should look good

A portfolio showcases your best work, and it needs to look amazing. It also needs to load quickly, be searchable, navigable, and look great on any device, desktop or mobile.

As an example, let's look at Alyssa Towns Swantkoski's (Denver-based freelance writer) online portfolio on the phone:

And here's Alyssa's portfolio on the desktop:

Note how good her portfolio site looks on both desktop and mobile devices. All the content rearranges itself to appear perfect while remaining accessible and easy to view.

3. Should allow categorization

Typically, writers work for various publications and clients. And, since a prospective client is unlikely to go through work unrelated to their industry, it makes sense to share only what's relevant.

For example, let's look at Marijana's freelance writing portfolio: authory.com/MarijanaKostelac

Marijana is a content marketer who has written for different domains, all of which are on her portfolio. To organize her pieces into a topic-based structure, she showcases them in different Collections: e-commerce , creator economy , email marketing , content marketing , and video marketing . She can share each of these Collections (in isolation) so that the client only sees what she has accomplished in their chosen domain.

4. Should support different content types

Creators produce content in many formats, and a good portfolio builder should be able to accommodate them all. I know of writers who have solid social media game; they're hilarious with quips and observational humor.

Something like this could be super valuable to a particular client looking at copywriting skills as well as long-form writing.

Your portfolio should let you display content in text, audio, and video formats, as well as from different platforms like podcast sites, social media channels, and LinkedIn.

5. Should be up-to-date

Keeping your portfolio up-to-date is extremely important, as recent work is usually the most relevant to your audience. As a writer, more often than not, my portfolio site is a little dated because I am more focused on my day-to-day. But the lack of updating often negatively impacts my ability to get more work as potential clients miss out on my latest pieces.

And that's why a self-updating portfolio — a portfolio that automatically updates itself with your new work — is a game-changer.

Authory, by default, offers you a self-updating portfolio. Once you add your sources (URLs of sites where your work was published), Authory automatically updates your portfolio whenever you publish on those sites again.

6. Should back up your content

Sites go down, files go missing, and as writers, it's imperative that our writing doesn't disappear forever. I've faced this issue where work I've done for a client was taken down from their website. And I hadn't backed it up.

Authory backs up your content automatically. Just add your sources, and Authory will add everything from those sources written by you (or about you) to your Authory account.

Tips for creating the perfect writing portfolio

1. understand your audience.

You've likely catered to a wide variety of audiences as a writer. When building your portfolio, use the same processes you employ when writing — research.

But consider this: your past audience is not necessarily your portfolio's audience, which is the set of people you're showcasing your work to — potential clients, publications, editors, readers, and more. Each audience has a different profile, and hence your writing portfolio site should cater to them specifically.

If you're looking to write for the pet niche, your portfolio needs to show content for that audience — dog grooming, pet care, and why cats are so personable. If you want to write for developers, you'll be displaying content around databases, APIs, and another new JS framework this week.

Cater your portfolio to your prospective audience. Figure out what they're looking for and serve that up.

Bonus tip: A portfolio where you can show off the many different audiences you've written for is ideal. Then you can share just the relevant niche topic with prospective readers.

2. Show off quality and quantity

Conventional wisdom is to showcase just your best work. That's not the case anymore. It's far better to show the amount of work that you've done while also displaying your best.

In the past, on multiple occasions, I've selected a handful of writers from literally thousands of applications. And though I would look into a writer's best work, I would also study how much of that work they had done, in which niches they had done it, and for how long they had been doing it.

I was looking for flexibility, productivity, and staying power. A writer's job can be challenging — balancing the needs of different stakeholders while being creative — and I wanted someone who could navigate through that.

So, a balanced mix of great quality with serious quantity is essential for the perfect writing portfolio website.

3. Curate your content carefully

While building your portfolio, you must be brutal with yourself. There will be difficult choices when it comes to picking which pieces make it into your portfolio.

My advice is: pick the writing that suits your potential audience the most and leave the others under other tabs. Here's where Authory Collections become super handy. Users can leverage them to depict how much they write while flaunting only their best pieces.

I've written content for developers and marketers and ghostwritten content for agency projects. To successfully present all this in my portfolio, I'd have three separate collections and then share the specific collection with a client depending on their needs.

So, it's imperative to consider the collections you build for your portfolio — do you sort it by niche, content type, or both, or something else?

4. Make your portfolio easy to navigate

All creators should be open to receiving feedback, and as writers, I'm sure you've gotten a ton of it throughout your career. I advise asking a friend, colleague, mentor, parent, or sibling (or anyone you trust!) to review your portfolio.

If possible, observe how they navigate the site: don't prompt or help them through the process; watch if they're struggling. As with all feedback, implement what you think makes the most sense. Record your observations, go through your notes, and execute your changes.

Bonus tip: Portfolio builders with search and filter functions improve user experience because they give visitors an enhanced level of control — they can find exactly what they're looking for.

5. Ensure that your portfolio looks stunning

Since you're putting your best foot forward, your portfolio needs to be easy on the eye.

All the work that you're doing to curate and organize your portfolio is all for naught if the final product is hard to look at. Look for a solution that gives you a beautiful portfolio right off the bat.

7. Show just snippets/blurbs in your portfolio landing page

Though tempting, it isn't the best idea to parade entire articles on your portfolio's landing page. For the sake of navigation, write compelling copy in the form of blurbs or snippets to demonstrate the value of your article.

8.Use imagery to stand out

As writers, particular articles we've written may not have had any associated imagery. But if you're looking to add those pieces to your portfolio, it's highly advisable to find thumbnail pictures to go with the write-ups.

Pexels and Unsplash are free stock photo repositories where you can find copyright-free images that you can use on your portfolio. Since these are free to use, do give credit to the artist.

9. Confirm that all types of content are supported

We're often writing content for brochures, offline magazines, coffee table books, and more. Usually, these become PDFs when published, and your writing portfolio should be able to support PDFs .

Ideally, your portfolio builder should support all types of content. Some writers are particularly witty on their Twitter accounts, and others have participated in or been featured on podcasts and videos. All these formats need to be accommodated by your creative writing portfolio.

10. Be responsible for your portfolio being responsive

Your portfolio has to be responsive. In today's world, this is a no-brainer. Your client is much more likely to view your portfolio on mobile. Luckily, nearly all portfolio solutions are responsive.

Once you have chosen a responsive portfolio builder and built your portfolio, do a set of checks. Look at your portfolio on all the devices that you have lying around. See how it looks on a phone, on a tablet, on a desktop with a large screen, as well as a laptop. Check how it functions on different browsers like Chrome and Firefox.

11. Keep your portfolio up-to-date

It's vital to keep your portfolio updated as often as possible. Whenever you publish, you should update your portfolio.

That is because your most recent work will likely be the most relevant. And potential clients will want to look at your latest writing.

In all likelihood, you're also probably improving in your writing. I'd like to think that the more we work on our craft, the better we get at it. And, online writing portfolios must have your best writing.

But, keeping your portfolio updated is hard, especially with regular writing work keeping you busy. And some writers are particularly prolific, which would mean updating their portfolios weekly!

That's where a service like Authory -- that automatically updates your portfolio comes in.

I know a lot of journalists who say ‘I have to create my website’ or ‘I haven’t updated my website in years,’ and honestly, almost all of us put those things off, but Authory makes it super easy.

— Ali Latifi , Kabul-based freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Al Jazeera English, The LA Times, CNN, The New York Times, and more.

12. Place your contact button where everyone can see it

The whole point of the portfolio is for a target client to contact you. So, it's a good idea to have a "contact me" button that's front and center.

Most portfolio solutions allow you to build a button as a CTA (Call To Action). So it will be easy to set up, but it's something that you should not forget.

Writing samples & writing portfolio examples

Staring at an empty page when beginning the writing process is challenging. In this section, we point your attention to several writing portfolio samples of folks at the top of their fields.

They are excellent examples of what you can do with a portfolio and can work as a wonderful reference for building any writer website.

We encourage you to go through them and draw inspiration, borrowing ideas wherever possible and generally being a starting point on your journey to creating your writing portfolio.

Read More : Here's a collection of the top 12 writing portfolios

Colleen Fisher Tully

Colleen is a content writer and editor based out of Canada. She works in the health, food, cannabis, nutrition, finance, and family space. Colleen's writing portfolio: authory.com/ColleenFisherTully

As you can see, she has employed Authory's collection feature to great use by splitting her work samples into different sections. And there's also a section for older work. Authory's handy search functionality at the top of every collection makes for easy navigation.

Nick Flaherty

Nick, based out of England, is the Editor-in-Chief at eeNews Europe and a freelance technology writer. Nick's writing portfolio: authory.com/NickFlaherty

Nick has opted for a more minimalist look in his portfolio, something you'll see more these days among writing portfolio sites. Earlier in the article, I spoke about adding images to spruce up the look and feel of your portfolio. Here we see a completely different approach that works due to the clean, elegant look that Authory provides.

Nick has eschewed using collections in favor of a more straightforward feel, and Authory's search functionality will serve for any navigation required. Notice that the top article has LinkedIn as a source and is an example of how a great portfolio should accommodate content from all different sources and in various formats.

Nicole LaMarco

Nicole is a freelance health writer based in Florida, USA. Nicole's writing portfolio: authory.com/NickyLaMarco

She has gone for a super minimalist look but, at the same time, has used thumbnail images to add that shine to her writer's portfolio.

Julie Cunningham

Based out of North Carolina, Julie is a freelance writer, registered dietician, diabetes educator, lactation consultant, and business coach for registered dieticians. Julie's professional online portfolio: authory.com/JulieCunningham

For Julie's portfolio, let's highlight her "about me" section . As you can see below, she has written a comprehensive story on her career and what she can bring to the table. There's also content from different sources on her writer's website. Finally, it also has her social media links.

On the main portfolio landing page, Julie has opted for a beautiful header image that encapsulates what her writing is all about. She has also used thumbnail images to enhance the experience further and used Collections to section out her various writing pieces.

Pamela Rosen

Pamela is a freelance copywriter and editor based out of California, USA, specializing in both short and long-form content. Apart from the excellent blog post samples she displays, her portfolio has a few features to take note of:

Pamela's writing portfolio: authory.com/PamelaRosen

• She has a "ghostwriting" tab, which is helpful for many writers.
• Under the "ebooks" tab, we can see this article: authory.com/PamelaRosen/Soundhound-Finding-Your-Brands-Voice-Ebook-a28ad1fe0f4c94256a355fa95644c4b20 which is an uploaded PDF and is now viewable on Authory's website forever.

Crystal Chatham Housman

Based out of California, USA, Crystal is a boots-on-the-ground visual journalist specializing in military affairs, aerospace, public safety, and volunteering. Crystal's outstanding journalism portfolio is here, among the best writer portfolio examples: authory.com/CrystalHousman

She has chosen to divide her work into various niches, but she also has a tab for "other" and a tab for "portfolio." That means when she wants to share just her portfolio, she shares the link to just the "portfolio" collection. It's an interesting take on using a portfolio builder like Authory — have different tabs for particular niches and then have a separate tab for the portfolio alone.

Rhiannon Giles

Rhiannon is a freelance writer from North Carolina, USA, writing on topics ranging from prematurity to parenting and mental health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Insider, and HuffPost. Rhiannon's writing portfolio: authory.com/RhiannonGiles

Rhiannon has gone for a simple look but has shown her prolificity and personal brand through the use of Collections where she's marked out favorites in every writing niche.

Chris Pike is a sports writer based out of Perth, Australia. Chris writes on basketball, baseball, water polo, Aussie rules football, rugby, cricket, and netball! Chris' writing portfolio is here: authory.com/ChrisPike

Chris has added over 3,200 articles from 42 sources to his Authory account:

Again, Chris can easily manage a truckload of content by organizing his own portfolio into Collections (divided by sport or league). With the help of Authory's search functionality, it's effortless for a reader to find what they need.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Jennifer is a writer and journalist based in South Carolina, USA. She works as a Smart Home reviewer for The Verge and the Home Editor at Charleston Magazine. Her writing has appeared in Wirecutter, The New York Times, Wired (UK), and more. You can find Jennifer's writing portfolio at: authory.com/JenniferPattisonTuohy

As seen below, Jennifer has gone in for a colorful yet minimalist look for her portfolio design.

Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz

Sangeeta, based out of New York, USA, is a senior writer at The Cut and New York Magazine. In the past, she has worked for Quartz, A24, Architectural Digest, and more. Sangeeta's writing portfolio is at: authory.com/SangeetaSinghKurtz

Sangeeta has employed a super-minimalist look in her professional portfolio . And that's because she mainly uses Authory as a repository for all her articles, safely backed up and automatically updated .

Read More : How to Create a PDF Portfolio & 5 Excellent PDF Portfolio Examples

Authory's Auto-Updating Portfolio — All that you've ever made kept safe and beautifully displayed

I’ve touched upon how Authory can help with creating and maintaining a portfolio earlier. Here is a more in-depth look at Authory.

What is Authory?

Authory is a self-updating online portfolio and backup service for content creators of all shapes and sizes.

With Authory, any writer can quickly create an online writing portfolio — there's no need to build your portfolio because Authory does that for you. Your portfolio looks terrific out of the box, and it takes just three minutes to set up.

Add your sources, and Authory will import all your content. The tool will scour the interwebs to find everything you've ever published — even stuff you've long forgotten! Once set up, your Authory portfolio is self-updating — there's no need for you to add more articles manually. Authory does that for you every time you publish something on one of your "source" sites..

Authory also ensures that you'll never lose a piece again, even if the original website dies.

Authory's Primary Features

Besides the automatic content importing and backup features, Authory gives you:

• Collections to organize your content into sections for easy perusal and sharing
• Social media analytics that shows you the true reach of your content (get readership/engagement numbers every 30 days)
• Search and filter functionality that lets your audience find relevant content with a keyword
• Tracking features that notify when an article of yours has been published anywhere on the internet. You can utilize Authory's Zapier integration (provided with the Professional Plan) to receive publication notifications on Slack.
• Newsletter and RSS capabilities to build your audience

Reviews of Authory

Authory has thousands of happy customers, and besides Jennifer's and Sangeeta's kind words, you can read more about what other folks had to say about Authory .

I started using @Authory a couple of years ago after losing a bunch of samples when an old client took them down (whomp whomp). They automate the process for samples that have your byline, and I have a note on the calendar to go manually add new ghostwritten pieces once a month — Kristen Hicks (@atxcopywriter) February 24, 2023

I don’t know if it works for sites that are truly forever gone, but I’ve had such luck with Authory recovering really old pieces I wasn’t able to find via my own online searches. — Lindsay L Miller (@lindsaylmiller) February 21, 2023

To round out your research, here are a few independent reviews of Authory:

• Keep Tabs On Your Published Works: A Review Of Authory on bookbaby.com
• Review: Authory – The perfect way to move your articles with you on pcguide.com
• Sync All Your Freelance Articles to Authory — Your New Online Writing Portfolio! on gadgethacks.com
• Journalists

Protim is a startup founder & marketer with over a decade of experience in content marketing, content writing, SEO, and more. He loves dogs, D&D, and music!

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• Collections
• Content Marketers
• Thought Leaders
• Partner Program
• Writing Portfolio
• Journalism Portfolio
• Writing Backup
• Content Marketing Portfolio
• Social Media Portfolio
• Best Portfolio Builders
• Portfolio PDF Examples
• Twitter Archive
• Portfolio Creator

• Creative Writing (BA) Portfolio Process
• The Undergraduate Experience
• Undergraduate Advising

About Creative Writing at ASU

The Creative Writing Program encourages all interested students, regardless of their field of study, to join our community of writers through

• beginning and intermediate workshops in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction,
• diverse special topics courses, 
• internships with Hayden’s Ferry Review, ASU’s national literary journal, 
• and by participating in the many exciting writing events held on campus. 

About the Creative Writing Concentration

Interested students who have already taken the beginning and intermediate workshops in their genre of specialty, and who are committed to continuing their study of Creative Writing, have an opportunity to develop their skills in supportive, highly focused workshops through the Creative Writing Concentration. 

Please note that acceptance into the Creative Writing Concentration is restricted. Students must submit a portfolio for review and be offered a seat in the advanced workshops.

Students interested in pursuing more than one genre at the 400-level must check with their academic advisor to ensure that the necessary courses will fit their degree plan. Dual-genre students must submit two portfolios—one in each genre—to be considered for admittance into advanced coursework in both areas. 

Students pursuing the Creative Writing Concentration must either have selected as their major the bachelor's in English with a concentration in creative writing upon being admitted to ASU or, after entering the university, meet with an English advisor to change to this major and concentration. Non English-majors will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

• To complete the concentration, English majors completing the concentration in creative writing must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher in their major.
• Concentration students must complete the two advanced courses in their genre. N ote that enrollment into these courses is restricted. Spaces are limited. Students must have submitted a portfolio and been selected to move forward. Completion of the concentration in creative writing is open only to those who pass through Portfolio Review. 
• Transfer students must seek advisement as to whether they will be able to successfully fulfill the creative writing concentration requirements.
• PLEASE NOTE:  Students admitted to begin 400-level coursework through Portfolio Review will start their coursework in the following semester. Workshop classes cannot be taken simultaneously.  
• Students are only allowed to apply for the creative writing concentration twice during their time at ASU.

Portfolio Submission: How to Apply

Your portfolio should include:

• COVER SHEET
• Poetry Sample: 5 poems
• Fiction Sample: 1 piece of fiction of at least 5 double-spaced pages and not longer than 10 double-spaced pages
• Creative Nonfiction Sample: 1 piece of creative nonfiction of at least 5 double-spaced pages and not longer than 10 double-spaced pages 
• Discuss your interest in the relevant genre
• What do you hope to gain from the creative writing concentration
• Submit an essay on a single poem, short story, or short creative nonfiction work, focusing on an element of craft you identify in the piece, how that craft element works within the piece, and how this aspect of craft is pertinent to your own writing.
• Please provide textual examples (quotations) from the creative piece in your essay and make sure to closely read/explain their relevance. 
• A link will be provided each semester to students enrolled in the major and/or registered for the prerequisite creative writing workshops each term to submit for Portfolio Review. Specific submission dates will be included. 
• Fall: October-November
• Spring: March-April