Participation Guidelines

Writing Workshop Etiquette – prepared by Catharine Wright, 2013 (Director of the Writing Program at Middlebury College)

Some basic principles

  • Begin by inviting the writer to read aloud a paragraph or a page in order to hear the work in her voice.
  • Start the conversation with some positive observations so that the writer becomes comfortable. Also begin with neutral, descriptive observations so that as a workshop group you identify differences in how you understand the argument, purpose, voice, etc.
  • Start with macro issues before addressing micro issues. Do not begin by addressing sentence or paragraph level concerns. Start with bigger observations about argument, interpretation and structure. Later it is okay to bring micro issues to the writer’s attention.
  • Make critical observations as the conversation evolves. Debate and challenge one another’s ideas about the work, its ideas, and how they might be more appropriately explored, developed, supported, organized.
  • Ask clarifying questions of the writer as needed: “did you mean to suggest that….?” or “ “how does your point here relate to the idea in the previous page?”
  • Don’t try to “fix” papers or make them say what you want them to say. Let the workshop be a reflective experience for the whole group—time to sit back and think about writing, reading, research, language. Don’t rewrite the paper for the writer—that is their job!