Your portfolio is a tool that can highlight your achievements while helping you to reflect on your learning. If you want to take your writing to the next level, there are several “hacks” that you can use. The first is to have a unifying theme that incorporates a metaphor. The second is to focus on the opening and closing and the order of words to create impactful messages.

Use a Theme

A theme serves as the guiding thread that weaves together the diverse elements of your portfolio, effectively showcasing your skills, experiences, and achievements in a unified and professional manner. The theme is the central insight or the big truth that you want people to get about you. Are you an innovative individual, an overcomer of challenges, or perhaps someone with unwavering tenacity? Deciding on the central theme and pointing back to it throughout your portfolio helps to anchor your attributes in the minds of the readers.

Once you decide on your theme, you will want to include parts of your theme throughout your portfolio. Another way this can be accomplished is by using a unifying metaphor.

When choosing a metaphor, consider the following:

Your metaphor should be relevant: Select a metaphor that aligns with your career goals, values, or personal narrative. For instance, if you aspire to work in education, you might explore metaphors related to growth, knowledge, or enlightenment.

Your metaphor should be coherent: Ensure that it unifies different sections, projects, and experiences, creating a cohesive and meaningful narrative. It can be in the words that you use, the photos you show, and even in your background colors.

Your metaphor should be easily understood:  Ensure that it is easily understandable and doesn’t overshadow the content of your portfolio.

Brainstorming a Theme

To develop a theme and the unifying metaphor, you need a robust list of ideas to draw upon. Do yourself a favor and take the time to brainstorm.

After you pick your theme, start creating lists of words that stem from your theme and can work toward your metaphor. If your metaphor is “garden,” create a list of at least 25 words related to the garden. For example “grow, weed, cultivate, flourish,” and so on. Next,  you need to create a word list of at least 10 things that are opposites, for example, “uncultivated soil, struggling plants.”.

I cannot emphasize strongly enough that a complete brainstorming session before you begin is the key to success. When you start writing, keep looking at your list and you will be amazed at how it works its way into all your portfolio writing.

For example, if you use a theme of gardening, it might show up in your portfolio in small ways, such as, “I like to help my student grow in confidence so I create assignments…” and “I encourage them to branch out and try new things.”

The trick is to work it in subtly and to keep it sounding professional. The metaphor is not the message, it supports your message.

Start with Powerful Words

Throughout the book, I have mentioned the importance of a strong opening and closing statement for each section and I want to revisit this idea so you can fine-tune your skills. Before we begin, I want to start off by illustrating a point.

Read the descriptions of Person A and Person B and decide which person you like better.

Person A
envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive, industrious, and intelligent

Person B
intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical, stubborn, and envious

If you are like most people, you have a preference for Person B. A close look at the descriptions reveals that Person A and Person B  are actually the same. The words are the same, they are just presented in a different order.

In this study done by Solomon Ashe, he observed that people pay the most attention to the first words. The first words you read anchor your thoughts about the person.  Like Asche’s subjects, your audience will be evaluating those first few words on each page of your portfolio.

Let me illustrate what this might look like in your portfolio. A sentence that says, “I struggled with math but eventually overcame that fear through perseverance” anchors the word “struggle” in our mind. A rewrite of the sentence changes it to say,   “I overcame my fear of math through perseverance.” By reordering the words, we planted the word “overcame” in the mind of the reader.

The goal is to use relevant, engaging, and powerful words in your first sentence.  Not only do you want to start with positive words, but you want to include those words as soon as possible.

Let me work you through another example to further illustrate the point. Read this opening sentence of an about me section and notice how many words it takes before you get to something engaging.

I have taught for many years and in recent years have come to realize that being a teacher and being a gardener has a lot in common.

I counted 17 words before the engaging word “teacher.” Now, look at this rewrite and count how many words until an interesting word comes up.

I am a teacher and a gardener and the two have more in common than you might think.

I counted three words before the word “teacher.” Now, try this one.

Teaching and gardening have more in common than you might think.

By putting “teaching” as the very first word, it engages the audience and anchors an important concept.  All three sentences say the same thing, but the one that starts with a strong word clearly stands out. When taking your writing to the next level, the challenge is to rework the opening sentence of each of your sections and rewrite it so the most powerful words come first. After you have written a section of your portfolio, go to the opening sentence and read it aloud now go to the closing sentence and read it aloud.  In most cases, there will be room for improvement.

End with Powerful Words

I have a funny little thing I do when eating a meal. After tasting all the things on my plate, I pick the food that is my favorite and I eat it last. I do this so the best flavor is the one that leaves a lingering taste on my tongue. When it comes to our writing, we want to be intentional regarding which word lingers in the reader’s mind. What “taste” do we want to leave?

Once again, let me illustrate the point with a sample. As you read, notice the last two words from the final paragraph of an engineering student’s “About Me page.”

“…. I envision a future where engineering serves as a catalyst for positive change, addressing pressing global challenges and improving the quality of life for people worldwide. I am passionate about leveraging my technical skills to make a tangible impact and leave a lasting legacy.”

Do you catch the last two words are “lasting legacy?” These are powerful words.

Now let’s look at an example from an artist’s portfolio.

“This ePortfolio serves as a window into my creative process, showcasing my artwork, projects, and exhibitions. I hope to connect with fellow artists, art enthusiasts, and individuals who appreciate the power of art to transform.”

Look at the last word —“transform.” This is the last thought left to linger in the mind of the reader. Read only the last sentence again and notice that the final phrase,  “the power of art to transform.” Not only is the last word a powerful one but the whole last idea is strong and meaningful.

Last one. Read these closing sentences from Patience Marsh,

I view my education as a patchwork quilt of academic training and practical experience that grows with my every accomplishment. These, collectively, are a representation of who I am as a student, employee, and life-long learner.

“Life-long learner” is the perfect ending statement for an educational portfolio.

Now it’s your turn. Read the last sentence of your “About Me”. What are the lingering ideas that you leave with your reader? Now look at the last sentence of your “About Me,” and read only the last three words….are they powerful words?

Closing

References

American Psychological Association Style. (April 7, 2023). How to cite ChatGPT. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt

Asch, S. E. (1946). Forming impressions of personality. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41, 258-290. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0055756

Bryson, C. (2023). Email correspondence on ChatGPT.

Open AI.  (June 2023).  ChatGPT [Large language model}. Using themes in eportfolio. https://chat.openai.com/chat

Handley, A. (2015). Everybody writes your go-to guide to creating ridiculously good content. John Wiley and Sons.

Mollick, E. (2023). A Guide to Prompting AI (for what it is worth).

Portfolios Referenced

Tanvis Dutta Guppta

Jackie Lu