Workshop and Critiquing Guidelines

Workshop and Critiquing Guidelines

Workshops are useful for readers and writers: both learn more about the possibilities of writing while honing their critical thinking skills. Our workshops are designed to accomplish these aims:

enlightenment	helping writers see how others see their writing
assistance	gaining new strategies, suggestions, perspectives
prioritizing	distinguishing important concerns from minor ones
practice offering constructive criticism	learning tact may be useful in some academic and professional endeavors
practice receiving criticism	learning tact may be useful in some academic and professional endeavors

To establish a group

Come prepared with 3-4 copies of your draft. If your draft is longer than five pages, select out or mark a five-page section for particular attention. If you'd like help with specific aspects, write a note explaining the desired focus, and copy it with the drafts.

On the fated day, distribute copies to your group. Everyone should write comments on each draft and be prepared to discuss them on the workshop day.

To critique a draft

Comments can be descriptive, prescriptive, or both. Descriptive comments offer the writer information about reader reactions, including comments and questions; prescriptive comments suggest what the writer should do.

Examples of descriptive comments:

Very informative section; follows well from the issue that you set up
Confusing—contradicts what you said two paragraphs earlier

I'm lost—you have information here about photons, but I expected you to discuss your research question rather than just giving information.
Clear and concise, efficiently stated—nice job!
Great word choices here.

Examples of prescriptive comments:

Move this conclusion to the beginning and replace the current introduction because this establishes all the relationships that we need at the start
Tell me here right here where the rest of the paper is going
Revise the Results text to set a better context for your really nice tables by telling the reader what's most essential in each figure
Omit marked paragraphs—unnecessary.

In order to comment most effectively….

First, think about the writer's audience and purpose because the writing should be judged in context. Try to suspend idiosyncratic reactions, and read from the intended audience's point of view.
Read with a pen in hand, right from the start, so you can write comments and mark changes that reflect your immediate responses. If you later change your mind, you can add comments to that effect, but it's useful for writers to learn about initial reactions (after all, many documents are only read once by their intended readers….)
After assessing from the intended readers' perspective, write additional comments from your own point of view. Focus most on what you now think are the important concerns; try to help the writer prioritize and recognize essential changes. Use the

course materials to help you focus on key aspects.

Write the comments that accurately reflect your honest reactions. Try to be tactful, but don't constrain or alter your comments because of worry about being wrong or hurting feelings. (If you hurt the writer's feelings, the writer is likely to assume you're wrong anyway.) Any comment you make will help the writer learn about possible reactions, and it’s kindest in the long run to help people correct their mistakes.
Sign the draft so you can get credit for your commentary.

To discuss drafts

Apportion the time available in class, so everyone's work can be discussed, or arrange to meet outside of class to continue discussion. Each writer's work is discussed in turn, so apportion the workshop time accordingly. For each writer’s work,

first comment on assets
then comment on problems and suggestions , starting with the most important aspects

then pass critiqued, signed drafts back to the writer to be included in the portfolio.

Commentators: Consider your comments within the framework of the workshop aims: you can't cover everything, so help the writer understand what's most important. Don't worry about being wrong; the responsibility of what to do with your comments rests with the writer. Don't apologize for correcting the writer; think about the value of constructive

criticism, and get to work.

Writers: Practice nodding, smiling, and making muffled sounds of vague encouragement. When your work is being discussed, listen and take notes on your copy. You can ask questions, but don't argue with your critics: if they offer valid criticisms, smile, thank them, and do what they suggest; if they are misguided, hopeless fools, smile, thank them, and completely ignore what they say.