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Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of portfolios. Don’t get me wrong—I think they look great when they’re finished. I just don’t enjoy the putting them together part.
Our portfolios for this class are a little different than what was discussed in the readings since one of the main points was how to create a professional portfolio. However, that doesn’t mean that our portfolios can’t end up doubling as a professional one after the class is over. But, if a person would choose to do that, their work would probably need to go through a few more rounds of edits just to make sure the writing is polished enough and actually fits the needs of future employers. That’s probably where the readings would help us the most. And since most of us (I figure) would like to get some kind of job in the future that involves writing, learning how to create an effective professional portfolio is a skill that would come in handy and set us apart from other applicants.
For my portfolio, I’ve been trying to think of what argument I want it to make. That’s actually been the hardest part for me because I already have all of my documents picked out. You’d think that would be the hard part, but I’ve always found that I have the most problems identifying a unifying theme for projects like this. Originally, I was going to go with chronological order, but I haven’t thought of a decent argument for that yet. How about everyone else? Have you guys figured out how you’re arranging your portfolios? What are your reasons for doing so?
I thought that this week’s readings on portfolio design tied in well with last week’s in-class discussion of poster design. The readings point out that, similar to poster presentations, an overarching theme is crucial to the success of your portfolio.
In Chapter 3 of PTPC, the authors cover the importance of carefully planning the content, design, and structure of your portfolio. First, they advised you begin with a general list of your work and then narrow your content down based on quality and relevance. I really liked this idea, because it allows you to consider all possibilities without stressing about where each individual work fits into your design/organization. After choosing audience appropriate content, which I guess in our case is works that demonstrate the various skills we used in our internships, the chapter suggests implementing a theme to connect all of the content and create a more interesting experience for the audience. The authors break down the various approaches to including themes into 4 categories: professional personality, personal interests, conceptual theme, and symbols. Personally, I think creating themes that focus on symbols or reflect concepts would be the easiest to incorporate into our internship portfolios. Also, this section reminded me of the discussions we have had about poster themes and made me wonder if we could use the same theme for both. Finally, the chapter discusses the importance of portfolio organization. This could entail placing your content in order of importance or separating content into specific categories, such as academic writing or multimedia writing. It also really emphasized the idea that users should be able to access a table of contents and peruse your portfolio based on their interests. This was very helpful to me, because I hadn’t previously considered that usability was just as important in a portfolio as in any other form of technical communication. Finally, I believe the “Managing Your Content” section of WP24T complimented the PTPC chapter in that it provides the technical directions necessary to manipulate content (such as editing media files) and achieve effective design and structure (such as managing post categories).
So, overall, the message I took away from this week’s readings was that theme, organization, and design are the main points you should focus on when creating a portfolio. Do you have any particular theme in mind? If so, which of the 4 theme categories does it fit in? Also, how are you planning to organize your portfolio content?Portfolio design and coming up with an overarching theme is really important, and (for me anyway) it’s one of the hardest things to do. I’ve been working on my portfolio all semester, thinking that that would be the easiest way to go about things. That way I could just upload content and organize it as I go. Well, it’s an okay idea, but I’ve changed my mind about how I want to present my work about 10 times. Because I’m working as I go along, that means I’ve had to reorganize things about 10 times. I think, though, I’ve finally come up with a way to present my portfolio that I’m happy with. My homepage is pretty much a letter explaining my internship and the type of work I did, and what to expect from the portfolio. This is as the authors of PTPC said to do; start with the general and then narrown down to the specific. I’m having different pages for each of the types of work I’m creating (i.e. one page for emails, one for letters, etc.). I’m then introducing each work and showing either a snapshot sample or the whole thing; I haven’t yet decided how I’m going to upload longer works, probably just put a link to them in PDF format?
So I guess I’m going from general to specific, and having different cattegories for everything. It’s seeming to work out best for me. But I know some people have been working on things that they can’t necessarily cattegorize like that, so I’ll be interested to see what everyone else comes up with!
It is always hard for me to expect what someone may want when they ask for a portfolio. I have done many portfolios for classes in my 4 years here. They have all been different some in more ways than others. Last semester I did an online portfolio somewhat similar to this one. It was a collection of all my work throughout the class. The semester before that I put a hard copy portfolio together for my professional writing and editing class. It consisted of all of the work I had done for the class grouped by the type of work it was. I am doing two different portfolios this semester, one is online and the other is a hard copy. These are both different from the ones I have created in the past. For this class we will be putting together an online portfolio. It will only be the second online portfolio I have created. The readings really helped me to understand what a professional portfolio consists of. It made me realize that I need an overall theme for it. Previously my portfolios were themed by the work I had completed. As I have mostly worked on copy editing I will have a theme that suggests this. The work will not be completed by the time that I complete the work I will need to show all the work I have done and what the finished product could be. I plan to show the documents with my copy edits and what they looked like afterword. It will be an before and after effect.
When I was thinking about my online portfolio for this class, I thought that my main design decisions would be what kind of fonts, color schemes, and images to use. Until reading Chapter 3 of PTPC, I had yet to consider that I could choose an overall theme that in a way represents me. Of all the themes mentioned, I am leaning towards Professional Personality. I would like to use this theme in a way that primarily represents what I would like to incorporate into my career. I also liked the conceptual theme example used in the book. I think that a conceptual theme centered on the idea of growth could be used to highlight my growth as a professional writer and communicate that I would like to further develop my skills. I’m considering this as my second option.
As far as the genres represented in my portfolio, there will be edited texts (an excerpt from the book Po-EX in different stages) which emphasize copy-editing and typesetting. This fits under the genre of Technical Writing and Documentation. However, I will also include the front cover of the book as well as diagrams that I created within the text. These fit under the Graphics genre. Since I will be representing both, I’d like to have the distinction exist in my portfolio so that both skills are recognized. I have not decided yet how I will make this distinction.
This weeks readings really helped me get an idea of what I want my portfolio to do. In the PTPC chapter, a general theme was stressed. It said that you want your portfolio to have a general theme to tie everything together. Your theme should reflect who you are and where you want to go in your career. This part especially is difficult to figure out. I know who I am, but how do I reflect that in my portfolio? I like anything glittery and glitzy. However, I don’t want my portfolio to have too much pizazz as it might take away from the quality of my work. The girl with the butterfly example had a good idea in theory, but I feel that butterflies are too “childish”.
Theme is important as we all know well, but so is your audience. Some potential employers might be turned off from the look and design of your portfolio if it isn’t professional looking and has too much of your personality incorportated throughout. This is why we must choose a message that fits both needs, expressing ourselves and keeping it professional. For this class, our portfolios won’t be considered as harshly, especially since it will only contain the documents we made in our internships. In the real world however, we will undoubtedly face some harsh criticism which is why it is important to be flexible when making portfolios for future careers.
The reading in WP24T was helpful in that it gave me an idea of how to use different types of projects I’ve created. It gave us instructions that will certainly be helpful when we start creating our class portfolios.
All-in-all these readings have really started to help me narrow my idea of what I want in my final portfolio, as well as how to go about creating it.
Portfolios are probably the thing that I loathe the most about each semester. I am starting to worry about the portfolio this semester, because I may not be able to show off my full work. I was originally assigned to write a newsletter for the office, however, recently it has been decided that the newsletter will be a magazine publication. I’m really excited about this project. But what if it isn’t completed by the time the portfolio is due? I will have to submit my writings outside of their actual format. How would this look to an actual employer?
Portfolios have to encompass more than just your works. The portfolio has to be designed professionally, also it should represent yourself. A portfolios design is a big concept. If the design is shabby, the audience may think the same of your actual works. If the design incorporates a bunch of flashy colors or even blinking items (such as words) in the background, it may be too harsh on the eyes for your audience. Even having a bunch of different font styles, sizes, and colors will become very distracting and confusing for the reader. All of these may make the audience reluctant to read your portfolio. Another big key concept to consider while creating your portfolio is flow and usability. Is it easy to get from point a to point b? Does the organization of the works and different sections make sense?
Of course, last but not least, make sure all of the links and works can be accessed easily and that they work properly! Have a friend or relative check from their own computers. It is best to try it on different systems as well, one program may work better on another system. Something may not even work on a different computer system. Ask others for their opinion on your portfolio. Does it make sense to them? Also, proofread everything! You don’t want to have a stupid mistake on your portfolio, such as “Administrative Ass” listed as your previous job title. Whereas, it should be either “Administrative Assistant” or Administrative Ass.,” but I would steer away from abbreviating job titles. You would be literally making an ass of yourself. Also, make sure you get the title of your business or department correct. At work one day, I sent out an email saying “Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” Doesn’t seem wrong does it? Well, it actually is, because it is supposed to be “Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.” The big boss informed me of my mistake. A comma, although small, can cause a big problem.
P.S. Steer away from sarcasm in your portfolio. I bet some parts of this discussion didn’t seem very professional of me, for instance, stating that one “would be literally making an ass of” themselves.
Although I actually enjoy making portfolios (there’s just something about having all of my work in an organized area that I like), I’ve never actually had this much freedom with a portfolio before. Many class portfolios have specific requirements, and this one has very few of those.
It’s important that my portfolio represents me well, and covers a wide range of work I’ve done. Like someone else already mentioned though, there is the dilemma of not having all my internship documents in their “professional” format any time soon. So I suppose that leaves me with having a few documents in PDF format, and I am a little worried as to how that looks to potential employers.
The home page of my portfolio will detail my work during my internship and my experience overall. I have decided to arrange my work according to topic (press releases, interviews, web/magazine articles, etc.) from general to more in-depth for easier navigation.
Everyone’s posts have made me feel incredibly behind. I’ve been focusing so much on my poster that I haven’t given my portfolio much thought.
In previous classes, there’s been a specific format. The instructor had a apecific order or wanted you to organize it to showcase what you feel is your best work. It’s difficult for this class because there is absolutely no direction outside hard requirements. Most of my writing is done internally, for things that won’t be published, and it’s not necessarily polished. I’m having a difficult time deciding what to include.
Because I’m having such a hard time choosing, I’m not sure what kind of story I’d like to tell. There isn’t a specific “genre,” either. The organization I’m working with is literally starting from scratch and just winging everything. Although that might be an interesting spin…
Thanks to everyone for the helpful suggestions and terrible as it may seem, I’m glad we’re all facing similar problem.
At this point in my collegiate career, I have made quite a few portfolios, most of them being online. The thought of making an e-portfolio does not scare me, but the idea of making ANOTHER one is slightly agonizing. I understand that practice makes perfect, but I worry that I can only be so creative. The process of choosing a new and unique style, layout, theme, etc. gives me slight anxiety attacks, especially doing so on a new site that I am unfamiliar with beyond a few blog posts.
Not only am I worried about the quality of my portfolio, but the quantity required. Translating daily social media posts into twenty pages of polished documents seems like an impossible thought. I know that I have done the work, but showcasing it will prove to be plenty daunting.
The closer we get to the end of the semester, I can’t help but recall my thoughts in my expectations essay. I expressed my concern over creating my poster and, for lack of better words, “wrote-off” the portfolio. Now that we’re nearing the end of this course, I realize that the tables have completely turned. I am feeling confident in my poster design and overwhelmed with my portfolio. After reading many of the previous blog posts for this week, I can tell I am not alone. Hopefully we can all take this nervous energy and convert it into fuel to get us through these last few weeks!
So, I’ve spent the week thinking about possible themes and organizational schemes for my portfolio. After further consideration, I decided to use the same theme I created for my poster presentation, which is “Creating Connections.” This theme needs some fine tuning, but the basic idea is that my internship focuses on helping the WVU Writing Center connect with the outside world (professors, students, and other writing centers). I’ll probably organize my documents according to the degree of their contact with the public. For example, I’ll discuss the Pinterest page first because social networking directly connects with the outside world. Last, I’ll include the annotated bibliography (which will eventually be used for a public presentation) because its contact is more indirect. Has anyone else made any more progress?
i have created some pretty nice portfolios for work and other classes in the past, so originally the idea didn’t bother me too much. that was before i discovered how much of the work i would be doing for this internship isn’t the actual writing. i’m a freaking deer in the headlights where this portfolio is concerned. So much of my work for this internship is “in my head” – hours spent reviewing notes and considering approach and wording – and doing research, that it seems nearly impossible to create something that will have any substance AND be mine. i am confident that once i finish the big grant proposal, it will be something i will want to share in an online portfolio, but the grant is a pretty big project and having it ready to present for class is just adding to the stress of the work. like a deadline in a deadline. trying to figure out how to present the work i’m doing toward it doesn’t make it any easier. it’s like trying to learn a new way to do what i do really well just to demonstrate it in one instance, which isn’t a very good motivator. so now i’m nearly in panic mode, which doesn’t help. yay. too much fun. to sum up, trying to figure out how i’m going to arrange something i have yet to figure out how to even create is beyond me at this particular point, and the concern about doing it right is clouding my thoughts and disturbing my focus, both for the input of new information (i.e. from the texts) and just getting the work done. i’m pretty good at figuring things out at the last moment, but i’d rather it not get to that
I’ve never made a portfolio. Sure, there were those things we made in 304 and 305, but my actual, professional work has never lent itself to a portfolio setting. Especially not a physical portfolio. The web aspect of this class will help this, but I’m less than comfortable with trying to compile the things I’ve done into a singular place to represent me as a writer.
Quite frankly, right now, I feel like my portfolio is going to be pretty lackluster. All I do is proofread, it seems, and while I feel like I’m a fairly accomplished proofreader, I expect employers will want to see that as a writer, I can not only improve upon existing material but produce material, and a single excell spreadsheet is looking a little dull at the moment.
However, I think this is an opportunity to use my rhetorical skills to my advantage. The argument I think I could make is that this ability is just as useful and will show an equally large range. The topics vary, as do the genres, and if nothing else, I think I can put this toward an argument in favor of my abilities.
I hate that my portfolio will be predominantly argument, rather than actual material, but making this work is part of the challenge of breaking into entry-level work, right? Pretend you know what you’re talking about, and eventually you’ll figure it out.
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