14.1: Classroom Lecture and Activity By Ukaisha Al-Amin

Workshop

picture by fauaxels CC

Work-shopping and reading your story out loud to others is not only necessary but it is apart of the writing process. You should revise before work-shopping and then continue the revision process after the workshop in order to incorporate any of the feedback you received.

There are a lot of ways to workshop a piece of writing. The biggest question that you want to ask yourself is, “what do you want to get out of the workshop?” What type of feedback do you think would be helpful to you. Having an idea as the author about want to you want out of your piece will help the workshop stay focused.

Here is what you and the reviewers should do. The method below requires a week in advance to prepare.

The week before your work is to be work-shopped, bring copies of your work to class to share with classmates and the instructor. If the class is using a learning management system of some sort, you may be asked to upload or post your piece for the class to see.

On the day of your workshop, you should bring a set of questions with you that have the type of feedback you are looking for. These will come in handy at the end of the review if the class doesn’t address the parts that you were mainly concerned about.

As a reviewer, you should read the piece through first, then read it through again critically. Take note of questions and comments that you have. Asking questions of the author helps them process the feedback through a critical lens. For instance, instead of saying, you should shorten the conversation between character a and b or you should cut the line of the poem, you should phrase it as a question. How important to the story is the end of the conversation between characters A and B? Could the conversation be shortened to avoid one word answers? What does the conversation between characters A and B reveal about them? Does the last line of the poem take away from the metaphor in the previous line? Does it break the pattern of the poem in a non meaningful way?

Be sure to focus comments on specific parts of the piece. Just saying you like it or dislike it could be a truth that you want to convey, but you as the reviewer just liking or disliking it doesn’t help the writer. Instead, you can use comments that for example say, “I like how the description of the story included a spill on the floor in the back aisle that the character didn’t notice but was part the narration.” “ I didn’t like how the main character mentions their mother working at the bank and then in the scenes as the bank, the mother who is supposedly an important part of the story is absent.”

Rules of the Workshop

Every classroom runs their workshop differently, but in order for the workshop to be productive, everyone should adhere to the rules. For instance in a silent workshop, the author is not allowed to comment on their work while it is being workshopped. Their job is to sit and take notes. Once the workshop is complete, the author is then open to comment or ask questions. In this type of workshop, it can difficult for the author to not want to add clarity to what they wrote by explaining it on the spot. However, this type of workshop is effective because it gives the author the real taste for how their writing is coming across to the reader. In real situations, the author is rarely ever in the room when the reader encounters their work for the first time, so it is important to keep that mind. The reactions from the reviewers are real reactions that other readers could have when they read the piece.

Another type of workshop is where the writer leads the conversation. In this workshop, the writer is asked to read their work out loud to the group and then start by asking their questions. The group answers the questions then the writer asks another. At the end, the group then asks their own questions and makes their own comments. As you can see, either way, as the author or the reviewer, you should come to workshop ready to participate and dig into the story being covered. Not being ready lets down the group, but also may point to a deadline issue. Writer’s must meet deadlines. It is a part of the publishing process, and it does not wait for anyone.

Classroom Activity\(\PageIndex{1}\)

Here are some ways to peer review poetry and other pieces of creative writing. Use any piece that you have written this semester and in groups of 3 or 4 conduct a peer review workshop. The class may also to do this together in a circle as one big group.

1.WWW and TAG

The acronyms involved with feedback – at least according to the educators of Twitter – are WWW and TAG. Here’s what they stand for, so feel free to use these strategies in your creative writing courses OR when giving feedback to ANYONE.

WWW and TAG

WWW	TAG	Examples
WOW.	T – Tell the classmate something that WOW’d you about their draft.	Your introduction is very controversial; this will shock readers. I think that’s a good thing!
What If…	A – Ask a question about the content in the draft.	Why did you leave out the history of how you met this weird person? That may be valuable information for your readers.
I Wonder…	G – Give a suggestion to your classmate about their draft.	I would add in more details about the situation that lead you to deciding that adoption was the route you were going to take.

Questions:

Are you open to the kinds of feedback you’ll get using that table above with the WWW/TAG pieces? What do you typically want feedback on when it comes to projects? Why?

WWW or Tag appears in Write or Left by Sybil Priebe CC-BY-NC-SA.

• What do you feel comfortable giving feedback to classmates on? Why?

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