Review Sessions

The review staff is responsible for deciding the contents of the Minnemingo through a careful evaluation and voting process, and everyone who participates has the opportunity to give anonymous feedback to authors as well as impact what, for a semester, the Minnemingo will become. Anyone from any major and any year is welcome (nay, encouraged!) to become part of the review staff. Members of the review staff appear in the issue of the Minnemingo to which they contribute and receive a free copy at the Release Party at the end of the semester.

Submissions can be found in the English Lounge on Boyer 2nd, starting on TBA date. Below you can find the times, dates and places for this semester's review sessions, as well as general guidelines for how to go about reviewing the submissions.

This Semester's Sessions: March 24, 25, 26

Session 1 - Prose:
Thursday, March 24

Boyer 102  8:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Session 2 - Poetry:
Friday, March 25

Boyer 102  5:30 PM-8:30 PM

Session 3 - Poetry/Photography:

Saturday, March 26

Boyer 102  1:00 PM-4:00 PM

Guidelines for Reviewing:

• Go to the English Lounge on Boyer 2nd (the lounge at the end of the hallway which faces toward Lottie). The binders containing submissions, as well as the comment sheets, are clearly marked "Minnemingo Review Submissions."

• Take a comment sheet and label it either prose, poetry, or artwork.

• Read through the submissions in the binders (labeled "Minnemingo Prose", "Minnemingo Poetry", and "Photos") and for each submission you read, write down the submission number and a couple of comments about the piece. Get through as many submissions as you can, but if you don't have time to read all of them, that's fine!

• If you feel uncomfortable or unqualified to evaluate other people's writing, don't! Nobody expects you to say anything profound; you just need to jot down your impression of the piece - its strengths or weaknesses - and whether you think it should go into the Minnemingo. Here are a few things to keep in mind if you are unsure about how to evaluate a piece of writing:

For poetry:

If it is a formal poem, is the rhyme/meter consistent and natural, or has the language been bent and bruised in order to make it fit the form? If it is an open verse poem, is the language original/fresh/active? Has the poet been intentional about how he or she ended each line, or does the poem read like a paragraph that has just been broken up? What imagery or language surprised/pleased/displeased you? What are the sounds of the poetry when read aloud? Is the poetry appropriate for a venue like the Minnemingo Review?

 

For prose:

Is the story or idea original? Is the language clean/fresh/active? Does the piece do what it set out to do? (that is, if it obviously wants to be funny, did it actually amuse you? or if it obviously wants to be insightful, did it tell you something you didn't know or say something you did know in a new way?) Is the narrative voice/speaker unique, or is there nothing to differentiate it/him/her from that of any other piece? If there is dialog, is it consistent with the characters' voices? Does the work appear polished and crafted, or does it read like a confusing jumble?

• Bring your comment sheet(s) to the Review Sessions and, based on your comments and impressions of the piece, be prepared to vote on each piece by the following evaluative scale:

1 = Definitely should be included in the Minnemingo
2 = Maybe should be included in the Minnemingo
3 = Definitely should not be included in the Minnemingo

 

• Try to be objective when you evaluate and vote on the submissions. Authors are encouraged not to vote on their own piece(s), and friends of authors should vote on those pieces only if they feel they can evaluate them objectively. Keep in mind that many authors also double as Review Staff members. When you give your evaluation, be honest but don't be cruel; the goal is constructive criticism, not insulting people. Editors will e-mail a synthesis of the comments generated at the review sessions to the authors.