Research shows that students write better academic essays if the instructor facilitates a process of preparation that allows for purposeful peer discussion. Drawing on screenwriting pedagogy, this article proposes a workshop model that lets students express their essay's structural elements as single sentences, which allows for effective peer and large-group feedback throughout the research, draft, and revision process. Sharing such elements on a digital workspace creates a sense of audience that motivates better work. Students can also apply insights from this model to other writing formats and oral presentations, which widens the utility of undergraduate writing classes. Particularly for inexperienced instructors, such as teaching assistants, this approach can offer useful step-by-step guidance for turning crowded classrooms or online sessions into workshops with small-group dynamics more commonly found in graduate writing seminars.