The College Writing Workshop

Director of the College Writing Workshop:
Darlene Forrest, Director of Faculty Development,
Expository Writing Program

Students accepted to the Precollege program are eligible to participate in the College Writing Workshop, which is offered during the first five weeks of the program. This is a non-credit course, for which students will receive a grade of either Pass or Fail. Once admitted to the Precollege program, students will select either a morning or afternoon workshop offered on a Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday schedule.

Through the workshop process, students learn to become better critical readers of others' writing as well as their own; they learn to envision and complete a complex intellectual task in writing, one that requires both intuition and hard work, inspiration and revision; and they learn to attend to style in their writing as more than mere decoration.

The essay that students develop involves exploring the mind of a selected writer. Before the workshop, participants select a writer and then read a collection of his or her essays. During the five weeks of the workshop, students are taught ways to read more deeply and analytically, practice developing ideas about their burgeoning interpretations, and write an essay out of all of this—an essay that combines rigorous argument with a spirit and play of mind.

Note: It is not possible to take the College Writing Workshop only. Students must be enrolled in at least one credit-bearing Precollege course in order to be eligible. There is no cost for the workshop.