For the Writer:
Workshops provide you the luxury of receiving evaluative and constructive comments on your work. Since the comments your classmates make will to be graded on their helpfulness and number of intelligent, constructive comments, you can be reasonably sure that your partner will do the best s/he can to give you excellent feedback.
You must submit a short response paper (1-2 paragraphs) in which you explain what you have learned from the exercise.
For the Evaluator:
Workshops teach you to read critically, and show you how other students write. Take advantage of this and pay attention to their style, and note what they do well that you would like to emulate, or what they do wrong so that you can avoid making the same mistake/s yourself. Workshops also test your ability to set aside personal feelings (whether friendship or otherwise) and give another person constructive, useful comments that will help her/him revise the paper and make it better.
You must submit a short evaluation (3-5 paragraphs minimum, single spaced, but don’t go overboard) of the paper; you may also choose to write your comments right on your copy of a work. Either way, you will be graded based on the validity of your comments and how constructive your suggestions for improvement are.
The questions below are designed to help you write your evaluations. You may choose to answer them one by one, or you may use them as guides for writing your evaluations or assessing your work.
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For The Student Author: These are questions you should ask yourself while you are writing and revising a piece. You needn’t answer these on paper; just think about these when writing.
1. Describe what you are "doing" in the piece. What did you intend to do with this piece (i.e., persuade a reader, express an emotion, inform a reader, etc.)? Also, describe how you've met your intended goal. Did you use a specific tone? Specific kinds of details/examples? Who did you imagine your audience to be and how does this piece cater to this audience?
2. What aspect of this piece do you like the most or do you feel is most successful? Why? How did this aspect help you achieve your goals for this essay in # 1?
3. What aspect of this piece do you like the least? What did you have problems with? Why? How did it detract from your goals for this essay?
4. Give a brief overview of the revisions you made for this essay and why you made them.
5. Give a summary evaluation of the piece. How would you compare it to your previous essays?
For Both The Author and the Evaluator: These are what you should bear in mind while workshopping. If you are the writer, listen to your partner’s suggestions and see how they help you improve your craft. If you are the evaluator, try to bear these things in mind when looking for ways to help the writer improve his or her work.
Revision- A substantial revision means a major change such as at least one of the following:
1. Change in the focus or center: the writer might take one part of the original and develop it into a new essay.
2. Major reorganization of the original, moving sections around
3. A substantial change in emphasis: adding new material (a page or to some part of the original.
4. Change in voice, tone, and/or form: developing the subject of the original for a different purpose and audience
In your own words, describe the writer's original: what is the writer's purpose? How does the writer accomplish it?
Suggest a major change the writer could make in this essay using these guidelines and explain why such a change is needed.
C. For The Evaluator
PEER RESPONSE SHEET
FOR: FROM:
1. What is the basic idea of the piece? Is it actually saying something or is it just a collection of thought? Did the writer communicate why the whole thing matters?
2. Describe the voice of the essay. Is the author tense? relaxed? friendly? lecturing? happy? sad? stern? etc. Do you get a sense of the person behind the words? How does this help or hurt the piece?
3. What did you find yourself wanting to hear more about? What points are brought up but not sufficiently pursued? What did you expect to hear but didn't? What's almost said?
4. What did you like most about the piece?
5. What would you revise/improve in the piece?
6. What do you think you could use in your own writing?
