The submission forms contain complete information about the portfolio. We highly recommend that you read the instructions thoroughly and that you visit us during office hours, so we can address your individual questions. However, you might find answers to basic questions below.
Students at UCCS are required to demonstrate writing competency before they graduate. The Junior-level Portfolio is an assessment option that most undergraduate UCCS students complete in their junior year in order to demonstrate writing competency. The second option for demonstrating writing competency is to pass (with a C- or better) an upper-level writing course in addition to the two courses (six credit hours) required for your degree. This typically means taking an additional writing course as an elective.
Your submission will consist of the completed forms, at least two (2) papers you have written at UCCS, and proof that you have paid the assessment fee. See the submission form for complete details and a submission checklist.
The portfolio fee covers part of the cost of administering and assessing your portfolio. In Spring of 2005, we attached this fee as a course fee for English 131 (Rhetoric and Writing I).
You should complete the portfolio when you reach junior status. The Portfolio often shows up in your senior audit, but because you may be required to take an additional writing course, you should submit your portfolio well before your senior audit.
You can submit up to three (3) papers for the portfolio, though there is no special benefit to submitting three. Readers like to see at least 8 good pages of dense prose in order to feel comfortable that they can assess your writing.
Choose academic papers from your discipline or from a humanities course if you have them. The papers must meet these basic criteria:
Portfolio papers may be academic, professional or scientific. You can prepare these papers for the portfolio by making sure that any outside (secondary) sources are acknowledged and cited in the paper. Choose a documentation style that is appropriate for your discipline (for example, you can use ASME style for engineering papers). If you aren't sure which style to choose, Chicago footnote style can be a good choice.
If you still don't know which papers to submit, or if you feel you just don't have any papers to submit, stop in and see us during our office hours. We can help you make some decisions.
Rather than write a paper just for the portfolio, we recommend that you take the extra English course instead --you'll do about the same amount of work but you'll get academic credit for it! Also, we usually don't accept papers unless you received academic credit for them at UCCS (see the criteria above).
You may absolutely revise your papers before submitting them. We recommend that you turn in your best writing, so you may even want to make an appointment with the Writing Center.
Portfolio papers are read by English Department writing faculty. We read and assess almost 500 portfolios a year, and each portfolio is typically read by two readers. If there is a disagreement between the scores of the two readers, your portfolio will be read a third time.
Readers are trained to assess your writing based on the standards listed in the submission forms.
Response times vary greatly during the semester. You may receive your score within 3 to 4 weeks of submitting your portfolio. Response times may be longer than 4 weeks if you turn your portfolio in at the end of the semester, when we prioritize the portfolios of seniors graduating within the year. This is another reason that we highly recommend that you turn in your portfolio before your senior year.
Most students do pass the portfolio. If you do not pass, you will need to take and pass an additional English writing course in order to strengthen your writing. You will meet with the director of the Writing Program to determine which course will best meet your needs.