San Antonio, TX | March 2004 | T. Duckart

• Be at least two pages long and must not exceed three full pages.
• Identify each of the portfoliio's submissions--by title, NOT by genre--and explain the writer's reasoning behind selecting and ordering those submissions.
• Demonstrate self-assessment: provide evidence of the writer's ability to be reflective about her/his own writing strengths and weaknesses and awareness of his/her writing process.
• Make specific claims about the writer's own strengths and weaknesses and point to specific examples from the portfolio submissions that prove the writer's assertions about her/his writing.
• Demonstrate an awareness of what the writer has learned or of his/her own development as a writer.
• Demonstrate knowledge of key parts of the writing, revising, and editing process to show this knowledge applies to the essays in the portfolio.
• Avoid extensive summary, providing instead an analysis of the writing contained in the portfolio.

• Reveal the ways in which you continue to work at recognizing and rectifying your writing weaknesses.
• Discuss what you have learned about the topics--readings, writings, themes--your course addressed this semester.
• Discuss your strategies for writing and revising, and point to specific examples in your submissions for how those strategies affected those pieces.
• Detail the process by which you solved a writing problem.
• Reflect on the ways in which you have written/revised to accommodate audience needs, expectations, and/or values.
• Discuss and provide examples of patterns in your writing.

Talk to your instructor about how much background information you should provide about your submissions.

• Maintain approximately 1-inch top, bottom, and side margins.
• Insert or write your portfolio and the page number within the header (top margin).
• The letter should be formatted like a standard business letter and include the following left-justified information:
  • The portfolio's submission date should appear on the letter's first line. Skip two lines (hit the "Enter" key three times), and then type:
  • The Portfolio Committee's Address:
    Portfolio Committee
    Humboldt State University
    English Department
    Arcata, CA 95521-8299
    Skip two lines (hit the "Enter" key three times), and then type:
  • The salutation:
    Dear Portfolio Committee:
    Skip one line (hit the "Enter" key two times), and then type your cover letter.
• Please note that the business letter format requires single-spaced text. To begin a new paragraph, simply skip one line (hit the "Enter" key twice); do not indent the first line of the paragraph.
• Close the letter with an appropriate ending (Sincerely, etc.) and your portfolio number--not your name.