Writing portfolios, which provide samples of a student's writing over a period of time, are an excellent vehicle for giving faculty a new resource for teaching students self assessment. Since the portfolios include concrete evidence of a variety of writing assignments, students also learn that writing is a developmental process. This development can be most provocatively demonstrated by having students look at their first assignment next to one near the end of the course, an activity which tends to convince even skeptics that they are improving. To institute a course that involves student peer evaluation, a diversity of assignments is the most useful. The initial assignment should be open to students, allowing them to demonstrate their own strengths and weaknesses, and may include a self-assessment as writer. Students must be taught the language and vehicles of assessment, meaning that criteria should be spelled out clearly. The teacher's goal should be to establish, announce, model and use the criteria for evaluation throughout the term. Students should, near the end of the term, prepare their portfolios for classroom use. After careful self-assessment, the student and teacher negotiate long and short term writing goals for the student. The overall process shows students that they can take ownership of their learning to become writers, and student end-of-term comments illustrate the usefulness of portfolios, especially in showing students how they have progressed in concrete terms. (HB)