Writing exercises on this board - good idea or no?

Question

This question got me to thinking: Is there some way we could use this site to set up group writing exercises? The problem is that whatever we set up would have to fit well in the stack-exchange format.

Perhaps this is a terrible idea, but I'd love to at least brainstorm on it. If we could come up with something that's a good fit for the SE model, it would make this site unique on the web.

Responses to this that are proposals for a way to set up a writing challenge or exercise on writing.se would be the most helpful. Even if they just get voted down, there's nothing lost. Also, it's always good to stress this: if we try something and it fails miserably, that's okay.

Answer 1

Important:

(DEPRECATED) Policy on Writing Critiques

So effectively these questions might be allowed, so long as they are about your actual writing that already exists.

Answer 2

I agree with Robert. These just don't seem like a good fit here.

In my opinion, group writing exercises should be a way to learn and improve, and I don't think they can be very effective at that within the stack exchange framework.

There is no correct answer

I don't even know what the check mark would mean in this context. I guess it would denote which "answer" the original poster liked the best. However, this makes it feel less like a constructive exercise and more like a contest.

Voting is corrupted

Corrupted is probably too strong of a word, but voting is definitely being used differently in these questions than in most others. People are going to vote up the entries they like ("good" writing) and vote down the entries they don't like ("bad" writing).

Upvotes are typically supposed to show that you've contributed to the good of the site (with a good question or answer). However, the value of these writing exercises is primarily in the criticism! An answer might be downvoted for poor writing, even if it ends up being a useful example. Similarly, a very well written piece might be heavily upvoted, even though it garners few comments or useful criticism. Votes might actually go against the most useful content.

Community wiki removes the reputation gain associated with these votes, but that is a pain too - as the site gets big and there are a lot of these questions, it's going to suck for the moderators who have to change them all to community wiki.

Also, I think this continues to add to the contest feel and detracts from the constructive criticism.

Comments and editing don't work well for this

The length limit on comments is a pain, and they get very messy very quickly, especially when it's a dialog of more than two people.

It's also likely that these posts will get revised a number of times, and comments are not linked to specific revisions. An answer with three or four revisions and 15 comments will be difficult for newcomers to follow.

Answer 3

I don't think it is feasible, but I love to prove myself wrong. So let's start with justkt's proposal:

Find a painting, post card, or photograph. Describe it with as much "showing" as possible. Try to incorporate all five senses.

As question you post a painting, tag it writing exercise and describe shortly what the exercise is about. It should be a CW question.

Now people answer it with their exercises. These answers should be discussed, what can be done with the comments or with the chat forum. This could be very constructive for the first five answers. As soon as the number does above 20 answers, it's dead. Who will read all these answers to discuss them accordingly and tell the authors what they should improve?

Defined rules for the process could be useful. E.g. the first challenge could be to post their first draft, without revision, which means they are not allowed to edit until their answer was discussed (5 minute grace period is a problem here). Then you can start a second session, where they rewrite their posts and it is discussed again.

But how useful is this, if you get 30 different opinions? Several different views are good, but at a certain amount they are more irritating than helpful. I still don't think that this work, but maybe we have to test it with four or five exercises before we can be sure.

Edit:
When it is CW, we could use the same voting rules like on Meta. Downvote, if you do not like it, upvote if you do and do not vote if you haven't really a opinion about it. We should ask the readers in any case, to leave a comment why they have voted (or not voted). In a writing exercise people ask for critique, so counter downvotes shouldn't be a problem (hopefully).

Answer 4

I think they are a great idea. On Stack Overflow there is code golf, and on Photography there is the weekly picture (although that's on meta)

Is it q&a? No. Does it matter? No. Exceptions are always possible, and having such regular "contests" can help greatly in building a community, as Writers seems to grow a bit slow?

I'm all for it. Maybe it would be worth seeing with jzy if it is possible to announce/feature the excursive on the front page? Look how he integrated the photo stuff on photo SE.

Of course, someone would need to take ownership and run or at least overlook the excersizes

Answer 5

I do like the idea of writing exercises, but the problem I see is that this becomes less a Q&A and more of a discussion, which ultimately is what the SE platform is supposed to be. A place to get answers, not a discussion.

I think discussions are great, and IMHO, more valuable in many cases than Q&A, but I don't think it's something that's appropriate for the site.

Answer 6

Without critique I cannot see how this site can become popular. There are only so many, "What do I now" or "How do I get published questions." Without submission and critique the site becomes of very little value, at least to me. No offense intended to anyone. Just what I think. I think the vagueness of answers is second because a good community will yield some good answers, irrespective of personal bent.