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Preparing to Write
the Introduction and Other
Reflective Components

TAKING STOCK 10: Revisiting Your Expectations

Review your answers to Taking Stock 1, where you practiced

reflection. Reread what you wrote about your expectations for
this course and about the areas in which you thought your
strengths would help you. Do you still agree with what you
wrote? How did your expectations match up with the reality of
the course? What parts of this exercise can you use in writing
your reflective introduction or cover letter?

Reflection can and should take place throughout your portfolio keeping
experience, but at some point it's important to make the reflection more
formal, to present and discuss evidence of your learning in a formal piece
of writing. Before you begin, be sure you understand how the reflective
elements in your portfolio should function.
Clarify with your instructor if you are expected to write a reflective
opening statement—a cover letter, an introduction, a preface, an essay* If
you are not being asked to preface the portfolio with a reflective introduc-
tion, are you expected to describe your entries or introduce your choices in
some other way? In other words, there can be two types of reflection: (1)
an introduction to the portfolio, and (2) short pieces that introduce each
artifact. If your instructor has not assigned a reflective opening statement,
he or she may be expecting accounts of your choices or descriptions of your
process to appear throughout the portfolio. Ask your instructor if each
entry should have a preface. Although the reflective essay does not have to
be the first entry in a paper portfolio, it often is, owing to its role in estab-
lishing a relationship with your readers and evaluator. If its placement is
not specified in your syllabus or the portfolio assignment sheet, check with
your instructor.

*Your instructor may also refer to this reflective statement as the introductory slide, the
jump-off point, or the first node.

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 Preparing to Write the Introduction 49

In deciding where to place reflective elements in the portfolio, an

e-Portfolio offers you additional options. For example, you can insert links
that let readers move through the portfolio in different sequences or that
they follow a particular sequence in certain places. It makes sense to have
them read the reflective introduction first, for example. So, on your portfo-
lio's home page, you might insert just one link, to the introduction. Then,
on that page, you can give readers the option to go to any artifact next. Of
course readers can skip around in a paper-based portfolio too; but tradi-
tionally they read one page at a time in sequence. (By limiting the links
you insert in each section, you can achieve the same effect in an electronic
portfolio.) If you have posted a reflective essay, but it can be read at any
time, provide links to it from each of your other pages.
A good rule of thumb with e-Portfolios is that the reader should be
able to get to anyplace in your work from anyplace in your work. Keep your
navigational tool set the same by copying and pasting it on each artifact or
on each page of your portfolio Web site. Many e-Portfolios are designed so
that readers have to click on the reflective elements before reading the arti-
facts themselves. This ensures that readers will at least have the opportu-
nity to understand the context of each entry, how and why the artifact was
created.*
Whatever form your reflective elements take — a letter to your reader,
an essay, a set of paragraphs introducing each artifact, or all of the above —
the reflective writing you do could well be your most important writing
in the course. Reflective components show your ability to be a reflective
learner and to analyze a rhetorical situation effectively. They explain your
choices in compiling the portfolio and demonstrate your thinking about
your learning. One demonstration of reflective thinking is being able to
identify important features or patterns in your writing process. Think of it
this way: Readers of your portfolio — even your instructor — cannot see
your entire writing process. If you've done most of your composing alone
at the keyboard, your readers have not watched you write or watched you
do online research; they haven't participated in your peer response groups;
they haven't seen all of your notes, drafts, and other evidence of your evolv-
ing ideas. They won't know what your friend suggested about the anecdote
that opens your argument essay, and they won't know how hard you've
worked on adding transitions between paragraphs. Readers will be aware
only of what you share with them in the reflective elements. In fact, it
is for this reason that many students like to use digital video in their
e-Portfolios: to show themselves writing. You can find a few examples of
these kinds of clips through the companion Web site.
If your portfolio is a best-works portfolio, the reflective introduction
or other elements function as a type of final exam — the ultimate test of
what you've learned about the qualities of good writing, about anticipating

*Miles A. Kimball, The Web Portfolio Guide: Creating Electronic Portfolios for the Web.
New York: Longman, 2003:11-12.
50 Preparing to Write the Introduction

readers' needs, and about the importance of details. If you think of those
elements as a final examination, you begin to see the importance you should
place on them. Sometimes students work throughout the course very dili-
gently on their assignments and projects, and then spend twenty minutes
on a reflective piece. That's simply not enough time for what is a critical
component of your portfolio.
You have many options in writing an effective introduction or other
reflective element, but you will need to demonstrate reflective learning or
self-assessment. In other words, you must show that you can evaluate the
strengths and weaknesses of your writing, that you understand what you do
well and what you still need to work on. Instructors are not looking for
perfection; they are looking for writers who are insightful, conscientious,
and engaged in learning.
If you have maintained a working folder and have managed to save,
label, and file all of your work for this course in print, in electronic form, or
in some combination of the two, here comes the payoff. Retrieve all of the
notes, postwrites, and journal or blog entries in which you've recorded
something about your writing process, your struggles and triumphs, the
adjustments you've made. W i t h these materials, you should be ready to
begin drafting your reflective introduction. Have you ever written an essay
and then written your introduction or title for the essay? This is a similar
process.
As you reflect on your learning, think of a vivid or memorable way to
represent that learning to your readers. Most portfolio evaluators are look-
ing specifically for an indication that you can name your learning and iden-
tify its significance. Ultimately, this course is about teaching you how to
make good writing decisions in the future, not simply about writing indi-
vidual essays right now. To demonstrate their learning, many portfolio
keepers find it valuable to use a powerful theme or rich metaphor to tie the
contents of their portfolio together. We've talked a bit about metaphor
above; but you may actually find it easier to develop a unifying metaphor
after you've chosen your artifacts and articulate how each piece contributes
to the whole.
• Tam, for example, describes her portfolio as the Boston T, with each
artifact a stop along the way between where she boards the subway and
her destination. Looking out the window as a passenger, you see a flurry
of objects whizzing by you; but when you stop, you understand where
you've been.
• Diego chooses a baseball theme. There are nine innings in the game,
and different events happen in each of them. A run in the third inning
may or may not be significant; it's impossible to know until later, when
an analysis of the entire game clarifies its importance.
• Frank, a student who grew up helping on his family farm, uses cropping
corn as a metaphor. You have to have the right tools and equipment; you
 Preparing to Write the Introduction 51

have to apply your experience to choosing the right week to plant and
the right week to harvest; and you have to have luck with the weather.
In much the same way, to write well you need to have good tools and the
ability to reason based on experience; and, of course, you need a situa-
tion that encourages quality writing.
What you see in these examples is a deep connection between the stu-
dents' personal experiences and their new writing experiences. These stu-
dents have a better understanding of writing because they are able to see
how it works as a whole. The sum can be worth far more than its individ-
ual parts. That, in effect, is a primary value of portfolio keeping. The nav-
igational scheme you develop may or may not include a unifying metaphor.
Regardless, the scheme should both inform your reflection in the introduc-
tion and provide context for each artifact. The navigational scheme helps
your reader move through your work, but it also helps you understand the
connections you've been making between your world and the writing you've
produced in this course.
In the reflective element(s) of your portfolio, especially if yours is a
best-works portfolio, you might try some of the following:
• Discuss your best entry and why it is your best.
• Detail the revisions you've made and the improvements and changes
that you want readers to notice.
• Demonstrate what this portfolio illustrates about you as a writer, stu-
dent, researcher, or critical thinker.
• Acknowledge the readers-respondents who have influenced your portfo-
lio pieces and describe how.
• Reflect on what you've learned about writing, reading, or other topics of
the course.
• Include specific examples or passages from your working folder.
If you are working on a process portfolio, in addition to some of the
points above, you may want to consider these ideas for developing the
reflective portion(s) of your portfolio:
• Outline the process you went through to produce one or more of your
entries.
• Acknowledge your weaknesses, but show how you've worked to over-
come them.
• Discuss each piece of writing you've included, touching on its strengths.
And here are several points to consider in planning and writing your
reflective introduction or essay:
• W h o will be reading this piece? Is the evaluator reading to suggest
changes? to assess your work and make a decision about your effort and
talent?
52 Preparing to Write the Introduction

• What is the situation surrounding this reading?

• What will the outcome of the reading be? Can you influence it? If so,
how and how much?
• What qualities of writing does your reader value?
Your instructor no doubt will add other points to consider that you
need to examine carefully. Be sure to look back over the comments on and
responses to your returned projects, and review the course syllabus and
assignments. W h a t patterns do you see in your instructor's concerns or
directions? Use what you've learned about your instructor's values as a
reader to compose a convincing, well-developed reflective introduction or
essay It's doubtful that your instructor is looking to be flattered, and ask-
ing for an A is probably not the best strategy, but humor, liveliness, or
anecdote might be very effective.
If your evaluators are unknown — that is, if a team of instructors will
be reviewing your portfolio — ask your instructor to give you some infor-
mation about them so that you can decide which logical, ethical, or emo-
tional appeals might be most effective. In this scenario, you won't know
your readers personally (and they won't know you at all). Still, it's safe to
assume that your evaluators will be trained in portfolio assessment and will
share many of your instructor's ideas about good writing. If your college
writing program has a set of guidelines or policies and grading criteria,
consult it for information as you begin composing.
If your classmates also will be reading your portfolio and perhaps con-
tributing to its assessment in some way, gather as much feedback as you can
and make use of it, immediately, in the work itself. It makes sense that your
portfolio would be shared with the people who have read and responded to
your writing for the entire term, and you may be asked to make your class-
mates or peer response group your audience. In some classes, the sharing is
just that; but in others, your peers may be asked to evaluate the portfolio.
Because your instinct would probably be to write more informally for your
peers than for an instructor, find out what level of formality is expected, and
what uses of language would be most appropriate.
How long should the reflective introduction or reflective essay be?
Again, check with your instructor for these types of details. Remember,
however, that you need to develop your ideas or support your claims as
you would in any effective piece of writing. In this situation, you are try-
ing to convince your reader that you have learned the course's subject mat-
ter and also that you have chosen wisely, revised judiciously, and edited
carefully. If you are asked to write a letter, follow the format for a business
letter (check your style and usage handbook), and include the date and
inside address, as well as an appropriate salutation and closing. Above all,
remember how important first impressions are: It is critical that you take
this piece through the same stages of the writing process that each of your
entries has undergone.