Personal Essay Workshopping Guide

1. How well did the author establish setting/ scenes? Please jot down the primary scenes and
settings of the essay, as you the reader perceive them.

2. How well did the author develop characters? Are there both physical and more personality-
based development and description? And what about the narrator as character?

3. Examine the use of dialogue. Does the dialogue feel true to the characters, or does it feel forced
or awkward. Does dialogue further the whole narrative in an important way? Reveal more about
characters than simply their words?
4. Does the piece contain a significant reflective element? Is it in one place, or woven through the
piece? What is the larger meaning, truth about the world, or life lesson (as the case may be)?
Does it come across clearly? And feel integrated into the overall essay?

5. What is the tone of the piece? Is the writing narrative, like fiction, “listy,” or “play-by-play”?

6. Where is the weakest point in this essay? How might it be improved?

7. What is the strongest point in this essay? How might that strength be brought to the rest of the
essay?