What does a Freelance Writer's Portfolio look like?

I am not a freelance writer, but I think it could be any of the things you describe – make it your own, you know?

yes it does but now online is the way to go. A writer can actually upload his stuff online. Just give out a link and it could serve as a portfolio rather than bringin a bunch of folders but if you prefer with the old style that could be good too.

@Raean or do both!

It can be anything that you have written. it does not necessarily have to consist of magazine articles only. It is a good idea today to display your material in a Web site.

@poodoodoll Would posting already published works on your web site violate any rights? It might be a good idea to make sure of any contract that’s signed to make sure you still have on-line rights to it.

OOOOO great answer. That’s so true.

It’s a good idea to have both an online portfolio and a bound portfolio to take to job interviews. Either way, as poodoodoll points out, it’s important to avoid distributing works that are confidential or proprietary property of employers or clients. For me, acquiring a collection of non-secret documents has been the biggest challenge in developing a portfolio, because almost everything I work on contains trade secrets. It doesn’t hurt to ask for permission to include a work in your portfolio.

It’s easy to avoid the online rights issue, as anyone is allowed to post a link to an article. I would keep both a real scrapbook, as well as an online one. Usually an editor will request a query letter acoompanied by a few ercent clippings, but an emailed query and cv could just include links to the actual articles.

:-)