Questions for March 29th

Non-traditional Students:
How can tutors get non-traditional students to use their life experiences and acquired knowledge to their advantage when relearning the academia writing process?

In Defense of Conference Summaries:
Do you think teachers will be more willing to give their students a better grade if they see that they have worked with a tutor at the writing center? If a better grade is the outcome of these summary reports, do you think students will begin going to the writing center for the wrong reasons?

St. Martins: “Thirty Something” Students:
How can a young tutor approach a tutorial session with a non-traditional, older tutee who thinks that they know more than the tutor because of their age and life experience, and therefore does not value the “process” involved in academia writing?

Shadowing 3/25/10

In my shadowing session tonight I observed my first consultation with an international student. Beginning the session, Brittany asked the student why she came in to the writing center. The student replied exclaiming that her Professor told her that there were some “disconnections” within her paper. Although this was a vague answer, Brittany nodded while paging through the paper’s content, and then asked her what she thought her thesis was in the paper. As the student uncomfortably began to attempt an explanation Brittany encouraged her by helping her finish her sentences and thoughts while writing down the main points of their conversation. After interpreting and clarifying the student’s jumbled response, Brittany mentioned that the formatting of the paper was off because and pointed out sentences extended out into the outer margins of the paper. She then began to read through the student’s paper correcting word clarity and flow and also grammatical errors such as capitalization, punctuation, missing words, and incorrect word usage. There were also many instances were Brittany pointed out that her paragraphs were too long and needed to be shortened in order to better focus and categorize her ideas. In addition the student also made her quotations too long and needed to use more analysis and explanation of these quotes.

Because so much of this session was dedicated to sentence clarity, word choice and grammar, it was more difficult for Brittany and the student to work on the bigger and broader problems within the paper. Being that English was not her first language, it was obvious that the student was not only having trouble communicating her ideas in her paper but also communicating them to Brittany. For instance, when Brittany would begin to explain a correction to the student she would often times have to stop and explain words she would, such as the word “instigate.” Since the student had a lot of trouble using advanced words, that were often times necessary in order for her to clearly express a complex thought, I feel that a thesaurus would have been a useful tool for her when writing. Although I think that the student felt frustrated at many points throughout the session, I think that Brittany’s patience and persistence really helped facilitate a positive, learning atmosphere. I think that the student may have been more at ease if they had had a sidebar conversation away from the paper at some point during the session. However, I think that the cultural and language barrier existing between Brittany and the student created a distance between them, making it hard for the two to casually converse.

Overall, my impression of this shadowing experience was different from any of my other sessions, in that there were many more obstacles for the consultant to face. Given that it is very difficult for a regular student to clearly express their thoughts into a focused paper, it is twice as hard for a student whose first language isn’t even English to do the same assignment. Moreover, considering that many of the problems related to this student’s paper were structural and grammatical errors that most students learn in high school, much of the focus had to be dedicated to more elementary errors.

Questions for 3/24/10

Bedford:
How can consultants show encouragement and withhold faith in the success of a student’s paper if the student has no desire to change their negative view on the topic and assignment they are writing about?

Apprenticed to Failure:
Being both dyslexic and ADHD, I have found that many of my strengths in life have developed as a result of my weaknesses. How can we teach student’s to use their learning disabilities to their advantage?

Shadowing 3/18/10

Today I had my first no show at the writing center. We waited around for about twenty minutes but unfortunately nobody showed up.

Homework for 3/15/10

A Critique of Pure Tutoring:

In this chapter the idea of a writing center “bible” is discussed. If you had to guess, what would be the most important guideline discussed in this bible and how would it better shape our tutors?

Minimalist Tutoring:

On page 171, Brooks mentions the importance of asking questions to help students realize their mistakes, instead of outright telling them their mistakes. Although this is the best approach for helping a student become a better writer, is it ever acceptable for a tutor to tell a student their mistake if the student cannot identify the problem themselves?

Final Shadow Visit

Since I completely forgot to go to my last shadowing appointment tonight before break, I decided to read over and respond to Emily's blog, since we both shadow the same consultant. What I gathered from her visit was that not everyone that attends the writing center has major problems within their paper, and sometimes the only errors that need to be fixed are grammar and word choice. I found Emily’s experience similar to the “Strong paper” video we watched off of the writing center site. In this video however, the writing consultant reads over the paper and tells the student that her paper does not need any revision because it is "A" material. However, when the student does not receive the “A” grade, she is very upset that the consultant told her that her paper was better than it actually was.

I think that this example proves that we can never be too comfortable with our writing and that there is always something that can be improved or added. As long as we keep challenging ourselves when we write, we will be able to think of more creative and concise ways to express meaning and thought. I would have been interested in this visit tonight because previously all of my visits to the writing center have been with student’s who need a lot of help on their papers. However, I think it is also important that a consultant knows how to work with a student who has a strong paper and who maybe only needs a few grammatical and word choice changes. Knowing how to work with students who have strong papers will be an important skill that our class will need to master before our next mentoring session.

As we heard from Silvia this Wednesday, the students will have revised and thoroughly worked on their paper since the last time we saw them. We must be prepared for this improvement and must also not be intimidated by it, because as we have learned, there are always ways in which we can improve our writing! We would be doing the students a disservice if we told them that their paper did not need any more revision.

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