e-Portfolio Guidelines for Urban Planning Majors*

Overview

Written and graphical communication are essential to successful planning. These skills are fundamental to learning and applying it in practice, and are sought by employers and graduate schools.

Writing in geography and planning range in complexity from basic description to critical analysis, taking such diverse forms as field reports, map interpretations, independent research papers, and collaborative plans. But planners also communicate graphically, through cartography and other renderings, in multiple media. They also present their work in public settings.

Taken together, samples of your writing display your diverse knowledge and skills. In the Urban and Regional Planning major, and Geography Department more broadly, you learn to collect, synthesize and represent a wide range of data for different audiences: from quantitative data like census statistics, to geospatial data like GIS, to qualitative data gleaned from documents, or discussions with focus groups. More, you learn to persuasively marshal such wide-ranging data to communicate—and perhaps persuade—diverse people.

All students in Urban and Regional Planning develop the ability to:

• think integratively to define the nature and scope of urban problems

• identify and apply relevant planning concepts and techniques

• apply critical analysis and inquiry skills to the design and completion of independent research

• communicate effectively through the preparation of proposals, literature reviews, plans or research papers, and public presentations

• and collaborate productively in team and project-based settings.

To demonstrate your learning and collect and share your accomplishments, all students in the Urban and Regional Planning (URP) Major are required to create an e-portfolio displaying and reflecting examples of their work. In your e-portfolio you will introduce yourself, showcase the diverse kind of work you have produced, and reflect on the skills you have gained in the process.

Students in the major will learn more about and set up their writing e-portfolios in core courses in the major, as well as open e-portfolio workshops or writing groups. You can also gain valuable support from Howe Center for Writing Excellence consultants, Geography faculty and advisors, and the Center for Career Exploration and Success (CCES).