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

College Writing—This workshop, designed mainly for 100 level courses, introduces students to basic aspects of academic writing such as identifying and negotiating one’s own writing process, developing and refining one’s style, and understanding the audience for academic papers. 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.

Invention: Getting Started—This workshop assists students with brainstorming aspects of the writing process, during which writers discover ideas and sharpen the focus of their essays. Using a prompt provided by the instructor, we work through several exercises aimed at providing a launch pad for writing.

Revision—This workshop assists students with the revision of a paper they have already drafted, focusing on large-scale concerns like analysis, structure, and organization. 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.

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.

Textual Evidence—This workshop focuses on the ways in which textual evidence provides support for, or warrants, an argumentative claim. 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.

Organizing Your Research Paper—This workshop guides students in structuring and writing research papers. Using an organizational grid, students will focus on meaningfully categorizing and evaluating their own research in light of a focused research question.