Workshop homestretch

Workshops are some of the most difficult things to do well. We started off uncommonly strong so it's inevitable there would be some unevenness, given enough time. Thursday's workshops were mostly effective and insightful.

Now, however, may be a good time to reinforce the concept of balance and perspective. Pointing out grammatical errors is absolutely NOT off limits. "Readability" (as in, "it's ungrammatical but I can still figure out what he's saying") is not enough (if that were the standard, there would be no need for toddlers to master more than basic babble). Instead, ask: Is it well written in ways that serve the blog's aims and audience: both stylistically and mechanically, aesthetically and formally? For workshops, the question is where to you place the brunt of your emphasis. Unless grammatical problems are prohibitive, they're probably not the best use of your limited workshop time. Comment briefly and move on.

Tone, of course, is also key. Workshops in a group setting work best when comments are addressed to the room generally, not to the person directly. Keep the focus on the writing and ideas, not the writer or personalities involved. And as you all have been doing in most cases, invite feedback and remember that workshops are to some extent subjective. There could be other ways to do somethng. Your workshops have been most successful when you all cordially disagree with one another about what best practices may or may not include for a particular blog. Insofar as the exceptions so far have been rare, carry on.