Working through the writing process: planning, drafting, seeking feedback, redrafting against the criteria, and proofreading for technical accuracy so each portfolio piece reaches its best form.

What this dot point is asking

Because the SQA Higher English portfolio is written at home over time, the writing process is part of the assessment. Each 15 mark piece (the creative and the discursive) is expected to be planned, drafted, improved through feedback, redrafted against the criteria, and proofread. The marks for expression and technical accuracy in particular reward the careful work that redrafting makes possible, which exam writing never has time for.

This dot point is about the method that turns a first draft into a submittable piece: how to draft early, redraft against the criteria, and proofread for accuracy.

The answer

The portfolio rewards process, not a single sitting. Plan the piece, write an early draft, then improve it deliberately: use teacher feedback (within SQA's rules on what help is allowed) and the marking criteria to redraft for content, structure and expression, in that order of priority. Finish with a careful proofread for technical accuracy, since spelling, punctuation and grammar are explicitly assessed. The two pieces total 30 marks. The decisive habit is starting early and redrafting deliberately, because a first draft rarely reaches the band a redrafted piece can.

Start early and draft

The biggest advantage in the portfolio is time. Begin early so you can leave a draft to rest, return to it with fresh eyes, and improve it. Distance is what lets you see your own weaknesses, so a piece written once at the deadline cannot benefit from the redrafting the criteria reward. Treat the first draft as raw material, not the finished piece.

Redraft against the criteria

Redrafting is not just fixing typos. Read your draft against the marking criteria and improve in order of weight: content first (is the purpose clear, the argument or reflection developed?), then structure (is the organisation logical and signposted?), then expression (is the style controlled and varied?). Tackling content and structure before expression matters, because there is no point polishing sentences in a paragraph you may cut. Use feedback to see weaknesses you cannot spot yourself.

Proofread for technical accuracy

Finish with a careful proofread for spelling, punctuation, grammar and paragraphing. Technical accuracy is assessed, so errors that survive to the final version cost marks directly. Read slowly, or read aloud, to catch mistakes the eye skips when reading silently, and check the errors you know you make often (its/it's, sentence boundaries, apostrophes).

Examples in context

Suppose a first draft of a reflective essay opens with two paragraphs of background before the experience begins. A content-and-structure redraft would cut the background, start in the experience itself, and redistribute the reflection so it runs through the piece rather than arriving at the end. That single structural change can lift the piece more than any amount of sentence-polishing.

At the expression stage, a redraft sharpens individual sentences: "It was a really, really bad day and I felt very sad and upset" becomes "It was the kind of day that does not end so much as run out", which shows control and voice. Only after content, structure and expression are settled does the final proofread catch the remaining technical slips, so the submitted version is both well-shaped and accurate.

Try this

Q1. What is the difference between redrafting and proofreading? [2 marks]

• What the marker wants. Redrafting improves content, structure and expression against the criteria; proofreading is the final check for technical accuracy.

Q2. Why does starting early matter for the portfolio? [2 marks]

• What the marker wants. It allows time to draft, let the work rest, gather feedback and redraft, which is the improvement the marking criteria reward and which exam writing cannot match.

Q3. In what order should you redraft a piece, and why? [2 marks]

• What the marker wants. Content first, then structure, then expression, because there is no point polishing sentences in material you may cut; the higher-weight content and structure issues come first.

A note on sources

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. The portfolio format, permitted help and marking criteria follow SQA's specification; verify current detail against the SQA Higher English course documents at sqa.org.uk.