TORDA'S SPRING 2023 TEACHING SITE
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 ENGL226 Writing About Writing: CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPPING

Need to be in touch with me? 
LEE TORDA
310 Tillinghast Hall
Bridgewater State University
508.531.2436
ltorda@bridgew.edu
www.leetorda.com
FALL 2013 Office Hours
Monday & Wednesday: 3:30 to 4:30
Tuesday: 2:00 to 3:00
and by appointment.
Conferences. Many writers work with an editor. The job of an editor might seem a bit mysterious, or, on the other hand, it might seem pretty tedious. Student writers think of editing as fixing typos. But a real editor helps a writer see the best in his or her piece and helps them to bring it out in the text. It's a kind of behind-the-scenes magic that doesn't get a lot of praise but should. Sometimes the difference between a really good piece of writing and a really great piece of writing, it turns out, is a good editor. Once this semester, we will meet one-on-one to talk about a piece of your writing. My rational is two-fold: I want you to see the power of editing, really editing, from a writer's perspective, but I also want you to see what it might be like to be an editor yourself. Class will be canceled for these meetings (the week after Thanksgiving), and we will schedule them during and around class times. You will be required to bring material to the conference--actual text--not just ideas. Editorial Conferences are a part of the "Writing As Art" assignment. 

Workshopping. Think of the word "workshop." Things get done in workshops--furniture gets built; cars get fixed; dresses get stitched. Real work. That's what should happen in a writing workshop--stuff should get done. This experience, though, is not how writing is typically treated in any classroom. So workshops can be a rough experience if you've never participated in one before. But, if you stay in  the writing concentration, the writing workshop will become the chief methodology--the principle way writer's get work done--will become a significant part of your writing life. Workshops can look different ways in different settings, and we will experience a little of all them.

During the first half of the semester, we will do two kinds of workshops. We will do small group, whole class workshops. This model is most generally what you would find if you worked in creative jobs  where people work as teams to produce whole campaigns. You will pitch your material to your classmates and then you will get feedback from them and from me. We will do this kind of a workshop for the Writing in the Professions assignment.

You will also have small groups workshops, what I would call a writing group, for the second assignment, Writing Studies. Writing groups are like long-running workshops with small groups of writers that come to know each other's work very well. I've been in a writing group that helped members through not one but two books. It can be a professional relationship that lasts a lifetime. That might be a bit ambitious for this class, but that is the idea.

Finally, we will engage in the quintessential version of workshops, the sort of workshop that you would encounter in a creative writing course. At the end of the semester, you will circulate drafts of your creative work during the Writing As Art assignment. As a reader of those drafts you will respond to the material in ways that will help the writer move the piece forward. I will provide more specific details about how these workshops will happen.     

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  • Home
  • ENGL 226 policies
    • 226 Discussion Board space
    • ENGL 226 syllabus
    • ENGL 226 PORTFOLIO
    • ENGL 226 PARTNER INTERVIEW MINI-PAPER
    • ENGL226 READING JOURNALS (assignment)
    • 226 BLOG INFORMATION
    • ENGL 226 Writing Studies Timeline Project
    • ENGL 226 Professional Writing Project
    • ENGL 226 SUPER FAST CAREER PRESENTATIONS
    • ENGL 226 Writing As Art
  • Previously Taught Classes
    • ENGL 301 >
      • ENGL 301 SYLLABUS >
        • PARTNER INTERVIEW ENGL 301
      • ENGL 301 Discussion Board When We Need it
      • ENGL 301 PORTFOLIOS
      • ENGL 301 READING JOURNALS (assignment)
      • ENGL 301 INTERVIEW WITH A TEACHER (assignment)
      • ENGL 301 BOOK CLUB (assignment)
      • ENGL 301 FLASH MENTOR TEXT MEMOIR (assignment)
      • ENGL 301 RESEARCH IN TEACHING DIVERSE POPULATIONS (assignment) >
        • ENGL 301 RESEARCH IN TEACHING DIVERSE POPULATIONS (instructions & sample annotations)
      • ENGL 301 ASSIGNMENT DESIGN (assignment)
    • ENGL102 >
      • ENGL 102 Class Discussion Board
      • ENGL102SYLLABUS
      • ENGL102 PORTFOLIOS/Research Notebook
      • ENGL102 ASSIGNMENT: Class Profile Page
      • ENGL102 ASSIGNMENTS: Reading Journals
      • ENGL102 ASSIGNMENT: OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH PROJECT >
        • ENGL102 ASSIGNMENT: POSITIONING YOURSELF
        • ENGL102 ASSIGNMENT: Locating & Evaluating part I
    • ENGL 202 BIZ Com >
      • ENGL 202 Business Writing SYLLABUS
    • ENGL 227 INTRO TO CNF WORKSHOP
    • ENGL 298 Second Year Seminar: This Bridgewater Life
    • ENGL406 RESEARCH IN WRITING STUDIES
    • ENGL 493 THE PERSONAL ESSAY
    • ENGL 493 Seminar in Writing & Writing Studies: The History of First Year Composition >
      • ENGL 493 Assignments: Annotated Bibliography & Presentation
    • ENGL 511 Reading & Writing Memoir
    • DURFEE Engl101
  • BSU Homepage