Peer Workshopping

 

 

For most of us, the process of revising papers and workshopping comes with a sense of dread, and rightfully so, because it seems that many of us never actually learn what a proper peer workshop entails. Thus, in preparation for our first peer workshop of the class, we had to read an article titled “Responding – Really Responding – to Other Students' Writing.” The article discussed what to focus on when reading a draft, how to approach giving constructive criticism, and how to comment on another person's writing. It was really beneficial, especially for someone like me (I can be really critical and stingy with my compliments). The article was rational, and promoted a sense of balance between being helpful and being encouraging. There was also clarification between editing and revising, terms which people tend to conflate. I came away from the article confident that future workshops would be productive and more collaborative than ones in the past.

 

Below is my response to the article: