Required Workshop Discussions

This semester you are required to send two (2) of your own poems to the entire email list of students. Thereafter, you should, yourself, pick out at least two students' work to write comments on at least two of their poems (total of 4 poems will be critiqued) which you will send to them and to me. THE WORKSHOP COMMENTS MUST FOLLOW FORM--COMMENTING LINE-BY-LINE (not as a summary note at the start of end of the poem).

Don't forget that you need to send me both copies of your own work and copies of the comments you make on the work of other students.

PLEASE LABEL YOUR EMAIL RE: EG 91 WORKSHOP

That means soon you will send two (only 2) of your total of ten (10 you send as outlined in deadlines) required poems to me and those same two poems to everyone of your fellow students. Soon after that, you will send two fellow students and me comments on two student poems.

PLEASE! Please label your comments when you send them to me to check off as requirements you completed for the course:

Sorry to repeat but folks seem to miss this: Your email label when sending me comments should be RE: EG 91 WORKSHOP

Here's more on how the workshops work:

Poets, artists, should create first, for themselves. If you write from the heart, you are, at least, sincere! However, if you desire any audience beyond your bureau draw or hard drive files, you should learn to revise--for others.

For poets, revision is as often the result of "workshopping" your poem. Give your poem to a reader who can react to it, analyze it word by word, line be line, even suggest words and lines to improve it.

You will send your work to your fellow students and together you will form a workshop, a self-improvement society! Writing is infinitely variable--it can be written or revised in an unending number of ways.

The test of good writing you will apply here is whether your poem gets the desired effect. To know that you will ask others to read and react to your work.

And again, sorry to repeat but folks seem to miss this:

THE WORKSHOP COMMENTS MUST FOLLOW FORM--YOU MUST COMMENT LINE-BY-LINE (not as a summary note at the start of end of the poem). That means you can use italic, a different typeface, a different color for your comments and make them right next to each line of your fellow students' poems.

HERE ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS/RULES REGARDING YOUR WORKSHOP EXCHANGES:

Click here: RULES

Instructions

1. Send a copy of two of your poems to your instructor and also to the all other students whose email addresses are listed on our Students page.

2. In turn you will receive poems from each of your fellow students.

3. Send workshop comments (explication and revision) back to your two fellow students and to your instructor.

FOR A SAMPLE OF HOW TO WORKSHOP POEMS CLICK HERE:

SAMPLE POETRY WORKSHOP COMMENTS

You should, in turn, pick at least two other students' work to comment on--for a total of six comments, with copies, of course, to your instructor as well. You may comment on more work (for extra credit) as evaluating the writing by other students is a great way to learn!