I find the way workshops are presented to be very interesting. Generally, when a young writer is introduced to the idea of workshopping a piece of writing, she's taught to assume that the majority opinion is generally correct. I think there's something seriously wrong with this approach. A workshop is only as good as the other writers in it, and (especially for young writers) it can be very damaging to take everything people say without considering it.
I'm not trying to cut down workshops. With the right group of people, a workshop/critique group can be incredibly useful. The important part, though, is to make sure that they enjoy the type of writing that you're presenting AND that they're people who you feel can provide good advice.
That means listening to what they say when they talk about writing. It's perfectly okay, in my opinion, to trust a fellow student over a teacher. Sometimes the student understands what you're trying to achieve in a story better than the teacher does, and so their suggestions will be much more in line with your ideas than the teacher's will.
This is, of course, just my opinion.
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