We were asked to do what we teach. During the workshop, we went through the entire writing process, publicly and collaboratively. We discussed ideas for our essays before the whole group. We read our drafts aloud to the group. We evaluated each others' writing in small groups.
Writing is a way of knowing, of thinking, of making meaning.
Since one of the central themes of the workshop was that writing is a way of learning, the method was in fact the meaning. It is remarkable how many faculty, even in colleges and universities, do not see themselves as writers. It is a sign, I think, of the self-doubt and defensiveness that pervade so much of the academic world. Yet the shift in consciousness that I have described in our workshop was not a radical transformation of teachers into something new. Our disciplines are defined by the kinds of writing we do by the questions we agree are appropriate to write about and by the ways we agree to write about them.