A collaborative, oral-history, writer's workshop was held in an undergraduate college reading class. Sixty-five students each taped an interview on literacy life-experiences with a self-described reluctant reader at the middle or high school level, and wrote a narrative based on the interview. Students worked together in groups on their narratives, then worked through first drafts, editing, and polishing, and finally published a monograph of their narratives. The teacher analyzed two data sources: the monograph, and field notes written following each workshop meeting by the teacher with corrections and amplifications by students. Cognitive mapping as well as clustering and connections techniques were used to establish eight categories of student reactions to writer's workshops. Results showed that writer's workshops: (1) help students cross personal boundaries; (2) force students to take a more active interest in their product; (3) help students learn about the editing process; (4) help students search for meaning in their writing; (5) help students handle peer criticism; (6) motivate students to become more effective writers; (7) help students overcome frustrations in their writing; and (8) help students build bridges to the future. The workshop experience supported the idea that oral history writing workshops change the way students write, and change students' attitudes and feelings toward writing. Such workshops should transfer well to elementary and secondary language arts and social studies classes, and to remedial classes as well. (Twenty references are attached.) (SR)