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ENGL389 Topics in Writing: YA Writing Workshop

Assignments: workshopping

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LEE TORDA
310 Tillinghast Hall
Bridgewater State University
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ltorda@bridgew.edu
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Overview
Workshopping is an important part of the creative process for writers. Folks who write either professionally or personally are often a part of a writing group--folks who read the writing of other members of the group, respect it, take it seriously, and react as readers interested in helping the writer revise their work into a better place. Not all feedback from a workshop makes it into a writer's revision--workshops are not like teacher comments on an essay for a class. Readers are equals. They don't have or need any particular expertise. And so what one reader wants to see another may not--that can make for an interesting but sometimes, also, truth be told, some frustration. The job of the writer is to think about what they were trying to do in their writing and then think about how readers understood the piece and consider what and how that information will affect their work. To conduct a civil, thoughtful, workshop, certain things have to happen. I outline those below

Details
Guidelines for Giving Feedback for our Final Project Writing Group
Consider the characteristics of YA we’ve discussed:
  • A relationship to authority—often resistant
  • Typically first person narration or close third (we only know what the narrator of the story is telling us)
  • A coming of age story—the character goes from childhood to a kind of adulthood over the course othe story.
  • Important firsts: the character or characters experience many things for the first time. 
  • The text asks a reader to consider a more adult theme in the narrative—training for more adult texts later
  • The text might ask the reader to read a more challenging text in terms of structure, style, and language as a way to train them to read more sophisticated texts later on. 
Where do you see the writer making moves? Where could they do more? Or do it differently? 

Also, consider what we’ve been talking about in terms of craft:
  • Setting (world building)
  • Character description (physical, emotional, etc)
  • Narrative arc (plot)
  • Beginnings, middles, ends 
  • The climactic moment and the resolution
  • Dialogue (is it doing something or is it just talk for the sake of talk)
Where do you see the writer developing in these areas? Where could the story use more work in these areas? 

  1. Have your text read to be given to your classmates on the day indicated on the syllabus.
    ​

  2. In-class, we'll establish a reading schedule for the remaining classes. 

  3. Folks should respond to whatever is being workshopped as a reader first. You might be reading in a genre that you are not that familiar with and may not feel like an expert at. That's OK. Others in the class will step up during weeks when a genre they are experts at is on the table. But all writers need to think of all their readers, even inexpert ones, so everybody's voice counts. Further, we have some general guidelines for what YA looks like. Use that to help you guide your feedback. 

  4. Bring two copies of your short letter to the workshop. Expect to turn one of those letters in to me and to give the other to the author along with the marked up text. I do not need a copy of the text with your in-text comments. I just want the short letter to the writer.

  5. Be prepared to contribute to a lively conversation about a writer's text during the in-class workshop. Please do not feel that because you've written your comments out that you are exempt from contributing to the discussion. Equally, it's not appropriate for any one student to monopolize an entire discussion. Workshop should be a discussion.

I will use these letters to assess how thoughtful a workshopper you've been to your colleagues. Your good work as a workshopper will help your final grade. Your bad work as a workshopper will not. Successfully contributing to the workshop is part of the requirement for earning your grade for the two stories or parts of stories that will make up the formal writing you are doing for our class. 

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  • Home
  • 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
      • ENGL102 ASSIGNMENT: Locating & Evaluating part II
  • ENGL389
    • ENGL 389 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL 389 CLASS PROFILE PAGE
    • ENGL 389 SYLLABUS
    • ENGL389 Reading Journals
    • ENGL389 Writer's Notebook.
    • ENGL389 WORKSHOPPING
    • ENGL389 Author Presentation
  • ENGL 513
    • ENGL 513 MONDAY UPDATE
    • ENGL 513 DISCUSSION BOARD
    • CLASS PROFILE ENGL 513 COMP T&P
    • SYLLABUS ENGL 513 COMP T&P
    • PORTFOLIOS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY
    • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: READING RESPONSES
    • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: Literacy History
    • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: Pedagogy Presentations
    • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: Reverse Annotated Bibliography
    • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: ETHNOGRAPHY/CASE STUDY
    • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: final project
  • Previously Taught Classes
    • ENGL 102 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL 301 policies >
      • ENGL 301 CLASS UPDATE
      • ENGL 301 SYLLABUS
      • ENGL 301 PORTFOLIOS
      • ENGL 301 READING JOURNALS (assignment)
      • ENGL 301 BOOK CLUB (assignment)
      • ENGL 301 INTERVIEW WITH A TEACHER (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)
    • 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
  • ENGL102 ASSIGNMENT: Locating & Evaluating part II