TIL Ray Bradbury, in an interview with the Paris Review, stated "You can't learn to write in college. It's a very bad place for writers because the teachers always think they know more than you do – and they don’t."

Woah, okay.

Firstly, I think you have this idea that I'm one of those students who barely puts in an effort and still manages to get by. While I could probably do that and still swing a good grade, I don't. For better or for worse, I'm an absolute try-hard when it comes to pretty much anything in school. While I finish faster, have less errors, and have something most teachers would consider a "final draft" much more easily than other students, I also write multiple pages more than most other students do. Whatever I'm writing about (even if I don't like it or don't agree with it), I still give the assignment the full attention it deserves and end up with something I'm actually proud to hand in. This isn't just me getting an A on a few essays and thinking I'm Shakespeare. This is me taking advantage of a skill I know I'm good at and refining it to make it even better. I listen very carefully to teachers AND students on critiques and advice and try to use it to my advantage.

Also, my issue with the workshops isn't just a black and white thing. I just don't see a lot of value in them if the people you're working with don't understand what they're doing. If I'm paired with a few similarly skilled people who genuinely understand writing, it's a great experience because then we actually can bounce ideas off of each other and it WILL result in a stronger paper. However, I've been paired up with people who need more help than I can offer them. What usually happens then is that the person (or persons) who needs help ends up throwing all of their papers at me so I can read it. I always oblige because they deserve a chance just as much as anyone. But what exactly do I get out of the exercise? I'll let them read my paper and give me any criticism.

But here's the gotcha when it comes to that, if they aren't at the same level as you, they aren't going to pick up on the kind of errors that someone like me makes, then they'll just say "it's perfect, now help me with mine." This happens way more than it should. I need people who will tell me where my paper sucks, so then I can go and improve it. Now to be fair, even my teachers don't have too much advice to give me, it'll often be either a really minute change, or it's a really "big picture" suggestion that will add something extra to the paper. It's more of the teacher and I bouncing ideas off of each other since they know I don't need help learning to write; I really only need help with the bigger, more creative ideas in my paper.

Clearly, you see to really like workshops, and you keep telling me that they have some sort of benefit that I don't understand yet. So can you tell me in like, just a sentence or two what that benefit or benefits are? I don't deny they exist. It's just that in my experience, I haven't seen too many for me personally. Again, that doesn't mean I ignore advice or don't try to take advantage of workshops. It just means that I haven't noticed any obvious advantages in the nine or so months that a school year lasts.

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