Questions for 4/21

“Creating a Common Ground with ESL Writers”

It appears that the articles that we have been reading seem to be saying the same exact point. While enforcement is often useful in the learning process, I am unsure that it is necessary, however, that is another topic. A spot that I found that more just irritated me was a method in creating a common ground.

The suggesting is to have the non-native speaker read their entire paper out loud, or to outline, map, and utilize a radical deletion method. How do you feel about this? Personally I felt that a session was way too short to accommodate this type of help, do you agree?

“The Writing Lab Newsletter Article”

Not to reflect negatively on this article, but, this was one of my least favorite articles of the semester. I felt that the writing itself was not grammatically correct. In addition I thought that the writer provided some good evidence, however, her interpretation of linking Saddam Hussein to writing was a bit of a stretch and I failed to see how there was a complete link. Regardless, the writer does make a good point that it is valuable to the writer’s culture when tutoring them as this can be helpful.

Do you think that we should have the students fill out their background/where they are from before attending an appointment so that the consultant can be prepared?

“Qualifying Claims about Contrastive Rhetoric”

One quote that stuck out for me is this, “In a multicultural society, English-speaking readers will have to learn to read writing in a different rhetorical forms without pronouncing it “bad” simply because it isn’t thesis and topic-sentence driven.”

However, this calls into question the debate regarding whether or not teachers should grade differently based on a students background. What do you think?

SHADOWING!

I FINALLY SHADOWED A WRITING CONSULTATION!!!! Interestingly enough, it was a continuing studies student. When I first watched all the videos on writers web I was a bit skeptical of how they portrayed continuing studies students…. I mean in the video they seem completely clueless and almost want to tutor to put the words they need on paper. This student was EXACTLY like the video tutorial. She did the whole “I just… I don’t know how to get what I say on paper,” and then made that silly hand gesture. She had a lot of difficulty creating a clear argument and sticking to one side. Often times when she was making a point to show how the internet had a negative effect on family life, she made the point seem positive, and couldn’t seem to understand that. The session took one and half hours as she truly struggled, and this was her second time here for this paper. However, she did make an excellent point. At the end of the session she thanked Aleena, telling her that she was definitely going to come back to her as she felt that she was most helpful. She said that the other tutors didn’t directly write on her paper, and then when she got home she was completely lost. I thought that this was an interesting point as we are often told to not take control of the paper, but this student wanted us to as it benefited her more.

College Mentoring Session #2

Kaleigh and I met with my college-mentoring student last Wednesday, and she had improved her essay from last time by quite a bit. However, I must admit that I was grateful that Kaleigh was there as when the student left to answer a quick phone call, we were able to discuss our plan of action. The paper had numerous repetitions of similar or of the same sentence throughout the paper, and the grammar was all over the place as English is her second language. Thus the plan was to address the larger issues of content. I did this by having her read the topic sentence and seeing if that sentence applied to the rest of her paragraph. More often then not, it was her second sentence that actually was a great topic sentence. But looking at the topic sentences, we were able to help her realize that she was just repeating herself everywhere. I was a bit lost though as although I had really helped her with the content and topic sentences (which she had told me from the start that she has trouble with) I felt that I didn’t help her grammar, which I felt greatly affected the clarity of her writing. In this situation I was torn when deciding what to focus on. I think this really brings into question how to tutor ESL students. Overall though, I felt good about how the session went.

Questions for 4/12

“CARP” Article

After reading the tips in this article, I used the information given to figure out how contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity could be related. Contrast focuses on sentence variation, alignment focuses on correct formatting (MLA style), repetition focuses on connected sentences back to the main idea/thesis as well as having an interesting title, and proximity refers to paragraph grouping (not sticking to the 5 paragraph rule).

Do you agree or disagree with how I have connected the CARP article to writing?

“Rule of Thirds”

Although this article focuses mainly on images, the article brings up the point that you should learn a rule before breaking it. I think this is extremely important in writing, but more importantly in poetry. Also, the article talks about how to draw an individual’s attention to a point in a picture, this could be similar to drawing a reader’s attention to the main point in a paper.

Do you agree? And do you think we could use this article when creating a visual for the students in the college mentoring program?

“Planning for Hypertexts in the Writing Center”

I find it odd how the article first talks about how the emergence of word documents on computers contradict their mission as a writing center. Yes, the computer acts more like a fix-it shop,

But isn’t it better to have the computer act like a fix-it shop? That way the tutor shouldn’t have to worry as much about grammar, and can just focus on content. I don’t believe hypertexts should be approached differently, and with all today’s technology, tutors can insert commentary in a word document. Do you think this commenting would be successful?

“Protocols & Process in Online Tutoring”

Although some individuals may enjoy the face-to-face interaction with a tutor, I feel that there are also many benefits to having the writer email the tutor the paper. I believe that this situation would greatly benefit ESL students as we discussed how they often are unresponsive or it may be difficult to read their head nodding.

Do you agree with this? Would ESL students benefit from online tutoring more?

Tentative Plan for First Training Session

In order to discuss how to go about the first training session, I believe we need to discuss what materials we are going to use. Personally, my opinion would be that we should take various articles and chapters of the books we are currently reading and combine them into a writing manual. As mentioned in class, this would be extremely beneficial as the student we train could always refer back to the information we presented them. So my proposition would be this; to create in essence a manual that was organized such that we would cover say… 5 chapters/sections in the first session, then two in each subsequent session. The first session then would focus on the main points we put at the beginning of the manual.

The first goal we should have is to establish the relationship between tutor and mentee and ways to make them comfortable, and how to respond to comments. For example, we could take information from the Bedford guide.

Next, we should address the issue of the fix-it shop vs. abstract editing. Here we could gather information from the study of error article. A sub section of this chapter could be ESL students and how this issue alters depending on the type of student you are mentoring.

Lastly, how does one comment on a paper? After this section I think it would be a great idea to have sample essays. This could then act as a bridge to the following session. For example, go over one. And then assign them one of them to do for the next session.

Questions for 4/5

“Cultural Conflicts in the Writing Center: Expectations & Assumptions of ESL Students”

In American writing, clarity is valued, as many of the ESL students state. However, if these students struggle substantially with vocabulary, then their thoughts are being blurred by their lack of good grammar/word choice. So,

Is it then, our job to cater to these students by changing our tutor style to resemble that of a fix-it shop? Using sheets from the writing center to help them with future problems and explaining the grammar while using their current paper could be helpful. Is this our job?

“Bedford Guide: Chapter 5: The Writers You Tutor”

One thing that struck me as way to controlling was a suggestions about addressing writing anxiety. The suggestion was to help the student make a plan to write the paper in terms of deadlines. I personally, think this is the student’s responsibility and not our job,

Do you agree?

Another question that I had as well was that it seems in many of these readings that other cultures have different writing styles. However, do teachers take this into consideration? Should writers cater their writing style to fit the American writing style?

Should we help them change their writing?

Questions for 3/29

“Thirty-Something” Students

I liked how this article identified the diverse needs of individuals in relation to their age, however, my question is this,:

Is this really a relevant topic here at the University of Richmond? Yes, we do have a few grad students, but they do not tend to be significantly older, and most have just come from an undergraduate college where writing skills are still present in their mind.

“Writing Center Ethics and “Non-Traditional Students”

Thee has been a lot of discussion surrounding whether or not “non-traditional students” should be treated different. I don’t believe that they should be.

Do you think an effective approach to older students, or really just students in general, could be to ask upfront what they are hoping to get out of going to the writing center? This could help gauge where they are in the writing process and help us to adapt to their needs.

“Not-Traditional Students in the Writing Center: Bridging the Gap from a Process-Oriented World to a Product-Oriented One”

Many non-traditional students choose to be paired with non-traditional peers as they feel more comfortable with them. However,

Can being paired with this non-traditional tutor lead the student to become dependent on the tutor for helping them create the perfect paper without going through the correct process?

“In Defense of Conference Summaries: Widening the Reach of Writing Center Work”

After reading this article I reflected on UR’s Writing Center. As far as I know, the student doesn’t get a choice in whether or not a writing report is sent.

Do you think students should have that choice? Should there be a student comment section on this form? Also, should the summaries be completed with the student?



**Note: No post has been made regarding shadowing as there was no student signed up for the spot I shadow this week...

Questions for 3/23

Bedford Guide Chapter 8

When a writer comes in using inappropriate language, the Bedford guide suggests that the tutor ask the tutee who they are writing for, and kindly reminding them that this paper should be written academically. One point they do make however is to suggest better words that are more academic.

Does this contradict the purpose of a writing center, and make us more of a fix-it shop if we take this approach?


“Apprenticed to Failure” Article

One of my favorite points in the entire article was this, “It’s unreasonable to hope that once our students leave us they’re prepared to meet all future academic and professional challenges that involve writing,” (56). This point struck me as crucial as even if you are a perfectionist you must come to realize this.

Do you think this is realistic? Or do you feel that tutors will stress over perfection and fail to recognize that sometimes appointments just don’t go well?



**Note: There has not been any posts regarding shadowing as at my last two shadowing appointments, the tutee did not show up for the appointment.

Questions for 3/15

“Minimalist Tutoring: Making the Student Do All the Work”

When reading this article I found that I disagreed with two points that the author made. First, the author claimed that we, as tutors, are “so used to real-world writing where perfection is paramount, that we forget that students write to learn, not to make perfect papers,” (170). While it is true that writing is a process I would have to argue that perfection matters; in fact, it determines the grade you will receive on the paper. My next issue with this article was a method suggested when the writer is being defensive or uncooperative. The author suggests that the tutor mimic the student’s body language and even go so far as to yawn and gather up his/her items to make a point. We have discussed professionalism in the writing center, does this not contradict what we have learned thus far? From this I have created two questions for this reading:

1. Do you agree or disagree regarding the perfection point mentioned above.
2. Do you believe that we should or should not follow the method mentioned above for dealing with uncooperative students?

“A Critique of Pure Tutoring”

After reading this article I found the section regarding the “defeicit theory approach” to be really fascinating in how it relates writing and music. Personally, I have been playing the cello for ten years now, and I know that at my lessons the teacher is directive and corrects mistakes. This helps me when figuring out future passages. I believe that this directive approach would be best in writing as well.

1. Do you think the social constructionist views of tutoring is optimal over the orthodox ways?

Questions for 3/1

“Subjectivity in the Tutorial Session”

After reading Freed’s article, I felt that I gained a better insight on how to approach situations where I blatantly disagree with the writer’s ideas. My favorite point of this article was that we, as tutors, cannot change a writer’s mind, but we can open it up to new viewpoints.

How do you feel about this approach? Questioning a writer on his/her argument in a nonjudgmental manner to open their mind to other outlooks. This in time provides the foundation for the writer to change their opinion.

Bedford Guide: Chapter 2

This chapter discusses writing as a “discovery,” as a process with numerous steps. At the beginning of this chapter however, examples were given where each writer was at a different stage of the writing process.

At which point in this process do you believe it is most beneficial for the writer to visit the writer center?

Writing Center Shadowing Visit #2

This week I was met with disappointment once again - the writer who had signed up to have a paper edited with my writing consultant canceled at the last minute. I have yet to witness a writing consultation in action. I decided to reflect on why this may be- why would someone cancel last minute?

One, they may have procrastinated and their paper was not ready for edits. If this was the case, it brings up a good point regarding whether or not peer editing improves a paper. Will she get a worse grade now?

Second, maybe she felt uncomfortable having her paper edited, or she felt it was unnecessary. Both help me arrive at the same conclusion – to what extent does visiting the writing center improve your grade?

College Mentoring Program - First Visit

As my name was called in regard to who I would be paired with for this semester, a sense of nervousness pervaded my body. I was unsure of my ability to give advice without being a fix-it shop. After all, I had only attempted to shadow a writing consultant once, and the tutee was a no-show. I was also extremely nervous about how I would react; what if the paper was so inarticulate I didn’t know how to help the writer?

Luckily though, my tutee seemed to really grasp the concept of the question, and although she had a few recurring grammatical mistakes, her ideas were great. At first, I found myself doing something that I should not do. She had worded her introduction in a very awkward manner, but the idea she was attempting to portray was great. Thus, I asked her to read it, and see if she could come up with a better was to explain her point, or if she could see how it was awkward. This ultimately failed, and I suggested a revision to her. This revision used her words as I just flipped around what she said, explaining how that would resonate better with the reader. When I was doing this though, I thought to myself that this is a rough draft; edits should come later, thoughts now.

After putting myself back on track, I reread her paper and circled interesting points that I believed she could elaborate on. I asked her questions on these points and she gave amazing arguments- why hadn’t she written that to being with?! I praised her for really getting to the root of her arguments, and she told me that although she though the task at hand was a bit daunting at first, she felt much more comfortable about what she was going to write about, which really made me feel great.

After we finished talking about her paper we discussed college for a bit as well as her aspirations. She is so excited about learning and even aspires to become a doctor. However, I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad. This girl possessed so much determination, but her writing was no way near the standards of others around the country applying to college. This really made me think about how where you grow up and how you grow up often affects the level of education you are able to obtain. I have no doubt she will continue to be determined regardless of where she goes to college; I just wish she had the writing to get into a well recognized school, but who knows what is possible!

Questions for 2/22

“This is a redneck argument!”

After reading this article the line that stuck with me was “who we are affects what we do in inscrutable ways at times.” The point that Gorkemli makes is crucial, and brings me to this question:

When a tutee comes in asking for assistance in a particular area, and the tutor finds more urgent problems in the writing, which issue is more important to address?

“Reflections on teacher comments: Lessons from the tutorial”

Each scenario brings about an interesting point concerning how students interpret their teacher or professors comments. One student says, “that experience left me feeling less as if I had gained insight and more like my inadequacies had been laid bare for all to see.” This brings me to this question:

To what extent should the professor word the comments in the margin such that the tone sounds inviting? Or, should they just write how they are feeling; is that more beneficial in the long run?

Hjortshoj, Chapter 5: Rules & Errors

“[The professor’s] uses of language and evaluations therefore represent the standards to which all college students must try to conform.” I find this statement to be a bit controversial, as it brings me back to the same question:

Should writers write to fit their professor’s expectations? Does this hinder creativity?

Bedford Guide, Chapter 4 (second half)

This section of the chapter talks about sentence level mistakes as well as how to tackle writing a long paper. This reminded me of how we helped the students last Saturday, when they were told the paper had to be longer.

I feel that this process of talking through an idea for a long paper in order to “break it down” should be used for shorter papers as well. Do you agree?

Writing Center Shadowing Visit #1

I have chosen this semester to shadow a writing consultant on Sunday. Sunday is a bit atypical as we do not meet in the writing center, rather, we meet in the library. I find this to be interesting having just finished chapters 1-3 in the Bedford Writing Tutor guide as they discuss the importance of the workplace. Personally, I find the writing center to be a much better atmosphere. However, today the writer was a no-show. I found out that when this happens on Sunday, that we can just write on the whiteboard near the entrance that there is "walk-in" hours for editing papers from say 5-6. But even this did not yield any writers. I anxiously await next week in order to gain some valuable experience.

Learning to Read

One of the main questions we have discussed in English 383 is centered around how individuals learn, and what is the best technique to learn to read and then translate what one knows into intelligent writing. This is a bit off topic, but something that I found rather interesting. I just started volunteering at the Peter Paul Development Center in downtown Richmond, a Richmond Family Initiatives Project located in the center of four housing projects. What can reasonably be assumed from its location is that the children who attend this facility often struggle in academics. My role at this center is to tutor those children. Interestingly enough last week, I tutored a 5th grade boy in reading. As he read, he used the method of sounding the word out to say it, instead of automatically knowing what the word is/supposed to be. When reading the sentences aloud, he plowed through the words until he ran out of break, and this started up again. This can be related to the various types of errors. He completely disregarded any sort of punctuation. Although he did not write the paper, it really exemplifies how those that may be learning English as a second language have difficulty.

Observation

While searching the library for students to observe, I happened to find a table filled with three of my friends, all writing diverse papers. Thus, I decided to quickly observe each of their strategies and how they differed based on the subject matter. First, Diane was beginning to write a first draft. She told me that she typically writes her thesis first and then gathers evidence from the book. She refrains from brainstorming and leaves her editing for later. What I found most interesting was that she was writing this first draft for a professor who had suggested that students in the class pass in this rough draft early for feedback. This brought about many questions that were raised in the St. Martin’s Sourcebook for Writing Tutors. Is the professor going to edit for content or for mechanical mistakes? What is his/her purpose for doing this? Should they leave this editing to the writing center? If the professor is editing for content, then how effective will the feedback be considering that she will just be writing down basic concepts in her first draft?

Next, Lesley was editing a paper she had already written. What I found most interesting was that she was only editing this paper for word count. She loved her paper and felt she did not need to edit it further for content or grammar, but she had fell short of the minimum word count. This leads to a crucial question, is a short, less that minimum word count paper better than a paper that meets the word count, but consists of more rambling?

Lastly, Jenny was working on a report for her Organic Chemistry class. She was much more focused on the layout and accuracy of the information. For example, instead of asking, “Does this sentence transition well,” she took a poll of who thought water was extremely polar. Additionally, she used diagrams to add another dimension to her paper; an addition that would not be used in a typically English paper.

Thus, we come back to the same question; how important is it to know the subject matter of the paper you are editing?

Does Subject Knowledge Matter?

When students assist others in writing, when is it crucial that the writing consultant knows the subject matter behind the essay assignment? For example, if a writing consultant is reading a paper for a chemistry class, but they themselves do not partake in any science classes, will they be of any help? They will not be able to help the student/ know if the student is misrepresenting information. However, if the writing consultant knows the subject; for example a core essay and they had previously had the class or read the book, and can provide good insight, is this fair? I think a balance here is crucial. A writing consultant probably should try to edit papers similar with his/her major, however, they should refrain from giving their personal opinions. They should help the student get to their own thesis as mentions in Helping Students Write Literary Analyses. An interesting point in Hjorshoj’s book is that often students attempt to “manufacture” writing rather than initiate thought. Writers as a whole need to move away from this idea of a standard format where they merely replace words/thoughts from previous essay formats, to creating a thoughtful unique paper.

Promoting Change Through Writing Centers: Response

Casey brings up an interesting point as to the diverse styles of writing and which types off writing are crucial. On the extreme side, if there were only one standardized style of writing, would this be valuable? Personally, a variety of writing techniques creates an incentive for students to read. For example, not all students enjoy reading analytical essays or scientific research papers. So in this sense, these diverse writing styles benefit us. They assist in getting information across in different mediums that are appropriate for that subject matter. In reference to Professor Dolson’s comment, I believe that the line between writing-to-learn and learning-to-write is gray, and not clear cut. The reason being that often students will be engaging in both ways simultaneously without realizing it. They are related because each forces the student to analyze writing. When writing to learn the student must focus on sentence level to achieve a great paper. When learning to write, students learn how to create good sentence level variation.

Promoting Change Through Writing Centers

I found the notion that writing centers are capable of promoting and accomplishing campus wide change very interesting. Wingate, in her article, claims that students who tutor or visit this center achieve better grades as well as have a higher graduation rate. A word she consistently used was “serious” which I found particularly odd. She claims that students present at the writing center must be “serious” students. However, if this journal article is compared to the WAC program article, students might have ulterior motives for going to this center. If the professor has made it clear to consultants what he or she is looking for, student may have the incentive to sign up for a slot in order to achieve the highest grade. Although this method may be effective, it is writing-to-get-done work contrary to learning to write or the write-to-learn methods. After reading these selections of writing, I am interested to see how the writing center at the University of Richmond would compare. Do students know what particular professors desire in the perfect A paper? More importantly, can the writing center affect the academic life at Richmond?