Machine summary:
Key Words: Writing class, process studies, portfolios; Emails INTRODUCTION Essays as snapshots tell us something about a student's learning at a particular time, but they provide a picture of only a fragment of what has already been learned.
So, it was assumed if students reflected on their own work and get equipped with some yardstick criteria for evaluation, then they could comment on the writings of their peers, as well, and if all this was done via a new medium, that would be still more fascinating.
While in the traditional paradigms, the students are asked to perform within a set time to answer specific questions (Yancey, 2000), with the alternative assessment, and portfolios as one of its manifestations, they are encouraged "to see writing as an ongoing process" (Pullman, 2002, p.
It allows work in a relaxed informal manner, and more importantly, encourages metacognitive skills by engaging students in the process of selection, reflection, and evaluation.
Pithis (1997) pointed out that students are animated by this new tool of learning and seem to respond well to its demands by taking pride in their work, He added that portfolios assist teachers diagnose and understand students' difficulties in learning.
2. Several accounts suggested that in the process of preparing portfolios, some of the students developed a personal understanding of their learning process (Maya and O'Malley, 1994: Pithis, 1997; Ruskin and Mayher, 2000).
Including a control group, to provide a ground for comparison would be more revealing, Future study could also consider implementing portfolios over a longer period of time and use longitudinal studies to investigate the effect on student writing.