Depending on your purpose, audience, and the type of work that you plan to include, you may want to create a traditional paper portfolio in a folder or binder, an electronic portfolio online, or some other specialized kind of portfolio. Your concept of what the portfolio should accomplish will affect the form it takes.

Thinking about your purpose

Some possible purposes for a writing portfolio include fulfilling course requirements, showing work to a prospective employer, entering a competition, and keeping a record of your college (or artistic) work. Each of these purposes will lead to different decisions about what to include, how to arrange the material, and whether to make work available online, in print, or in some other format.

Considering your audience

Your audience will also affect what materials you include. If, for example, your audience is a writing instructor, you will need to demonstrate what you’ve learned; if it is a prospective employer, you may need to focus on what you can do. In some cases, the primary audience for a portfolio may be yourself.

Organizing your work

Your audience and purpose should guide you in deciding how to organize the material. If you are presenting a portfolio as the final component of a course, your instructor may designate an organizational arrangement. If not, you may decide to arrange the portfolio in chronological order and comment on your progress throughout the course. Other methods of organization include arranging material by theme, by importance, or by some other category that makes sense for your work. If you are creating a digital portfolio, you can include a text in more than one category if it makes sense to do so.

Creating an appealing design

Think carefully about how you want your portfolio to look. What impression do you want to give? Choose color, fonts, typefaces, images, and other graphic elements that will enhance the appeal of your portfolio and make the content inviting and accessible. Make sure the design is helpful for your audience, too, with clear navigation such as a table of contents. If you are creating a Web portfolio, you may want to follow a template or model your portfolio on a site that works to show off the kinds of texts you will include. For more on design, see Chapter 16.

Selecting contents

How many entries should you include in a portfolio? The answer depends on your purpose. If you are developing a personal portfolio to post online, for example, you may include materials in several categories—essays, audio recordings, photos, presentations, a résumé, or anything else that seems relevant—because those reviewing your portfolio will click on only those items that interest them. If you are developing a portfolio for a writing class, however, you should probably limit yourself to five to seven examples of your writing because readers will look at every item you include. Here are some kinds of texts—which may take either print or digital form—that you might include in a portfolio:

You should also include the assignments for your work, whenever applicable. If your portfolio is for a writing course, you may be expected to include examples of your notes and early drafts as well as any responses you got from other readers.

One student who had done spoken-word performances throughout his college years decided to assemble a portfolio of those performances. To do so, he compiled a DVD with video clips that he could distribute when applying for scholarships and for admission to graduate school—and that he could keep as a record of his writing and performing. Given his purpose and potential audiences, he organized the portfolio chronologically and made each piece easily accessible for future use.