The Final Tally

Let me start by saying again how proud I am — both for the hard work you've done all quarter long, but especially for your gorgeous chapbooks.  I hope you're just as proud, and that you're enjoying a restful spring break.

You might not have believed I'd actually do this (some of you, perhaps, prayed that I wouldn't), but I just spent a few hours going through every workshop thread and every prompt thread on Blackboard to put together a final tally of everyone's participation in the workshop.  In some cases, the numbers are pretty disheartening, but I'd rather focus on the more positive ones first:

• There were six students who fully lived up to the responsibilities of the workshop and posted review comments to every single workshop thread: Patrick, Morgan, Alex, Adam B., Sammy and Amanda V.  I don't want to undercut their achievement in any way, but frankly, that number's flat-out pathetic, and ideally all eighteen of you would've done this.
• All but four of you did the required number of eight prompts, however two students (Alex and Sammy) did all ten, and another two (Anne and Amanda V.) did nine, both of which are spectacular.  Those students who slacked-off here don't bother me quite as much, as they only hurt themselves, whereas those who didn't post workshop comments let their classmates down.
• Towards that end, there were six students altogether whose skipped comments numbered in the double-digits, including two who had more than 20.  Considering that you were all forewarned that I'd be taking stock of participation, and you had extra time to remedy this, the scale here is quite disappointing.  But back to positive news . . .

As I said very early on in the quarter, a good number of you will be receiving A-level grades, and I'm happy to be able to give out so many — you gave yourselves over to the workshop experience, did a lot of hard work, and produced not only beautiful, imaginative chapbooks, but also accomplished final portfolios that demonstrated growth over the course of the term.  Even those of you who won't be getting As have developed considerably, but unfortunately a workshop is a social contract and if you haven't lived up to the deal see that reflected in your final grade.

I'll be sending each of you a brief note discussing your performance in the class, and I hope you'll keep in touch with news of your achievements through the Facebook group.  We already have one bit of good news to share: Short Vine's editors have selected two poems by Amanda V. to be included in the online winter issue (which will launch next Monday).  I encourage all of you to submit work for the spring print issue, as well the English Department's annual poetry prizes, and will post info on those when it becomes available.