workshop

Workshop is a good way to help the students critique their writing.  It is very helpful for the author to hear a collective of thoughts and critiques from many different people, in order to figure out what problems in their poem really need work.  Everyone is very respectful to each other and wants their fellow students to succeed.  It is nice to hear compliments about your poem, as well as what could be changed.

One problem I faced is that I'm not very good at critiquing other people's work.  Unless it is something very evident, I feel weird changing or editing someone else's piece.  It comes from their mind and it is their words, and I'm no master poet to be judging or editing something as abstract as poetry.  Maybe I just need some more practice, given that I have not written much poetry until now.

I enjoy writing poetry and reading other peoples poems.  Since I know everyone who writes these, it gives me more incentive to want to compliment them, as well as let them know what could be changed, even though I just explained that I'm not very good at that.  Still, I like workshop as an editing process and I think we should use it more. :)