In-Class Workshops

40-45 minutes

Writing Studio workshops are designed by our consultants for use in the classroom. These workshops focus on different elements of academic writing and have the following goals in mind:

• to encourage students to reflect upon their writing habits
• to introduce students to writing exercises and strategies that they can use in courses across the curriculum, and
• to enhance discussion of discipline-specific writing practices among students and faculty.

Each workshop runs approximately 45 minutes and includes a discussion of writing strategies, a consultant-facilitated conversation with the instructor and students about writing conventions relevant to the course, and at least one writing activity. We are happy to present up to two workshops per class, per semester.

Instructors are important participants in the workshop conversations, and should plan to contribute relevant materials and be present on the day of the workshop. Several of the workshops are designed to work in conjunction with a class assignment.

Please click on the links below to see the script and required materials for each workshop.

Writing Studio Workshops 2012

Transitioning to College Writing—This workshop is designed mainly for 100-level courses and is most appropriate toward the beginning of the semester. It encourages students to be aware of their own writing process as well as the conventions of academic argument. With the assistance of the instructor, we discuss both the nature of academic discourse as a conversation with the ideas of others and the demands of the course for which the students are writing. 
The course instructor will need to provide a paper prompt.

Brainstorming: Getting Started—This workshop assists writers with discovering ideas and sharpening the focus of their essays. Using a prompt provided by the instructor, we work through several exercises to generate new material. 
The course instructor will need to provide a paper prompt.

Revision—This workshop assists students with the revision of a paper they have already drafted, focusing on large-scale concerns like argument, analysis, and structure. We work through three revision activities, beginning with a brief exercise in which students rearticulate the main claims of their papers, followed by an exercise designed to identify organizational problems. For the third activity, students may choose one of four exercises, allowing them to focus on their specific needs.
The course instructor will need to be sure students bring an essay draft to class.

Thesis Statements—This workshop focuses on understanding the characteristics of a strong thesis and how to write one. Using a prompt from the class, students will begin drafting their own thesis statements. A discussion of how to argue for one’s thesis rounds out the workshop. 
The course instructor will need to provide a paper prompt and sample bad thesis statements for that assignment.

Warranting Claims with Textual Evidence— This workshop discusses the ways analysis of quotations can be used as support for, or warrants argumentative claims. Students will evaluate, discuss, and revise their own use of textual evidence in a draft. The instructor plays an important role here in helping the students understand what constitutes good evidence, and use thereof, in his or her discipline and course.
The course instructor will need to be sure students bring an essay draft to class.

Organizing Research Papers—This workshop guides students in structuring and planning research papers. Using an organizational grid, students will focus on meaningfully categorizing and evaluating their research in light of a focused research question. 
The course instructor will need to be sure students bring their research materials to class.

Writing Case Studies and Ethnographies—This workshop focuses on two parts of writing case studies and ethnographies. First, students discuss the importance of neutral and detailed description when conducting field work, taking time to practice writing or revising their own field notes. Second, following a discussion of how ethnographies and case studies drawn upon field notes as evidence, students will begin drafting sentences that use their observations to warrant claims and tie their notes to course concepts.
Course instructors may request this workshop either before or after students have conducted fieldwork.