Alexander Riley – Page 11 – American Society and Culture

We’ve got our first essay workshop day on Friday. Here’s what you need to do to prepare.

For everyone, be sure to read the guidelines for how to participate in workshops (I’ve cut and pasted the whole thing below just in case you can’t find it).

If you’re among those students who were assigned to write an essay on this week’s topic, please be sure to post your essay to the blog by the end of today (Wednesday), under the menu item for Short Essays. Be sure it has your name on it. Also, please make four (4) printed copies of your essay and bring those with you to class on Friday.

If you’re not among the students assigned to write an essay this week, please read ALL of the short essays posted for this week before class meets on Friday. You should write comments on the blog to AT LEAST two different short essays by our class meeting on Friday. (You may write comments on more than two essays if you like–all of this writing will count toward your blog writing requirement). Then come to class on Friday ready to participate in a workshop session.

The ABCs of Critically Commenting on the Writing of Fellow Students

The general idea behind this practice is that writing is a social process, involving both writers and readers, and one of the most effective ways by which writers can improve their work is to get feedback from readers and revise with that feedback in mind.

Some important points:

Read the whole essay in class, in your workshop group, with someone reading it aloud while others follow along.
After you’ve read it, take 5-10 minutes for readers to carefully go over the essay alone and make notes regarding their comments.
Go around the group, allowing each individual a few minutes to comment on the essay. Don’t be in a hurry. Be generous to the writer, but if something doesn’t make sense in the text, don’t ‘fill in the blank’ and assume you know what the author was trying to say. You are obliged to tell the author about incoherencies and problems in the argument.
Be sure when making your commentary to make constructive critical comments in addition to pointing out aspects of the writing that were in your view effective. Simply cheerleading for your fellow students might make them (and you) feel good, but it will not help anybody to become a better writer.
Be as concrete as possible in your comments. This is a concrete comment: “Consider omitting or moving paragraph 2. The theme it takes up seems out of place at that point in the essay, and it makes murkier what is otherwise a very fine introduction to the argument.” Here are some comments that aren’t very concrete: “Great job!” or “Lacks focus!”
Your comments should be detailed and substantive in class. By the end of the day Friday, you should post a commentary statement as a comment on the essay on the blog. This should be a minimum of 150 words.
Authors should take notes on the commentary they receive from others, the better to absorb its content through active reflection. Authors may respond to comments after all the readers of their essay have had a chance to make their commentaries.
Remember overall to be friendly about this and to try not to get adversarial or defensive (this last point applies especially to the authors). No writing is perfect in its first incarnation/draft form; in fact, no writing is perfect even after many, many revisions. The best writers talk about their desire to go back and revise even brilliant books they have written. The whole idea here is that the crafting of effective arguments in writing is a complex process that takes a lot of time and effort and that can be greatly aided by a community of readers that actively aids the writers in the process of refining and revising an argument. So, don’t feel personally attacked if someone says your argument is confusing. Ultimately, the intent is to help you make a more effective argument.