how do you write a portfolio essay

Portfolio Essay

Portfolio essay generator.

A Portfolio Essay is a unique narrative that showcases an individual’s skills, experiences, and personal growth. Our guide, enriched with a variety of essay examples , is tailored to help you construct a compelling portfolio essay. This type of essay is crucial for students and professionals alike, as it provides a platform to reflect on and present one’s journey and achievements. The examples included will guide you in highlighting your accomplishments, insights, and learning experiences, crafting an essay that truly represents your personal and professional narrative.

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Common questions to sked whenever you are tasked to write an essay are “how do I start?” and “what would this be all about?” Or let’s just say you were asked to write something that is a portfolio essay. What is a portfolio essay? How to write a portfolio essay? Portfolios, by definition, a

re the collection of the best works depending on the field you are in. You can be in the field of art, poetry or any kind of writing. This is not just about collecting. You have to exert effort to analyze it by the use of an essay. What to do next? Lets begin to tackle and make things clear.

1. Portfolio Essay

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2. Student Portfolio Essay

3. College Portfolio Essay

4. Portfolio Summative Reflection Essay

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5. Student Portfolio Essay

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6. Reflective Portfolio Essay

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7. Absolutism and Revolution Portfolio Essay

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8.Visual Art Portfolio Essay

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9. Portfolio Introduction Essay

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10. Portfolio Assessment Essay

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11. Portfolio Narrative Essay

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12. Portfolio Conclusion Essay

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13. English Portfolio Essay

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14. Sample Portfolio Essay

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What is a Portfolio Essay?

A portfolio essay is like a reflection paper that gives an analysis over a particular work of an author. You are to observe yourself with regards to how you feel and what you think with regards to your work portfolio. In simple terms, you are to reflect on your work whether you write for what is good and what is not good for them. You also have to make an observation of the progress of your writing skills whether they have developed or not including the factors that causes it and the motives.

Things to Consider When Writing a Portfolio Essay

You should be focusing on your portfolio essay alone

You don’t need to think of a special topic for your portfolio essay. Maybe your professor in school have already told you to write something about personal portfolio essays . Your essay must have a very clear focus. It may be all about your progress as its own writer or on your other writings. Make sure that you have understood everything especially those things that are being required from you.

Pick writings according to a criteria

The criteria are as follows: chronological, thematic and style. Chronological means based on sequence of events. Thematic means having your essay centered on a particular problem. Style means your writing style or a literary movement.

Find some time to introduce yourself

Every essays begin with an introduction. Present your introduction in a paragraph between five to ten sentences. Take note that portfolio essay is very different from an autobiography so you do not have to make a long list about your life. This type of essay is an advertisement to sell your work, so you better have to show all its assets.

Describe your writings

In order to present your writings, you always have to read your writings over and over again. This is because it is recommended to read them prior to your portfolio essay writing. You have to make sure that all aspects are clear especially in the title of your work, style, genre, main idea and even the methods that you used.

Come up with a conception about the writings

It is best to inform the readers about what is special in your work. You may also consider answering questions on your own such as about the development of your writing skills , factors that influenced your writing and more.

Style and Grammar

You may try to ask for a friend to read your paper to receive feedbacks if there are some necessary changes regarding it. Make sure that you work well on your grammar and the punctuations.

What is the first thing that you should do before writing your portfolio essay?

The first thing to do is to select your piece. Without knowing what the content of your portfolio, you will be having a hard time writing the essay.

What could be the process when you are writing your portfolio essay online?

Online writing portfolios should be done in any medium relating online. You may pass your documents through email instead of putting them all in a folder.

What will you do if your professor will not give you any guidelines about portfolio essay writing?

You may try to show all your work using any medium as possible.

Students, in some event in their school life, have already experienced creating portfolios of their individual achievements. In the case of a portfolio essay, you are required to read first your piece before having each of them assessed. Even though your portfolio essay doesn’t need to have a topic on its own, it is much better to work for it as clearly as you can and as precise as possible.

Text prompt

• Instructive
• Professional

Reflect on your academic achievements this year in your Portfolio Essay.

Discuss the development of your writing skills through various assignments in your Portfolio Essay.

By Katie Gatens and Nicholas Holmes

Writing Portfolio Guide

Writing portfolio success... in six easy steps.

After eight years in the portfolio business, we've noticed something:

Most writers HATE shouting about their work and their achievements online.

But they shouldn't.

A writing portfolio is the best way to professionally show off your skills and achievements, without sounding braggy or arrogant.

And with a little bit of planning, creating one needn't be a time-consuming nightmare.

In this guide, we'll take you through the six steps required to build a killer profile online, so you can easily have one completed for yourself in an hour or two.

This is the process we'll follow to create your perfect online writing portfolio:

• Objectives: Be clear about them from the start. The work you choose to get a job is going to be very different from the work you choose to land a travel writing gig.
• Hosting: Keep it memorable and professional. If you need to create your portfolio quickly, choose a hosted service such as Clippings.me.
• Portfolio Design: Keep it simple and clean. Avoid distractions but make sure it works on mobile.
• Samples: Add between 10 and 20 pieces of work. Use links or PDF uploads for maximum viewability and to give a snapshot of what you can do, but organize things logically and don't make the user scroll.
• Biography: Showcase your achievements. Make it as long or as short as you want and add a resume if you're job hunting, but make sure you're clear on what you can offer a potential employer/commissioner.

Ready to read more? Scroll on!

You want to make sure your writing portfolio achieves its objectives - if you're an author, that may be to get you a book deal. If you're a student, it's likely academic consideration and if you're a freelance journalist, it could be to get you an article commission.

So think hard and be specific about what your portfolio should tell the people that come across it. Doing so will make drafting your copy and planning out the different sections MUCH easier.

Common Objectives

To get a job - you'll be sending your portfolio to prospective employers or clients, so your main aim is to impress in the field you work in.

To sell - you've written some great stuff, and now you want to sell it to an agent, publisher or commissioner.

To be more visible - you want a place where people can find you online and learn more about what you do.

Once you know what the aim is, write that down somewhere. As you build your portfolio, every time you write a sentence or add a piece of work, ask yourself "does this addition help my objective?"

If the answer if no, don't add it.

Portfolio Hosting

The days of the hard portfolio are DEFINITELY over.

For 99% of portfolio users, digital is the right way to go, as the late Steve Buttry explained in this excellent blog . Steve passed away in February 2017, but his superb blog remains online as a resource for journalism students and professionals and is well worth a read.

We’re way past the days of deciding which half-dozen hard-copy clips to stuff into an envelope with your résumé. Unless an employer specifically asks for a hard-copy application, you should apply by email with a hyperlinked résumé. Even if the employer asks for hard-copy (and if you want to work for someone who needs hard copy), you need a URL (or a few) at the top, guiding your future boss to a place to study your work at length.

There are tons of options for creating portfolios out there - Clippings.me is one of them, but you can also create your own using a tool like Wordpress, Wix or Weebly.

In this piece , Poynter's Kristen Hare and Ren Laforme round up the best portfolio tools for journalists in 2017:

It seems to me that the big ones for journalists are Muck Rack, Clippings.me, Contently, Pressfolios and Journo Portfolio. They all allow you to set up a little landing page where you can drop your clips. Some sites limit your clips if you’re on a free account, and they all arrange them in various artful ways.

Another roundup by journalism.co.uk's Sarah Marshall, took a look at various portfolio tools available including Clippings.me, Contently, Journalisted, MuckRack and About.me.

Sarah also pointed out that it's critical to pay attention to your social media channels too:

Whether applying for a job, pitching as a freelancer or showcasing your work, an online portfolio with a biography and links to your work can be hugely valuable. Of course, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook and other platforms provide journalists with an online presence, and it is always worth paying attention to your bio information available on social networks as other people will search for you.

However, your choice of tool will likely be determined by the formats that you chose to include in your portfolio. So spend some time considering your pieces of work and the formats that you use the most often.

What content formats might you need?

• Writing: Plain text, links, PDF files, Slideshare presentations, Scribd documents
• Images: All common image format files, plus 'rich' media files like Flash and Shockwave. Also, material you've posted on photo upload sites such as Flickr.
• Social media: Storify curated stories, Twitter feeds, Facebook Post
• Videos: YouTube videos, Vimeo videos, Wistia videos, embedded newsreels
• Audio: Podcasts (mp3, AAC or other), AudioBoom files, SoundCloud files

Back when Clippings.me was founded, it only allowed for the addition of links and PDF files - but now you can embed all of the above, and most journalists take advantage of that functionality. You'll want to consider this before moving onto the next step.

Finally, ensure whichever tool you use can make use of a custom domain. This will allow you to use a link such as www.yourname.com, rather than a branded link like www.clippings.me/yourname. This is strongly advised when hunting for a job, as putting your personalized URL on a business card or CV looks far more professional and makes it easier to remember!

Note that you'll probably have to pay for that custom domain - domains normally run from about $12 per year for a standard .com, although other domains might be more expensive.

Top Writing Portfolio Tools To Consider

Other Professional Writing Portfolio Software

Want something more advanced? If you're handy with HTML and don't mind a bit of messing around to get the look just right, you could also create using one of these other options:

Wix offers free websites that are easy to customize and need no coding.

Wordpress is the world's most popular blogging platform. It's more technically challenging but almost infinitely customizeable.

If you need some more help choosing, googling 'journalism portfolio tools' is a good place to start.

Portfolio Design

Overwhelmingly, journalists creating their page using Clippings.me tend to opt for a simple layout which draws attention to work with little in the way of fancy distractions on the site.

Our STRONG style advice would be to keep things as simple as possible and try to let your writing speak for itself.

Use a crisp, clear font which is professional and legible - no MS Comic Sans if you want to be taken seriously. Also, try to keep the font size above 14pt, ideally edging towards 16pt, to maximize the readability of what you've got. Another neat trick here is to increase the line spacing, which will give your writing more room to breathe.

Keep colors professional - shocking pink and lime green are rarely seen in portfolios, and there's probably a reason for that. If you choose to have a background color, make sure it's sufficiently contrasting with the text for things to be easy on the eye - using two different shades of blue for background and text, for instance, is usually a bad idea.

Be mindful of users on tablet and mobile (as you can see above, increasing amount are); some portfolio sites include a mobile option, but not all of them. People WILL be checking out your portfolio on a mobile or a tablet, so you'll want to make sure it scales correctly on different screen sizes.

For this reason, we strongly advise against having a flash-based portfolio, which generally won't work as designed on mobile devices.

Too many images may end up distracting from your writing, but images can liven up a portfolio.

Try to make sure the images that you use are compelling and colorful, relate well to the words next to them and don't take too long to load.

You may wish to check out our list of writing portfolio examples , but here are some other designs to check out for inspiration:

Catherine Bouris' mobile-first portfolio is also worth looking at:

Looking for more great examples of writing portfolios? Check out some of the following pages:

• Writing Portfolio Examples from Clippings.me (portfolios we love made using this site)
• Writing portfolio roundup from Format.com

Adding Samples

Now the fun bit begins!

We generally recommend adding between 10-20 pieces of work to an online portfolio - the overall aim here is to give a snapshot of what you can do in an overview that the other person will be able to finish. Don't feel that you have to include everything that you've ever written.

Choose a selection of writing samples that best serves the purpose you identified in section 1. Generally, it's good to use work that shows the versatility of your skills, but this may not be the case for your specific needs.

As Susanna Speier identified in a great Poynter piece on journalism portfolios:

Recruiters and HR departments simply “don’t always have the bandwidth” to research a candidate on the Internet, said Lars Schmidt, NPR’s senior director for talent acquisition. Schmidt said he prefers journalist portfolios that are categorized. He also advises journalists to organize their portfolios according to the job they’re seeking.

Most portfolios we see are a mix of links and PDF uploads, although there's certainly no harm in using more of one than the other. Do remember, if using links, that they have a nasty habit of moving or changing over time, so it's sometimes best to host the files yourself or set a schedule to come back and check that everything's still where it should be. Example writing portfolio sites that can support PDF include Clippings.me and JournoPortfolio.

Based on the formats you identified earlier, you'll want to make sure you've got enough examples to show the versatility of what you do.

Multimedia portfolios can be trickier to make but offer a better overview in the long term - as The Washington Post's Graphics Director Kat Downs Mulder explains in this ItsAllJournalism podcast

You'll want to pay more attention to the order of your written work, though - make sure it's logical. Some people display their clippings by date, some prefer to do it by section type, and either is fine as long as you're consistent.

Emily Ingram had some superb advice on her site (sadly now deleted) on how to build your own Wordpress portfolio (it applies to any portfolio, really):

I think a good rule of thumb is to keep things simple and try to eliminate any extra clicks for users. In other words: If you can put a good amount of your clips all on one page and still make it look simple, do it. Know how annoying it is to go to a newspaper’s Web site and have to load an entirely new page for each photo in a 50-photo slideshow? It’s the same concept.

If possible, try to include subheadings as well as the article title with each writing sample that you add - just as with a real article, they dramatically increase the chances of someone reading on. And, as already mentioned, if you're able to use pictures, it can make a real difference:

In the case of an author portfolio rather than a journalist one, consider using shorter excerpts rather than full chapters. It can be overwhelming for readers to be faced with dense chapters to navigate so offering the option of something shorter is normally appreciated.

If you're building an academic portfolio, make sure that you're meeting the requirements of whichever institution you're applying to. Critically, make sure that you've chosen a sufficient variety of papers - don't submit one with three or four with a very similar structure. There may also be restrictions on how many papers you can submit from any one course.

Most writers include a personal overview in their portfolio to provide context. It's up to you to make this as long or as short as you want - I've seen people including a full CV or just a few lines of text to explain who they are.

What to include in your bio? Well, your job title and company are a good place to start. Then, many writers use the bio as a space to do what they do best - tell a story. If you can get some attention by weaving together some bullet points that fulfill your portfolio's objectives (see step 1), that's great. Can you explain some of your best creations or achievements?

For students and graduates, this is a place to mention your college, your major and year, your roles on campus and any other information that will give people a flavor of who you are. But consider - always - that this is a public piece of work and if you're asked about it later, you don't want to squirm.

Before attempting this section, it's worth firing up a word processor so you've got an idea of word count. Realistically, 200 words are probably the limit of what you should go for - readers want to get an overview of you in ten seconds or less, so make every word in those first sentences count. No fluff, no buzzwords - just plain-spoken facts about you.

Resume or no resume?

Back again to NPR's Lars Schmidt in the Poynter piece:

He urges journalists to “include a resume and have it up on your portfolio.” Yes, a resume. An easy-to-find resume, Schmidt said, is still the best way to say, “here’s what I can bring to your organization.”

So adding a CV is considered a good idea, but if you choose to do so, make sure it's formatted correctly - often you'll find it looks more professional to embed it within your clips than to paste it in plain text somewhere. If you have a portfolio service where you can include it as a separate document, all the better.

Finally, make sure you've got your contact details. In many great portfolios, this is in the form of a call to action - e.g. "contact me via email at [email protected] ", leaving the reader in no doubt as to what to do next.

You'll also want to include social media links so that people can find you on Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and anywhere else you maintain a professional presence. If your Facebook page contains embarrassing pictures, don't link to that - obviously.

What NOT to add

It's best not to include any of the following things in a profile:

Your age - nobody wants to see this, especially if it translates to 'young and inexperienced'. If you must put a number, make it about your experience - "I've been a reporter for ten years."

Lack of confidence - in general, it rankles when writers write about what they one day "hope" to become. If you haven't got there yet, it's fine, but there's no need to draw attention to that fact. It damages a reader's belief that you'll deliver quality.

Grammatical mistakes - obviously. Take a free trial of a tool such as Grammarly to ensure your portfolio is free of errors.

Condescension - it's OK if you're great, but if you're that good a wordsmith, you'll be able to tell me that without making me feel like the little guy. The trick is to make your audience feel good about themselves at the same time as showcasing your skill. So no spammy header lines, no passive-aggressive copy and no cockiness. Just be honest, open and proud.

Make sure your friends and family know all about your portfolio. Share it on Facebook first to ask for feedback (you'll be amazed at what you missed), and then cast the net a little wider on Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn and your other social networks.

You need to drive traffic to your portfolio for it to be shared, so it's a good idea to start dropping the link around the place. Put it in your email signature and in the profile pages of your social networks, especially Twitter (if you've got an account!). You may also want to make sure that it's included on your blog and your LinkedIn page (Clippings.me users can embed their clips right into their LinkedIn pages).

There's nothing worse than an out-of-date writing portfolio. We recommend returning to your profile a couple of times a month to check that the links are all working and to add new pieces of work. This is a good thing to do because it allows you to build up a following around your portfolio, and it also shows the evolution of what you do, proving that you're active in the field and a good bet for your target audience!

What are your tips? Let us know by tweeting them @clippingsme and we'll RT the best. Thanks to all the people we've quoted in this piece.

Get your free portfolio and join 100,000+ Clippings.me users today!

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How to Write a Portfolio Essay

A portfolio is a collection of your best works, whether in the field of art, poetry, prose, etc. This collection is never taken in itself; you have to comment and analyze it in a portfolio essay. Tweet This

Writing a portfolio essay – 8 important things to consider

1. portfolio essay definition.

The specific thing with a portfolio essay is that it includes reflection . A young gifted author or artist should always analyze his/her works and be able to assess them. Reflection means observing yourself, your own feelings, emotions and thoughts; a process of going deep inside your own personality. If taken to extremes, such a process would lead to psychological self-analysis. Still, such thing is not required from you; all you need to do is to reflect on your works, to write what is good and what is not that good in them; to observe the process of development of your writing skills, the factors and motives behind it.

The current guide will only deal with writings; if your paper is related to art, you could also make advantage of the advice available here.

2. Focus of the portfolio essay

A portfolio essay does not have a precise topic, so you do not need to figure it out. Your instructor should have told you what exactly to prepare; let’s say, essays from the current academic year. Thus, your portfolio essay will have a clear focus: either on your development as a writer (within the last academic year), or on your writings on a certain subject. Ensure you have understood what is required from you. When you have selected the essays/writings, show them to your instructor in order not to waste your time and efforts. Afterwards you can continue with writing the paper.

3. Select a few writings

Pick up the writings according to the criteria set by your instructor. Amongst them are the following: 

• chronological - from the present year, from college, from high-school, etc.;
• thematic - centered on a given problem (society, human nature, etc.);
• style - writings written in a given style and/or belonging to a given literary movement (i.e. surrealism);

There could be also other criteria. Let’s say you need to select your best short stories. That means you have to choose them according to your personal perception of them. Remember that whatever the criteria are, you should select only the writings which are of good quality; if you need to present all essays written during the academic year, and you personally do not like some of them, you are not obliged to submit them. You need merely to explain in the introduction the reasons for your choice.

4. Introduce yourself

The portfolio essay should begin with your introduction. Who are you? Why have you chosen the given course/class? What attracts you in writing? You have to present this information in one long paragraph - from five to ten sentences long.

However, do not be too long - this is not an autobiography . The portfolio is a kind of advertisement; in order to sell your product (in this case to have higher grade), you have to show its best sides.

5. Present the writings selected by you

Now you need to describe the writings one by one. Some students write descriptions before each writing - this is wrong! A portfolio essay consists of two main parts: introduction which includes the description, and the writings themselves. In order to present them properly, you have to read them prior to starting to write the portfolio essay. Yes, you may remember your writings, but it is recommended to read them once again! Write down some notes and use them to write the descriptions. Each description should comprise one paragraph. You need to make the following parts clear: 

• the title of the writing;
• its style and genre;
• main idea; characters (if applicable);
• methods and tools used.

6. General idea of the portfolio essay

After the description is made, you have to come up with a conception about the presented writings. Tell the reader what exactly is so special in each of them, and what makes them similar or complementary. Answer some of the following questions: do you see any development or change in your writing skills? Are they improving? Are the factors influencing your writing the same all the time? What mistakes you see now in your past works? What would you have changed if you could?

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7. Comments and remarks

If your instructor has reviewed your writings earlier and you have made some changes due to his/her remarks, you need to have a separate section explaining the changes you have made. You should write what ideas you have added or removed, what characters you have changed, and so forth.

8. Style and grammar

There is no need to say that your English grammar must be perfect. In order to avoid typos or other type of mistakes, handle your paper to a friend or someone who is an expert in English grammar. Moreover, it is good to work on your grammar and punctuation skills, especially if you want to become an author, including copywriter, journalist, etc.

PORTFOLIO ESSAY EXAMPLE

Introduction

I have been writing short stories since I was in high-school. Short stories are the best way to express personal feelings and observations. I am able to make the reader focus on one central idea, to offer a problematic situation and to make the reader figure out a solution to it. My works do not seem finished but that is because I want to make the reader active instead of passively perceiving the information presented in the story.

The current portfolio essay represents some selected short stories written in the last five years. They are ordered chronologically.

Description

Story 1 was inspired by my personal experience. It involves two young people who feel sympathy for each other but are not prepared to go further. The central symbol of the story is the invisible wall existing between both persons, a wall which prevents them from fulfilling their relationship.

Story 2 is a retrospection of a series of events in my life. It rather describes than analyzes. Plenty of situations are interconnected and the transition from one to another is shown as not having clear borderlines. This story shows that I have turned at that time to more introspective methods, influenced by the concept of “stream of consciousness.”

Central idea of the essay

The presented collection of short stories demonstrates my internal drive to move towards introspection, thus ignoring all details of physical appearance and description of nature. At the same time it shows the diversity of my styles, methods and tools used for writing the stories.

Let’s say it again, a portfolio essay may include different genres of writings as well as art (photography and other types of images). Hence, you should adapt the tips given in the current guide to your profession and subject. 

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Home » Planning & Creating » How to create a writing portfolio

How to create a writing portfolio: 7 fundamental steps

The point of a portfolio is to give viewers a sense of what you can do for them. And portfolios can look very different while still getting that job done. Some of our Blurb writers have gotten hired by emailing screenshots of Facebook posts—while others have opened up professionally bound layflat photo books during interviews. Keeping in mind your end goal (selling yourself) will help ground you in this process.

Here are seven steps to help you create the perfect writing portfolio:

1. Introduce yourself

If your portfolio is your full sales pitch, think of your introduction as your elevator pitch. This sets the tone and context for your work. State your name, the type of writing you do, and any relevant background information that describes who you are.

Remember, this is a writing sample, too.  Make it unique, valuable, and memorable—and from your natural voice. This is your chance to tell your story from your point of view. Make it count.

2. Organize your writing samples

Gather up all relevant writing samples you have. These can be everything from Super Bowl ads you’ve scripted to op-eds you’ve written for your high school newspaper. And if you don’t have enough, you can create hypothetical projects for brands that exist or that you make up to showcase your skills—just make it clear they’re examples and not paid work.

Once you have all your writing samples gathered, it’s time to organize them. Keep in mind who you’re showing your work to and include the type of samples they’re most interested in. If you’re angling to carve a niche, consider grouping your work into topic or format clusters. If you’re showing off versatility, group them by medium.

Here are the top ways to organize your writing portfolio:

• Chronologically: If you have a wide range of writing samples or a linear progression in your career, consider arranging your work chronologically and share how your skills have evolved.
• Topic: If you specialize in particular types of writing, you could group your samples by topic. For example, you could organize your work by industry for your technical writing or trade book writing—or by sections dedicated to industries, verticals, or genres.
• Medium: If you write for various mediums and channels, be it journalism stories, ad creative, UX writing, storytelling, or blogging, organize your work by these key pillars to help readers understand your versatility as a writer.

No matter how you organize your work, start and end with your strongest samples. Recruiters spend less than three minutes per portfolio , whereas most hiring managers spend five to 10 minutes. Either way, that’s not a lot of time. Make sure your portfolio makes a splash to start and is easily scannable.

3. Cull your writing samples

Once you’ve compiled all relevant writing samples for your portfolio, now comes the difficult task of narrowing them down. If you’re in the early stages of your career, you may not have a lot of work to distill. But for experienced writers, it’s important to whittle down your samples to showcase only your best work. 

When making the final selection of samples to include in your writing portfolio, consider the following:

• Diversity: Depending on the structure you envision for your portfolio, consider choosing samples that capture your range and versatility as a writer. For example, creative writers might want to include a mix of short stories , screenplays, essays, or novels .
• Relevance: Your writing samples should reflect the type of writing you want to do in the future. If you’re interested in writing for a particular publication, highlight samples that overlap with that publication’s style and tone.
• Quality: As a rule, only include your best work when creating a writing portfolio. It can be helpful to recruit a mentor, friend, or colleague to get different perspectives on what others view as your highest-quality samples.

4. Craft your navigation

As you organize and narrow down what work samples you’d like to include, you can start identifying patterns for structuring your writing portfolio. In doing so, think about how you’d like viewers to navigate your book.

A table of contents, menu, or sections can provide guideposts for viewers to better travel through your writing portfolio and understand what it includes. In addition to thematic structure and the general flow of your portfolio, consider design elements like thumbnail images for each piece or major section. This adds a visual appeal and a touch of creativity that goes a long way in grabbing your prospective readers. Other fundamentals include:

• Sections: If you have ample writing samples to include, divide your portfolio into sections or chapters. This will make it easier for readers to find the pieces they’re most interested in.
• Navigation: Make sure your table of contents or website menu is simple to understand. In a digital context, you can include links to each section or piece of writing for easy navigation.
• Design: Your portfolio should be clean, clear, concise, and easy to read. Set the mood appropriately and use a consistent font, color scheme, and design elements for your sections, headlines, and menus to make them cohesive with the rest of the portfolio.

5. Design a layout

Once you have all of your writing samples selected and organized, you’ll need to think about how to best present your work in a way that’s visually appealing and on-brand with your particular style and tone. This is where the design of your portfolio comes in. When designing your portfolio, consider the following:

• Choose a format that’s creative yet easy to navigate. Whether creating a hardcopy portfolio or a website portfolio, you want to choose a format that aligns with your writing style and the context of your samples but also one that’s easy to navigate. Be creative but don’t let the design distract readers from your portfolio’s content. 
• Use a clear and readable font. Make sure that the font you choose is easy to read, both in print and digitally on the screen. It’s best to stick with very simple, legible fonts that won’t distract from your writing.
• Incorporate images or graphics. Consider adding visuals to your writing portfolio that capture the context of your work. Whether they’re symbolic photos or images that truly correspond with your samples, consider imagery that relates to your writing and engages your readers. Just be sure that they don’t detract from your copy.
• Keep it consistent. While you want your writing portfolio to be visually engaging, you also want to ensure that it’s professional and on point with your personal brand. Often, less is more. So, avoid using too many colors or fonts , and put together a design layout that’s consistent and aligned.

6. Summarize your work

Depending on the length of your writing portfolio, it can help to provide some context for your samples—especially if you can prove your worth with impressive stats. Similar to a novel’s blurb shown on the back cover of a book, these could be short summaries that introduce individual samples, case studies that outline your business results, or thematic sections of your portfolio that add color to your writer’s journey.

Writing short summaries or blurbs of your work gives readers a sense of what they can expect from each piece of writing. While not a requirement for writing portfolios, these blurbs can help guide the overarching story behind your experience. When writing these short summaries, consider the following elements:

• Overviews that summarize your work. You can include the genre , topic, purpose, brand, or writing style.
• Your intentions or goals. Break down the problem you solved with your writing pieces, like whether your objective was entertaining, educating, or persuading your readers, and who the project was for.
• The scope of the project and your role as a writer. Make sure you highlight whether your work was part of a larger publication or your own personal blog. Talk about timelines, titles, and how you contributed to any large-scale projects or group work.
• Any key performance indicators (KPIs). Hiring managers on marketing teams will be very interested in the results of your work, like how much traffic a piece earned, how much engagement it received, or how your work led to a particular business outcome.

7. Include your resume and contact info

When using your portfolio to land your dream job, including your resume (or a version of it) is a good supplement to showcase all your experience. You could include it at the beginning or end of your portfolio. In any case, it should be easy to find and relevant to your target audience.

You’ll also want to include a way for viewers to contact you, like your professional email address or social media account. Depending on the context of your portfolio, you may even consider adding a link to your LinkedIn or Instagram profile so employers can see more information about you and easily get in touch. If you print your portfolio, add links or QR codes to your professional website or digital portfolio, too.

Tips for creating a writing portfolio that wows

Now that you’re familiar with creating a writing portfolio, several additional points are worth calling out. These are general best practices and things to consider when bringing your portfolio to life.

Quality over quantity

Less is often more, as it’s generally better to showcase a small collection of high-quality writing samples rather than inundating your readers with numerous less-than-stellar pieces. Be selective with the work you choose, and aim for a diverse range that emphasizes your strengths and genres of focus.

Know your target audience

Identify your target audience for your writing portfolio, as this can help determine the specific writing samples you include and how you organize them. Keep in mind that you should tailor your portfolio to suit the needs of your potential clients or employers. Print on demand allows you to swap in and out samples that best align with each client or employer—or you can tailor your digital portfolio with specific landing pages for each application or industry.

Keep it clean, simple, and error-free

Your writing portfolio should be easy to navigate, visually appealing, and error-free. Use a simple design and make sure your writing samples are well-organized and clearly presented. Your portfolio’s overall design layout and format will help readers digest its contents. 

And since you’re a writer, typos are usually unforgivable. Get a friend or mentor (or both!) to proof your work before you send it out.

Create digital and print writing portfolios

There are many pros and cons for digital and hardcopy portfolio books . While having a digital writing portfolio might be needed for digital applications and remote positions, a print version will definitely have you standing out while attending in-person meetings and interviews. Ultimately, the decision should depend on your personal preference, the needs of your target audience, and your intended usage of the portfolio.

However, we’d suggest both. You’ll need digital samples to get through the initial stage of most applications, but few things are more impressive than a perfectly bound physical portfolio in face-to-face interactions.

Keep your writing portfolio up-to-date

Your writing should always be fresh and relevant, so don’t forget to regularly update the contents of your portfolio with new pieces or achievements. Also, it’s a great idea to tailor your portfolio for each interview. Doing this will help demonstrate your interest and commitment to the company or client.

What makes a strong writing portfolio?

Certain characteristics make for standout writing portfolios. Consider these five cornerstones of strong portfolios:

• Showcase the depth and diversity of your writing ability, including various genres and styles, to help demonstrate your versatility and range as a writer.
• Maintain consistency in your tone and presentation throughout your portfolio, even if you showcase work with different styles for different brands.
• Feature work most relevant to your primary target audience and the type of writing jobs you want to land in the future.
• Choose the most engaging writing samples that reflect your style and focus, highlighting your marketable attributes and unique skillset.
• Assemble your portfolio in a clear, cohesive, and organized manner, making it easy for readers to navigate and absorb your content.

Above all, remember that your writing portfolio reflects you and your abilities as a writer. Take the time to create something unique and memorable. We believe in you!

If you’re interested in creating a print version of your writing portfolio, Blurb offers the tools to make a professional, bookstore-quality portfolio book that will impress. 

Get started using a beautifully designed portfolio template, or create your own custom layout. Not only can you print as many books as you need on demand, but you can choose from a variety of formats, from large layflat portfolio books to smaller and more affordable options that make great leave-behinds.

portfolio , writing portfolio

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The Portfolio – Culminating Activity (Your Final)

Portfolio assignment.

EN 111 Final Portfolio

The portfolio is a selection of work that demonstrates your writing abilities and knowledge about writing and critical thinking at the close of EN 111. For the purposes of this class, this assignment will be considered the final.

What goes in the Portfolio?

• Title page (title + optional picture and/or quote)
• Reflective Essay (~2 pages)
• A final (2nd) draft copy of all essays completed during the semester (Experience, Compare/Contrast, Issues) and the prior drafts for all essays.
• Selected Artifacts (2-3)

You should title the portfolio in a way that captures your sense of yourself as a writer and critical thinker at this point in your educational journey. You can include a picture and/or quote on the title page as well. A quote can come from anywhere (any text, movie, lyrics, etc.) but should illustrate your perspective about writing and/or critical thinking. You will discuss the significance of your title (picture and quote too if you included them) in your Reflective Essay.

Reflective Essay for Portfolio

The Reflective Essay is a self-assessment that examines the entire body of your work (all of your writing up to this point) rather than a single subject and/or inquiry thread. Your task is to examine, or reflect on , your own writing and situate your observations and interpretations within the context of our discussions about writing and critical thinking skills. The portfolio, in essence, is a presentation—a somewhat persuasive demonstration illustrating how you approached writing and critical thinking before EN 111, and how you see yourself, as a writer and thinker, now, in relation to these same abilities/skills at the close of the course.

What goes in the Reflective Essay?

This essay should be a fairly polished and focused piece of writing that supports its claims and reflections with specific evidence (i.e. cite yourself). It will run ~2 pages in length. All reflective essays should take into account the following, but not necessarily in the order presented here:

• The significance of your title (and picture and quote, if included).
• What you now understand about effective writing and how it is achieved and what the portfolio reveals about your writing and your abilities to think on paper. (Refer to your included essays and selected artifacts).
• What you now understand about writing and critical inquiry that this portfolio might not reveal. (You may understand more than your portfolio reveals).
• What the portfolio reveals about you as a writer and critical thinker at this point in your educational journey (Refer to your included essays and selected artifacts).
• What challenges you continue to face as writer and critical thinker. (What is hard for you? In what areas have you gotten stronger and more confident? What immediate goals have you set for yourself as you continue to develop as a writer and critical thinker?)
• (Optional) Discuss, document, and evaluate the extent to which you were actively engaged in this class (i.e. determine how much time/effort you put into this course and whether your writing reflects that same time/effort).

You are to include final (2nd) draft copies (at minimum) of all the essays you have written in this course. In including your essays, you will be expected to discuss why you have included them in your Reflective Essay, and explain specifically what they illustrate about you as a writer and critical thinker. As such, I recommend that you discuss how the essays reveal your analytical skills at work—your abilities to develop, examine, and communicate an informed perspective.

Selected Artifacts

I am asking you to include 2-3 artifacts from the course (or outside of EN 111) that are significant to, and reflective of, you in terms of yourself as a writer and critical thinker. You may select anything from your Informal Writing Collection (freewrites, peer exchanges, etc.), your formal writing (part of your essay(s), or parts of them as a sequence from the first draft to the final draft stage) or other texts (a particular paper or assignment from another class you found pertinent to your overall growth).

How Do I Submit It?

You should submit the portfolio, in the dropbox on the preceding page,  as a Word document or a PDF so that I may open it in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• Portfolio Assignment. Authored by : Jason Brown. Provided by : Herkimer College. Project : AtD OER Course. License : CC BY: Attribution

WEBSITE ESSENTIALS

12 best writing portfolio examples and how to create your own

• Brandi Hunter

Get started by: Creating a website →  | Getting a domain →

When it comes to starting a business  around your writing, visibility is everything. The more well-curated and attention-grabbing your writing is, the higher the chance that potential clients and publications will notice your talent. Making a website  that presents your writing portfolio can help introduce the industry to your talent and invite new work.

You may be thinking, “I’m a writer, not a website designer”—that’s where Wix can help. Its templates and beginner-friendly website builder make getting started as straightforward as it can get. To get the creative juices flowing, here are 12 writing portfolio examples from Wix users. Later on, we’ll provide a more straightforward step-by-step guide to building your own.

Start building your online portfolio  with Wix today.

12 writing portfolio examples

Jed Donahue

Sam Carlson Creative

Lauryn Higgins

Jessica Van Devanter

Madison Gray

Jane-Ellen Robinet

Christina Sterbenz

Bryn Dippold

Charlotte Kho

Emma Newell

Maddie Pfeiffer

Rachel A.G. Gilman

01. Jed Donahue

Jed Donahue’s website is a great example of how speaking to your client’s pain points can compel them to reach out. The homepage header copy, “When you need great content, I’m here to help,” focuses on the customer’s needs. Testimonials from previous clients provide proof that Jed can deliver results. Meanwhile, the “What I can do for you” section gives a practical breakdown of the workflow and services that clients can expect.

02. Sam Carlson

Sam Carlson takes his writing portfolio a step further by putting his client work front and center. He highlights his creative flair and prowess as a copywriter by including engaging introductions for each case study. Every project page boasts a concise and clever summary, followed by the client's logo and key project assets. Additionally, his "Fun" page, which presents his personal projects, offers a glimpse of his hobbies and talents outside of writing.

03. Lauryn Higgins

If you, like Lauryn Higgins , have an extensive writing portfolio that includes several bylines with well-known media companies, you can strategically add publication logos to your website and link them to your author pages to show off your credibility. On her “Awards and Publications” page, she features snapshots of some of her best clips, along with several awards.

04. Jessica Van Devanter 

If you don’t have any visual content to display and don’t want to go through the process of finding a set of free-to-use visuals that match your branding and content, take a look at Jessica Van Devanter’s writing portfolio. By making the site’s design the focal point, she bypasses the need for external graphics or images that may not align with her branding. 

Her logo, a shrewd-looking fox, serves as the background for the large header, which captures the viewer's attention upon arrival. Below it, a mountain graphic underlays the main content area, providing a sense of continuity without overpowering the text. 

The structure of each page is reminiscent of a timeline, with her written works positioned as milestones, guiding visitors through her professional journey. The bright green and white font colors provide a deliberate contrast against the muted blue background, ensuring readability and drawing the eye to her written work.

Use Wix’s logo maker  to start building out your personal brand.

05. Madison Gray

As a writer and an artist, Madison Gray masterfully demonstrates both skill sets throughout her portfolio. Pairing her highlighted works with original images draws visitors in and creates a visually engaging narrative of her talents. Each project page indicates which skills she utilized to complete the project, offering a comprehensive understanding of her multifaceted abilities.

06. Jane-Ellen Robinet  

Jane-Ellen Robinet limits her writing portfolio to a page to help website visitors get the information they need quickly. The above-the-fold section summarizes her unique value proposition (“INSIGHT + PERSPECTIVE + EXPERIENCE”) and provides specific job titles for the services she provides (“Editor | Writer”). The header features anchor links to each section of the page to ensure easy navigation. 

07. Christina Sterbenz

Rather than categorizing work by publications, Christina Sterbenz structures her portfolio page around writing topics and pairs each section with a compelling image from one of the relevant clips. This strategy adds visual appeal and gives each topic a personal touch, making the stories more approachable and intriguing to visitors. The images, paired with informative captions, humanize the subjects, enticing readers to delve deeper into her work.

In terms of website design, the portfolio benefits from a clean layout and a modern, minimalist font, which together enhance the site's readability and aesthetic appeal. Visitors can effortlessly scan the pages, finding what they are looking for without feeling overwhelmed. Additionally, the consistent use of design motifs—such as circles and lines throughout the site—contributes to a cohesive and memorable brand identity.

Like this format? Use this creative CV website template  to get started.

08. Bryn Dippold  

Bryn Dippold uses Wix’s blog maker  to showcase her work samples. This approach of republishing content directly on her portfolio, rather than merely linking out to external publications, serves as a strategic method for keeping visitors on her site for longer and providing a comprehensive view of her work.

Many Wix website templates already come with an integrated blog. Alternatively, you can choose to add the blog feature to any template, tailoring it to fit your unique style. Wix allows you to customize the blog settings, enabling you to curate and present your best work in a manner that aligns with your professional image and goals. 

09. Charlotte Kho 

Charlotte Kho uses neutral colors, layered design elements and striking imagery to introduce herself as a digital and creative storyteller. The “Resume” page provides a lot of information, but its clean layout is easy on the eyes, and you have the option to download her CV. On the “Work” page, Charlotte offers a small selection of her best work, plus links to view more of her published pieces.

Like this layout? Make it your own as Charlotte did by customizing this business CV website template .

10. Emma Newell 

Emma Newell's website demonstrates a balance of simplicity and engaging elements, creating a visually appealing and user-friendly experience. The site employs subtle animations that add a dynamic touch without overwhelming the visitor. Notably, when you click on any link in the menu bar, the content below appears to swipe out of view as new content takes its place. This seamless effect maintains the homepage's structure and provides an uninterrupted browsing experience.

11. Maddie Pfeifer

Maddie Pfeifer effectively leads with her experience by featuring her resume on the homepage. It details her past work, highlights her skillset and lists the awards she has received in the course of her career. We appreciate that she prominently placed her contact information above the fold for easy accessibility.

Her website is a model of organization, making excellent use of Wix’s advanced menu features . The dropdown functionality in her navigation bar allows for an expanded array of options, enhancing the user experience. Visitors, when exploring the “Portfolio” page link, are greeted with the option to select content categories like “Event coverage” or “Crime & courts,” tailoring their browsing to their interests.

12. Rachel A.G. Gilman 

Rachel A.G. Gilman elevates her homepage's simplicity with a playful, animated headshot, contrasting colors and a classic font choice, creating a dynamic first impression. Under the “Writing” tab, her comprehensive archive is meticulously sorted into distinct categories, making it easy to sift through her published work and accomplishments.

How to make a writing portfolio of your own

After exploring some of the best portfolio website examples , you’re probably eager to get started on learning how to make a portfolio  of your own. Whether you're a seasoned writer or just getting started, these tips will help you present your work in a way that captivates and communicates your unique voice and skills. 

01. Identify your target audience

To properly tailor your site design to your audience, you need to identify who you’re looking to impress. For instance, if you’re using this type of website  to pitch to editors, you might consider spotlighting your best features or most impressive bylines. On the other hand, if you’re cultivating a professional portfolio  for freelance clients, you might want to put testimonials or a list of services front and center.

02. Establish your goals 

Setting clear goals is crucial to track your progress and success. If your objective is to boost engagement with freelance clients, you might measure this by the number of inquiries or project offers you receive through your portfolio site. On the other hand, if increasing your visibility as a writer online is your goal, you could focus on monitoring website traffic, page views, or how long visitors stay on your site. Regularly assessing these aspects will help you understand what's effective and what needs improvement in your portfolio.

03. Choose the right platform

When looking for a platform for your online presence, choose a portfolio website builder  that aligns with your technical ability and the amount of time you can dedicate to maintenance. Although creating a bespoke website might be impressive and a simple clippings curator (such as Muck Rack) would be convenient, it’s a better idea to go for a builder that combines the best of both worlds, offering both customizability and convenience. 

With Wix, you’ll have hundreds of customizable templates to choose from and AI tools that make designing and filling it with images a breeze. Furthermore, Wix enriches your website with features like built-in forms, custom email addresses, and newsletter capabilities, ensuring you can easily connect with your audience and maintain those connections effortlessly.

Check out this selection of Wix website templates for writers .

04. Decide how you want to structure your showcase

When building the “Works” or “Clips” section of your online writing portfolio, your focus should be on showcasing your writing as well as highlighting the outlets you've collaborated with. Select pieces that represent your best work and reflect the type of work you aspire to continue doing. Remember, it's always about quality over quantity. A handful of outstanding pieces will have a greater impact than a multitude of average ones.

If you're at the beginning of your career and lack professional bylines, don't hesitate to include your best work from college or independent projects. Additionally, consider starting a blog that reflects the kind of work you aim to do professionally. 

05. Build an archive

Imagine losing your most valued work if a website goes down or a publisher removes your article. To prevent this, create an archive on your portfolio site. By uploading and publishing posts using the Wix content management system, you not only safeguard your work but also boost your site’s SEO and engage visitors more effectively. However, remember to check your contracts, as some publishers may restrict this. If time is limited, consider downloading your articles as PDFs and linking to them on a dedicated page. It's best to maintain this archive separately from your featured works, ensuring they continue to be the main attraction.

06. Flesh out the rest of your site

Your writing portfolio is more than just your work; it's a complete presentation of your professional persona. Each page on your site plays a critical role in telling your story. Here's how to make them count:

Home: The homepage is your portfolio's front door, welcoming and guiding visitors. It's crucial that this page clearly communicates what you offer as a writer. Make sure visitors can instantly understand your area of expertise and writing style.

About: On your “About” page, detail your professional journey, educational background and skill set. This page is an excellent place to infuse personality into your resume. Consider including a PDF version of your resume so hiring managers can add it to their databases.

Contact:  The “Contact” page is your open invitation for communication. Offer multiple methods to reach you, such as a contact form and an email address. Consider using scheduling software  to make it easy for potential clients to set up consultation calls. 

When writing the copy for these pages, make sure your tone is consistent, engaging and speaks to your desired audience. If incorporating imagery, make sure they’re high-quality, complement the text and reinforce your professional image. Each element should seamlessly blend to form a cohesive and inviting online presence.

07. Test and publish

Broken links, grammatical errors or faulty contact forms may lead visitors to doubt the quality of your work or discourage them from reaching out. Make sure to do a thorough assessment of your site, and consider sharing your writing portfolio with others to get their feedback.

08. Update your website

Regularly update your portfolio with your latest work. This keeps your site fresh and shows potential clients your active involvement and range of skills. A current portfolio can also inspire new project ideas among visitors.

Top tips for your writing portfolio

When it comes to planning, creating and maintaining your writing portfolio, there are a number of tips to help you create a great one.

Tailor your portfolio to the specific writing niche or genre you're pursuing. Include samples that demonstrate your expertise and writing style in that area. Your writing portfolio is a showcase of how well you with with words and content, make sure it reflects that to the best of your ability and experience.

Prioritize showcasing your strongest writing samplespieces, even if it means having fewer samples. Choose work that highlights your skills, versatility, and ability to meet client expectations.

Each piece in your portfolio should tell a story. Briefly explain the project's context, your approach, the challenges faced and the outcomes achieved.

Include testimonials from satisfied clients for the purpose of adding social proof and to demonstrate the quality of your work.

Make your portfolio easy to navigate. Use a clear menu, categorize your work and implement smooth transitions between pages.

Let your personality and writing style shine through. Use visuals, tone of voice, and layout to create a cohesive and memorable brand identity that reflects you and your work.

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This Is the Easiest Way for Anyone to Get Into Digital Painting

This hidden google docs feature makes find & replace much more powerful, 7 ways i've improved my spotify recommendations.

As a freelance writer, it's beneficial to have a portfolio of your work, so potential clients can review your work and learn about your area of expertise. Before starting to work on your portfolio, you should consider the writing you want to do.

Whether you're a copywriter, a ghostwriter, writing literature, or a journalist, that should be clear when people view your portfolio. One of the first things to consider when creating your portfolio is your niche, and determining your niche can help you select your articles and the layout.

6 Steps to Creating Your Writing Portfolio

Here are the six steps to creating a writing portfolio that will help you get noticed by readers and potential clients:

1. Choose a Portfolio Host

In today's virtual world, having an online portfolio is a must for most creatives. You get to decide whether you want to host your portfolio on your website or prefer to have another company host it.

You can create your portfolio using a platform like Wix, Weebly, or WordPress. If you'd rather have your portfolio hosted by a site specializing in online portfolios, you can choose from sites such as Clippings, WriterFolio, or JournoPortfolio. You might be interested in these free platforms to showcase your freelance writing portfolio .

2. Determine Your Niche

If you're struggling with selecting the type of writing you want to focus on, it may be a good idea to review your previous work and see which ones had the most impact, response, and reach. If you want to focus on ghostwriting, you may want to clarify what type of content you can write. This can range from real estate to gardening, holistic medicine, or another industry in which you have writing experience.

As a copywriter, do you enjoy creating sales pages and other marketing copy, like landing pages, newsletters, and email sequences? What kind of literature do you write if you're a literary writer? You can focus on romance, fantasy, horror, or any other genre. What type of news do you write about if you're a journalist? Do you write about current events, celebrity gossip, or financial or political news? The possibilities are endless.

3. Create Your Author Bio

Your author bio aims to introduce yourself to potential clients who enjoy your work and want to learn more about you. The content you include in your bio should match the formatting and design of the website. The elements you should consider including are:

• Where you're from originally.
• Where you call home currently.
• Your academic writing credentials, if applicable.
• Your notable publications.
• Any accolades and awards you've won.
• The subjects or themes you cover.

You can include your social media links if you're comfortable, and they highlight more of your written work. If you're creating your site for the portfolio, you can choose to include the bio on an about page or have it as your homepage.

You may consider adding a photograph of you since it can increase the chances of people reaching out to you. You may be interested in learning tips on how to write an about me page in your online portfolio .

4. Select Your Best Work

Once you've decided on the niche you want to focus on, you can review your completed work and choose the best content that fits that specialization. You can include work past clients have succeeded with and their feedback.

Your potential clients want confirmation that you can produce well-written content about the content you're stating is your specialization. It may be helpful to verify the terms of the work you've written to determine whether you can post the entire content as a part of your portfolio or if you'll have to provide links.

If you provide links, specify the publication and when it was published. You might be interested in learning how Google Docs can help organize your writing portfolio for the next step.

5. Organize Your Work Into Segments

You can divide the work you want to include in your portfolio by niche, or the type of article, using clear descriptions. Categorizing your work makes it easier for potential clients to find samples of the work they're looking to hire you for when you separate them by niche or type. Examples of categories include landing page copy, white papers, and blog posts, to name a few.

Your descriptions for your categories should be brief. If the content you want to share was done as a ghostwriter and didn't include your byline, you should include the term ghostwriter in the work description to clarify it.

6. Ensure Your Contact Information Is Easy to Find

Your online portfolio must make it easy for potential customers to connect with you. Whether they want to express appreciation for an article you wrote or wish to discuss a business opportunity with you, finding your number or an email address shouldn't be challenging.

Engaging with as many people as possible is an excellent way to expand your online profile. You can use a contact form on your website, or you can provide your email address.

The key is to ensure that the information is visible and easy to access, whether they're using their phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer. If you decide to share an email address, you may want to create a new account, since having an email published publicly can leave you vulnerable to excessive amounts of spam.

Writing Portfolio Examples

Before you begin creating your portfolio, reviewing what some writers have created for themselves may be helpful. You may also want to check out the blogs every freelance writer should read to get some inspiration, regardless of how long you've been writing. Here are some examples of writer portfolios with some commentary on their design:

1. Elna Cain

Elna's portfolio tells you that she's the writer you're looking for to meet your business needs. She lists publications where readers can find her work and shares testimonials from past clients.

She has numerous ways to connect with her, whether you want to discuss business opportunities or follow her online. She also has a link to her blog, so you can stay current on her work.

2. Tyler Koenig

Tyler uses his website to add value with an email list, courses, webinars, and tips on his blog. He has paid and free resources, highlighting his expertise to potential clients. The site is well-designed and easy to navigate.

3. Jennifer Fernandez

Jennifer uses a grid-based theme to display links to her writing samples, using a title and a thumbnail photo for each. She organized her writing samples in sections based on her lifestyle, design, and travel content niche. Jennifer showcases the type of writing she has experience in and makes browsing easy.

Get Started With Your Creative Writing Portfolio

Before you make your portfolio live, you may want to review it and have friends or colleagues look at it. Sometimes we can be so close to our project that we miss little things. The last thing you want is to publish a writer's portfolio with spelling or grammar mistakes.

If you're looking for work, you want to get as many eyes as possible on it to increase your chances of getting hired. You might be interested in learning how to source clients as a freelance writer now that you have a portfolio to share.

• Work & Career
• Writing Tips
• Online Portfolio

The Reflective Essay

The reflective essay serves two key purposes in your portfolio:

• First, it gives your reviewers some insight into your development as a writer and the role writing has played in your Carleton education.
• Second, it allows you to tell your readers about each individual essay in the portfolio–where and how you came to write it, why you included it, what it reveals about you as a writer, etc.
• Third, and perhaps most importantly, writing the reflective essay allows you, the writer, to stop and consider what you have gained from your varied writing experiences at Carleton and how you intend to develop your skills going forward.

These three purposes mean that the reflective essay is perhaps the most important single component of your portfolio. Since it’s the only item you will write exclusively for the portfolio, it’s the only opportunity you will have to connect directly with your reviewers and draw their attention to the most important qualities of your writing. Furthermore, the reflective essay provides you an opportunity to take stock of your own writing and draw your own conclusions about its strengths and weaknesses, rather than relying on the assessments of your professors. Thus, the amount of time and effort you put into your reflective essay will often determine whether you find the portfolio process to be a valuable experience or just another hurdle on the way to graduation.

The questions below should serve as a guide for your reflective essay. You do not have to address the questions in any particular order, nor do you have to give them all equal time and attention (though you should try to address them all in some way).    Furthermore, if any of the questions simply do not apply to your experience, feel free to skip them or reframe them. In the end, your reflective essay as a whole should read as just that—a single essay with a clear flow of ideas throughout, not a series of short responses to each of the questions below. The primary goal here is to provide your readers with useful context for your writing, not to answer these particular questions in this particular order.

• Note: these need not be specifically writing skills, just skills that helped you as a writer . For instance, you may have found that your time management skills were a significant asset as you began to tackle college-level writing assignments.
• What challenges (if any) did you face in meeting the expectations for writing in your Carleton classes? How did you meet these challenges?
• How have you grown or developed as a writer over the past two years?  How has the writing you’ve completed fit into your overall progress as a student, scholar, or thinker at Carleton?
• How do you expect writing to fit into your academic work in the future? What aspects of your writing do you plan to develop further?

Your reflective essay should also explain how each of the essays you selected from your Carleton classes fits into the overall narrative of your development as a writer. You can address this over the course of the essay, as part of the overall narrative or argument, or you can include a series of paragraphs at the end of the essay that addresses each piece in turn. Either way, some questions you might address here are:

• How does each essay demonstrate major skills you’ve acquired or improved? (These do not necessarily need to line up with the portfolio requirements — analysis, interpretation, observation, etc. — you can also just state in your own words what you feel you gained from writing each essay.)
• Do one or more of them represent significant “turning points” or moments in your development as a writer?  
• Do one or more of them illustrate something about your individual style or approach to writing?

You should write at least a sentence or two about each essay in the portfolio, but you can certainly write more if you have more to say about a given piece. Regardless of how much you write about each essay, though, it is extremely important that you address what each piece brings to the portfolio, because this allows your readers understand what  you  want them to see when they review your work.

Length and Format

There is no minimum or maximum length for the reflective essay, but as a general guideline, it should be roughly 500-1200 words (~2-3 standard, double-spaced pages). Anything less than 500 words and you are unlikely to address the key ideas in enough depth to engage your readers. Anything more than 1200 words and readers are likely to begin “skimming” fairly heavily as they read.

Regardless of length, your reflective essay should be double-spaced and written in an easily readable 12-point font.

Titles are encouraged, but not required, though you should at the very least clearly label the document “Reflective Essay” at the top.

Additional Guidelines

Your reflective essay should:.

• Make an overall argument about how you have developed as a writer since your first term at Carleton.
• Use details from your personal experience to support your conclusions.
• Address how each of your essays in some way illustrates your development.
• Be roughly 500-1000 words long (roughly 2-3 double-spaced pages).
• Maintain a generally academic tone. It’s okay to be light or even humorous in your essay, but you should avoid being glib or dismissive of the portfolio process.
• Stay focused on your experience — i.e. it should not read as an evaluation of your individual classes or Carleton as a whole (though you’re free to express positive or negative opinions about the college that are relevant to your experience).

Your Reflective essay should NOT:

• For example, you might mention that an essay came from your A&I course in order to explain how it illustrates some of the writing abilities you brought with you from high school, but also illustrates some weaknesses in your writing that you improved upon in later essays–ideally essays that are also included in the portfolio.
• Simply restate basic ethos of the college (e.g. “I believe that writing is essential in a liberal arts education…”) without explaining how these ideas apply to your experience. Your goal is not to prove that you have internalized the “Carleton philosophy” of liberal arts education and the importance of writing. Rather, your readers want to see how you have experienced and grown from your time here.

Your Reflective Essay CAN:

• Point out areas where your writing has improved over time. You might, for example, acknowledge that a more recent essay in your portfolio has a better argument or more refined language than an essay from several terms back.
• Discuss your experiences as a writer before Carleton, particularly if you transferred to Carleton from another college or university.
• Recognize particular challenges you’ve faced in developing your writing skills, such as learning English as a second language or not having significant experience with academic writing before Carleton.
• Express criticisms or disappointments with your experiences at Carleton. While you should keep your audience (Carleton faculty and staff) and the context (an assessment of your academic writing skills) in mind, you do not have to be a “cheerleader” for Carleton. If you feel that there are gaps or shortcomings in the education you’ve received over the past few years that have made it more challenging for you to develop your writing skills in the way you wished to, you are welcome to say so.

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How to Write a Portfolio Introduction

Last Updated: June 21, 2024 References

This article was co-authored by Shannon O'Brien, MA, EdM . Shannon O'Brien is the Founder and Principal Advisor of Whole U. (a career and life strategy consultancy based in Boston, MA). Through advising, workshops and e-learning Whole U. empowers people to pursue their life's work and live a balanced, purposeful life. Shannon has been ranked as the #1 Career Coach and #1 Life Coach in Boston, MA by Yelp reviewers. She has been featured on Boston.com, Boldfacers, and the UR Business Network. She received a Master's of Technology, Innovation, & Education from Harvard University. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 375,011 times.

The introduction to your portfolio is a great way to tell your readers who you are and briefly explain what you'll be talking about. If you're using your portfolio to attract customers, it's important to give a few examples of professional accomplishments and make your introduction stand out by adding a couple of personal details. If you're writing an educational portfolio, summarize your main talking points and explain what makes you stand out. Don't forget to edit your introduction once you're finished so it looks professional!

Tips for Writing a Portfolio Introduction

Begin by introducing yourself and your credentials. Include a few brief summaries of your work so readers get an idea of what you’re capable of. Add a few fun facts about yourself to give your portfolio a friendly, yet professional tone. Remember to proofread when you’re done writing.

Template for a Portfolio Introduction

Writing an Introduction for a Professional Portfolio

• You might say, “I’m Kelly Smith, and I design websites for small businesses. While I’m based in Austin, Texas, I help build websites for people all over the world.”

• You might say something like, “Over the past five years as a photographer, I've taken pictures for graduation ceremonies, weddings, and birth announcements."
• Choose experiences where you were in charge of the project, or that had a positive impact on you and your company.

• Keep the personal details short and to the point, as their main purpose is to add a little life to your introduction.
• You could mention you have three children, love cooking, or learned to code when you were seven years old.

• Avoid using slang in your introduction to make it more presentable.
• Write in the first person for a more personal feel.
• Keeping your introduction conversational will make people more likely to feel like they can reach out to you.

• Wear professional clothing related to your job, and smile in the picture to look friendly and welcoming.
• Make sure the picture isn’t blurry or too dark.

• Check the layout of your introduction if it's online, making sure all of the wording and any pictures show up normally.

Writing an Introduction for an Educational Portfolio

• For example, you could say, “My name is Steve Johnson, and my portfolio is a representation of all that I've learned and accomplished as a science and engineering student."
• This should only be 1-3 sentences. You can write in the first person to engage your reader the most.

• Avoid listing everything you’ll be talking about in the portfolio. Instead, you can use a table of contents for this.
• Include any major themes you'll be talking about, or the main message of your portfolio.

• You might write that your student experience is unique because you’ve spent 3 years working in a lab researching cancer, or your poetry is published in several different magazines across the country.
• Include this near the end of your introduction to keep it fresh in the reader's mind.

• Roughly 2-3 paragraphs is an ideal introduction length.

• If your teacher didn’t give you any guidelines, ask them if there are specific things they want you to include.

• Reading your introduction out loud can help you find any mistakes you might have missed.

Expert Q&A

• Use fonts that are readable and professional-looking, such as Times New Roman. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0
• Mention any awards or special accolades you've received, if desired. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0
• Talk about a few of your strengths to make yourself stand out. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://skillcrush.com/2013/03/25/the-five-essential-ingredients-of-a-great-online-portfolio/
• ↑ Shannon O'Brien, MA, EdM. Life & Career Coach. Expert Interview. 24 September 2021.
• ↑ https://www.format.com/magazine/resources/photography/online-portfolio-about-page-step-by-step-guide
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrBRfKvLQhY#t=40s
• ↑ https://www.theclassroom.com/write-introduction-educational-portfolio-8681477.html
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrBRfKvLQhY
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5TN2wvWCKA

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How to Build a Writing Portfolio with No Experience (+ 10 Great Examples)

Jessica Michael

So you're a writer, and you want to take your writing career to the next level. What kinds of tools do you need to start landing jobs and clients ?

One of the first things you'll need is an online writing portfolio. In this article, we'll share how to build a writing portfolio that will impress clients and employers, even if you have no experience.

What is a writing portfolio?

At its most basic, a writing portfolio is a collection of your writing samples that you can share with potential clients and employers. Often, it will also include information about you, your work and educational background, and the types of writing services you provide.

Most writing portfolios are online writing portfolios hosted on websites. This makes it exceptionally easy to share and to update. It also makes it into a marketing tool, as you can connect your social media and add things like email sign-ups to your portfolio.

What should a writing portfolio look like?

A writing portfolio can be a website with a single scrollable page that includes bio, work samples, and contact information. Or, it can include multiple pages that display your work and other information separately. You can make your portfolio as complex as you like, as long as it's well-organized and easy to navigate.

It's important to remember that the purpose of an online writing portfolio is to showcase your writing skills, so you don't want to create a portfolio design that's so elaborate that it's hard to tell what it's about. That being said, writing portfolios that create visual interest through photos, graphics, logos, and color schemes are more impactful.

How to create a writing portfolio

As you choose your layout, design elements, and color scheme, you want to keep your brand identity in mind and create an aesthetic that matches. You'll also want to keep it consistent across your site. This is easier if you use a website builder with pre-designed templates and themes, so you don't have to think about it.

Website builders that feature templates for portfolios, or website builders such as Journo Portfolio that are specifically for portfolios, make it easy to upload your information and design a professional-looking and complete portfolio within a short period of time.

All you have to do is gather the material you want to upload to your portfolio!

What to put in a writing portfolio

1. about me.

An About Me section or page talks about your writing experience, educational background, and writing style. You can add a few personal details to make it more personable and we always recommend a professional bio photo.

2. Work Samples

This is the most important part of a writing portfolio, whether you're designing a creative writing portfolio, a content writing portfolio, or a digital marketing portfolio. You'll only want to include your best work here.

3. Contact Info

Clients and employers need a way to contact you if they want to work with you, so add a contact page or email address .

4. Services

Some writers like to include a detailed breakdown of the services they provide, with or without pricing included.

A more detailed CV is great to link to your writing portfolio if you are looking for in-house work or you have relevant expertise stemming from your work experience.

6. Social Media Buttons

Including links to your social media accounts turns your writing portfolio into a marketing tool. Just make sure you only link to your business accounts .

A blog is another great way to use your portfolio for marketing, and it can add more writing samples for clients to check out.

8. Embedded video or audio clips

This feature is especially important if you write content for multimedia platforms such as scripts or ads. Make sure the website builder you choose allows for this option.

9. Testimonials

Nothing is more convincing than testimonials from previous clients, employers, or editors!

10. Case studies

Case studies take one project from inception to completion, showing each step along the way. This shows clients that you can take on more complex projects and gives you a chance to show how you work.

How to build a writing portfolio with no experience

Creating a writing portfolio with no experience can seem overwhelming, but you probably already have most of what you need, like an About Me and contact information. You may even already know what kinds of services you want to provide and have created social media accounts for your work.

The most common issue is not having enough work samples.

There are a few great ways to create work samples for your writing portfolio even if you've never been published.

Mock work samples- As long as you define that the work sample is a mock-up, these work great for building out writing samples for the type of work you want to do. If you're stymied, there's also multiple online programs that can help you build out mock samples.

Mock case studies- Similar to above, you can use a faux company to create a detailed case study that exemplifies the type of work you do.'

Including a blog- Including a blog on your site means you can self-publish articles through your portfolio that can act as samples.

Guest posting- You can also guest post on other people's blogs to add to your credentials.

Writing projects through school or training- You may already have some impressive writing samples from your schooling or through writing certification programs you've taken.

Remember, most people are going to be looking at the quality of your writing and not the number of publications you've been in or the number of companies you've worked with. Spend time developing quality work samples and you'll soon find yourself landing clients and getting published!

10 brilliant writing portfolio examples

1. beth fand incollingo.

Beth is a freelance content marketing writer who specializes in Health and Sciences writing and messaging for universities and academic institutions.

Best Features: Beth has divided her work samples onto separate writing portfolio examples pages. Her health and sciences articles, university articles, and human interest articles all get their space to shine. This not only shows potential marketing clients that she has a depth of experience in multiple areas, but it also makes it easy for them to find writing samples specific to the type of work they want her to do.

Pro Tip: Create consistency across portfolio pages by using the same grid design. This keeps pages clean and connected.

2. Anthony Coppola

Anthony Coppola is a certified technical writer and screenwriter.

Best Features: In order to create technical writing samples for his online writing portfolio, Anthony invented a mock software company named SEIFER. He then wrote multiple examples of technical writing products such as a user guide and brand style guide to showcase how he would handle those types of technical writing projects from a client.

Pro Tip: Using one mock company to showcase a variety of writing skills while maintaining brand consistency is a great way for new or transitioning writers to create writing samples for their portfolio.

3. Triana Garrett

Triana is a content writer and ghostwriter with over 5+ years of experience in a multitude of industries.

Best Features: Triana has used her writing portfolio to not only display her writing samples but to create a clear brand identity. Using an elegant and intriguing black and gray aesthetic, she creates visual interest across pages. She also has a recognizable brand voice that she uses throughout her text. 

Pro Tip: If you have wide ranging experience or an extensive professional background, try linking your CV with all the details rather than attempting to stuff all that information onto your About page. This keeps your portfolio clean while still giving clients access to your full credentials.

4. Rochelle Messner

Rochelle Messner is a copywriter with over a decade of experience with both in-house and freelance copywriting.

Best Features: Because Rochelle has worked across multiple industries, she focuses on the types of copywriting that she does with a list of her services on her home page. She's also created separate writing sample portfolio pages that are likewise divided by project type (blog writing, website copywriting, etc). These are nested under Copywriting Services in her Nav menu which keeps it clean and easy to find.

Pro Tip: Rochelle's home page features a great graphic logo that immediately gets your attention and defines her brand. Even though a writing portfolio is about writing, it's important to create visual interest for visitors to your writing portfolio website.

5. Rachel Oliver

Rachel is a brand strategist and creative copywriter who has worked with national broadcasters and charities.

Best Features: Rachel has made her writing portfolio super accessible by including an FAQ, defining in detail her writing process, and including a "Why work with me?" section that talks about her work philosophy. This makes her portfolio seem conversational, and with the inclusion of buttons that lead to her contact page, she is just an email away.

Pro Tip: Rachel offers a free 30-minute consultation, which she makes easy to book by including a button that leads to her contact page. Making it easy to connect with you makes it much more likely that a potential client will reach out.

6. Alanna Reid

Alanna Reid is a creative writer and screenwriter in the UK.

Best Features: Because Alanna's creative writing portfolio focuses on their creative fiction, nonfiction, and screenwriting, they've designed a portfolio that's equally unique and imaginative by featuring a collage art header and footer. They keep the rest of the design simple, so the art can speak for itself, which also keeps the website easy to read.

Pro Tip: Alanna includes an impressive award they received on their homepage, so it's one of the first things a visitor sees. Showcasing your accolades and awards on your landing page is a great way to immediately establish validity for your work.

7. Amy Rutter

Amy is a copywriter and copy editor with a post-graduate diploma in magazine journalism.

Best Features: Amy takes full advantage of her About Me page by building it out into sections. She covers her educational background, why she started writing, and her writing experience. She even includes a "Three fun facts" section, which gives potential clients a little more info about her personality. She sticks to her own well-developed brand voice, which is a great way to show clients that you understand brand messaging while letting them get to know more about your style.

Pro Tip: Amy includes brand photos as part of her online writing portfolio. It may cost a bit to work with a photographer, but it helps evoke an immediate sense of professionalism. 

8. Amanda Monterroso

Amanda Monterroso is a freelance content writer and copy editor with a background in creative writing.

Best Features: Amanda includes a Services page where she outlines the writing services she provides. She includes a brief intro with each service that provides information on her approach as well as a list of the types of projects she works on (white papers, social media copy, etc). This makes it easy for a potential client to understand what Amanda has to offer and how she approaches her work.

Pro Tip: In case there isn't an example of the type of project a client may be looking for on Amanda's Portfolio page, she includes her contact information at the top if someone would like to request a specific sample. This is a great way to make sure you're not ruling anyone out if you don't want to include every project you've worked on.

9. Mike Anderson

Mike Anderson is a content marketer, freelance writer, and award-winning journalist based in Iowa.

Best Features: Mike’s created a visually impactful online writing portfolio by using photography and design elements to create interest. He uses large photographic headers on each of his pages that are connected by theme and aesthetic. He also makes use of a carousel scroll section for featured articles on his Home page.

Pro Tip: Mike includes many work samples and articles on his Portfolio page. While this might be difficult if you are just starting out, as you build your experience, you can use your portfolio to organize all of your work and create pdf backups for the future.

10. Ashley Carter Cash

Ashley is a narrative nonfiction writer who also writes advertising copy for clients in the spirituality, lifestyle, and addiction recovery spaces.

Best Features: Ashley's Home page is stunning with a crisp white background showcasing photo buttons in an asymmetrical grid design. Each photo links to an article, and hovering over a photo reveals a text description of the accompanying story. She also includes an embedded podcast interview with her, which creates a dynamic multimedia presence on her website.

Pro Tip: Ashley makes good use of an email sign-up option by enticing visitors to sign up for her VIP List for exclusive perks. This is a more compelling way to attract subscribers because it implies a return for their sign-up.

Ready to build your online writing portfolio website?

Now that you know how to build a writing portfolio and you've seen some great writing portfolio examples, it's time to design your own. Journo Portfolio is the online writing portfolio website builder that has all the features you need for your site, like automatic article backups and pre-designed templates that have writers in mind. Get started today!

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How to Make a Portfolio for School

How to Write a Portfolio Essay

Of the many projects students are assigned by their teachers, one of the most extensive is a portfolio. A portfolio can be created for a variety of different reasons. Sometimes, they're to demonstrate your experience in one area, and other times, they're to highlight your work for an entire semester or year of school. A portfolio is not only a great way to showcase everything from your projects and assignments to homework and tests, but it's also something physical you can have to look back on when you're older. Students in different grades will have different requirements for their portfolio assignment, but in general, portfolios tend to follow more or less the same guidelines.

How to Make a Portfolio for a School Project

If you're required to make a portfolio for a school project, then it's likely that your teacher will give you some guidelines. They may tell you what needs to be included in your portfolio, as well as the deadline for your portfolio.

A portfolio project is never something that should be left for the last minute. Both students and teachers have a responsibility to outline what's required so that students can be sure to save their projects and assignments throughout the year. If they end up in the garbage, then students will have a hard time completing their portfolio. Teachers can facilitate this by telling their students to go out and buy a binder or folder at the beginning of the year and require students to always put their work inside as they get it back from their teacher. They can organize the work later.

If you're wondering how to make a portfolio for a school project, your best bet is to get a binder with plastic sleeves inside. This way, you can add as much as you want, re-order papers and make sure your papers won't get ruined because they'll be protected by the sleeves. The rest will come later.

Why Portfolios Are Important

The reason that portfolios are such an important part of the student's course requirements is because they're used as an assessment tool for both teachers, students and their peers. By looking at the portfolio, teachers are able to get an overall look at how the student performed and grew over the semester or year. They can determine whether or not the student has met the specific standards set by the curriculum.

As for the student, they're able to do some self-reflection to understand more about their capabilities and achievements over the time they were in the class. They should evaluate their own work and discover assignments and projects they feel that they've done well on, as well as assignments or projects they felt that they could have improved on. Teachers can also give their students a space to do some peer review where they can give and receive some positive input about their work.

Lastly, as students get older, they might be wondering how to make a high school portfolio for college. A high school portfolio can help students obtain a scholarship for college or help them stand out in a college admissions' interview. Therefore, students should always keep their portfolio in the best possible condition, so that it can be used again and again if necessary.

Student Portfolio Ideas

If your teacher is giving you some creative flexibility with your portfolio, then there are many student portfolio ideas out there that you can use for inspiration. While a first grader, a fifth grader and a high schooler may all have different ideas and abilities when it comes to making a portfolio, there's no reason you can't have fun with it as long as your teacher says it's okay.

In addition to purchasing a binder, some students may find that they'd prefer to build their portfolio in a photo album or scrapbook, or they want to make the entire thing from scratch. Visit your local art store, and you'll see all the different things you can add to your portfolio. From stickers and ribbons to decorative paper and styled scissors, there's no limit as to what you can do with your portfolio. Just remember that it still must include everything you're told to include. It's also a good idea to keep your creativity simple because adding too much can be distracting and take away from the content within.

Online Portfolio vs. Physical Portfolio

Visiting the art store will certainly help you create a physical portfolio, but it may not help you with creating an online portfolio. Today, many teachers require students to build their portfolio completely online. Some require the portfolio to be accessible online as well as in a physical space. Teachers who require online portfolios may introduce you to the software they're using, or they may ask you to make a PowerPoint portfolio or a series of Docs saved in a shared file.

Whether or not you need an online portfolio, you should always keep a backup of your work on a flash drive or in the cloud. Since most students type up their work on the computer anyway, you should always save it somewhere in an organized manner, so you can go back and retrieve it later just in case. You never know if your computer might break with all your files stored there, or if you spill coffee on your physical portfolio and need to replace some of the pieces inside.

What to Include in Your Portfolio

Though most teachers should give guidelines about what to include in your portfolio, students in high school may merely be given suggestions of what to add, whereas younger students may be given much more support. Both high school students and elementary school students will generally have the same objective when it comes to their portfolio and the pieces they decide to include. Students can also take a look at student portfolio samples of high school students or elementary students to get a better idea:

• Journal entries
• Awards and certificates
• Projects and assignments
• Conference reports and report cards
• Tests and quizzes
• Writing samples
• Reading logs
• Science experiments/lab reports

All portfolios should have a variety of all these items. For instance, instead of including 10 essay examples, you should consider adding one of each or two of each item. Once you've decided what to include, your portfolio should also have a table of contents and in many cases, an essay. Some teachers may require you to divide your portfolio into sections and write a short essay or reflection to summarize each of these sections.

Should You Photocopy Work?

When it comes time to put your pieces into your portfolio, you may be wondering whether or not you should photocopy your assignments and examples from projects, or if you should use the originals. This is really up to your teacher to decide, and if they don't have an opinion on it, then you can make the choice for yourself. If you're planning to use the portfolio for more than just your grade, then you should consider using some originals. If you do use photocopies, make sure that the quality of the copies are just as good as the originals, and keep the originals somewhere safe in case you ever need them.

Writing Your Portfolio Essay

If you're required to write a portfolio essay (even if you aren't, it doesn't hurt to include one), it shouldn't be too difficult to write. After all, your portfolio essay is simply an overview of what the readers can expect to find in your portfolio, and what they should understand about you as a student. It should give some brief descriptions of your best work and achievements throughout the year, as well as things you found challenging and things you believe you could have improved on. In most cases, your portfolio essay doesn't need to be very long. Most students can get away with writing one to two pages. When you're finished, your essay can be situated at the beginning of your portfolio.

How to Make a Portfolio for College

The portfolios you may be asked to put together as a student in elementary school, middle school or high school will be quite different from any portfolio you're required to make in college. Depending on your degree of study, you may be required to present a portfolio upon your completion of a course or your entire four years at the school. Similar to creating a portfolio while you're in your younger years, your professors or academic advisor should provide you with some insight as to what you should include in your portfolio. And, especially if this will be a comprehensive portfolio featuring what you've learned over your time in school, then you should be sure to keep all your assignments and projects in a very safe place until it's time to present them.

Portfolios in college may include different content depending on your major. For instance, if you studied education, you may be required to create a portfolio not just of your work, but the work of the students you've taught over the years, demonstrating that you've had an impact on their learning based on the instructions you were given. If you studied photography, then you may be required to present your photos as well as certain examples of how your work has improved over time. And it's important to remember that one of the reasons your major is requiring this from you is because it will be useful when it's time to apply for a job in your field.

Your Portfolio Presentation

After putting in all that hard work into completing your portfolio, there is some work left to do. Some teachers may require their students to present their portfolios either in a one-on-one conference, in front of the rest of the class or at a formal portfolio presentation. A portfolio presentation is a good opportunity to express your oral communication skills, and in some cases, the presentation may also be included as part of your portfolio grade. Therefore, take some time to choose what points you would like to discuss about your portfolio and practice giving your presentation a couple of times before you're due to present.

Storing Your Portfolio

Once you complete your portfolio assignment, you have the option to keep it or throw it away if you don't think you'll need it again in the future. But most students, including younger students, choose to store their portfolio in a place where they can look back on it months or years later. A portfolio is a great way to understand yourself at a younger age, and they're simply fun to look through. Perhaps if you grow up to have children of your own one day, and they ask you how to make a portfolio for a school project, you can use your past portfolios to show them an example. You should think about storing your portfolios in a box or on a bookshelf, where you can always find them quickly.

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• Study.com: What is a Student Portfolio?
• Student Art Guide: How to Make an Art Portfolio
• Ideally, your portfolio should be 20 to 25 pages.
• Keep the content neat and easy to read. Avoid large fonts, bright colors or other distracting features.
• Have a friend or teacher review your portfolio for any spelling errors that you might easily overlook.

Hana LaRock is a freelance content writer from New York, currently living in Mexico. Before becoming a writer, Hana worked as a teacher for several years in the U.S. and around the world. She has her teaching certification in Elementary Education and Special Education, as well as a TESOL certification. Please visit her website, www.hanalarockwriting.com, to learn more.

How to Write a Persuasive Essay

by Guest Blogger | 0 comments

Start Your Story TODAY! We’re teaching a new LIVE workshop this week to help you start your next book. Learn more and sign up here.

So you've been assigned a persuasive paper and you're staring at a blinking cursor. What do you do first? How do you pick a good topic? Today we're going to learn how to write a persuasive essay, so you can get that assignment done. 

As we continue our back-to-school series on writing essays, today we look at the persuasive essay. 

Today's article is written by guest writer Cora Weems who is a senior at the University of South Carolina. She typically writes narrative poetry, slightly depressing short stories, and effective academic essays. Her hobbies include trying to get through a tall stack of unread books and handcrafts like card-making. Welcome, Cora! 

What is a Persuasive Essay?

A persuasive essay is a piece of writing that aims to convince the reader to adopt a specific viewpoint or take action. To support it, you'll use logical arguments, compelling evidence, emotional appeals, and personalization.

In school, teachers often assign controversial issues, but you can develop your own topic too.

Learning to write a persuasive essay though is terrific practice for all kinds of writing. From public debate to sales letters and marketing, persuasive writing skills can carry you far beyond your school experience.

Let's go through the full process!

How to Write a Persuasive Essay: 6 Steps to Help You Start

Here are six steps to help you get your essay started.

Step 1: Pick a Suitable Topic

Maybe your teacher's already given you a prompt, or a specific topic to follow. Or maybe they've sent you on your way with just the rubric and an example paper to help you with formatting.

When it comes to persuasive writing, you need a position that you develop into a central idea. You'll have to support that position with all your evidence and reasoning.

Ideally, it should be a topic you're already familiar with and interested in. That will give you a better starting position and help keep you motivated to keep researching and writing!

When you are given a topic, you'll still want to develop a debatable position.

Here are three examples of broad persuasive essay topics:

• The Impact of Social Media on Society
• Climate Change and Environmental Responsibility
• The Role of Education in Reducing Income Inequality

It should not be a topic that has a specific single right answer or solution, but rather, a number of positions and solutions that you can take.

Your topic should be one of the very first things you address in your essay, in the topic sentence of your introductory paragraph, so your reader can immediately know what you're writing about. 

To choose a suitable topic, ask yourself if the topic has multiple positions to take, and if you can reasonably research and take one position. That leads us to step 2:

Step 2: Research Both Sides, But Only Pick One

Even though you're only trying to advocate for one side of your argument, you should know the perspectives of both sides. Not only will this give you a better understanding of your topic, but it will help you prepare a counter argument that will make your essay more convincing. 

If you've chosen a controversial topic, then there should be at least two opposing viewpoints that you can read about for supporting evidence. 

Perhaps when you picked your topic, you already had a preferred stance, but researching the other side will give you fresh insight into what you actually believe, rather than relying on what you already knew. 

Strong arguments typically address the opposing side's perspective and acknowledge them, for the purpose of refuting that argument and making your own appear stronger.

Or maybe you think both sides of your argument have valid points, so you think you'll about both and let the reader decide. Don't do that!

Not only is it more work for you, but the reader will be confused about your point.

You can acknowledge the strongest parts of the opposing view while you counter with your own perspective.

Step 3: Craft a Thesis Statement

Writing a thesis statement is a skill that goes beyond just persuasive writing. It's particularly important in this case because it gives both you and the reader a clear vision on how the rest of your paper is going to go. 

You should explicitly state what you position is and what the rest of your paper is going to be about. It's usually a sentence or two long, so don't worry about being thorough or too specific. You'll Expand on it in your body paragraphs.

Typically, your thesis statement is located at the end of your introductory paragraph which allows for a natural transition from introducing your topic to the more specific reasons for your position on that topic. 

You can use this statement to outline the rest of your paper, from what each paragraph is going to addressing the type of evidence you'll be using.

For example, if you choose the topic about the impact of social media on society, you want a thesis statement that covers the position and scope of your paper. Here's an example: 

Social media like Facebook negatively impacts society through the ease of sharing misinformation, and both individuals and social media platforms need to do more to curb the spread of misinformation.

Notice how the position this writer takes is that Facebook negatively impacts society because of how it's used to share misinformation.

Now how would they support that thesis?

Step 4: Use the Right Evidence

Once you take a position, it's the time to show the reader why your viewpoint in particular is the one they should follow.

For academic writing, the most effective evidence is peer-reviewed articles published in academic journals. Peer-reviewed articles are seen as the most credible because they've been viewed and cleared by a number of different people, which means multiple people agreed that this article is reliable. 

If you chose the wrong evidence, your entire argument is at risk of falling apart. You should not be choosing evidence that is false or unreliable, because your evidence is the foundation that your position stands upon. 

Even if you don't want to go searching through databases for jargon-filled journal articles, all the evidence you choose should be from credible sources. It could be an expert opinion or some form of anecdotal evidence that could help personalize the issue for your reader. 

You may have heard the terms “ethos,” “pathos,” and “logos” in class. When crafting something persuasive, you should appeal to authority, emotion, and logic. 

Using evidence from an expert is an appeal to ethos or authority, credibility.

If you cite statistics from a reputable source, that might be an appeal to logic.

A related anecdote that makes the reader angry or sympathetic may be an emotional appeal.

The best persuasive essays use all three.

A persuasive argument is typically supported by a number of different sources that appeal to all parts of the reader, from their logical side to their more heartfelt one. All of those different perspectives will come together to make your argument stronger and more effective. 

For example, in our example above on the impact of social media, the thesis statement reads: “Social media like Facebook negatively impacts society through the ease of sharing misinformation, and both individuals and social media platforms need to do more to curb the spread of misinformation.”

To support, this paper would need to show data about misinformation on Facebook, demonstrate the ways that misinformation negatively impacts society, and then offer the best solutions in the form of individual and company interventions.

Step 5: Use Natural Transitions

As you add evidence to your argument, use transitions that help the reader see the connections you're making.

If you've ever felt your eyes begin to glaze over when you see a wall of text or a bunch of graphs and statistics in one place, the writer lost you in making the needed connections and transitions. You don't want to do that to your reader. 

Introduce a point, then use evidence to support that point, and then expand on that evidence. Whether it's by paraphrasing it so the reader can more easily digest it, or by showing the reader exactly how it connects back to what you're trying to persuade them. 

This not only applies to evidence, but also moving between paragraphs. There should be a topic sentence near the beginning of every paragraph to tell the reader what that paragraph is about, and you should use the last sentence of the previous paragraph to lead into it. 

Doing this helps improve the flow of your essay and keeps the reader's attention. If they never have to stop and wonder how you got to a certain point, then you can keep all their attention purely on your argument. 

Step 6: Make It Applicable

As you bring your essay to a close, most persuasive papers end with some call to action. It might be that you are asking the reader to understand an issue differently. Maybe you want to them to change their minds or donate money or take other action.

Make sure your conclusion answers the question, “So what?” Give your reader something to occupy their mind even after they're done reading. You want to tell them why reading your argument was important, and give them a reason to keep thinking about your argument even after you're done. 

Doing so will leave a lasting impression of your paper on your reader, which will make your essay more persuasive and effective. 

Persuade us!

So there you have it. Some ways to help move that blinking cursor.

It's okay to start with a draft that's just you cramming all your ideas onto a document. Don't worry about formal language yet. Reorganizing and rewriting that rough draft is part of what makes a good paper. 

Plus, writing it all out will let you see what you actually thought the most important parts were, and revision allows you to highlight those strong points and focus on what you think the reader should know. 

Here's a question to help you keep going even after you've finished the messy first draft: What makes this essay important to you?

Beyond the grade it will get in class, beyond how it will affect your GPA or academic standing, what about this essay is important? What about this will affect more people than just you?

Throughout your life, you'll constantly find times where you have to use persuasion. Maybe it won't be in essay format or presented in a Power Point, but finding ways to be persuasive is something that will help you in the rest of your life. 

So let's think of this essay as practice, and learn how to be as persuasive as we can. 

What are your best tips for persuasive writing? Share in the comments . 

Set your timer for fifteen minutes . Choose a persuasive topic that you can take a clear position on. Make a list of the reasons for your current view point. Then, do some research and read possible evidence both in support and in opposition to your view. Choose the strongest two to three pieces. 

If you still have time, craft a thesis statement that distills your argument, and begin writing the essay. While it will take you longer than fifteen minutes to write the essay, sometimes just getting started in fifteen minutes is enough to make a difference!

When finished, post your thesis and current direction in the Pro Practice Workshop , and leave feedback for a few other writers. 

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14 mins read

25 Writing Portfolio Examples (PDF & Other Formats) + Useful Portfolio Tips

Are you struggling to create the perfect writing portfolio? Here are 25 writing portfolio examples + 7 useful tips to make it happen!

Protim Bhaumik

Director, Content Marketing

Written by Protim Bhaumik , edited by Shreya Bose , reviewed by Eric Hauch .

2. Dec 2022 , updated 8. Feb 2024

Looking to create a writing portfolio? Curious how to do that without futzing with a website builder for days? We’ve been there.

We know that building a writing portfolio is hard — questions like what you should include, where you should host it, and how to effectively create something that gets you work, need answering! To that end, we've put together a list of 25 writing portfolio examples from our customer base that can inspire you as you make your own and included their tips on how they use Authory. (This is a collection of amazing writers, top journalists, and more.)

I also flagged examples that include PDFs because this type of content is notoriously clunky to upload in some website builders. Some clients and employers ask for PDFs, and building that into a portfolio website can be tricky. So, we'll cover how to do that by showing you 5 PDF writing portfolio examples and then 20 regular writing portfolio examples.

5 Writing portfolio examples in PDF format

When you want to save your writing samples, many people start by downloading a PDF that’s saved in a folder and then sometimes, maybe, once a month/year/panic attack, uploaded to a website. It’s a pain to constantly upload your writing samples, but it’s also risky. There’s always the potential your work is edited or removed before you think to save it.

With that in mind, we built Authory. We search the internet for your content and automatically add it to your website. However, we also make it easy to upload existing PDFs you might have.

Here’s how you can do it:

Here are a few examples of how it looks and advice from our customers on building a smart portfolio.

1. Sarah Sparks

Sarah is an advocate, consultant and writer.

For Sarah, Authory is “easy to use and I like how it aggregates media links before I do sometimes.”

That’s our goal. We automatically collect and back up your work so you don’t have to.  

Sarah’s tip: Just make it easy to navigate - one of the reasons I like Authory. One of the easiest ways to do this is by creating collections.

For example, Sarah’s collections include “legal” “social justice” “Indigenous” and “opinion.” Collections make it easy to categorize your content and then send specific collections to editors and publications when you’re asked for writing samples. You can watch a video on creating collections here.

Sarah Sparks' PDF portfolio.

Here are a few additional PDF portfolio examples that you can review.

2. Alex Hargrave

Alex Hargrave's PDF portfolio

You’ll notice that Alex has two collection examples; education and COVID-19.

3. Kevin Johnston

Kevin Johnston's PDF portfolio.

4. Kerry Sunderland

Kerry Sunderland's PDF portfolio.

5. Urvashi Aneja

Urvashi Aneja's PDF portfolio.

20 Writing portfolio examples in other formats

Besides PDF focused portfolios, we pulled examples of other portfolios and tips for how our expert customers are adapting them to make the best use of them.

Authory is a great additional branding tool

For many people, they have an Authory account to collect their work samples in addition to other branding tools.

1. Brian Clegg

Brian is a science writer with over 40 (fourty!) books in print.

Brian’s Authory site isn’t his only site. It works in addition to his other properties and supports his other online properties. When you google Brian, you’ll find all of these properties. Of note, it’s also possible to integrate an Authory portfolio into an existing online portfolio builder like Wix or SquareSpace.

But why bother? Brian uses Authory to “make my online writing easily available to my book readers and to support my book review site www.popularscience.co.uk .” And with our automatic tools, it takes little time to create this additional homebase for readers.

For Brian, Authory also collects his work, saves it, and he distributes it in a newsletter. It automates and does a lot of work quickly.

Brian Clegg's writing portfolio.

2. Brandon Hill

Brandon is a multimedia journalist covering music and culture, public policy, mental health, the labor movement and social inequality.

“Authory is a great resource for freelancer writers in more ways than you would expect. By automatically updating and feeding your work into a newsletter, it both saves the time and frustration of managing a website and makes for more reliable one to one connections with your audience than social media. Also, by creating automatic pdf back-ups of your publications, you’ll never loose a portfolio piece,” he said.

Like many people in this list, he’s thoughtful about his categories and collections.

“Include some pretty specific categories to lesson the time an employers spends looking at content that might not be relevant to them,” he said.

Brandon Hill's writing portfolio.

3. Scott Matthewman

Scott is a theater critic who is frequently writing reviews. It can be quite a pain to keep these recorded and organized.

“I review over 100 theatre shows a year for various online publications. Authory’s automated tools gives me a single URL where all those reviews can live, hassle-free,” Scott said.

You’ll notice that Scott’s profile shares collections.

“[Authory’s] been useful to promote my reviews to a wider audience on social media. At the end of last year I built a dedicated collection of my 20 favourite reviews for 2022, which was so easy to do and then link to from everywhere.”

Scott Matthewman's writing portfolio.

Use Authory and never worry your work will disappear

4. Tabitha Potts

Tabitha is a published writer with several short stories in print anthologies as well as online.

She uses Authory to share her work with “potential employers, literary agents or publishers (my creative writing, book reviews and journalism are all there).”

The big reason she recommends using Authory is to avoid the situation where your content might be lost and because much of the work is done for you automatically.

And of course it makes it easy to showcase your work.

“I share my Authory profile with every new and potential new client so they can sort and view my published work by category,” she told us.

Tabitha Potts' writing portfolio.

5. Diana Rosen

Diana is an essayist, flash fiction writer, and poet. For her, Authory is “an elaborate business card.”

Her advice is simple: When capturing published work, review thoroughly to avoid duplication or (Egads!) errors.

Diana Rosen's writing portfolio.

Create collections to share what’s relevant

When you’re sharing your work, with an editor, employer, or even just another writer, you don’t always want to share all of your work. It’s key to create and categorize your work by niche or category. You can create collections that make this very easy and share only specific pieces of content with certain people.

6. Carrie Cousins

Carrie  has 15 years of experience in media, design, and content marketing and is a freelance writer and designer.

We asked her for advice for other portfolio builders.

“Think about ways to group content that showcases specific niches that you work in or want to work in. It can really help make sharing and getting new work a lot easier,” Carrie said.

That’s easy to do with Authory’s collection tools. It’s easy to categorize content, give it a label, and share just this grouping with editors.

Carrie Cousins' writing portfolio.

7. Stephanie Bernaba

Stephanie is a writer, multimedia journalist, and photographer.

This is easy to do with our collections feature. We want to make it easy for you to organize your work and send exactly what you need to editors so you can land the gig.

Stephanie had a bit of advice, too.

“Communicate your passion with your header. Make your headline impactful but succinct. Lastly, arrange your work into easily-searchable categories,” she said.

Stephanie Bernaba's writing portfolio.

8. David Worsfold

David is a journalist and author, specialising in finance and insurance

You’ll notice that his portfolio uses the collection feature, too.

“By making it easy to share my work. The collections help showcase writing on specific topics,” he said.

Of course, be thoughtful with your categories.

“Think about the audiences you want to reach and organise your work accordingly,” he mentioned.

David Worsfold's writing portfolio.

9. Kathy Parker

Kathy Parker's writing portfolio.

10. Geraldine Brook

Geraldine Brook's writing portfolio.

11. Pam Moore

Pam Moore's writing portfolio.

12. Mary Ann Gwinn

Mary Ann Gwinn's writing portfolio.

13. Simon Denyer

Simon Denyer's writing portfolio.

14. Jarrod Kimber

Jarrod Kimber's writing portfolio.

15. Carrie Back

Carrie Back's writing portfolio.

16. Crystal Housman

Crystal Housman's writing portfolio.

17. Steven Levy

Steven Levy's writing portfolio.

18. Carin Marais

Carin Marais' writing portfolio.

19. Rosanne Barrett

Rosanne Barrett's writing portfolio.

20. Dan Rosenbaum

Dan Rosenbaum's writing portfolio.

What your takeaways should be from these writing portfolio examples

What a writer portfolio is, and why you need a writing portfolio.

A writing portfolio is a collection of your best (and possibly all) writing samples put together on a website so that potential clients and employers can make a "buying" decision — in essence, all the information that they may need to engage you for your writing services.

An online writing portfolio can also do wonders for your personal branding if managed well. So, in a word, your portfolio is a single place through which you can source work.

Curating the perfect set of writing samples for your portfolio

It's important to figure out what kind of writer you are and the type of writing work you're looking for. This process will inform the writing samples that you'll highlight in your writing portfolio.

Remember, writers come in all shapes and sizes (literally!), and you could be a content writer, copywriter, novelist, author, non-fiction writer, poet, journalist, and more... the list is practically endless.

With that in mind, it's essential that you curate the content on your writing portfolio with examples that will impress upon readers your specific set (and type) of writing skills so that they can make an informed decision when hiring you.

To that end, if you feel that you don't have a good set of writing samples to upload to your portfolio, then it might be best to get writing!

To help you build out your writing portfolio, I've put together a small set of ideas/resources that I turn to for inspiration, support, and general diversion:

• Subreddits like r/writingpromts, r/thedailyprompt, and r/promptoftheday are excellent for trying out amateur storytelling.
• Other subreddits like r/writing, r/freelancewriters, r/keepwriting, r/writers, r/selfpublish, r/blogging, r/copywriting, r/technicalwriting, r/wordcount, r/writingmotivation, offer up a plethora of options for3 you to explore as writer.
• To find work, subreddits like r/hireawriter, r/forhire, r/b2bforhire, r/writersforhire, r/jobbit, and r/writingopportunities can be a source for work if you're lucky.
• What's more in your control is writing for your personal social media accounts to build up that personal brand.
• You could also provide your services for free or reduced rates to friends and family who run a business — this can be for their social media accounts or even their websites.
• Form a writing group with a friend — I have a weekly writing meetup with a close friend, and this can be an online meetup — my friend is half a planet away!
• Write about what you know: everyone knows something and has a lot to offer, even if it's a personal experience. For example, when I am stuck, I write about content marketing and SEO — I don't publish these pieces necessarily, but they're great for getting the juices flowing. That said, I could post them in my writing portfolio.

Seven tips for creating the ideal writing portfolio website based on the writing portfolio examples above

The writing portfolio examples above should give you a great idea of what a writing portfolio must look like, and the various ways other writers choose to exhibit their work.

We've also gone over why you need a writing portfolio and how you can create a few writing samples in case you feel the need to.

Now, let's get down to how you should create a writing portfolio website. We'll go over the best and most efficient ways to go about creating it.

1. Make your website more organized for simpler navigation.

It's vital to organize your online writing portfolio in a way that's easy for your readers to follow. Place your top projects front and center for simple accessibility. Note: what the ideal projects are may differ from client to client. So, suppose you divide your work into carefully curated collections with different URLs. In that case, that specific URL that contains projects pertaining to that particular client can be shared with them.

2. The "correct" number of your projects for easy viewability

The conventional wisdom is that you should limit the number of projects on your online writing portfolio so that a prospective client can make a quick and easy assessment.

I think this is WRONG.

Your portfolio website HAS to have ALL your content. Why? Well, because hiring managers, clients, and employers are looking for both quality AND quantity. Yes, they aren't going to read your entire portfolio website, but they are looking for consistency and experience.

Obviously, if you wrote a terrible article long ago as a young budding freelance writer, don't include it. So, I'll change my caveat to " nearly ALL your content."

Hence, the navigation of your writing portfolio becomes super important. Remember how I spoke about dividing your work into collections? Well, that is a must if you're including a ton of content. Split it by topic, type, publication, etc., and then share the correct URL with your prospect. Let them begin their journey through your writing portfolio from a starting point that you have determined for them.

Place your contact information in an easy-to-find spot so that when a prospect is satisfied with your writing, they can contact you immediately.

3. Imagery for better conversion rates

Human beings positively respond to visual stimuli, especially faces, which means if you're able to include graphics in your writing sample, you have a better chance of converting your readers.

4. Write case studies to exhibit results

If you have the bandwidth to do so, then you should take some time to write case studies for the work that you have done. A simple format to follow for writing case studies is as follows:

• Start with the results: usually exhibited in the form of "increase X by Y." So, for example, I could say I increased traffic to the blog by 11X.
• Then outline the problems and challenges that the client was facing before you joined the project.
• Next, explain how you solved those problems with your writing, your work, and general professionalism.
• And finally, round it off by digging into the details of the results you achieved a bit more and touch upon how the client is doing now.

5. Add social proof to lend credibility to your work

Unfortunately, writing is a creative art, and there are always critics. If you can get a past client to vouch for you and your writing, then that social proof can stand you in good stead when soliciting even more work. Add all the social proof (read: testimonials) you can in your writing portfolio to bump up that conversion rate.

If you have done work for friends and family, this would be a great place to begin hunting for testimonials.

6. Present your contact info in an easily accessible place

I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating because it's so important. The whole point of having a writer's portfolio is to get work. If people cannot contact you or can't find your contact details, that will severely affect your chances of getting new projects. Social media handles will do if you're uncomfortable with sharing your email address or phone number publicly.

7. Use a website builder for writers like Authory to create your portfolio quickly and back up your work

All of the tips here are excellent (if I say so myself!), but that said, creating a writer's portfolio is a lot of work !

So, leaving the best for last: my final piece of advice is to use a portfolio website builder so that you can cut down the time to build one.

A couple of major issues that writers face are:

• Updating their writing portfolios when they write new content, especially when creating a portfolio from scratch, takes effort. So, in essence, most writing portfolios are out-of-date.
• And writers also lose access to their work when websites go down, and content gets re-bylined, etc.

That's why a service like Authory is perfect for writers worldwide. With Authory, you get a self-updating portfolio plus a full auto-updating backup of ALL your content. It's super simple to set up your Authory portfolio:

• Sign up for Authory for free !
• Add your sources, i.e., all the places where you've published content on the web. Authory will automatically find your bylined content from these sources and import it into your Authory account.
• Build a collection from the collection tab: click "+ Create collection" and follow the instructions.
• Then go to the portfolio tab : go to the "Content" tab on the left menu and add the collection you just created.
• And then, toggle your portfolio on from the "Portfolio" tab on the left menu, and check out your portfolio!

And now you'll have a self-updating portfolio that also automatically backs up all your content!

To see more writing portfolio examples, check out our other collection :

• Content Marketers
• Journalists

Protim is a startup founder & marketer with over a decade of experience in content marketing, content writing, SEO, and more. He loves dogs, D&D, and music!

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