Workshop Reflection

In my brief writing career, this workshop (one of two) has been the best by far. There were a few things I really enjoyed over the past two and half weeks. The first was the intimacy of the workshop. I liked how workshop was a space for all of us to share our work in a comfortable and safe environment, and furthermore, enjoyed receiving all of my peer's honest feedback. Unlike in the other workshop I had done in high school, I felt that there wasn't any dillydallying or wasting of time. Each persons feedback written on my poem, and spoken verbally, genuinely wanted to help improve my work. And even cooler, it was this way for everyone. Although I sometimes lagged a day to get my written revisions back to their authors, I felt very motivated to make sure the feedback I gave to my peers was honest, understandable, and helpful.

When Dr. Burgess came to teach two class sessions, he had us move the tables closer together, so that we would be face to face with our peers. I thought this was awesome because it just felt right. It made perfect sense. If we were all going to be sharing honest, personal opinions about each others honest, personal work, why wouldn't we be closer together? It was as if we were a family passing around delicious written delicacies prepared for this English A211 Thanksgiving. While that might sound "shmoozy," its genuinely how I feel. As a class, we have grown closer together through this workshop. The reason why I care about this is because I will most likely be taking the same classes with these same people for the next 3 years to come. The closer we get, the better feedback we can give. All in all, workshop was an awesome experience, and I look forward to the next one.