As of 2023-2024, the Writing Program has implemented a cumulative portfolio across all of our courses.
There is a significant body of scholarship that explores the theory, practice, and assessment of portfolios in First-Year-Composition (FYC) classrooms and Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) initiatives. The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) offers an invaluable “Principles and Practices in Electronic Portfolios” statement for FYC portfolios. This statement contains helpful links to other major universities that use portfolios in their writing curriculum, as well as an extensive bibliography of scholarship.
We recommend, in particular, the following resources, organized by sub-topics:
Portfolios in Theory and Practice
- Crowley, Sharon. “Around 1971: The Emergence of Process: Pedagogy” in Composition in the University. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998. 187-214.
- Tobin, Lad. “Process Pedagogy” in A Guide to Composition Pedagogies. Gary Tate, Amy Rupiper, and Kurt Schick, Eds., Oxford U.P. 2001. 1-18.
- Murphy, “Reflection—In Portfolios and Beyond,” The Clearing House (Sep/Oct 1998): 7-9.
- Camp, Roberta. “Portfolio Reflection: The Basis for Dialogue,” The Clearing House (Sep/Oct 1998): 10-12.
Portfolios and Assessment
- Elbow, Peter and Pat Belanoff. “Portfolios as a Substitute for Proficiency Examinations” in Assessing Writing: A Critical Sourcebook. Brian Huot and Peggy O’Neill, Eds. Bedford-St. Martins, 2009. 97-101.
- Huot, Brian and Michael Williamson. “Rethinking Portfolios for Evaluating Writing: Issues of Assessment and Power,” Assessing Writing: A Critical Sourcebook. Bedford-St. Martin’s, 2009. 330-342.
- Hamp-Lyons, Liz and William Condon. “Questioning Assumptions About Portfolio-based Assessment,” College Composition and Communication 44:2 (May, 1993): 176-190.
- Yancey, “Reflection and Assessment,” Reflection in The Writing Classroom. University Press of Colorado, 1998. 145-168.
Digital and New Media Portfolios
- Clark, J. Elizabeth. “From Selfies to Self-Representation in Electronically Mediated Reflection: The Evolving Gestalt Effect in ePortfolios,” A Rhetoric of Reflection. K. B. Yancey, Ed. University Press of Colorado, 2016. 149-165.
- Yancey, Kathleen Blake. “Postmodernism, Palimpsest, and Portfolios: Theoretical Issues in the Representation of Student Work,” College Composition and Communication, 55:4 (Jun., 2004): 738-761
