Editing & Critique — The Thomaston Approach

As the MCHP teams move into writing and constructing exhibits, we’ve been talking about critique. The Thomaston group had a great idea. They’re all shooting to have draft essays for their exhibits done by February 1 so that they can use the February team meeting to have a critique and edit session. They’ll read the works and bring suggestions to discuss. That leaves them plenty of time to incorporate changes and polish their writing. Even the team members who don’t know the local history well have a valuable part to play — if a detail is unknown to them or is confusing then that’s a sign that the writer may need to make changes. Plus, they will likely get a whole lot done in just one sitting. This is a really great team approach to the exhibit work and I look forward to seeing how it goes.

The MCHP is all about collaborative team work and in group work, it’s important to give constructive and thoughtful feedback in a respectful way. You know this, I’m sure. But if it’s your work under the microscope it scan be stressful and nerve-wracking — and maybe some of the team members aren’t used to sharing their work publicly. On the other hand, we’re shooting for top quality stuff here so it’s important to carefully review the writing for clarity and accuracy. This is a crucial part of the MCHP and I’m curious to see how the different teams approach it. More on this later…
-Stephanie