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Composition Project 3: Writing Portfolio Your Writing Portfolio is an online space where you gather pieces of your writing and make an argument about how those pieces demonstrate significant development of your writing, your thinking, and/or your research skills. It is also a place where you can address more specifically your relationship to the goals of the course. You will select one of the FWP Outcomes that resonates with you, and you will use reflective analysis as a tool to closely examine a variety of your own compositions over a period of time.

Reflective analysis helps you to make an evidence-based argument about yourself, a skill that will benefit you not only here at Drexel, but also outside of Drexel. In your personal, academic, and professional life, it will be important to establish and reflect on goals, to periodically examine what you have accomplished, and to ask critical questions about your learning: What did I hope to accomplish in this class/project/ experience? How did I grow as a person, scholar, or professional? What evidence do I have for that growth? How does this growth prepare me for what is next? In many contexts, you will be asked to discuss, either in person or in writing, what kind of student or employee you will be. In these contexts, it is reflective analysis that will allow you to examine your experience for the evidence you need to construct clear and honest answers for yourself and others.

As you move through the FWP sequence, the Writing Portfolio will give you lots of practice in doing reflective analysis, which will help you to work toward two of the FWP Outcomes (and others, too):

1. Students will reflect on their own and others’ writing and communication processes and practices. They will learn that the term “writer” applies to themselves and their peers.

2. Students will use writing to embrace complexity and think about open-ended questions. The skills you gain by closely examining your compositions, and by making larger claims about your writing Drexel University Dept. of English and Philosophy 8 abilities based on the compositions you include, will help to prepare you for the reflective analysis you will be asked to do later in your academic and professional life.

English 102 Writing Portfolio and Reflective Analysis Assignment Your Reflective Analysis should accomplish four tasks:

1. It should make an argument about your writing development. Read the FWP Outcomes and choose ONE of the Outcomes as the focus for your argument. You have lots of options here.

2. It should use pieces of your own writing as evidence for your argument. Specifically, you should integrate the following compositions as sources in your analysis:

a. 1 major project from 101

b. 1 major project from 102

c. 2 informal compositions from either 101 or 102

d. Any other supporting compositions you would like to use

3. It should do “meta-analysis” of those artifacts as it makes its argument. “Meta-analysis” is your examination of your own work, your writing-about-your-writing.

4. It should be directed to a specific audience: Professional employer, friend, teacher, parent or guardian, future child, yourself…you choose.

Citing Your Own Writing: In your Reflective Analysis, you should, of course, provide proper in-text citation of your sources, just as you would with any other source in a composition. In this case, however, your sources are your own compositions; so, you’ll be citing yourself. Here is an example:

In my second project for English 101, I discuss the impact of drafting on my writing development: “I have always drafted because I have been required to. But I really wanted to reflect analytically on how the process of drafting actually impacted my overall writing development. Was I becoming a ‘better’ writer?” (“Drafting and Development” 1).

Additionally, you should include full citations in a Works Cited. Here’s how: Works Cited Last name, First name. “Title of Project.” Course Title. Professor ______ _______. Department, Institution. Date project was submitted. Form of Media (Print, Web, etc.). ---. “Title of Project.” Course Title. Professor ______ _______. Department, Institution. Date project was submitted. Form of Media (Print, Web, etc.). And so on…

Keep in Mind Your reflection is not a place to try to make your professor feel good about your growth as a writer; it is a space for your honest reflection about your own work. Keep your focus on the argument you have established and use the compositions you have provided as evidence.