Writing Portfolio Requirement

Prior to graduation with an undergraduate degree, all UCCS students must demonstrate their proficiency in writing.

Students can meet this requirement in one of four ways.

• Earning a grade of S "Satisfactory" in PORT 4000: a 1-credit course lasting half a semester.
• Earning a grade of S "Satisfactory in PORT 3000: a 0-credit assessment lasting one month and costing $25.
• Earning a grade of C- or better in ENGL 3010 (Advanced Rhetoric and Writing): a 3-credit course
• Earning a grade of C- or better in TCID 3080 (Advanced Professional and Technical Writing): a 3-credit course

The online portfolio submission system is PORT 3000, a "course" that runs every month except January and August. Register for the section of PORT 3000 that corresponds with the month that you would like to submit your writing portfolio.

In most months, students have ten days to submit (from the 1st of the month to the 10th of the month). This window is shorter (5 days) in December and May to meet end of semester deadlines for grades.

On the first of the month, the PORT 3000 page will open in Canvas and you will receive an email to your UCCS account with upload instructions. The process of submitting your papers and answering questions about the writing samples you provide takes about 15 minutes.

If you do not submit your portfolio by the deadline for the section of PORT 3000 in which you are enrolled, you will be dropped from the course and will need to re-enroll in another section.

Note that the PORT 3000 "course" does not meet in person.

Most students submit their Writing Portfolio at the end of their Junior Year or start of their Senior Year. You cannot submit the portfolio until you you have earned at least 60 credit hours and completed your second core writing requirement (ENGL 1410 or TCID 2080/2090, INOV 2100 or their equivalent). We recommend that students submit their writing portfolio at least one semester prior to graduation. However, you may submit your portfolio early in your final graduation semester.

Students who transfer from other institutions sometimes have difficulty finding one UCCS Writing Assignment to submit. If you are a transfer student, please ensure you have submitted at least one eligible writing assignment in a UCCS class before enrolling in PORT 3000.

Faculty from across UCCS are recruited to score the writing portfolios. All faculty members are trained and score using a standardized rubric, which provides a different type of evaluation compared to the grades students earn on their writing assignments in courses.

The portfolio will be assessed using the UCCS Writing Portfolio Rubric.

• You must submit two papers. Each paper must be at least 1000 words long. If you like, you may submit a third paper of at least 1000 words as a backup. There is no maximum length for papers, but we prefer work shorter than 30 pages or 25,000 words. 
• At least one of your papers should demonstrate that you can reference sources in your writing by directly citing at least two outside sources. Any citation style (MLA, APA, Chicago, AMA, IEEE, etc.) is acceptable. The paper should include both direct citations of these sources in the body of the paper as well as a list of sources used such as a works cited page, references page, or footnotes
• At least one paper must be something you originally submitted as part of a UCCS class. Your second and optional third paper may be from other Universities, from high school, or something you wrote outside of school such as in your personal life, career, or military experience.
• Papers may be lab reports, proposals, memos, reading responses, case studies, treatment plans, narratives, and other forms of writing. Faculty scorers are accustomed to evaluating all types of writing and have all different backgrounds (e.g. engineering, healthcare, philosophy, humanities, computing, etc.). Most genres of writing are acceptable, but the writing samples that you submit should have a introduction and conclusion, a main idea, paragraph organization, and should hold together with central thoughts. For this reason, some genres of writing are not accepted including: powerpoint slides, poetry,  and short answer test responses (answers to test questions of two paragraphs or less each).
• One of your papers may be group authored. Please underline, highlight or indicate in the comments the section(s) that you wrote within the document and/or your role in the writing process.
• Papers from the following classes cannot be submitted for the Writing Portfolio: 
  • Papers from your First Core Writing Course
    • ENGL 1300, 1305, 1308, 1310 or their equivalents at other colleges or universities.
  • Papers from your Second Core Writing Course
    • ENGL 1410, TCID 2080 or 2090, INOV 2100, or their equivalents at other colleges or universities.
• Many students majoring in languages, such as Spanish, have papers written in languages other than English. However, the Writing Portfolio is an assessment of Written English Competency, so papers submitted must be written in English.

If you submitted an assignment through Canvas, you have access to it any time, even once that course is closed.

To access an older submission in Canvas, follow these steps:

1. Go to your "Account" button on the top left of the global navigation menu in Canvas.
2. Click on "Files"
3. Click on the folder called "Submissions"
4. Select the course where you submitted that assignment.
5. Download the paper by hovering your mouse to the far right of the assignment and clicking the three buttons that appear, then select "download."

The purpose of the writing portfolio is to assess individual students' writing competency and to provide aggregated data about student writing performance to departments and programs for the purposes of assessment and accreditation.

The grade for your portfolio will be posted in your student portal at the beginning of the following month. If there are issues with your Writing Portfolio, Writing Portfolio Director will contact you directly via your UCCS email address.

While most students do pass this requirement, students who do not pass the writing portfolio may re-take the portfolio in a different month for an additional $25 fee. Students may also replace their portfolio requirement by successfully passing either ENGL 3010, Advanced Rhetoric and Writing or TCID 3080, Advanced Business and Technical Writing.

The UCCS Multiliteracy Center (https://multiliteracy.uccs.edu/) offers support for students who are revising writing for course assignments and for their writing portfolio. Online and in-person appointments are available via their website at https://multiliteracy.uccs.edu/

You may edit the papers in any way you wish before submitting them including making changes or improvements to papers you wrote for UCCS classes. We do not require or expect you to edit papers, but you may do so if you choose. Please do submit "clean" copies without instructor comments.

Students are welcome to use a number of sources to assist them in completing the writing they submit. This can include seeking feedback from peers or faculty members or visiting with consultants at the UCCS Multiliteracy Center. Students are also allowed to use generative AI such as ChatGPT or editing programs like Grammarly or Microsoft Word.

However, it is important that students use these tools and resources ethically. The tools should only be used to assist you in creating your own original writing. For instance, it is appropriate to ask another person or an automated tool to “help you improve” a piece of writing. It is not acceptable to ask other people or digital tools to write for you by creating an entire essay or large sections of the essay.

Yes. One paper must be from a UCCS class. However your second paper and optional third paper can be from anywhere.

This can include papers you wrote at other colleges or universities as well as writing you produced as part of your experience in the workplace, military, or volunteering. We encourage you to submit writing you created or edited recently to show your current abilities as a writer.

Please see the "What type of papers may I submit?" for more details on portfolio requirements.

Using a paper from at least one UCCS course is required to pass the portfolio.

If you have not written any papers that qualify for submission, you can consider waiting another semester before taking the writing portfolio. If you don't expect to write another paper before graduation, you can replace the Writing Portfolio by taking and passing one of two courses with a grade of C or better (ENGL 3010 or TCID 3080).

If you need help locating a paper from a UCCS class see the FAQ above on finding older papers or contact the Writing Portfolio Directer using the contact information at the bottom of this page.

Contact the Faculty Director of the Writing Portfolio, Dr. Phillip Haisley via email at phaisley@uccs.edu.