Online Portfolio Assessment
for
Technical Writing Programs

The visionary William Blake was different from other artists in that he used different artistic styles in the same painting. In this painting entitled "Newton," the body and background are richly painted in three dimensions. They are in stark contrast with the drawn lines of Newton's eye and the lines on the paper. Although Blake painted Newton surrounded with multi-dimensional beauty, all he could see was lines on a plane.

Is it is possible to make an abstract model of a wild and unruly reality? Is it possible (or worthwhile) to quantify the complexity and chaos of human communication?

“No model is perfect but some are useful” (Charles Box). This assessment process is an example of using assessment and statistics to understand the impact of communication on an audience and to aid in the teaching of it. The model works, even if our calculations will never encompass reality.