This week’s blog post is going to be considerably more relevant to English and Humanities majors, so I’m sorry to any math or science majors I’m excluding here! But it’s an important topic and one that anyone applying for any sort of writing job should find useful.

That topic is creating a portfolio.

In Professor Drake’s Writing 100: Arts and Culture class, our final was a project rather than an additional writing assignment or paper. The class objective was to gain skills in writing reviews on movies, food, and music. We wrote ten pieces over the course of the semester, and for our final project we selected five to edit and arrange in a portfolio. We had to include at least one article from each category length: short (100-150 words), medium (500-600 words), and finally a long, more memoir-esque type article (1,000 words). We then had to arrange them in a way so there was a certain flow and fit together coherently.

The way I chose to arrange my pieces was from most personal to least personal. Even if you’re applying for a drier, more fact-driven writing job, a personal touch or flavor can be an asset. This will show that you’re an actual person, as well as giving a hint as to what kind of bias or slant your pieces will be sure to have. When selecting the shorter pieces for my portfolio (which were increasingly less personal), I chose the pieces that I liked the most, but not necessarily the ones I thought were the best examples of my work. In doing this, I still revealed a part of who I am, and they had more potential overall. Demonstrating growth and development can be key. For my medium-length piece, I opted to revise my old-film review (of Psycho) because I thought it would have wide appeal, as opposed to my (in my opinion) much better travel review of my hometown of New Orleans.

Needless to say, you want to put your best foot forward with these pieces and show your potential employer just how freaking awesome you are. However, even though it seems counterintuitive, make sure your pieces aren’t completely perfect. They need to be exemplary of your writing. You have flaws (and you know it), and it’s okay if those flaws show a little bit in whatever you’re writing. It’s best to admit to your flaws in your application or during an interview so that your potential employer has some sort of warning about what they are before offering you the job. This will also show a little bit of humanity in you. And any pieces you write in the future won’t be perfect -you’ll have copy-editors.

All in all, the main point of this somewhat rambly post is to help organize a portfolio so that you don’t just haphazardly throw something together for an application, which is something many would do. But the way in which your organize and edit your application is very important, and hopefully with these tips you’ll stand a better chance in the future!