Manuscript preparation follows profesional guidelines used in submission of material to magazine editors. Workshop format requires students to read their work to their classmates for comment, criticism, and commendation. Workshop format also requires students to be active listeners and critics of their classmates' work. Students learn to offer and receive criticism and praise in meaningful and mature ways. While student work and reading take priority, there is ample time for reading and discussion of composition theory.
Students are free to emphasize any topic or problem touched on in the assigned reading for the week.
Videotapes of poetry readings are used as often as possible in the classroom. All or some students may arrange to give a poetry reading in the Student Center or in a dormitory lounge. Many of the students may submit their work to the campus literary magazine, or to other magazines, and learn the realities of having work published. Students are strongly encouraged and may be required to attend campus poetry readings sponsored by the Department of English Creative Writing Committee. Students make extensive use of the library videotapes of poetry readings produced on the campus, holdings which cover fifteen years and include many nationally known writers.