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.