16.9: Portfolio- The Academic and the Personal
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Reflect on the development of composing processes and how those processes affect your work.
- Identify your strengths in writing and consider how to continue to develop your writing process.
Reflective Writing: Genres of Reflective Writing
Reflective writing is not limited to a single genre. Because it is highly personal, it is most frequent in, but certainly not limited to, diaries, journals, autobiographies, and memoirs. One common way that it appears is in letters or essays that writers craft to reflect on, or think about, their writing process for a particular text they have written. Consider the following suggestions when you write reflectively about this assignment for your ongoing portfolio compilation:
- Write this letter, essay, or response as you would to a friend—be kind to yourself and your process, but be realistic as well.
- Highlight what you think are your present capabilities and what you would like to strengthen.
- Specifically discuss and illustrate—by giving specific examples—how well you have met the assignment objectives listed under Evaluation: Self-Directed Assessment.
To guide your portfolio reflection, answer these questions:
- What did you learn about yourself and/or the writing process in the course of writing your textual analysis?
- What did you learn about the topic and/or about writing in general?
- Which part of the writing process was most beneficial to you: drafting, peer review, conferences, or something else?
- How successfully did you address the assignment guidelines?
- How might you change your writing process to better support your growth as a writer—for example, time management, change in drafting methods, more focus on rubric, extended research, more focus on the final draft before submission?
Further Reading
George, Diana. “Changing the Face of Poverty: Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation.” Popular Literacy: Studies in Cultural Practices and Poetics , edited by John Trimbur, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001.
Gill, Isabelle. “Feminist Figures or Damsels in Distress? The Media’s Gendered Misrepresentation of Disney Princesses.” Young Scholars in Writing , vol. 13, 2016, youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/ view/230/230.
“Rhetorical Analysis of ‘Fish Cheeks’ by Amy Tan.” Bartleby Research . www.bartleby.com/essay/Rhetorical-Analysis-Of-Fish-Cheeks-PY2JSYU9ZW6
Safire, William. “A Spirit Reborn.” New York Times , 9 Sept. 2002, www.nytimes.com/2002/09/09/opinion/a-spirit-reborn.html.
Smith, Steven B. “Empowering Word.” New York Times , 2 July 2014, www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/books/ review/our-declaration-by-danielle-allen.html
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. “The Storm.” 1898. American Literature.com , 2018, americanliterature.com/author/kate-chopin/short-story/the-storm.
Hooks, Bell. Rapture Remembered: The Writer at Work . Holt Paperbacks, 1999.
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild . Anchor Books, 1997.
Onori, P. J. “In Defense of Hard: When Easier Isn’t Better.” Lifehacker , 12 May 2011, lifehacker.com/5800882/ in-defense-of-hard-why-easy-isnt-always-the-best-answer. Accessed 12 Jan. 2019.
Smitherman, Geneva, and Victor Villanueva, editors. Language Diversity in the Classroom: From Intention to Practice . Southern Illinois UP, 2003.
“Students’ Right to Their Own Language.” College Composition and Communication , vol. 25, 1974, www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Groups/CCCC/NewSRTOL.pdf.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.” 1854; 1894. E-book, Project Gutenberg , 1995, www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm.
Wallace, David L. “Alternative Rhetoric and Morality: Writing from the Margins.” College Composition and Communication , vol. 61, no. 2, 2009, pp. 18-39. http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFile...rces/Journals/ CCC/0612-dec09/CCC0612Alternative.pdf.