Pizza, professionals, and pupils.

If you want to conduct a workshop for collegiate editorial writers, you'll need a variety of pizza, lots of editors and breakout rooms, a faculty member from a nearby college or university -- and students.

When it comes to the students, timing is everything. While the ideal time to hold a workshop is on any given Saturday in the fall so that the students get the most out of it in the ensuing academic year, fail means football, and so the workshop organizer needs to be mindful of the competition when scheduling. Also be alert for religious and federal holidays that could create three-day weekends for students, which they'll spend at home, not on campus.

Buy-in from editors is critical

Obviously, a host faculty member is important, but without a buy-in from editors, the faculty member can't do much. Fortunately, buy-in hasn't been a problem.

The editors provide the kind of external support the faculty member needs to obtain in-house support from his or her administrator. The faculty member needs to line up a large conference room and several breakout rooms as well as ensure that coffee is available for breaks and food for lunch. In other words, a good assistant will ensure that the day of the workshop runs seamlessly and the faculty member will end up with no worries.

The editors, of course, recruit other editors so a critical mass of knowledge can be shared in group sessions and in breakouts. Ideally, each breakout session needs two editors.

The final ingredient in a successful workshop is an interactive program. Avoid pontification and pedantry. Students will doze off. Engage them early and often. Ask them what problems they are having and then use their comments as a springboard to helping them and making the points you want to make.

Recruiting students is a challenge--and despite the many contacts the faculty member might have, NCEW editors who recruit students add to the importance of the workshop. Students tend to be more impressed by a phone call from a professional than a professor.

And you can never recruit enough students. Don't limit yourself to the editorial page editor of a college newspaper; welcome all on the staff who want to attend. You'll get more variety in the audience.

Be prepared for an attrition rate of 30%. Students have a tendency to decide what they're really going to do when a given day dawns and a commitment made a month ago is not necessarily a commitment on the day of the workshop. Thirty students signed up the week before the workshop could easily turn into 20 the day it is held.

Encourage the students to bring multiple copies of tearsheets showing their work so there are enough to go around in the breakout sessions. In fact, the hook for getting students in the door is the promise of a critique by professionals. Emphasize that in all recruiting material.

Breakout sessions should be facilitated by two editors and should have no more than five students per. All comments should be constructive. Editors need to keep in mind that at many college newspapers, the editors have never taken a course in editorial writing and are learning by the seat of their pants. Their presence at an NCEW workshop is evidence that they hunger for advice.

Penn State agenda

The workshop conducted at Penn State ran from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. and broke down like this:

* 10 a.m. Brief introductory remarks by host faculty member followed by a brief presentation by an editor on what the editorial process is about.

* 10:30 a.m.-noon. Interactive panel discussion on problems the student editors are facing.

* Noon-1 p.m. Lunch (Make sure you include plain and vegetarian pizza.)

* 1-3 p.m. Breakout critique sessions.

Always keep an eye on the clock. Don't let sessions drag on. Remember that many of the students and editors need to return home on the same day and will be driving. When it comes to an effective workshop, timing is everything. And pizza doesn't hurt either.

Member Thomas Berner is a professor in the department of journalism at Pennsylvania State University. Contact him at [e-mail]