WORKSHOP2

Workshop 2 and 3

About Workshop 2 and 3

Yet another reminder for those who need it: The second half of this course is where you apply all the knowledge/skills you acquired in the first half of this course. Specifically, you’ll apply your new knowledge/skill set in creating a single story, OR a collection of poetry.

The story or the poetry collection you develop comes out of the material you developed in Workshop 1, which came out of everything you learned and wrote in the first half of the course. You’ll continue developing the same story OR the same poetry collection throughout the rest of this course.

For Workshop 2, you’ll submit more fully-developed drafts of the fiction OR the poetry that you shared in Workshop 1, and you’ll provide feedback on your group members’ drafts, just as you did in Workshop 1. For Workshop 3, you’ll have the option of sharing another draft of your creative or sharing a draft of your final portfolio reflective essay.

What to do

Workshop groups will be listed on the Workshop 2 and 3 page on our Canvas site.

For Workshop 2:

For workshop 2, you’ll choose ONE genre to write in (fiction OR poetry) and submit work that is significantly revised and developed from your Workshop 1 draft.

If you’re working on fiction, you should significantly revise what you’ve already written in your Workshop 1 story draft. In addition, you should either 1) write out the entire story all the way to the end, or 2) add another 2-3 pages to your workshop 1 draft, include a detailed outline that describes the rest of the rising action/climax, then write out the ending.

If you’re working on poetry, you should significantly revise what you’ve already written in your Workshop 1 poetry draft. In addition, you should add 2-3 pages of new poems (making your draft 4-6 pages).

You can copy/paste your draft into the body of your post, attach your rough draft as a document, or provide a link to a Google Doc or Drop Box page where your work is. If you choose to provide a link to your work, you MUST double-check that you’ve set permissions properly so we can actually access your work. We can’t comment on your work if we can’t read it, and I can’t grade what I can’t see.

IMPORTANT: This class is more about the creative process than the creative product. With that in mind, you are strongly encouraged to take risks in your writing —experiment with a new point of view, try a different rhyme scheme, etc. There are no mistakes in the creative process, because even a “misstep” teaches you something important about writing craft, what will/will not work in your story/poetry, and why.

Whether your risk-taking results in stronger creative work or not, risk-taking provides you with more opportunities for learning and reflection, which is a big part of the Final Portfolio reflective essay. Your course grade is based largely on the writing process you engage in, not how good your final story/poetry is. So go ahead, try something different. Ask “what if…” Be a true creator!

For Workshop 3:

For workshop 3, you’ll submit ONE of the following (your choice):

· A complete draft of your creative work—either an 8-10 page story or 7-9 pages of poetry. This draft should represent the very best work you can do. It should display clear, strong evidence of your knowledge of writing craft, and be as fully-developed and near-finished as you can make it. It should be properly formatted and free of any errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

OR…

· A rough draft of your Final Portfolio reflective essay, or a detailed outline of the Final Portfolio essay (see the Final Portfolio document for details on this essay’s contents/requirements). Based on my past experiences in grading the Final Portfolio reflective essay, I strongly encourage you take this option. A great many students don’t give the reflective essay the time/attention it needs, and their course grades suffer for that—a lot. The Final Portfolio reflective essay doubles as your final exam, and I read this essay very closely and grade it pretty tough. Just saying.

The Workshop Responses

For both workshops, you will provide your group members with a draft of your creative work. You will also provide your group members with feedback on their drafts. Providing drafts and feedback works the same way as it did in Workshop 1: You’ll submit a draft as an attachment on the appropriate Workshop discussion forum on Canvas, and you’ll provide written feedback to your group members’ work there, as well.

Unlike Workshop 1, which was about brainstorming possibilities in your creative work, workshops 2 and 3 are more about developing your creative work by thinking about how to use the craft elements we’ve been exploring. That doesn’t mean that there’s no longer a place for brainstorming possibilities, though! Taking risks and learning from your successes and your “failures” is an important part of the creative process.

Your responses to your group members’ drafts will be informal letters to the author that are 300 – 500 words long.

In each response, you’ll address the following items:

· In 1-3 brief sentences, summarize the plot situation (if responding to a story), or the specific subject that all of the poems revolve around (if responding to poetry).

· If you’re responding to a reflective essay draft, you can skip this step.

· Make some observations of how the author is using craft elements. You don’t need to comment on every single craft element, just focus on the ones that seem most significant in the work. For example, you might note that the author is sticking to a traditional plot structure (or not), or using setting, or imagery, or rhyme, in a unique way.

· If you’re responding to a reflective essay draft, make observations on how detailed the author is being about how s/he describes craft elements. For example, describing plot situation, rising action, climax, and resolution is detailed. Simply describing a plot is not detailed. Describing specific rhyme schemes (end rhyme, internal rhyme, near rhyme or perfect rhyme) is detailed. Just saying rhyme is used or not is not detailed.

· Note questions that the work raises for you as a reader. Questions can address the content of the work, or the craft of the work. For example, you might ask how Bob, who had two broken legs on page 2, found himself dancing at a club on page 3. Or you might ask why the author chose the first person POV, or why the author chose to use perfect end rhyme, or why the author chose to center all of the poems on the page. Be sure to explain why the work raises your questions (in other words, don’t ask questions just for the sake of asking questions). Look for areas in the work that make you curious or confused, and develop questions from that.

· If you’re responding to a reflective essay draft, note questions about the focus, organization, or content of the draft.

· Make suggestions for how the author might continue developing the work, and explain the reasoning behind your suggestions. For example, if you believe the story would be more compelling if told from the POV of another character, suggest that, and explain your reasoning. If you believe the poem would be more effective without perfect end rhyme, suggest that, and explain your reasoning. It will be up to the author to decide whether or not to take your suggestions to heart.

· If you’re responding to a reflective essay draft, make suggestions on the focus, organization, details, or content of the essay as you see fit.

Some tips on writing responses

· As creators, we always want to hear that someone loves our work. It’s great to hear, “I loved your story! I can’t wait to read the final draft!” So, if you read a work that you really like, then tell the author you really liked it. But then move on—quickly. Keep in mind that stating your pleasure/displeasure with the work is not the purpose of the workshop response. The purpose is to provide constructive feedback for the author. Focus on that.

· Write the kind of thoughtful, detailed response that you hope to receive from your group members about your own work.

· Be honest, but be tactful. If there’s something about a work that you hate, turn your reaction into a question and constructive feedback.

Due dates, Grading, Etc.

See the Canvas site for each workshop regarding due dates for drafts and responses.

Each workshop is worth 25 points of your course grade. You will earn 10 points for submitting your rough draft, properly formatted, to the proper Canvas discussion forum, by the due date. You will receive 15 points for writing thoughtful, insightful, constructive responses that adhere to the guidelines and requirements noted above.

NOTE: The 15 response-points are for all of the responses you write, not for each response you write. That means you have 15 points to earn whether you write one response or three. That also means that, if a group member does not submit a draft for you to respond to, it won’t affect your own workshop grade. So: write responses to whatever drafts you get, and don’t worry about the rest.

Workshop grades are determined very simply: If you follow through on all the requirements noted above, you’ll earn full credit (25 points). That includes meeting all deadlines, addressing all of the workshop response items listed above, properly formatting your rough drafts, etc. If you miss one or more requirements, your grade will reflect that.

Because this grade is determined based simply on whether you followed through on all requirements or not, I will not provide comments to explain your workshop grades, but you are always welcome to ask me for feedback on your workshop grade.