Workshops

Today in multimedia, we will talk about workshops. Most of the students have never been in a workshop environment, so I'm guessing the class can go in a couple of different directions:

1. They will be too polite to offer criticism to help the writers, opting instead to either stay silent or comment on easily changeable things like the title.

2. They could go the other way and say things like, I don't understand this at all. It's boring. I suspect that won't be the case, because these students are cautious and polite.

3. They could not talk much at all, and I will end up talking for most of the time.

I guess that's okay if I go through the bulk of the critique, as long as I am able to skim their manuscripts ahead of time and have some general comments to offer. The other thing I need to communicate is that the writers don't speak, and don't defend.  That's the model I'm comfortable with, though I could take Molly G.'s approach and ask them to answer questions about their work, such as Do you like any of your characters?

Also, I will get to see Joe Biden today at Rutgers. I think that's so cool.