Expectations for In-Class Workshops

A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.
E.B. White

  • Readiness: Please come prepared, on time, with the materials, drafts, or other items that you need to work on. Bring whatever you need to be productive: charged laptop, notes, readings, coffee, snacks, etc. 

  • Time Management: Manage your time effectively during these workshops. Plan what you are going to do and set goals for what you wish to accomplish in each session. Sometimes, you will have to post what you generated during writing time to show that you are iterating your work and to help me understand how you are approaching the assignment. Even a little progress is better than none—you can work with a half-baked idea or crappy draft, but not with no ideas and a blank page. No learning takes place without action and no action takes place without overcoming inertia.

  • Seeking Help: Ask me for feedback or clarification, or just bounce ideas off of me. For me, that’s the really fun part of teaching. I get worried when nobody is taking advantage of the chance to get in-process feedback. That is a missed opportunity that usually portends poor outcomes. So ask questions. Show me things. Test your ideas. 

  • Focus, Productivity, and Respect: This time and space are set aside for focused work and learning. To maintain a productive environment for everyone, please minimize distractions. This means engaging in activities directly related to the work at hand in this course during workshop time and keeping all unrelated conversations or uses of the Internet for some other time and place. Most St. Edward’s students are non-confrontational, and thus will not tell a peer that their messing around is distracting. But it is. Don’t mistreat your fellow classmates by eroding the learning environment. I will call you out, even in front of the class, if I have to. Don’t be a rude distractor. Rude distractors will be marked absent.

  • Openness to Learning: Be open to working on your ideas and writing and, perhaps, to adding to your repertoire of writing practices and processes. Growth happens at the edge of our comfort zones. Workshops provide some time and space for that growth to occur. But only if you are open to it.