This afternoon I had my final solo consultation. I led a 30-minute session in the library from 3:30 to 4:00. My client was an international graduate student working on a draft of her dissertation proposal. Although she was not the first international student that I have worked with she was the first client that I have led who primarily wanted to focus on grammar within her 10 page proposal. A task not possible to accomplish within 30-minutes.
She did not want to focus on any other aspects of her paper besides grammar, so allowed the session to focus primarily on this. Although, I did my best to be sure that any grammar that I attempted to change. I did my best to explain the grammar so that she might learn and benefit more than the accuracy of this paper. Generally speaking her issues with grammar had to do with subject verb agreement, and unclear or run-on sentences. We read through the first page and I did my best to correct everything that I noticed with her grammar. After the first page (only three paragraphs) I explained to her the trends that I noticed and suggested that if she read her paper with these aspects in mind perhaps she could correct some of them herself. She seemed skeptical.
Overall, I enjoyed working at the library satellite and enjoyed feeling the bustle and excitement of the end of the semester. However, more than anything I enjoyed feeling like I was helping people with their end-of-semester writing!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Final Posts
Blog Post
I study French alongside my other subjects. And so I feel that I have a first hand understanding of what ESL students go through. I certainly do not understand them perfectly, but I think this gives me at least some idea of what their life is like, working in another language. Granted I am far worse at French than they are at English and I have not been studying it for as long as they have. I think this sort of knowledge is useful for consultants. There are many of us who are required to take foreign languages, and indeed are. I think doing this is good because it teaches us a thing or two about how language works, and even if it doesn't, we at least understand what it is like for ESL students. There are some things that may be taught, principles, rules, and that sort of thing. Unfortunately there are many things, like articles, for which there are more exceptions than rules. Sometimes the only thing that will help in these areas is memorization. Studying other languages helps us understand exactly what to explain and how to explain it to ESL students, and what to simply demonstrate so that they commit it to memory.
Final Post
This is my final blog post, and my reflection on the class as a whole. I've worked in a number of different fields. From retail to hard labor. I signed up for this class because it gives me actual credit towards my degree as ENG 395, and because I wanted money, which require me getting a job. This job is ultimately the reason we're all here. I hated retail, working as a laborer for the government wasn't bad, but this job is probably the best I've had.
Working here is important to me because I look at it as a step towards my future career. I plan on being a professor in English literature when all is said and done. Papers are going to be a fact of life for me. Whenever I get papers back, they are given grades like 3.5, 4.0 for some professor, and for others more middle range grades like 3.4 or 3.8. This is one of the things that I think I will have the most difficulty dealing with as a college professor. Knowing just how to grade. I personally take good english usage seriously, but this class has taught me that that isn't necessarily so important as getting your ideas across. Although a paper with mediocre punctuation and grammar doesn't deserve a full 4.0, it certainly shouldn't be condemned to the depths of the 1s and 2s should it? Regardless, I think this job has obvious benefits, helping me to understand the ins and outs of writings so that my first year of teaching or TAing won't be hell for the students and the papers I check.
I study French alongside my other subjects. And so I feel that I have a first hand understanding of what ESL students go through. I certainly do not understand them perfectly, but I think this gives me at least some idea of what their life is like, working in another language. Granted I am far worse at French than they are at English and I have not been studying it for as long as they have. I think this sort of knowledge is useful for consultants. There are many of us who are required to take foreign languages, and indeed are. I think doing this is good because it teaches us a thing or two about how language works, and even if it doesn't, we at least understand what it is like for ESL students. There are some things that may be taught, principles, rules, and that sort of thing. Unfortunately there are many things, like articles, for which there are more exceptions than rules. Sometimes the only thing that will help in these areas is memorization. Studying other languages helps us understand exactly what to explain and how to explain it to ESL students, and what to simply demonstrate so that they commit it to memory.
Final Post
This is my final blog post, and my reflection on the class as a whole. I've worked in a number of different fields. From retail to hard labor. I signed up for this class because it gives me actual credit towards my degree as ENG 395, and because I wanted money, which require me getting a job. This job is ultimately the reason we're all here. I hated retail, working as a laborer for the government wasn't bad, but this job is probably the best I've had.
Working here is important to me because I look at it as a step towards my future career. I plan on being a professor in English literature when all is said and done. Papers are going to be a fact of life for me. Whenever I get papers back, they are given grades like 3.5, 4.0 for some professor, and for others more middle range grades like 3.4 or 3.8. This is one of the things that I think I will have the most difficulty dealing with as a college professor. Knowing just how to grade. I personally take good english usage seriously, but this class has taught me that that isn't necessarily so important as getting your ideas across. Although a paper with mediocre punctuation and grammar doesn't deserve a full 4.0, it certainly shouldn't be condemned to the depths of the 1s and 2s should it? Regardless, I think this job has obvious benefits, helping me to understand the ins and outs of writings so that my first year of teaching or TAing won't be hell for the students and the papers I check.
Satellite Observations
Satellite Observations (The Library)
The library is not too far removed from Bessey Hall. That is to say, I don't think that there is a large difference between the clients in the two places. However, I noticed significantly less ESL students at the library than are normally seen at Bessey Hall. However, I was only there once so that might be more of a fluke than an actual truism. It seemed a little bit more hectic there than at Bessey, however. Many students have yet to come to terms with the new policy of allowing only appointmetns rather than walk ins. Those students who go to Bessey Hall seem to have a better understanding (in some cases, certainly not all) of what it is we do at the writing center. Clients at the library seem to expect quicker fixes which often translates to last minute revisions. Again, we get this at Bessey as well but it seemed more pronounce this time I was the library, probably becuase this was around midterm time.
I am not certain how I feel about the half hour sessions. There are many times where I have consulted clients myself, when this would have been enough time. Other times I've had clients that sign up for an hour but actually require much more help. The problem is, I think, that it is often difficult to be certain exactly how much time you require. I know that I myself would have a problem with this if I were to make an appointment. It is a difficult choice to make. Making the sessions an hour long would guarantee that those who sign up will get all the help they need, but that may leave a lot of time left over if they finish quickly, creating wasted space on the schedule that can't be filled because walk ins aren't allowed.
Satellite Observations (BACC)
I don't have too much to say about this satellite. I will say, though, that I definitely feel out of place in the business college. Everyone there is an a-type personality and, though I personally do have ambitions of my own, am most certainly a b-type. Generally speaking, the better arts and letters student you are, the more disheveled your clothes and the more messed up your hair. Everyone in this building is running around with suits and having important conversations. I definitely do not have that same sense of time urgency.
Again, like the library, I saw less ESL students here compared to Bessey. Again, this could simply be a fluke. I honestly noticed no serious difference from Bessey here, except the subject matter of the papers really.
Blog Post
These observations demonstrate the issue that has suprised me the most after taking this class. That is, ESL students. When I signed up for this class to work in the writing center, I did not consider for a second that I'd have to help ESL students. Even if I had considered that, I would not have thought that it is such an important issue. I might even say that it is the most important issue of the course, which makes senes considering 70% of our clients are ESL (supposedly, it isn't this case in my personal experience, I'm more like 50%, but I think it was Dianna who made that general estimate over the entire writing center).
I expected the class to be more focused on the sorts of things that are discussed in "The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors." Things like different types of writers and different ways to approach consulting them. We did spend time on this, I just expected this course to be only about things like that. Ultimately I think it was important for us to spend so much time on ESL students, after all, they do make up a high percentage of our workload.
The library is not too far removed from Bessey Hall. That is to say, I don't think that there is a large difference between the clients in the two places. However, I noticed significantly less ESL students at the library than are normally seen at Bessey Hall. However, I was only there once so that might be more of a fluke than an actual truism. It seemed a little bit more hectic there than at Bessey, however. Many students have yet to come to terms with the new policy of allowing only appointmetns rather than walk ins. Those students who go to Bessey Hall seem to have a better understanding (in some cases, certainly not all) of what it is we do at the writing center. Clients at the library seem to expect quicker fixes which often translates to last minute revisions. Again, we get this at Bessey as well but it seemed more pronounce this time I was the library, probably becuase this was around midterm time.
I am not certain how I feel about the half hour sessions. There are many times where I have consulted clients myself, when this would have been enough time. Other times I've had clients that sign up for an hour but actually require much more help. The problem is, I think, that it is often difficult to be certain exactly how much time you require. I know that I myself would have a problem with this if I were to make an appointment. It is a difficult choice to make. Making the sessions an hour long would guarantee that those who sign up will get all the help they need, but that may leave a lot of time left over if they finish quickly, creating wasted space on the schedule that can't be filled because walk ins aren't allowed.
Satellite Observations (BACC)
I don't have too much to say about this satellite. I will say, though, that I definitely feel out of place in the business college. Everyone there is an a-type personality and, though I personally do have ambitions of my own, am most certainly a b-type. Generally speaking, the better arts and letters student you are, the more disheveled your clothes and the more messed up your hair. Everyone in this building is running around with suits and having important conversations. I definitely do not have that same sense of time urgency.
Again, like the library, I saw less ESL students here compared to Bessey. Again, this could simply be a fluke. I honestly noticed no serious difference from Bessey here, except the subject matter of the papers really.
Blog Post
These observations demonstrate the issue that has suprised me the most after taking this class. That is, ESL students. When I signed up for this class to work in the writing center, I did not consider for a second that I'd have to help ESL students. Even if I had considered that, I would not have thought that it is such an important issue. I might even say that it is the most important issue of the course, which makes senes considering 70% of our clients are ESL (supposedly, it isn't this case in my personal experience, I'm more like 50%, but I think it was Dianna who made that general estimate over the entire writing center).
I expected the class to be more focused on the sorts of things that are discussed in "The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors." Things like different types of writers and different ways to approach consulting them. We did spend time on this, I just expected this course to be only about things like that. Ultimately I think it was important for us to spend so much time on ESL students, after all, they do make up a high percentage of our workload.
HEY TEAM!!!!
Well we are almost there...
My final project... aka blog post #10?
Well for my final project I have been conducting research for how to better cater to the Professional Writing program. When I first envisioned this project, I was going to be creating a resource for PW students to come to and find out how to format and write in different genres.(e.g. press releases, resumes, business letters... etc). But first I needed to find out if that's what PWers really wanted! And they failed me... jk, but when I made and distributed my first survey the results indicated something other than what I wanted to do, or thought I would do. The research indicated that students would much rather have help with portfolios and websites... and when they say portfolios I bet they mean, online portfolios. So now I had to figure out what they meant by websites. So I had to start writing another survery... while writing the survey I had the feelign that this might not work, entirely. So inaddtion to the survery, I will be having a few interviews and focus groups with students. I also plan to continue this research next semester as I am currently writing my proposal to present at the ECWCA confrence next semester... Welp.. you guys will hear more about in class.
Blog Post 11
I decied that titles are no longer needed because my brain is fried, but this blog post is me thinking about how to advertise the WC. I think the biggest sitgma against the Writing Center is the idea that bad writers come to the writing center because they need help. Now, we know that this isn't true, great writers can benifet from the center, but how do we get them here? This question is a big one. One way that I have started working on is a specifc marketing campaign for a specfic department. Basicly, I am making a handout for the PW major to handout to all the classes next semester. Now, I am picking the PW program because, its my major and I think I know how to talk to them. I think by marketing to a specifc majors needs, we can start to see more diverse clients, which will lead to happier consultants. Because variety is the spice of life!
My final project... aka blog post #10?
Well for my final project I have been conducting research for how to better cater to the Professional Writing program. When I first envisioned this project, I was going to be creating a resource for PW students to come to and find out how to format and write in different genres.(e.g. press releases, resumes, business letters... etc). But first I needed to find out if that's what PWers really wanted! And they failed me... jk, but when I made and distributed my first survey the results indicated something other than what I wanted to do, or thought I would do. The research indicated that students would much rather have help with portfolios and websites... and when they say portfolios I bet they mean, online portfolios. So now I had to figure out what they meant by websites. So I had to start writing another survery... while writing the survey I had the feelign that this might not work, entirely. So inaddtion to the survery, I will be having a few interviews and focus groups with students. I also plan to continue this research next semester as I am currently writing my proposal to present at the ECWCA confrence next semester... Welp.. you guys will hear more about in class.
Blog Post 11
I decied that titles are no longer needed because my brain is fried, but this blog post is me thinking about how to advertise the WC. I think the biggest sitgma against the Writing Center is the idea that bad writers come to the writing center because they need help. Now, we know that this isn't true, great writers can benifet from the center, but how do we get them here? This question is a big one. One way that I have started working on is a specifc marketing campaign for a specfic department. Basicly, I am making a handout for the PW major to handout to all the classes next semester. Now, I am picking the PW program because, its my major and I think I know how to talk to them. I think by marketing to a specifc majors needs, we can start to see more diverse clients, which will lead to happier consultants. Because variety is the spice of life!
Writing Center Faves
In terms of places to work, I prefer the library, Bessey, and the BCC. Well, mostly Bessey. But I like them all for different reasons. For anyone who has ever watched The Fabulous Life of... (I think its on E!) then you might particularly appreciate this blog post. Imagine it's in that British guy's voice too!
The BCC
The BCC satellite is located in the heart of the Business College Complex. Unlike all the other satellites, this one has plush carpet, overstuffed chairs with metallic pull out desks, and a gigantic big screen TV. And I mean gigantic - If I tried to steal this TV, not only would the high tech security system stop me, but if I tried to put it in my dorm room, it wouldn't happen. I couldn't even fit it in the door. The color scheme is in an EXCLUSIVE green and black, with what else? Wood paneling. Nothing is too ritzy for this place. Even the metallic modern clock in the corner tells the time when it wants to.
And the clientele are A-list exclusive as well. Not in the Business College? We don't really want you here.
Consultants who work in the BCC love the aura and atmosphere the place gives off. They can relax, take the day off, and soak up that extra time in missed sessions (just kidding, Trixie). But really.
Bessey
Located in scenic Earnst Bessey Hall, the main and original Writing Center of Michigan State University gives off a professional, chic vibe. And why shouldn't it? The renovations alone cost nearly $20,000 (I made this number up). There are not one, not two, but THREE bookcases that contain all the information a consultant might need. Need a computer? Pull up a chair, they've got a whole computer lab full in here.
For your next big event, Bessey has a huge projection screen set in an exclusively private room. Each guest even has their own power source.
The Bessey hall location exudes professionalism. Set on top of a building dedicated exclusively to language acquisition and practice, the third floor boasts the best view in the area.
Not only does Bessey have a highly coveted Smart Board, a technological item that's nearly impossible to find anywhere else on campus, it's also home to the biggest Writing Center names you can imagine. A-listers such as Trixie Smith, better known as Your Boss, have established offices in and own property on the Third floor.
Okay, enough of the Fabulous Life of... Maybe I'll add more later :)
I agree with Jen when she says that the Bessey hall location facilitates conversation better. I like both of these locations equally because they both facilitate meaningful conversations. The atmosphere is comfortable and laid-back.
The library, in contrast, is great for when you feel totally efficient and you just want to get things done... fast. It's harder to hear, which greatly inhibits conversation, but you can still make a connection with the client.
The BCC
The BCC satellite is located in the heart of the Business College Complex. Unlike all the other satellites, this one has plush carpet, overstuffed chairs with metallic pull out desks, and a gigantic big screen TV. And I mean gigantic - If I tried to steal this TV, not only would the high tech security system stop me, but if I tried to put it in my dorm room, it wouldn't happen. I couldn't even fit it in the door. The color scheme is in an EXCLUSIVE green and black, with what else? Wood paneling. Nothing is too ritzy for this place. Even the metallic modern clock in the corner tells the time when it wants to.
And the clientele are A-list exclusive as well. Not in the Business College? We don't really want you here.
Consultants who work in the BCC love the aura and atmosphere the place gives off. They can relax, take the day off, and soak up that extra time in missed sessions (just kidding, Trixie). But really.
Bessey
Located in scenic Earnst Bessey Hall, the main and original Writing Center of Michigan State University gives off a professional, chic vibe. And why shouldn't it? The renovations alone cost nearly $20,000 (I made this number up). There are not one, not two, but THREE bookcases that contain all the information a consultant might need. Need a computer? Pull up a chair, they've got a whole computer lab full in here.
For your next big event, Bessey has a huge projection screen set in an exclusively private room. Each guest even has their own power source.
The Bessey hall location exudes professionalism. Set on top of a building dedicated exclusively to language acquisition and practice, the third floor boasts the best view in the area.
Not only does Bessey have a highly coveted Smart Board, a technological item that's nearly impossible to find anywhere else on campus, it's also home to the biggest Writing Center names you can imagine. A-listers such as Trixie Smith, better known as Your Boss, have established offices in and own property on the Third floor.
Okay, enough of the Fabulous Life of... Maybe I'll add more later :)
I agree with Jen when she says that the Bessey hall location facilitates conversation better. I like both of these locations equally because they both facilitate meaningful conversations. The atmosphere is comfortable and laid-back.
The library, in contrast, is great for when you feel totally efficient and you just want to get things done... fast. It's harder to hear, which greatly inhibits conversation, but you can still make a connection with the client.
My Final Project
I can't decide if my final project has really captured what I wanted to say about Kaplan and his research. After showing the project to the class, and after they expressed interest in the different types of writing Kaplan had drawn, I decided to utilize Kaplan's drawings to create broader, more generalized categories and then be able to use those in the Writing Center. This would help to explain some clients/students' logical processes without excluding them to a certain category because of their background. Anyway, many studies had found these categories to be incorrect.
I found a lot of information for and against contrastive rhetoric, so I didn't really know which way to go. I ended up taking the idea of contrastive rhetoric mostly out of the tips for consultations area of my brochure, which, by the way, I spent about 2 hours just fixing the visual components on! It was such a pain, and I still am not satisfied with it's "final" brochure-ness. If we end up making copies and using it in the Writing Center, I would want to add color, or put it on high-gloss paper, or something. But for what is now, I think it's quite a cute, little informative piece.
Oh, I also tried to make it a bit entertaining, just to keep the consultants' interest. We have to read and absorb a lot of information in this class, so I wanted to make sure they would enjoy learning about Kaplan's doodles as much as I enjoyed learning about them.
I found a lot of information for and against contrastive rhetoric, so I didn't really know which way to go. I ended up taking the idea of contrastive rhetoric mostly out of the tips for consultations area of my brochure, which, by the way, I spent about 2 hours just fixing the visual components on! It was such a pain, and I still am not satisfied with it's "final" brochure-ness. If we end up making copies and using it in the Writing Center, I would want to add color, or put it on high-gloss paper, or something. But for what is now, I think it's quite a cute, little informative piece.
Oh, I also tried to make it a bit entertaining, just to keep the consultants' interest. We have to read and absorb a lot of information in this class, so I wanted to make sure they would enjoy learning about Kaplan's doodles as much as I enjoyed learning about them.
Forgotten Posts
Blog Post
I'm really cutting it close here. In order to see how many posts I needed to do, I had to look back at all the posts throughout the year. I wrote some interesting things back in the day. Oddly enough I think I still agree with many of the things I said back then, which is not generally the case with most people looking back on old writing. In the introduction to A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, he explains something about how he was prompted to perhaps edit the novel in this new edition, but he decided not to. He wrote that the man who wrote that book is a much different man from the man he is today. Maybe it will take longer for me to notice any kind of difference in myself when it comes to the writing center.
Third Party Observer #3
This sessions was the one that first disillusioned me. The phrase "we make better writers not better papers" was difficult to reconcile with this session helping an ESL student. The consultant took a direct authoritative approach here. I've always been a defender of a strong approach like this, but this was a bit stronger than usual. The student's assignment was to write their teaching philosophy, one strange aspect of this was that it had to be hand written on a single page of paper, I think this was a misunderstanding on the student's part, but I'll never know. Regardless, we spent the entire hour session working on this one single page.
Third Party Observer #4
This is a rare session to see. This was a session where an ESL student was the client, but it was not necessary to take an authoritative approach here. At each point in this students paper, the consultant asked the client "what do you mean by this?" or "what are you trying to say here?" Generally the client could think of something else to say, or a better way to put it. If he couldn't, then the consultant would suggest possible things to put, but always gave the client a choice and never actually forced him to put anything in particular.
Primary Consultant #3
This session was one of those rare sessions that are completely satisfying and seem to make all of the bad sessions that day worth it. This young woman came in with a paper for Lyman Briggs and began by saying "Kind of nerdy I know!" Apparently she didn't stop to consider where she was, in a room with a bunch of writing nerds. It is a great feeling to be able to say "You're a fine writer" to someone. She had all the work done for me, it was a paper about the pros and cons of genetically modified crops, each point was highlighted in a different color, red for pro, blue for con, or maybe the other way around. What she wanted help with was how to arrange her points, so it was easy work to figure out what each one was, make a list, and talk about what the best way to arrange them would be.
Primary Consultant #4
This was one of the most difficult sessions I've ever had. This student came completely unprepared for the session. He had his rough paper printed out but didn't have the assignment sheet. Normally that isn't a big deal, but he couldn't explain to me just what the assignment was. When he gave me a brief explanation, I understood because I've dealt with other people from the class before, and though not on this particular assignment, I knew what he meant when he said that it had to be about "cultural artifacts." It was even more difficult when he explained the three cultural artifacts that he chose for the paper. The first was cell phones, which made perfect sense for the assignment. The next wasn't a very good pick, with only a vague connection to the idea, but still a fair bit could be written on the subject. The third was awful and made no sense at all, but it was difficult to express this to him because it wass his paper, not mine. Ultimately we got through what little there was he wanted to work on, and he left.
Primary Consultant #5
This session was very similar to the one I just wrote about. What made it different was that the client needed help with something that I personally find quite bothersome. He wanted help with citation, specifically APA. The thing that bothers me about this sort of session is that I think it is ultimately a waste of time. Citation should be taught early on once, maybe a class spent on it, and then that is that. The same is true, I think, for other citation style. If they are even given any attention in class at all. What bothers me is that clients like this don't even seem to try. None of them come in having done any work on it at all, and they ask for help on it. Almost always they have a guide book with then, and so I spend 10 minutes basically opening the guidebook and doing things for them that they could easily do themselves.
Blog Entry
After writing about all these sessions I've had. I think the most important point I make is the one I made in my third primary consultant post. This isn't always easy, sometimes clients cancel and we have the opprotunity to just laze about drinking coffee and talking about random things with eachother. Other times nobody cancels and you're up to your eyeballs in consulting work for 4 hours straight. In either case, having just one good session makes either situation worth it. Having one session with a good writer whom you help tremendously makes that day worthwhile, and maybe even the entire week.
I'm really cutting it close here. In order to see how many posts I needed to do, I had to look back at all the posts throughout the year. I wrote some interesting things back in the day. Oddly enough I think I still agree with many of the things I said back then, which is not generally the case with most people looking back on old writing. In the introduction to A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, he explains something about how he was prompted to perhaps edit the novel in this new edition, but he decided not to. He wrote that the man who wrote that book is a much different man from the man he is today. Maybe it will take longer for me to notice any kind of difference in myself when it comes to the writing center.
Third Party Observer #3
This sessions was the one that first disillusioned me. The phrase "we make better writers not better papers" was difficult to reconcile with this session helping an ESL student. The consultant took a direct authoritative approach here. I've always been a defender of a strong approach like this, but this was a bit stronger than usual. The student's assignment was to write their teaching philosophy, one strange aspect of this was that it had to be hand written on a single page of paper, I think this was a misunderstanding on the student's part, but I'll never know. Regardless, we spent the entire hour session working on this one single page.
Third Party Observer #4
This is a rare session to see. This was a session where an ESL student was the client, but it was not necessary to take an authoritative approach here. At each point in this students paper, the consultant asked the client "what do you mean by this?" or "what are you trying to say here?" Generally the client could think of something else to say, or a better way to put it. If he couldn't, then the consultant would suggest possible things to put, but always gave the client a choice and never actually forced him to put anything in particular.
Primary Consultant #3
This session was one of those rare sessions that are completely satisfying and seem to make all of the bad sessions that day worth it. This young woman came in with a paper for Lyman Briggs and began by saying "Kind of nerdy I know!" Apparently she didn't stop to consider where she was, in a room with a bunch of writing nerds. It is a great feeling to be able to say "You're a fine writer" to someone. She had all the work done for me, it was a paper about the pros and cons of genetically modified crops, each point was highlighted in a different color, red for pro, blue for con, or maybe the other way around. What she wanted help with was how to arrange her points, so it was easy work to figure out what each one was, make a list, and talk about what the best way to arrange them would be.
Primary Consultant #4
This was one of the most difficult sessions I've ever had. This student came completely unprepared for the session. He had his rough paper printed out but didn't have the assignment sheet. Normally that isn't a big deal, but he couldn't explain to me just what the assignment was. When he gave me a brief explanation, I understood because I've dealt with other people from the class before, and though not on this particular assignment, I knew what he meant when he said that it had to be about "cultural artifacts." It was even more difficult when he explained the three cultural artifacts that he chose for the paper. The first was cell phones, which made perfect sense for the assignment. The next wasn't a very good pick, with only a vague connection to the idea, but still a fair bit could be written on the subject. The third was awful and made no sense at all, but it was difficult to express this to him because it wass his paper, not mine. Ultimately we got through what little there was he wanted to work on, and he left.
Primary Consultant #5
This session was very similar to the one I just wrote about. What made it different was that the client needed help with something that I personally find quite bothersome. He wanted help with citation, specifically APA. The thing that bothers me about this sort of session is that I think it is ultimately a waste of time. Citation should be taught early on once, maybe a class spent on it, and then that is that. The same is true, I think, for other citation style. If they are even given any attention in class at all. What bothers me is that clients like this don't even seem to try. None of them come in having done any work on it at all, and they ask for help on it. Almost always they have a guide book with then, and so I spend 10 minutes basically opening the guidebook and doing things for them that they could easily do themselves.
Blog Entry
After writing about all these sessions I've had. I think the most important point I make is the one I made in my third primary consultant post. This isn't always easy, sometimes clients cancel and we have the opprotunity to just laze about drinking coffee and talking about random things with eachother. Other times nobody cancels and you're up to your eyeballs in consulting work for 4 hours straight. In either case, having just one good session makes either situation worth it. Having one session with a good writer whom you help tremendously makes that day worthwhile, and maybe even the entire week.
Primary Consultations 1-5ish
In the past few days, I've completed my first sessions as a primary consultant! Sessions 1-3ish were in the Library, and Sessions 4-5 were in Bessey. Here's how they went:
Session #1
My first session was with a girl named Megan. She looked to be about the same age or younger than me, so I wasn't too intimidated. She had scheduled a half hour session to go over her paper on Allende and the left wing activists, which then translated into Latin America's wanting to break away from the U.S. These were topics her professor had given her to write about. I asked her what she wanted to focus on. Stronger thesis, making sure the paper flowed well, and creating a conclusion, she said. "Oh, and of course grammar." Ah, yes, the old standby.
She quickly read her paper out loud, stopping every now and then hesitantly. Whenever she stopped, I made a little mark on my copy of her paper (this girl was on top of things; she had her paper paper clipped together, with an index card with my name and the appointment time on it, and even made copies of her paper for me!) Needless to say, I was impressed. So every time she paused I made a little mark or dash with a small comment next to it (i.e. Confusing? Repeated same phrase?)
When we got to the end of her paper and her sentence long conclusion, we then went over the main idea of each paragraph to make sure the topic of each one was relevant to the thesis and had a topic sentence. I wrote down each main idea in an outline, so Megan could visually see how her paper was laid out. When we got to her last paragraph on Latin America, I expressed my discomfort as a reader - she correctly guessed that it was because there were no lead-ins or transitions to the paragraph. Every other paragraph in her paper was on Chile's political movements and suddenly she began talking about Latin America.
After we went through the main ideas, we took a look at her thesis again. Did it cover everything she was talking about? She had a three sentence long thesis, but it did not cover that last paragraph on Latin America. Together, we linked Latin America's discontent with America to Chile's discontent and consequential voting for Allende (change) and I thought it made her paper cohesive.
We never got to the conclusion because we ran out of time. I gave her a quick synopsis of the conclusion: in a nut shell, re-summarize the intro. I asked her if the session had helped and she said "Yeah, it did! I really think I needed to talk about it [her paper]". So that was good - not bad for a first session, eh?
Session #2-3
I insist that this session should count for two because: A) It was two hours long B) It lasted an hour after I was supposed to be out of the Writing Center C) I was twice as drained as I would've been in a regular session. :)
The ESL student I was helping was really nice. She printed out her paper and then we went over her assignment guidelines. She began reading the paper, and in the middle of her 7 page paper she decided that she wanted me to take over, which was totally fine.
I read for comprehension and skipped the many grammar issues that permeated throughout the paper. She asked for help on her thesis, paragraph organization, and GRAMMAR (naturally). I am slowly coming to see grammar as the if nothing else, please just make sure I used the right punctuation here! But she did not mind that we skipped over most of it. Her paper was due at midnight that night, and we spent a long two hours slowly working over each section of her paper. Every time I saw a grammar or sentence structure mistake, I bit my tongue and remembered how I write in Spanish class - translated, it would probably looks something like this.
The main problem with the paper was the profusion of information she had to include. She had some great topics and information, but there was so much of it it was becoming hard to keep track of. She had to compare about 6 or 7 different economic and social aspects of 3 different countries. And her topics were all over the place! I found one topic was merely touched on in the intro, and nowhere else in her paper. She did not have a legitimate topic sentence, so I asked her what her paper was about, and covered it up with my hands. She laughed and told me her main topic, and I wrote it down on a piece of paper. Whalaa! Un nuevo Thesis! This strategy REALLY works; I'm definitely going to continue using it.
So then we went through each topic, and formulated comparisons for each one. I didn't know how much she was supposed to compare in her paper, but in her paragraphs, she simply outlined and explained each topic for each country. I showed her how to break the topics up into separate paragraphs, as well, which was apparently a new thing for her.
All in all, it was a very productive session. But I was so exhausted by the end of it. After awhile it just seemed like I was pointing out things and asking her what she thought about them. She would either ask me how to fix it or stare blankly. Also, while we read the paper she did not pick up on a lot of grammar issues.
Another problem we ran into were citations - she practically didn't have any. She asked me sometimes if her sentences sounded too "professional, not like she would say them". She said that the information from the sources she got already sounded so good that she would probably screw it up if she tried to paraphrase or rephrase any of it. I told her that her writing and analysis is really what the teacher wanted to hear in the paper, and reassured her that what she had written by herself was necessary for the paper. But every time we ran across information that I thought could not be from her mind, like quantitative research and percentages, I would ask her how she had known that. After awhile, she began inserting little parentheses at the end of the sentence to remind herself later to include a proper citation. But I was still reminding her of it, and I don't think she got the complete idea because she said something about how nearly everything in the paper was not her thinking... Something like that.
So I tried really hard to convey the importance of citing another's work, and the importance of her opinions and comparisons. We created a new thesis, reworked her entire intro, and she dictated topic sentences to me and I wrote them down for her.
She asked me if I would be working in the library's Writing Center in the future and I honestly did not know what to tell her. I don't know where I'll be working next semester! She left happily, but I was thinking about how much work she really had to do that night on her paper...
Session #4
In this session, I was working with someone who was "looking for direction" in his paper. I think we found one together. He brought his computer in, and I asked him about his paper. His teacher had basically told him that she liked a sentence in his conclusion (after his 5 pages were written), and that he should focus his paper on that. She also told him to keep his intro and conclusion basically the same, with some editing. The main idea was that teachers/schools should not teach standardized English over the slang and/or language learned at home. It was a really interesting topic, and he had some great research. I asked him to read his paper out loud - it was about 5 pages long and we had an hour long session.
So he began to read, and after he finished a paragraph we went over the main idea it conveyed. I explained what had struck me as the main topic of that paragraph, and asked him if that was what he, as the writer, had been going for. He was really hesitant, and thought a lot about everything I asked him. He eventually responded, and it seemed like he was trying to make the session productive.
I asked him about his thesis, and he admitted that he did not have one. So I asked him what he wanted to prove by writing his paper, and as he spoke, I wrote down what he was saying. As we went through the paragraphs, we related each one to his thesis. If it didn't relate, he made a comment next to it on Word or deleted it entirely. He needed to add an entirely new source to the paper as well, so what we were working on was a really rough draft with some remnants of an old, irrelevant rough draft. For each paragraph, we wrote down the main idea and at the end, produced an outline of each paragraph he already had, and some paragraphs he needed to do more research on. I definitely did not agree with his teacher on the intro and conclusion - after a little editing, they would still not be satisfactory. They needed to be completely reworked.
I really hope the session helped - we went to the Writing Center's website and scheduled another session in a day or two, after he had written more of his real paper. The final is due Friday.
Session #5
I really enjoyed myself in this session. The client was in James Madison or Lyman Briggs or something (I can't remember now), and she came in with a paper on how the United States government is actually promoting fatness. I actually laughed at some parts in her paper because it was hilarious! I learned a lot about her topic.
She told me she wanted to focus on making sure her thesis and argument were strong, and also work on some grammar. So she read her paper out loud, and it flowed really nicely. She fixed a lot of her mistakes as she was reading. Some of her sentences were really long, and I just had to point out one with 4 distinct clauses in it. Other than some slight errors, most of which she ended up fixing on her own, her paper flowed very well, and the argument was very well developed. She still needed another paragraph and a conclusion to her paper, but the overall idea was strong.
I got to use one of the strategies we tried in class on her thesis. It was long because it covered a lot of topics. In her writing style, all of these topics had to go in the same sentence. So we broke it down. I pointed out a part of it that I had not seen in the paper, and she realized that she did not need that part of that sentence because it wasn't even touched in the paper. So we deleted some of it. She then eyed me warily as I tore off four strips of paper. "Okay, this is what we are going to do to make your thesis stronger. On these strips of paper, we'll write down the parts of your thesis. And then we'll tape them back together after we've come up with a satisfying order." She immediately began copying down the four parts of her sentence. We went through the possible orders, and finally settled on starting generally, and ending more specifically. We used a thesaurus to find new words that could more strongly convey the argument of her paper.
Then it was grammar time. Her teacher had given her a checklist, and told them to go through their papers and circle all of the there ares/are/is/that, etc. and replace them or re-structure the sentence. So we found one and I showed her a way she could reword it. She used it as an example, and highlighted the old sentence and then inserted the new sentence so she could see how to fix the problem later on at home. On the next sentence, we just both sat there. After about 2-3 minutes of looking at the same sentence, I called Katie over and asked her if she could think of a way to reword the sentence and she gave a suggestion. The client liked her suggestion, so we used it. Then I had the client do one on her own, and she understood by now that she really just needed stronger or more specific verbs.
I asked her if the session had helped her out, and she said it had. We ended on very friendly terms, and I felt like I had accomplished something.
Session #1
My first session was with a girl named Megan. She looked to be about the same age or younger than me, so I wasn't too intimidated. She had scheduled a half hour session to go over her paper on Allende and the left wing activists, which then translated into Latin America's wanting to break away from the U.S. These were topics her professor had given her to write about. I asked her what she wanted to focus on. Stronger thesis, making sure the paper flowed well, and creating a conclusion, she said. "Oh, and of course grammar." Ah, yes, the old standby.
She quickly read her paper out loud, stopping every now and then hesitantly. Whenever she stopped, I made a little mark on my copy of her paper (this girl was on top of things; she had her paper paper clipped together, with an index card with my name and the appointment time on it, and even made copies of her paper for me!) Needless to say, I was impressed. So every time she paused I made a little mark or dash with a small comment next to it (i.e. Confusing? Repeated same phrase?)
When we got to the end of her paper and her sentence long conclusion, we then went over the main idea of each paragraph to make sure the topic of each one was relevant to the thesis and had a topic sentence. I wrote down each main idea in an outline, so Megan could visually see how her paper was laid out. When we got to her last paragraph on Latin America, I expressed my discomfort as a reader - she correctly guessed that it was because there were no lead-ins or transitions to the paragraph. Every other paragraph in her paper was on Chile's political movements and suddenly she began talking about Latin America.
After we went through the main ideas, we took a look at her thesis again. Did it cover everything she was talking about? She had a three sentence long thesis, but it did not cover that last paragraph on Latin America. Together, we linked Latin America's discontent with America to Chile's discontent and consequential voting for Allende (change) and I thought it made her paper cohesive.
We never got to the conclusion because we ran out of time. I gave her a quick synopsis of the conclusion: in a nut shell, re-summarize the intro. I asked her if the session had helped and she said "Yeah, it did! I really think I needed to talk about it [her paper]". So that was good - not bad for a first session, eh?
Session #2-3
I insist that this session should count for two because: A) It was two hours long B) It lasted an hour after I was supposed to be out of the Writing Center C) I was twice as drained as I would've been in a regular session. :)
The ESL student I was helping was really nice. She printed out her paper and then we went over her assignment guidelines. She began reading the paper, and in the middle of her 7 page paper she decided that she wanted me to take over, which was totally fine.
I read for comprehension and skipped the many grammar issues that permeated throughout the paper. She asked for help on her thesis, paragraph organization, and GRAMMAR (naturally). I am slowly coming to see grammar as the if nothing else, please just make sure I used the right punctuation here! But she did not mind that we skipped over most of it. Her paper was due at midnight that night, and we spent a long two hours slowly working over each section of her paper. Every time I saw a grammar or sentence structure mistake, I bit my tongue and remembered how I write in Spanish class - translated, it would probably looks something like this.
The main problem with the paper was the profusion of information she had to include. She had some great topics and information, but there was so much of it it was becoming hard to keep track of. She had to compare about 6 or 7 different economic and social aspects of 3 different countries. And her topics were all over the place! I found one topic was merely touched on in the intro, and nowhere else in her paper. She did not have a legitimate topic sentence, so I asked her what her paper was about, and covered it up with my hands. She laughed and told me her main topic, and I wrote it down on a piece of paper. Whalaa! Un nuevo Thesis! This strategy REALLY works; I'm definitely going to continue using it.
So then we went through each topic, and formulated comparisons for each one. I didn't know how much she was supposed to compare in her paper, but in her paragraphs, she simply outlined and explained each topic for each country. I showed her how to break the topics up into separate paragraphs, as well, which was apparently a new thing for her.
All in all, it was a very productive session. But I was so exhausted by the end of it. After awhile it just seemed like I was pointing out things and asking her what she thought about them. She would either ask me how to fix it or stare blankly. Also, while we read the paper she did not pick up on a lot of grammar issues.
Another problem we ran into were citations - she practically didn't have any. She asked me sometimes if her sentences sounded too "professional, not like she would say them". She said that the information from the sources she got already sounded so good that she would probably screw it up if she tried to paraphrase or rephrase any of it. I told her that her writing and analysis is really what the teacher wanted to hear in the paper, and reassured her that what she had written by herself was necessary for the paper. But every time we ran across information that I thought could not be from her mind, like quantitative research and percentages, I would ask her how she had known that. After awhile, she began inserting little parentheses at the end of the sentence to remind herself later to include a proper citation. But I was still reminding her of it, and I don't think she got the complete idea because she said something about how nearly everything in the paper was not her thinking... Something like that.
So I tried really hard to convey the importance of citing another's work, and the importance of her opinions and comparisons. We created a new thesis, reworked her entire intro, and she dictated topic sentences to me and I wrote them down for her.
She asked me if I would be working in the library's Writing Center in the future and I honestly did not know what to tell her. I don't know where I'll be working next semester! She left happily, but I was thinking about how much work she really had to do that night on her paper...
Session #4
In this session, I was working with someone who was "looking for direction" in his paper. I think we found one together. He brought his computer in, and I asked him about his paper. His teacher had basically told him that she liked a sentence in his conclusion (after his 5 pages were written), and that he should focus his paper on that. She also told him to keep his intro and conclusion basically the same, with some editing. The main idea was that teachers/schools should not teach standardized English over the slang and/or language learned at home. It was a really interesting topic, and he had some great research. I asked him to read his paper out loud - it was about 5 pages long and we had an hour long session.
So he began to read, and after he finished a paragraph we went over the main idea it conveyed. I explained what had struck me as the main topic of that paragraph, and asked him if that was what he, as the writer, had been going for. He was really hesitant, and thought a lot about everything I asked him. He eventually responded, and it seemed like he was trying to make the session productive.
I asked him about his thesis, and he admitted that he did not have one. So I asked him what he wanted to prove by writing his paper, and as he spoke, I wrote down what he was saying. As we went through the paragraphs, we related each one to his thesis. If it didn't relate, he made a comment next to it on Word or deleted it entirely. He needed to add an entirely new source to the paper as well, so what we were working on was a really rough draft with some remnants of an old, irrelevant rough draft. For each paragraph, we wrote down the main idea and at the end, produced an outline of each paragraph he already had, and some paragraphs he needed to do more research on. I definitely did not agree with his teacher on the intro and conclusion - after a little editing, they would still not be satisfactory. They needed to be completely reworked.
I really hope the session helped - we went to the Writing Center's website and scheduled another session in a day or two, after he had written more of his real paper. The final is due Friday.
Session #5
I really enjoyed myself in this session. The client was in James Madison or Lyman Briggs or something (I can't remember now), and she came in with a paper on how the United States government is actually promoting fatness. I actually laughed at some parts in her paper because it was hilarious! I learned a lot about her topic.
She told me she wanted to focus on making sure her thesis and argument were strong, and also work on some grammar. So she read her paper out loud, and it flowed really nicely. She fixed a lot of her mistakes as she was reading. Some of her sentences were really long, and I just had to point out one with 4 distinct clauses in it. Other than some slight errors, most of which she ended up fixing on her own, her paper flowed very well, and the argument was very well developed. She still needed another paragraph and a conclusion to her paper, but the overall idea was strong.
I got to use one of the strategies we tried in class on her thesis. It was long because it covered a lot of topics. In her writing style, all of these topics had to go in the same sentence. So we broke it down. I pointed out a part of it that I had not seen in the paper, and she realized that she did not need that part of that sentence because it wasn't even touched in the paper. So we deleted some of it. She then eyed me warily as I tore off four strips of paper. "Okay, this is what we are going to do to make your thesis stronger. On these strips of paper, we'll write down the parts of your thesis. And then we'll tape them back together after we've come up with a satisfying order." She immediately began copying down the four parts of her sentence. We went through the possible orders, and finally settled on starting generally, and ending more specifically. We used a thesaurus to find new words that could more strongly convey the argument of her paper.
Then it was grammar time. Her teacher had given her a checklist, and told them to go through their papers and circle all of the there ares/are/is/that, etc. and replace them or re-structure the sentence. So we found one and I showed her a way she could reword it. She used it as an example, and highlighted the old sentence and then inserted the new sentence so she could see how to fix the problem later on at home. On the next sentence, we just both sat there. After about 2-3 minutes of looking at the same sentence, I called Katie over and asked her if she could think of a way to reword the sentence and she gave a suggestion. The client liked her suggestion, so we used it. Then I had the client do one on her own, and she understood by now that she really just needed stronger or more specific verbs.
I asked her if the session had helped her out, and she said it had. We ended on very friendly terms, and I felt like I had accomplished something.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Session as a Client--#2
Today I finally managed to complete my final session as a writing center client. I brought in the second half of the final report for my internship with MessageMakers since it's for credit. The report basically had to go over what I learned in the internship. The first half gave an overview of the company and a brief intro of my job, and the only reason I didn't bring it in was because I didn't think there would be time to go over the whole thing.
The section that we worked with went over some of the writing projects I did for MessageMakers, detailing the writing processes I used, new genres I worked with, and some things that I learned there. This section was followed by one naming a few specific transitions and differences between school and work that prepared me for life after college. I brought this piece to the writing center to see if a consultant would think that I had explained everything well enough and if the things I learned sounded "valid," like I actually had learned something. My consultant had me read the paper aloud, and we stopped after every section to go over it.
My consultant gave me just what I needed today--another set of eyes to help point out things I hadn't considered. She asked me what my reaction was when my supervisor told me that a piece I wrote was good but not what they were looking for, something I hadn't thought to include in the report. She also made me think about why I was still motivated to complete my assignments and do well on them when so many of them didn't actually go anywhere or get printed, and I think a reflection of that will explain my professional persona more in the report.
One final thing my consultant pointed out is my excessive use of em-dashes, which I usually used as a substitute for parentheses or semicolons. I asked her at the end if we could go check out some of the books and figure it out since I had never realized there was anything wrong with my em-dash use, but as it turns out, they are really only used to add emphasis to a point that could be in parentheses or separated with a semicolon as the consultant suspected.
Hopefully next semester I'll have more time to bring my work to the center!
The section that we worked with went over some of the writing projects I did for MessageMakers, detailing the writing processes I used, new genres I worked with, and some things that I learned there. This section was followed by one naming a few specific transitions and differences between school and work that prepared me for life after college. I brought this piece to the writing center to see if a consultant would think that I had explained everything well enough and if the things I learned sounded "valid," like I actually had learned something. My consultant had me read the paper aloud, and we stopped after every section to go over it.
My consultant gave me just what I needed today--another set of eyes to help point out things I hadn't considered. She asked me what my reaction was when my supervisor told me that a piece I wrote was good but not what they were looking for, something I hadn't thought to include in the report. She also made me think about why I was still motivated to complete my assignments and do well on them when so many of them didn't actually go anywhere or get printed, and I think a reflection of that will explain my professional persona more in the report.
One final thing my consultant pointed out is my excessive use of em-dashes, which I usually used as a substitute for parentheses or semicolons. I asked her at the end if we could go check out some of the books and figure it out since I had never realized there was anything wrong with my em-dash use, but as it turns out, they are really only used to add emphasis to a point that could be in parentheses or separated with a semicolon as the consultant suspected.
Hopefully next semester I'll have more time to bring my work to the center!
Final Blog
My final blog entry, where can I begin?
Looking back on this semester and the course as a whole it is very satisfying to be able to see my own growth as a student and a consultant, but also our growth as whole class of students and now co-workers. I can remember those very hot August and September evenings when we would all sit down, and not have much at all to say about tutoring styles and writing center theory. Through our book projects, our bloging, the wiki posts (as minimal as they were), our observing, our co-consulting and solo consulting, our extensive literacy project, and lastly our final projects. I can honestly say that I have grown because of this class. I feel that I am much more confident in myself as a writer and as a writing consultant. I also have discovered that I enjoy creative writing. This class pushed me into many new directions and into many new fields and approaches. It gave me an opportunity/required me to write creatively, which I probably would not have chosen to do if I had the option. This class also forced me to work with more creative aspects of technology that I had never explored and understood too much in the past. Just my final project – a brochure of correct comma uses and common mistakes – shows my newfound competency with technology and technical aspects of grammar.
Overall, I feel like this course has undoubtedly helped shape my technology literacies, my writing ability, my writing confidence, and more than anything my confidence and ability as a writing consultant. I’m looking forward to getting started as a tutor!
Looking back on this semester and the course as a whole it is very satisfying to be able to see my own growth as a student and a consultant, but also our growth as whole class of students and now co-workers. I can remember those very hot August and September evenings when we would all sit down, and not have much at all to say about tutoring styles and writing center theory. Through our book projects, our bloging, the wiki posts (as minimal as they were), our observing, our co-consulting and solo consulting, our extensive literacy project, and lastly our final projects. I can honestly say that I have grown because of this class. I feel that I am much more confident in myself as a writer and as a writing consultant. I also have discovered that I enjoy creative writing. This class pushed me into many new directions and into many new fields and approaches. It gave me an opportunity/required me to write creatively, which I probably would not have chosen to do if I had the option. This class also forced me to work with more creative aspects of technology that I had never explored and understood too much in the past. Just my final project – a brochure of correct comma uses and common mistakes – shows my newfound competency with technology and technical aspects of grammar.
Overall, I feel like this course has undoubtedly helped shape my technology literacies, my writing ability, my writing confidence, and more than anything my confidence and ability as a writing consultant. I’m looking forward to getting started as a tutor!
Sunday, December 7, 2008
More things...
Final project reflections
I assumed before I went into this project that there would be probably a healthy amount of information out there on my subject for me to look at, and I was right. The problem I ran into is that a lot of it isn't exactly what I need. There's a lot of info for people who want to advertise (themselves or a product) on the web, as well as a lot of info for people who write websites. As in code. Which we (meaning the writing consultants) probably won't be presenting on soon. Or at least not the non-DWC's. In any case, this means that I've had to do a lot of weeding out of the kind of information I want because a lot of it ends up not being directly relevant, though a lot of it is very interesting. Looking at what some people deemed the worst sites on the internet was quite amusing. I've also read some of the most useless blogs, some of which made me laugh out loud and some of which made me shake my head. But do I need to know what some of the stupidest blogs on the web are? Not really. Maybe that's a better example of me getting sidetracked.
Perhaps the fact that it's finals week has also somehow made my fellow students check out every library book I've wanted for the past two weeks. All of them. Well, except one that was listed as being in the building, but when I looked for it it wasn't there. It wasn't checked out, there just was no space for it on the shelf and it wasn't there. Very frustrating.
One of the useful things about the stuff I've read is that there's not a lot of conflicting information. I did a research paper my sophomore year about Joe McDonald (as is Joe McDonald from Country Joe and the Fish) where I was afraid to cite a fact because almost every source I read from said something different. You'd think at least dates would be consistent. Though this was the sixties...
Anyway, I've been able to find information that backs up my other information, which is great because there's really no basis to tell someone that they should do something a certain way because one source said so.
I've had trouble figuring out how to write about and format all the information I've found, though I think I've decided that a report sort of format would be best. We shall see.
Writing Fellows (aka Writing Mentors)
I'm pretty excited about the oppotunity to be a Writing Mentor this spring. I've never really had a problem where not knowing about the subject about which a client is writing has prevented me from being able to help him or her, though there have been some times when knowing more about the field would have saved both the client and me some time if I'd known which questions I had were important or not. Sometimes things didn't make sense to me that the client explained would make perfect sense to the professor (though this may not have been true in every situation). Being a Writing Mentor for a specific class that I know something about should prevent those types of issues, since I should be able to know whether or not something will make sense to a professor, or whether or not this is a common way to talk about things in this field. The chance to work with professors could also be helpful in not only making assignments clearer, but also helping them to understand that a Writing Mentor or any writing consultant can potentially do more important work than just fixing someone's questionable grammar. I guess I'm thinking optimistically about the professors; we'll just have to see. Something I hadn't considered before but that I think is a good thing now is that there are multiple tutors who would be working with the same class. I think it will be helpful for people to be able to talk to other tutors who are dealing with similar issues, especially since this is a new project and none of the new Writing Mentors will have done anything like this before.
Oops...
So another thing it turns out I completely forgot to record in here is my time as a client, which wasn't all that sensational one way or another. Both my sessions were at the libarary because I assumed that I wouldn't need more than half an hour for either of the things I brought in. This was true the first time, but not the second. The first time, I brought in a partially finished paper I was working on about semicolons for my Grammar and Style class. I did this session mostly on a whim because I was already in the library. In any case, I had this paper most of the way done but had no idea how to end it. It wasn't an argument, more just a compilation of research about how different resources deal with semicolons. Really, the conclusion shouldn't have been that hard, I think I just couldn't make up my mind because I'd been working on it too long. Things didn't start off too well because I didn't do a very good job describing what I wanted to the tutor, so he and I read through my paper and he pointed a few areas where he though I could expand on things a little and maybe give a few examples of what I was talking about. I didn't, however, really appreciate his input because I actually liked most of what I'd written so far and felt I was going to receive a 4.0 on the paper, as I had for all the others I'd already written for that class. We eventually discussed my conclusion, which I said I was thinking about ending with a quotation I'd found that I felt really summed up the general feelings of grammarians on semicolons. The tutor agreed that I could do this, though I think he didn't realize that I intended to end with almost nothing BUT the quotation. The quotation was long, and, as I said, summarized the feeling well, but my teacher wrote me a note saying that a quotation wasn't a real conclusion, which seemed obvious to me in hindsight. I wish the tutor had helped me see that, but I feel that was really more my fault than his.
My second session was for a paper from the same class, since I didn't write a lot for any of my other classes. This one was called "What's on My Desk?," the required title for a piece everyone in my class had to write for our class portfolio. I'd already decided which resources would be on my fictional future desk, but I couldn't figure out a good way to make it sound interesting, or to make it longer than a page. It didn't really have to be long, but I told the tutor I was afraid of making it sound like a list, which is kind of what my draft sounded like. He suggested making it more personal, talking more about myself and why I would choose these kinds of resources rather than other resources I could think of. I wrote down some ideas we had during the session, and we talked about how my introduction could be more of a picture of me and my future workplace and not just the resources on my desk. We also talked about what I might do for a conclusion, which I did not have in my paper at the time. Unfortunately, I needed more time than I got for that session and had to leave without really feeling like I'd finished talking to the tutor about everything I'd wanted to talk about. However, it was a nice, conversational session, which I haven't really had with a client yet. After reading the draft, we didn't even really look at my paper much anymore. The only thing that spoiled this session for me a bit was the noise in the library, which, as I've said before, I do not like for sessions. There was a large group studying across from us in the computer session and none of them seemed to have any interest in being quiet. I don't think I'll come in as a client again, but if I did, it would be at Bessey, which I feel is much more relaxing as a place to talk.
I assumed before I went into this project that there would be probably a healthy amount of information out there on my subject for me to look at, and I was right. The problem I ran into is that a lot of it isn't exactly what I need. There's a lot of info for people who want to advertise (themselves or a product) on the web, as well as a lot of info for people who write websites. As in code. Which we (meaning the writing consultants) probably won't be presenting on soon. Or at least not the non-DWC's. In any case, this means that I've had to do a lot of weeding out of the kind of information I want because a lot of it ends up not being directly relevant, though a lot of it is very interesting. Looking at what some people deemed the worst sites on the internet was quite amusing. I've also read some of the most useless blogs, some of which made me laugh out loud and some of which made me shake my head. But do I need to know what some of the stupidest blogs on the web are? Not really. Maybe that's a better example of me getting sidetracked.
Perhaps the fact that it's finals week has also somehow made my fellow students check out every library book I've wanted for the past two weeks. All of them. Well, except one that was listed as being in the building, but when I looked for it it wasn't there. It wasn't checked out, there just was no space for it on the shelf and it wasn't there. Very frustrating.
One of the useful things about the stuff I've read is that there's not a lot of conflicting information. I did a research paper my sophomore year about Joe McDonald (as is Joe McDonald from Country Joe and the Fish) where I was afraid to cite a fact because almost every source I read from said something different. You'd think at least dates would be consistent. Though this was the sixties...
Anyway, I've been able to find information that backs up my other information, which is great because there's really no basis to tell someone that they should do something a certain way because one source said so.
I've had trouble figuring out how to write about and format all the information I've found, though I think I've decided that a report sort of format would be best. We shall see.
Writing Fellows (aka Writing Mentors)
I'm pretty excited about the oppotunity to be a Writing Mentor this spring. I've never really had a problem where not knowing about the subject about which a client is writing has prevented me from being able to help him or her, though there have been some times when knowing more about the field would have saved both the client and me some time if I'd known which questions I had were important or not. Sometimes things didn't make sense to me that the client explained would make perfect sense to the professor (though this may not have been true in every situation). Being a Writing Mentor for a specific class that I know something about should prevent those types of issues, since I should be able to know whether or not something will make sense to a professor, or whether or not this is a common way to talk about things in this field. The chance to work with professors could also be helpful in not only making assignments clearer, but also helping them to understand that a Writing Mentor or any writing consultant can potentially do more important work than just fixing someone's questionable grammar. I guess I'm thinking optimistically about the professors; we'll just have to see. Something I hadn't considered before but that I think is a good thing now is that there are multiple tutors who would be working with the same class. I think it will be helpful for people to be able to talk to other tutors who are dealing with similar issues, especially since this is a new project and none of the new Writing Mentors will have done anything like this before.
Oops...
So another thing it turns out I completely forgot to record in here is my time as a client, which wasn't all that sensational one way or another. Both my sessions were at the libarary because I assumed that I wouldn't need more than half an hour for either of the things I brought in. This was true the first time, but not the second. The first time, I brought in a partially finished paper I was working on about semicolons for my Grammar and Style class. I did this session mostly on a whim because I was already in the library. In any case, I had this paper most of the way done but had no idea how to end it. It wasn't an argument, more just a compilation of research about how different resources deal with semicolons. Really, the conclusion shouldn't have been that hard, I think I just couldn't make up my mind because I'd been working on it too long. Things didn't start off too well because I didn't do a very good job describing what I wanted to the tutor, so he and I read through my paper and he pointed a few areas where he though I could expand on things a little and maybe give a few examples of what I was talking about. I didn't, however, really appreciate his input because I actually liked most of what I'd written so far and felt I was going to receive a 4.0 on the paper, as I had for all the others I'd already written for that class. We eventually discussed my conclusion, which I said I was thinking about ending with a quotation I'd found that I felt really summed up the general feelings of grammarians on semicolons. The tutor agreed that I could do this, though I think he didn't realize that I intended to end with almost nothing BUT the quotation. The quotation was long, and, as I said, summarized the feeling well, but my teacher wrote me a note saying that a quotation wasn't a real conclusion, which seemed obvious to me in hindsight. I wish the tutor had helped me see that, but I feel that was really more my fault than his.
My second session was for a paper from the same class, since I didn't write a lot for any of my other classes. This one was called "What's on My Desk?," the required title for a piece everyone in my class had to write for our class portfolio. I'd already decided which resources would be on my fictional future desk, but I couldn't figure out a good way to make it sound interesting, or to make it longer than a page. It didn't really have to be long, but I told the tutor I was afraid of making it sound like a list, which is kind of what my draft sounded like. He suggested making it more personal, talking more about myself and why I would choose these kinds of resources rather than other resources I could think of. I wrote down some ideas we had during the session, and we talked about how my introduction could be more of a picture of me and my future workplace and not just the resources on my desk. We also talked about what I might do for a conclusion, which I did not have in my paper at the time. Unfortunately, I needed more time than I got for that session and had to leave without really feeling like I'd finished talking to the tutor about everything I'd wanted to talk about. However, it was a nice, conversational session, which I haven't really had with a client yet. After reading the draft, we didn't even really look at my paper much anymore. The only thing that spoiled this session for me a bit was the noise in the library, which, as I've said before, I do not like for sessions. There was a large group studying across from us in the computer session and none of them seemed to have any interest in being quiet. I don't think I'll come in as a client again, but if I did, it would be at Bessey, which I feel is much more relaxing as a place to talk.
Things I forgot to write about (aka observations)
I was amazed to look back though my posts and realize that though I took notes on every session I observed (there were seven of them, not including the ones at satellites), I never wrote a blog about any of them. I'm assuming that because I took notes some part of me assumed I'd posted blogs. In any case, now I can write about the sessions I observed from the perspective I had in my notes as well as the perspective I have now as a somewhat experienced consultant.
1st Observation
For my first observation, I sat in with two grad students. The consultant was not particularly friendly to me, which made me nervous about asking other consultants if I could shadow them. His client was a little friendlier, though she didn't seem to understand why I was there (the consultant did explain to her, but when he left to make a copy of her paper she asked why I was there again). The paper was one that the client had written last year and a professor had marked up for her. She'd brought it in because she felt she had consistent problems in writing (she was an ESL student, though I could hardly tell because she spoke perfect English). She felt she couldn't make sentences flow within paragraphs and that her organization "didn't make sense," which I assumed meant that the professor had said it didn't make sense. The paper she'd brought was long (she had ten pages but said that wasn't all of it) and the consultant said they'd try to get through as much as possible, which the client didn't seem particularly pleased with. As they read through the paper, I remember thinking that nothing seemed wrong with it. I thought that I was very glad I wasn't conducting this session because I would not know how to help her. When they read through a page, they would stop and go through the things the consultant had marked (he wrote notes on her paper while she was reading). I wasn't sure if writing notes on her paper was a good idea, though he was writing in pencil. Then I thought that taking notes might be helpful, but I also remember thinking that surely he could remember what he needed to talk about for only one page. Now, I feel very differently about those things. First of all, I have learned I cannot take notes while someone is reading his or her paper. I can't write fast enough, and trying to write things down and simultaneously listen to someone reading just isn't possible for me. Either the listening or the writing will be sacrificed. I do, however, make pencil marks by things I want to talk about (usually next to the sentence or paragraph that I want to discuss rather than on the text itself), and I always have to reread pages that I don't mark. I will usually remember if I saw something I want to talk about, but I don't usually remember what it was. I've also learned I have more trouble going longer without discussing things when a client does not have a paper copy of his or her paper. I really do have trouble taking notes, and since there's no text for me to mark when the document is digital, I've had trouble remembering the issues in a paper the few times that I haven't had a paper copy in front of me. Anyway, this grad student client is the same one who came back a couple weeks later and refused to work with me because I wasn't a grad student myself, though I'm sure I could have helped her just fine, especially since I'd heard her work before as well as the ideas that the tutor had about how to help.
2nd Observation
My second observation was also of a grad student client and grad student tutor, though it was a different tutor this time. This consultant/client combination was a lot friendlier, and the session as a whole was more pleasant to sit through. Unlike the first client I'd observed, this client seemed much more open to recognizing and accepting her own problem areas in her work (the first client seemed to need to be convinced that certain things were really problems), and the consultant smiled more and the dialogue between the two seemed more conversational. The tutor from the first session talked more than the client did, which at the time I thought was a bad thing, though now I can see that the client didn't give him much choice. She was reticent and reluctant to discuss her own errors. The client in this second session, however, talked as much if not more than the consultant did, and the session as a whole was encouraging. It made me realize how different one session could be from another, though at the time I still didn't really consider how different I was going to have to be from one session to another in response to the individual and the situation. This session actually lasted two hours, and I ended up taking a lot more notes on the contents of the paper than was necessary. Actually, the contents of the paper weren't really that important at all in the grand scheme of me learning about how to tutor, but I didn't recognize that at the time.
Ist Observation/co-consulting
During this session, I (very fortunately) got to be part of a brainstorming session. I say very fortunately because during the times that I'd been in the Center observing, I'd overheard a couple sessions that dealt with brainstorming but I was very afraid to have a session like that myself. How did one help someone else brainstorm? What if I didn't have any ideas? What if my ideas were stupid, or not really relevant? So, when I asked a consultant if I could help with a session and she said it was brainstorming, I was happy to hear it. The client had to write an opinion piece about an important issue in the upcoming election, but he couldn't decide if he wanted to write about the pro-choice movement or something about alternative energy. At first, I wasn't sure how to contribute to the session, so the other tutor was the only one asking questions. She managed to help him figure out that he was more interested in writing about alternative energy than the pro-life movement. As he talked about the things he was thinking about concerning alternative energy, I finally said that it seemed like he was talking a lot about alternative fuel options for vehicles, though he'd mentioned other things, and maybe that would be something he could consider focusing on for his piece. He seemed to think that was a good idea, which encouraged me enough to feel like I could contribute a few more ideas (which was also aided by the fact that I already knew some relevant information about alternative energy). I still felt then and feel now that I would feel a bit more nervous about brainstorming than I do about a more usual session involving an already-written paper, but at least I got a little bit of experience.
2nd Observation/co-consulting
The second time I co-consulted was not really a good indicator for me about how I would conduct future sessions. I co-consulted with a tutor I'd observed with before, and she was very inclusive of me from the beginning of the process. She printed off three copies of the paper, and I sat at the edge of the table rather than opposite the consultant and client. My problem was that when the client came in, she said her main problem was grammar and mechanics (she was an ESL student, the first one I'd worked with and the second I'd observed), and I took her too literally. Even though we'd talked about things like this in class, although not very much yet at that point. It seemed to me that her main problem really was grammar and mechanics. Her paper seemed organizationally fine and her ideas were there, they were just a bit hard to understand sometimes because of her grammar. I had a number of helpful ideas for how to fix some of the grammar issues, but in the end I really hadn't thought of anything else. I remember thinking after the session that it couldn't even really be possible to focus on more than one thing at a time anyway, and that I would have been in real trouble if I'd had to think about organization or something in addition to catching all the grammar problems. Now, I can think about things more broadly when I'm reading a paper or listening to someone read one. I can mark a consistent grammar issue while still hearing the whole concept of the paper, though I still find it difficult to comprehend the paper as a whole while thinking of individual pieces. At the end of the session, the consultant was very nice about the session, telling me I'd had some good ideas. I probably had had some good ideas, but I wonder now if I would think they were quite as pertinent as I thought they were at the time.
1st Observation
For my first observation, I sat in with two grad students. The consultant was not particularly friendly to me, which made me nervous about asking other consultants if I could shadow them. His client was a little friendlier, though she didn't seem to understand why I was there (the consultant did explain to her, but when he left to make a copy of her paper she asked why I was there again). The paper was one that the client had written last year and a professor had marked up for her. She'd brought it in because she felt she had consistent problems in writing (she was an ESL student, though I could hardly tell because she spoke perfect English). She felt she couldn't make sentences flow within paragraphs and that her organization "didn't make sense," which I assumed meant that the professor had said it didn't make sense. The paper she'd brought was long (she had ten pages but said that wasn't all of it) and the consultant said they'd try to get through as much as possible, which the client didn't seem particularly pleased with. As they read through the paper, I remember thinking that nothing seemed wrong with it. I thought that I was very glad I wasn't conducting this session because I would not know how to help her. When they read through a page, they would stop and go through the things the consultant had marked (he wrote notes on her paper while she was reading). I wasn't sure if writing notes on her paper was a good idea, though he was writing in pencil. Then I thought that taking notes might be helpful, but I also remember thinking that surely he could remember what he needed to talk about for only one page. Now, I feel very differently about those things. First of all, I have learned I cannot take notes while someone is reading his or her paper. I can't write fast enough, and trying to write things down and simultaneously listen to someone reading just isn't possible for me. Either the listening or the writing will be sacrificed. I do, however, make pencil marks by things I want to talk about (usually next to the sentence or paragraph that I want to discuss rather than on the text itself), and I always have to reread pages that I don't mark. I will usually remember if I saw something I want to talk about, but I don't usually remember what it was. I've also learned I have more trouble going longer without discussing things when a client does not have a paper copy of his or her paper. I really do have trouble taking notes, and since there's no text for me to mark when the document is digital, I've had trouble remembering the issues in a paper the few times that I haven't had a paper copy in front of me. Anyway, this grad student client is the same one who came back a couple weeks later and refused to work with me because I wasn't a grad student myself, though I'm sure I could have helped her just fine, especially since I'd heard her work before as well as the ideas that the tutor had about how to help.
2nd Observation
My second observation was also of a grad student client and grad student tutor, though it was a different tutor this time. This consultant/client combination was a lot friendlier, and the session as a whole was more pleasant to sit through. Unlike the first client I'd observed, this client seemed much more open to recognizing and accepting her own problem areas in her work (the first client seemed to need to be convinced that certain things were really problems), and the consultant smiled more and the dialogue between the two seemed more conversational. The tutor from the first session talked more than the client did, which at the time I thought was a bad thing, though now I can see that the client didn't give him much choice. She was reticent and reluctant to discuss her own errors. The client in this second session, however, talked as much if not more than the consultant did, and the session as a whole was encouraging. It made me realize how different one session could be from another, though at the time I still didn't really consider how different I was going to have to be from one session to another in response to the individual and the situation. This session actually lasted two hours, and I ended up taking a lot more notes on the contents of the paper than was necessary. Actually, the contents of the paper weren't really that important at all in the grand scheme of me learning about how to tutor, but I didn't recognize that at the time.
Ist Observation/co-consulting
During this session, I (very fortunately) got to be part of a brainstorming session. I say very fortunately because during the times that I'd been in the Center observing, I'd overheard a couple sessions that dealt with brainstorming but I was very afraid to have a session like that myself. How did one help someone else brainstorm? What if I didn't have any ideas? What if my ideas were stupid, or not really relevant? So, when I asked a consultant if I could help with a session and she said it was brainstorming, I was happy to hear it. The client had to write an opinion piece about an important issue in the upcoming election, but he couldn't decide if he wanted to write about the pro-choice movement or something about alternative energy. At first, I wasn't sure how to contribute to the session, so the other tutor was the only one asking questions. She managed to help him figure out that he was more interested in writing about alternative energy than the pro-life movement. As he talked about the things he was thinking about concerning alternative energy, I finally said that it seemed like he was talking a lot about alternative fuel options for vehicles, though he'd mentioned other things, and maybe that would be something he could consider focusing on for his piece. He seemed to think that was a good idea, which encouraged me enough to feel like I could contribute a few more ideas (which was also aided by the fact that I already knew some relevant information about alternative energy). I still felt then and feel now that I would feel a bit more nervous about brainstorming than I do about a more usual session involving an already-written paper, but at least I got a little bit of experience.
2nd Observation/co-consulting
The second time I co-consulted was not really a good indicator for me about how I would conduct future sessions. I co-consulted with a tutor I'd observed with before, and she was very inclusive of me from the beginning of the process. She printed off three copies of the paper, and I sat at the edge of the table rather than opposite the consultant and client. My problem was that when the client came in, she said her main problem was grammar and mechanics (she was an ESL student, the first one I'd worked with and the second I'd observed), and I took her too literally. Even though we'd talked about things like this in class, although not very much yet at that point. It seemed to me that her main problem really was grammar and mechanics. Her paper seemed organizationally fine and her ideas were there, they were just a bit hard to understand sometimes because of her grammar. I had a number of helpful ideas for how to fix some of the grammar issues, but in the end I really hadn't thought of anything else. I remember thinking after the session that it couldn't even really be possible to focus on more than one thing at a time anyway, and that I would have been in real trouble if I'd had to think about organization or something in addition to catching all the grammar problems. Now, I can think about things more broadly when I'm reading a paper or listening to someone read one. I can mark a consistent grammar issue while still hearing the whole concept of the paper, though I still find it difficult to comprehend the paper as a whole while thinking of individual pieces. At the end of the session, the consultant was very nice about the session, telling me I'd had some good ideas. I probably had had some good ideas, but I wonder now if I would think they were quite as pertinent as I thought they were at the time.
What's the best way to talk?
Reading John's post (the "Is it secret?" one) made me think of times in the WC (especially when I first started working there) when I had just finished a session and really wanted to talk about it with someone. Partially this was from nervous energy because I was new; I wanted to know if that was how things usually went, or if I was doing things right. But partially I think sometimes we just experience sessions and clients that are so challenging or interesting or unusual that we want to talk about them with another consultant. However, this is where I have to pause and then talk about something else. I don't think I have ever wanted to talk about anything gossipy to another consultant that concerned a client. But talking about a client in any way could be construed as gossip by fellow tutors or, more importantly, by other clients in the WC. I've heard tutors remark on how long a session felt or how glad they were to take a break (I've said such things myself), which isn't insulting to anyone yet I still feel the need to check and make sure there aren't any clients in hearing distance. The most I've talked about some sessions I've had has been in class, which isn't an oppotunity any of us will be having anymore. I agree with John; I think if consultants want to get online and talk about a session, that would be a great way to do it. However, I don't think they will. It isn't the same as having a face-to-face discussion. Online, there's no guarantee that anyone will respond to what you've said. You can't really have a conversation (you could, but there would probably be a lot of time lag and that doesn't feel conversational), and the added step of having to go online to talk about something would probably prevent some people from ever doing it at all. If a consultant just wants to sort of vent or work a difficult session out in writing, then a blog or staff wiki would be fine. But for anyone who wants to have a real dialogue, posting online (at least at this juncture) doesn't seem like the best solution.
Final Project Preparations
As I mentioned in one of my earliest posts, I have a problem with procrastination. I never intend to procrastinate, but I’m always so busy finishing one major project that I have to hold off starting the next one. So while my idea for my final project has been bouncing around my head for weeks now, it was only recently that I was able to actually sit down and start working on it. As soon as I did so, several major problems became immediately apparent. Since Diana has been talking about bringing the Writing Center into Second Life, my plan had been to provide a walk-through for my fellow consultants. However, the process of getting started with Second Life takes a lot longer than the 15 minutes that my presentation can last. Even if I downloaded the requisite software onto a few laptops at the Writing Center, and had everyone come ready with details for making an account, it would still take too long. I’ve realized that I won’t be able to explain why Second Life has such potential to help the Writing Center, and walk people through it. Even if I did get everyone online, just navigating one’s way through SL takes some adjustment, and that wouldn’t be the point of my presentation. While learning how to customize your avatar might be interesting, it would do little to help consultants learn how to help clients. I think explaining SL’s relevance to the Writing Center is the most important thing to talk about, so any overview I give about how to use it will be cursory, at best. I’m working on the best way to combine these two ideas, but the issue of time seems to hamper me at every turn. Part of me just wants to chuck the whole thing, but that’s obviously not an option. Everyone else’s final projects have been so different that I can’t compare my project to theirs to see how well mine will meet the assignment requirements/expectations.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
The end is near....
Since we're not doing a final reflection in class, I figured I might as well write one here. Even though I'm not going to be working in the center next semester (I already have another job), I feel I gained a lot of valuable skills from this class, all the more so because I've been gaining interest in consulting as a career field after I graduate. The non-directive and open question approach is a great skill to have, as is experience working collaboratively but in one-on-one situations. I've also learned to better articulate my thoughts on why something doesn't "work" in a piece of writing, which I think will be valuable whether I go into consulting or editing & publishing (the other field I'm considering).
Aside from the actual skills I gained, I know that I would have never found out what I know about the writing center in any other way. I definitely used to be one of those writing students who never thought they needed help with their writing, and that the writing center was for people who don't know what a thesis sentence is. I thought being a consultant would mean knowing a lot of grammar and just telling people what I saw wrong with their papers, and that these problems would usually be obvious. But after having been in the center in many different roles, I know this is nowhere close to being correct. So far I've actually only completed one of my sessions as a client (I'm signed up for my second on Monday!), but if I'd had more free time this semester, I definitely would have come in more often. Everyone says that writing consultants often act as an outside pair of eyes and can help you with problems that you sense in your writing but can't really explain, and this is exactly what happened in my first session as a client. Next semester I will be available more often, and with two English classes I will definitely try to find the time to bring in other papers that I need help with.
One final thing that I'm glad this class helped me with was my perception of ESL students. I never thought that they were worse writers than native speakers, but my initial assumption about them was that all their problems could be traced to the simple fact that English was their second language. I'm so glad that this class opened my eyes to show me that this is not the case. I had no idea that the essay form and structure that I've been using for almost my entire life was "western" rather than universal. It's fascinating that different cultures view academic work in so many different ways, and to me it's so interesting that I decided to design a workshop to help writing consultants better understand ESL students, their backgrounds, and how difficult it is to try and write with a completely different mentality from your native culture.
To Trixie and all my peers in 395 this semester, thank you so much for everything you've taught me! Happy writing!
-Lauren-
Aside from the actual skills I gained, I know that I would have never found out what I know about the writing center in any other way. I definitely used to be one of those writing students who never thought they needed help with their writing, and that the writing center was for people who don't know what a thesis sentence is. I thought being a consultant would mean knowing a lot of grammar and just telling people what I saw wrong with their papers, and that these problems would usually be obvious. But after having been in the center in many different roles, I know this is nowhere close to being correct. So far I've actually only completed one of my sessions as a client (I'm signed up for my second on Monday!), but if I'd had more free time this semester, I definitely would have come in more often. Everyone says that writing consultants often act as an outside pair of eyes and can help you with problems that you sense in your writing but can't really explain, and this is exactly what happened in my first session as a client. Next semester I will be available more often, and with two English classes I will definitely try to find the time to bring in other papers that I need help with.
One final thing that I'm glad this class helped me with was my perception of ESL students. I never thought that they were worse writers than native speakers, but my initial assumption about them was that all their problems could be traced to the simple fact that English was their second language. I'm so glad that this class opened my eyes to show me that this is not the case. I had no idea that the essay form and structure that I've been using for almost my entire life was "western" rather than universal. It's fascinating that different cultures view academic work in so many different ways, and to me it's so interesting that I decided to design a workshop to help writing consultants better understand ESL students, their backgrounds, and how difficult it is to try and write with a completely different mentality from your native culture.
To Trixie and all my peers in 395 this semester, thank you so much for everything you've taught me! Happy writing!
-Lauren-
Entry from Thanksgiving week
I won't actually be working in the writing center after this class, but a lot of people who do work in the center have told me things like, "It's such a great job!", so I think I'd like to analyze that a bit.
First off, writing center work is part-time like almost every other on-campus job at MSU. But one thing that makes the WC a good workplace is the required 10-minute break after two hours of consulting. Not only is it nice to have a refresher, but it's very comforting to think that your employer (the center) actually cares that your work doesn't get burned out. Similarly, if consultants have any kind of problems with their clients, they are highly encouraged to seek help from one of the center directors. Having good chemistry between "management" and employees is key for a solid relationship, and it keeps the atmosphere in the center positive, which is essential since the more our clients feel at ease, the more we will accomplish with them.
The work we do in the center is not very difficult in a traditional sense. Writing consultants aren't necessarily better writers than their clients at all--usually they just act as an outside pair of eyes, which is great since the consultant doesn't have to know anything about the topic of the paper to tell if it makes sense, progresses logically, or has a strong argument. To me, the most difficult part of consulting was putting my own thoughts into words when describing to the client what I thought was a problem, or rephrasing it again when they didn't understand what I meant. But for the most part, consulting is "easy"--we read the piece, ask a lot of questions, and often the work gets done for us as the client either answers the questions, restates something in their own words, or decides how to rewrite the sentence with little help from us.
And, at the end of the day, writing consultants are doing a good thing for other people (often their peers, which can make the experience even more rewarding). The satisfaction of having given back to the MSU community is great when the client thanks you for all your help after a session, and getting paid on top of all that is great, too :)
First off, writing center work is part-time like almost every other on-campus job at MSU. But one thing that makes the WC a good workplace is the required 10-minute break after two hours of consulting. Not only is it nice to have a refresher, but it's very comforting to think that your employer (the center) actually cares that your work doesn't get burned out. Similarly, if consultants have any kind of problems with their clients, they are highly encouraged to seek help from one of the center directors. Having good chemistry between "management" and employees is key for a solid relationship, and it keeps the atmosphere in the center positive, which is essential since the more our clients feel at ease, the more we will accomplish with them.
The work we do in the center is not very difficult in a traditional sense. Writing consultants aren't necessarily better writers than their clients at all--usually they just act as an outside pair of eyes, which is great since the consultant doesn't have to know anything about the topic of the paper to tell if it makes sense, progresses logically, or has a strong argument. To me, the most difficult part of consulting was putting my own thoughts into words when describing to the client what I thought was a problem, or rephrasing it again when they didn't understand what I meant. But for the most part, consulting is "easy"--we read the piece, ask a lot of questions, and often the work gets done for us as the client either answers the questions, restates something in their own words, or decides how to rewrite the sentence with little help from us.
And, at the end of the day, writing consultants are doing a good thing for other people (often their peers, which can make the experience even more rewarding). The satisfaction of having given back to the MSU community is great when the client thanks you for all your help after a session, and getting paid on top of all that is great, too :)
Friday, December 5, 2008
"We must move on. We cannot linger."
Yea... its another Lord of the Rings quote... so what? Anyways... here it goes.
"Is it secret? Is it safe?" a.k.a. Blog Post #10
Ok... that was a Lord of the Rings quote too... but it has to do with Writing Center... I promise. In order for the Writing Center to function correctly, a lot of different things have to happen. People have to sign up for appointments, consultants have to come to work... they have to know what they are doing etc... but one aspect of the WC that might get overlooked is who the space feels. What I mean by that is, is a friendly environment, is comfortable, is a good space to work in, etc. Again a lot of different things come together for that to happen, but one in particular is on my mind. Often after a session a consultant will walk, maybe ten feet to a table and debrief with someone about a session, and that can happen in a lot of ways. They may have had a bad session and perhaps need to vent(see previous post)... or something of that nature. But one thing that consultants need to keep in mind is that other people are in the WC and they can hear just as well as you and I. Now I am just as guilty as anyone else when it comes to speaking my mind a little to freely in the WC, but I think it needs to stop. If we want people to have a positive experience when they come, then we need to be careful about what we say and do. We do not want clients to feel judge or uncomfortable when they come the WC, so we need to find outlets to talk about sessions. One place for that happen, could be the blog, or have a section in the staff wiki... but one place where it shouldn't happen is in the WC itself.
As Primary Consultant #4
Last time I talked about a bad session, so I thought it would be fun to recall a session that was one the better ones that I recently. I think this session sums up part of what we try to do in the WC. So this session was a brainstorming session... one of my totes faves. These sessions usually start pretty slow, as I am trying to figure out what the assignment is about and the client usually has some kind of writers block. So in this particular session, I asked tons and tons of questions, about everything... how they liked the class, or what was interesting about, how did you like the book you had to read... what about the assignment makes sense to you... what do you know about the subject.... These kinds of questions really helped my client get to think about here paper in a lot of different ways. From there we ended up coming up with a general thesis and the start of an outline. She even said, you asking all these questions helped me understand the assignment more! So I was pretty pleased with assignment all together.
Satellite Observation #2... The Library
Now Im going to speak in generalities, mainly because I have worked a lot of hours at the WC in the library. The library in my mind is hectic... mainly because of the 30 min. appointments in my opinion, but more than that there is just a sense of urgency in the library at all times. The tone of the clients is that the paper is usually due in less than 24 hours, making the suggestions you make all the more important, or so they seem. It is not uncommon for someone to be a little late, and when you are usually working with 30 min appoints, that is time that sorely missed. The fact that there is no copy machine also makes it difficult to be less directive. The reason I say that is because I usually need to read it myself in order to understand what is being written, which means a lot of the actual paper is in front me. Now, there is still a lot of good being done in this location, the pace just feels quickened... also there is no coffee.
Well team... Almost there...
Grammar as a HOC
So recently Elena sent out an email to the WC listserv talking about a proposal she wanted to draft about thinking about grammar as a HOC because it affects things like tone, voice, structure, and so on. I thought it was interesting and immediately connected to the idea, since I am also a grammar lover. I think I fall slightly more in the prescriptivist camp than the descriptivist, though I recognize the uselessness of saying that something is absolutely right or wrong since almost every "rule" changes/is changing and some are highly debated. But I do think that grammar is important. I think that knowing how to use it greatly widens the possibilities of how one can write things, and also that a fairly solid knowledge of grammar can really help to create a specific voice. Some people like complex grammatical forms, some people like simple grammatical forms. But frequently using things like comma splices and run-on sentences does nothing to develop a nice-sounding, unique voice for any writer. I think being able to hear your own voice in a paper really contributes to feeling like you are a writer, not just a student/person who writes, or in the case of assignments, is forced to write. Knowing how to use grammar also enables writers to "break the rules" in certain cases for many stylistic reasons; maybe they want emphasis, or to point out something about language, or to enhance part of a character's personality, or any of hundreds of other reasons a writer might choose to deviate from a conventional pattern. But this kind of choice isn't possible if writers don't know that it can be a choice in the first place. I feel like Elena probably has much more logical-sounding and well thought out reasons for thinking of grammar as a HOC, and I hope that whatever she does succeeds in helping other people understand the potential importance of grammar in a session.
Thinking about body language
As I was looking for my old posts, I read some other ones that people had written about tutors, clients, and body language. I feel like I know some basics about body language and what I can tell from it during a session. Obviously, if a client is slouching, leaning back, looking around, and has his or her arms folded, he or she probably isn't interested or engaged in the session at all. I have only ever had one client who has displayed all of this body language during a session. If I see any of this disengaged behavior during a typical session, it would be the client looking around. However, I'd say this happens more not than often, though it does make me concerned that the client isn't really listening whenever I do see it. I had one client who pretty much refused to look at me, whether I was talking or not. I though it was possibly shyness, because the client was otherwise polite and friendly and seemed happy with our session. I also had one client who didn't seem to understand the concept of personal space (I was pretty sure our noses were about thisclose whenever we looked at each other). He was fun to work with and it was a good session, I just remember telling myself a couple of times that being that close wasn't going to hurt me and there was no reason to back away.
I often consciously think about my own body language during a session. I make an effort to always lean forward and look at a clients when they are talking to me, to nod when I understand or to make sure that they know I get what they're talking about, and to smile and appear friendly. Sometimes I have to gauge where I'm sitting and decide if I think I'm too close or too far away. I set my pencil down sometimes to make sure that I don't tap it or play with it. I tend to fidget a lot when I'm tense, stressed, or hyper, which I try to make sure I don't do during sessions. I also try not to cross my arms, avoid frequently checking the clock, and ignore everyone and everything that's going on around me. I once had a client ask to move to a different room because it was so noisy in 300 (we went to 317); I was surprised when he asked and didn't really think it was that noisy, but later I was glad we'd moved because we were the only people in 317 and it was actually a very peaceful and pleasant working environment. I'm pretty sure I handle my own body language ok, what I'm looking forward to is the day when I don't have to consciously think about it anymore. Though maybe that never happens. Hm. I guess we'll see.
to not cross my arms, to avoid frequently checking the clock
I often consciously think about my own body language during a session. I make an effort to always lean forward and look at a clients when they are talking to me, to nod when I understand or to make sure that they know I get what they're talking about, and to smile and appear friendly. Sometimes I have to gauge where I'm sitting and decide if I think I'm too close or too far away. I set my pencil down sometimes to make sure that I don't tap it or play with it. I tend to fidget a lot when I'm tense, stressed, or hyper, which I try to make sure I don't do during sessions. I also try not to cross my arms, avoid frequently checking the clock, and ignore everyone and everything that's going on around me. I once had a client ask to move to a different room because it was so noisy in 300 (we went to 317); I was surprised when he asked and didn't really think it was that noisy, but later I was glad we'd moved because we were the only people in 317 and it was actually a very peaceful and pleasant working environment. I'm pretty sure I handle my own body language ok, what I'm looking forward to is the day when I don't have to consciously think about it anymore. Though maybe that never happens. Hm. I guess we'll see.
to not cross my arms, to avoid frequently checking the clock
Observation 2 and Primary Consultant 5
Outside observation
My second observation was at the BCC (very conveniently close to where I live). I've heard other people talk about going to the BCC, but I still wasn't sure exactly what to expect. It turned out to be comfortable, attractive, and pretty laid-back feeling, which I liked, especially compared to observing in the Library (which, in my opinion, is not laid-back at all). The client I observed was working on a resume that actually looked fine to me, except for her font choice, which I thought looked too bubbly or round or something, but the consultant either thought that was fine or chose not to comment. I didn't actually read through the resume myself though, which turned out to need more work because his categories were not labeled in a conventional way and he wrote everything out where bullet points would have been fine. The tutor suggested some things that I thought sounded more like personal preferences rather than essential guidelines, but I didn't really disagree with any of them. By far the most difficult part of that session for me was the TV. I never watch TV or even listen to music when I have to read or write something because I cannot concentrate that way. My attention was constantly divided between the session and the news, which made me glad that I was not the tutor. All in all, the BCC seems like a pleasant tutoring atmosphere, but too distracting for someone like me who really depends on relative quiet. I looked around at one point to see if any of the tutors or clients in sessions were distracted by the TV and it didn't seem like any of them were, but my guess is that that's not always the case.
Leading session(s)
This past Wednesday I led two sessions in a row with ESL students. This has happened before, but this time turned out to be an interesting and kind of difficult experience because the issues that each client had were very, very different. I found it really hard to switch right from one area of focus to another. For example, my first client (with whom I had a two-hour session, probably part of the reason I had trouble switching focus) had a lot of trouble forming logical English sentence structure. Many of her sentences just didn't make sense. I asked her what she meant so many times I ended up trying to think of a different way to ask that question since I was pretty sure my client had to be tired of hearing it. When she explained what she meant, a lot of things became much easier to understand. We ended up using a lot of her almost direct quotations as sentences in her paper to replace ones she'd previously written. I could tell that she struggled with explaining things to me sometimes, so I often asked follow-up questions to make sure that I didn't misinterpret her words, which I think I'd be very annoyed by if I were in her shoes. One thing that really helped our session was that she had a very good knowledge of English grammatical terms and concepts. If I said that something she wrote as an adjective had a different noun form, she knew exactly what I meant and often corrected her mistakes herself. The second client, however, had almost no trouble composing logical English sentences (there were some interesting phrases though, such as "this part of the essay really lights my bulb," which didn't sound like a native speaker's word choices, but I decided to do nothing more than smile inwardly and move on) but kind of surprisingly had little knowledge of grammatical concepts, almost no knowledge of different types of punctuation, and had a lot of trouble re-phrasing troublesome sentences aloud. When I would ask her what she meant, she would often repeat almost word-for-word what she'd written and I would have to think of other ways to try and figure out what she meant. In the end, both clients seemed happy when they left, and I felt like I'd actually helped them, but I also felt communicationally burned out.
My second observation was at the BCC (very conveniently close to where I live). I've heard other people talk about going to the BCC, but I still wasn't sure exactly what to expect. It turned out to be comfortable, attractive, and pretty laid-back feeling, which I liked, especially compared to observing in the Library (which, in my opinion, is not laid-back at all). The client I observed was working on a resume that actually looked fine to me, except for her font choice, which I thought looked too bubbly or round or something, but the consultant either thought that was fine or chose not to comment. I didn't actually read through the resume myself though, which turned out to need more work because his categories were not labeled in a conventional way and he wrote everything out where bullet points would have been fine. The tutor suggested some things that I thought sounded more like personal preferences rather than essential guidelines, but I didn't really disagree with any of them. By far the most difficult part of that session for me was the TV. I never watch TV or even listen to music when I have to read or write something because I cannot concentrate that way. My attention was constantly divided between the session and the news, which made me glad that I was not the tutor. All in all, the BCC seems like a pleasant tutoring atmosphere, but too distracting for someone like me who really depends on relative quiet. I looked around at one point to see if any of the tutors or clients in sessions were distracted by the TV and it didn't seem like any of them were, but my guess is that that's not always the case.
Leading session(s)
This past Wednesday I led two sessions in a row with ESL students. This has happened before, but this time turned out to be an interesting and kind of difficult experience because the issues that each client had were very, very different. I found it really hard to switch right from one area of focus to another. For example, my first client (with whom I had a two-hour session, probably part of the reason I had trouble switching focus) had a lot of trouble forming logical English sentence structure. Many of her sentences just didn't make sense. I asked her what she meant so many times I ended up trying to think of a different way to ask that question since I was pretty sure my client had to be tired of hearing it. When she explained what she meant, a lot of things became much easier to understand. We ended up using a lot of her almost direct quotations as sentences in her paper to replace ones she'd previously written. I could tell that she struggled with explaining things to me sometimes, so I often asked follow-up questions to make sure that I didn't misinterpret her words, which I think I'd be very annoyed by if I were in her shoes. One thing that really helped our session was that she had a very good knowledge of English grammatical terms and concepts. If I said that something she wrote as an adjective had a different noun form, she knew exactly what I meant and often corrected her mistakes herself. The second client, however, had almost no trouble composing logical English sentences (there were some interesting phrases though, such as "this part of the essay really lights my bulb," which didn't sound like a native speaker's word choices, but I decided to do nothing more than smile inwardly and move on) but kind of surprisingly had little knowledge of grammatical concepts, almost no knowledge of different types of punctuation, and had a lot of trouble re-phrasing troublesome sentences aloud. When I would ask her what she meant, she would often repeat almost word-for-word what she'd written and I would have to think of other ways to try and figure out what she meant. In the end, both clients seemed happy when they left, and I felt like I'd actually helped them, but I also felt communicationally burned out.
"So it begins..."
Hey team, this post is probably going to be pretty epic... in a lot of ways, so I thought it would be appropriate to start it off with a Lord of the Rings quote... welp, here it goes.
Session as Client #2
In my second session as a client I went to the library to have my cover letter for a job application worked shopped. I had already had some feedback from a couple classmates in my WRA 202 class, so this session was really just to look at final touches. The first thing that my client did was ask me about the job and what they were looking for. So I should them my job add and then they had a better idea what the job was like so they could give better feedback. Then they asked me to read my letter outland. After reading it out loud I caught a few mistakes and changed them. We also talked about word choice a lot. Even though I consider my a pretty good writer, I talking about voice and tone in this setting was really helpful. My consultant pointed out that in some places that my the language I was using was coming off a little to flippantly. As a result I changed some of the language so that I sounded a little bit more professional. I guess it worked out cause I ended up getting the internship. Go me and go Writing Center!!!!
My Thoughts a.k.a. Blog #6
Scrolling through the blogs to find which posts I have and haven't done, I saw a lot about ESL students. When I think about my experiences with ESL students I generally think grammar. Now there are other things I think about but I will save those for another blog post considering I have about a thousand left. Now for some people grammar isn't that big of an issue. I think I would fall under that category a little bit. I say a little bit because I think I can use grammar pretty well, but I have no idea what the names or the titles of these rules and regulations are. I probably would have a little difficulty finding them in a book as well. Now, considering that we deal with grammar issues in the writing center a ton, whether we like it or not, perhaps we should have small training session about grammar. What that would look like, Im not sure. It could be just one day, instead of talking about reading, we would take a large look at all the grammar books, as well as do some really basic grammar training. Now some people might think of that as a drag... but it couldn't hurt? Could it?
Critiquing Myself a.k.a. Blog Post #7
When dealing with certain issues within the WC, I sometimes find myself doing far to much writing. I usually figure this out when the client has disregarded their copy of the paper, they have no pen in their hand, and talking very little. What to do, what to do. After finding myself in this place several times unintentionally, things needed to change. As much as I totally disagree with a completely hands out approach, I needed to try it. So for a couple of sessions there were no pens. I found myself asking far more leading questions and getting the client far more engaged. I made these strategies part of my normal attack plan, and as a result it was easier for me to help client. I slowly was able to use my pen for good and not evil, by drawing diagrams or example sentences. I wrote comments on papers to clarify points of confusion, which I think helped. I think for me personally, in the beginning and still, its hard to not want to correct things myself. It's in my nature to fix some things, so in order to be a more effective consultant I had to change some of those habits.
Critiquing Myself Critiquing Myself... a.k.a. Blog Post #8
Remember way back when, when I was talking about how a hands off a more hands off approach worked better? Of course you do it was like 4 lines above this one. Well I think there might be an exception... maybe not, IDK, try and help me out. So the in the case of ESL students, there is often a communication barrier. So asking questions and hearing their responses so sometimes really hard. So how do we as consultants get around this problem. I mean its hard enough trying to convey some pretty complex ideas about writing to people without the addition of a communication problem. This is the time when I as a consultant feel the most frustrated. One I feel like they don't understand what I am trying to say to them. Two, I don't know what they are saying. So how can I feel confident in what I am trying to do? I often revert to trying to write things down. This usually leads to me correcting things on the paper than asking if thats what they mean. They of then often just sit there and nod there head. Then at the end of the session I feel like I did a bad job. I also feel that if I take the time to write the questions out, then they do the same, the session isn't going to accomplish much, in the already sort time that we have. Suggestions?
Primary Consultant #3... I think, I went back and I am pretty sure its 3. So Im gonna go with 3.
Well, to be honest I have know I have done more than 3 sessions at this point, I have probably done close to 75. To be even more honest they tend to bleed into others, and the only ones that usually stand out are pretty awful. So here is one of my least favorite sessions of all time. The ungreatest hit #1.
It was a dark and stormy night at the MSU library. John Lauckner was receptionist at the Writing Center. He was making sure that things were running smoothly, doing his best when it happened. The worst session ever. (PS... im gonna stop with the third person stuff now)
So as the receptionist I often take walk in appointments. When I do this people are generally pretty grateful, because they realize that it is a favor, sort of. Anyways when this person came in I went through the whole deal about how its online appointments and we don't do walk ins anymore and then I say but I can help you for a little bit. So the firs thing this person asks is what is my major. I respond with Professional Writing w/ a emphasis in digital and technical writing. They ask if I am a good writer. I say I would like to think so. They then ask if anyone else is available. I say... you didn't make an appointment, so no. Then throughout the course of the appointment she makes very little sense, I try and ask the write questions. When I keep asking questions, they take it as a sign of incompetence. They keep rolling their eyes at me. I admit I lose patience at this point. They then said they could write better than me in their own language. Im gonna assume that statement got lost in translation, and wasn't as rude as it sounded. By this point a co-worker saved me and took over, and had just about as much success as me. This was by far a horrible experience, but it did test my professionalism and other stuff, but mostly it was just awful.
A Fellows Program/ Mentor Program a.k.a. Blog Post #9
I did my second reading response on the idea of a fellows program. After reading a few articles on it, I feel that it in theory sounds like a great program. The reasons that I like it so much is because everyone has to do it. What that does is allow people that normally wouldn't come into the WC to see what is all about. This would allow "good" writers to see that the WC is just not a place for bad writers to come and vice visa. I really like that. By getting a larger and more diverse sample of students into the WC then more people can understand what the WC's goal and operation is like. This is why I am pretty excited about trying this next semester with PKG 485. It will be very interesting to see all the different kinds of writers. It will also be cool to see if they actually get better. By seeing the same students writing more than once we can see if a change really does occur. It should be a fun interesting experience.
To Be Continued Team...
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Session as Client and Primary Consultant
Session as Client #2
This was a good session for me because it wasn't my typical writing. The majority of my writing for college, and easily the majority of writing for other students, is research papers. Papers that have a thesis, sometimes a counter-argument, and supports for that thesis. For this paper, on the other hand, my task was simply to analyze a book for my history class and write a paper that acted essentially as a book review.
I am confident in my writing ability, but when I am given a task that diverges from what I'm typically used to, it does shake me up just a little bit. I am so used to writing research papers that I know exactly how to present what I am trying to say, and so generally I do not feel that I need proof-reading. This time, on the other hand, I was writing a book review and having another set of eyes was essential to making certain that what I was saying was getting through.
Primary Consultant #1
My first session actually came unexpectedly my second day working at the writing center. It was a bit scary at first, I must admit, but I quickly got the hang of it. I think it was ultimately a good thing that I hit the ground running. This writer, as I've noticed many have come to do, explained in the beginning that he was "not a very good writer." That, however, was not true, and it was one of the more satisfying experiences I've had as a writing consultant.
He displayed what many people seem to, a deep fear of the thesis. He didn't know what to put for his thesis, but upon reading his paper it was not difficult to figure one out. The point he was arguing was clear, and he all of the support for it, he just didn't know quite what he was arguing or how to put it into words. His thesis was already there, he just needed to extract it from his paper. He told me he'd buy me a candy bar if he got a 4.0, he never came back but I hope it's because he forgot.
Primary Consultant #2
ESL. I admit when I signed up for the writing center, I did not anticipate ESL students being so prominent. ESL, such a small acronym but one that strikes so much fear into the hearts of writing consultant. This was a two hour session, whic are always stressful, but ultimately I think I helped this particular student.
The problem with this was that, at first, I could not exactly figure out what the ultimate point of the paper was. That is, what the assignment was. She had an assignment, and she had a paper, the question was whether or not the paper fulfilled the assignment. The paper was clear and well written, which is unusual for ESL students, pretty good grammar. Unfortunately it was difficult to help her because she couldn't quite articulate what the assignment was, even though that was what she wanted help with. Ultimately, however, I think I helped her.
This was a good session for me because it wasn't my typical writing. The majority of my writing for college, and easily the majority of writing for other students, is research papers. Papers that have a thesis, sometimes a counter-argument, and supports for that thesis. For this paper, on the other hand, my task was simply to analyze a book for my history class and write a paper that acted essentially as a book review.
I am confident in my writing ability, but when I am given a task that diverges from what I'm typically used to, it does shake me up just a little bit. I am so used to writing research papers that I know exactly how to present what I am trying to say, and so generally I do not feel that I need proof-reading. This time, on the other hand, I was writing a book review and having another set of eyes was essential to making certain that what I was saying was getting through.
Primary Consultant #1
My first session actually came unexpectedly my second day working at the writing center. It was a bit scary at first, I must admit, but I quickly got the hang of it. I think it was ultimately a good thing that I hit the ground running. This writer, as I've noticed many have come to do, explained in the beginning that he was "not a very good writer." That, however, was not true, and it was one of the more satisfying experiences I've had as a writing consultant.
He displayed what many people seem to, a deep fear of the thesis. He didn't know what to put for his thesis, but upon reading his paper it was not difficult to figure one out. The point he was arguing was clear, and he all of the support for it, he just didn't know quite what he was arguing or how to put it into words. His thesis was already there, he just needed to extract it from his paper. He told me he'd buy me a candy bar if he got a 4.0, he never came back but I hope it's because he forgot.
Primary Consultant #2
ESL. I admit when I signed up for the writing center, I did not anticipate ESL students being so prominent. ESL, such a small acronym but one that strikes so much fear into the hearts of writing consultant. This was a two hour session, whic are always stressful, but ultimately I think I helped this particular student.
The problem with this was that, at first, I could not exactly figure out what the ultimate point of the paper was. That is, what the assignment was. She had an assignment, and she had a paper, the question was whether or not the paper fulfilled the assignment. The paper was clear and well written, which is unusual for ESL students, pretty good grammar. Unfortunately it was difficult to help her because she couldn't quite articulate what the assignment was, even though that was what she wanted help with. Ultimately, however, I think I helped her.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Solo Consultation Sessions 2-4
Well the semester is coming to an end and I have already done 4 of my 5 solo consultations. I truely have enjoyed all of them, and am getting more and more excited to begin consulting in the center more regularly and consistently.
Session 2
This session was different than any other session that I have participated in, in any way. It was monday afternoon in the library and it began as a 30 minute session, but became a full hour once we decided to focus on at least some of all 19 pages. The client was an undergraduate student who had a collaborative 19 page report that her professor required them all to bring in. I was not bothered that she did not come in on her own accord, and I felt like I was actually able to help her with some grammar and argument issues. We read through the paper section by section, one of which she wrote, the others she had not even read. Overall, I felt that the session went smoothly and I was able to reveal some aspects of the paper that I felt could use some clarification and elaboration. This was the first time that I was consulting on a paper that was about something that I did not understand the terminology for (marketing/business) and I thought that it was extremely interesting.
Session 3
My third session was this morning in Bessey with an international graduate student. We worked on the flow/argument/readability of her dissertation abstract. Her topic was dealing with social issues, and I thought it was very interesting. Together we read through her paper and made several grammar changes and some adjustments to her overall argument and flow. I thought that working with a graduate student was very interesting and satisfying. The session became more of a conversation between she and I. I would tell her what I thought of something and she would either agree or disagree and was completely able to justify how she felt about it. It was very interesting and I hope that I am able to work with her again on this same project.
Session 4
My fourth session was also this morning and I worked with an international undergrad from Africa. We were working on a creative piece for his intro-WRA class that was a response to a science fiction novel that they all read earlier in the year. He took a very creative approach to the project and created a newsletter that was to be published to a fictional sub-culture of the novel. I thought it was great to be able to consult on more of a visual and creative medium. We were able to talk about how some pictures could work better and more of the creative aspects of the overall piece. It was really satisfying working in a creative medium and having good discussions. I really am looking forward to working with more clients more consistently.
Session 2
This session was different than any other session that I have participated in, in any way. It was monday afternoon in the library and it began as a 30 minute session, but became a full hour once we decided to focus on at least some of all 19 pages. The client was an undergraduate student who had a collaborative 19 page report that her professor required them all to bring in. I was not bothered that she did not come in on her own accord, and I felt like I was actually able to help her with some grammar and argument issues. We read through the paper section by section, one of which she wrote, the others she had not even read. Overall, I felt that the session went smoothly and I was able to reveal some aspects of the paper that I felt could use some clarification and elaboration. This was the first time that I was consulting on a paper that was about something that I did not understand the terminology for (marketing/business) and I thought that it was extremely interesting.
Session 3
My third session was this morning in Bessey with an international graduate student. We worked on the flow/argument/readability of her dissertation abstract. Her topic was dealing with social issues, and I thought it was very interesting. Together we read through her paper and made several grammar changes and some adjustments to her overall argument and flow. I thought that working with a graduate student was very interesting and satisfying. The session became more of a conversation between she and I. I would tell her what I thought of something and she would either agree or disagree and was completely able to justify how she felt about it. It was very interesting and I hope that I am able to work with her again on this same project.
Session 4
My fourth session was also this morning and I worked with an international undergrad from Africa. We were working on a creative piece for his intro-WRA class that was a response to a science fiction novel that they all read earlier in the year. He took a very creative approach to the project and created a newsletter that was to be published to a fictional sub-culture of the novel. I thought it was great to be able to consult on more of a visual and creative medium. We were able to talk about how some pictures could work better and more of the creative aspects of the overall piece. It was really satisfying working in a creative medium and having good discussions. I really am looking forward to working with more clients more consistently.
Last Thoughts on Literacy Narrative
Overall, I thought the literacy narrative project was useful for me as a new consultant. I’ve worked with several clients on literacy narratives, and my own experience enabled me to help them a great deal. Last week, I had an appointment scheduled with a client who wanted to work on a digital remix of their literacy narrative. I got really excited about working on something beyond a traditional paper, but the client never showed up. Having recently completed my own remix, I would have enjoyed working with someone else on the same type of project.
For my final version of my digital remix, I chose to remake my original video in iMovie. From what Karissa showed us in class, iMovie seemed to offer a lot more options for putting together the various elements of a project. As I worked with iMovie, I came to discover that it has as many limitations as Windows MovieMaker. While I think my final product was an improvement over my initial presentation, I was just as frustrated by the time I finished. Nevertheless, despite all the grief this part of the project caused me, I’m glad I did it. I feel like I have a better handle on how to use iMovie, which is helpful considering how many professors assign projects using it.
Likewise, I’m glad I got the chance to remix my original literacy narrative as a piece of creative writing. Beyond just stretching my mental muscles, it gave me the opportunity to see the consulting session from the perspective of a client bringing in a piece of creative writing. It can be difficult sharing something that personal and submitting it for “judgment,” but I think now that I’ve done so, I can help other creative writers. Having someone else look over my writing generated valuable feedback that I could apply not just to this assignment, but also to my writing in general. Furthermore, the workshops we did in class gave me a better idea of how to address creative writing samples that clients might bring in. Overall, all of these experiences have helped me develop as a consultant.
For my final version of my digital remix, I chose to remake my original video in iMovie. From what Karissa showed us in class, iMovie seemed to offer a lot more options for putting together the various elements of a project. As I worked with iMovie, I came to discover that it has as many limitations as Windows MovieMaker. While I think my final product was an improvement over my initial presentation, I was just as frustrated by the time I finished. Nevertheless, despite all the grief this part of the project caused me, I’m glad I did it. I feel like I have a better handle on how to use iMovie, which is helpful considering how many professors assign projects using it.
Likewise, I’m glad I got the chance to remix my original literacy narrative as a piece of creative writing. Beyond just stretching my mental muscles, it gave me the opportunity to see the consulting session from the perspective of a client bringing in a piece of creative writing. It can be difficult sharing something that personal and submitting it for “judgment,” but I think now that I’ve done so, I can help other creative writers. Having someone else look over my writing generated valuable feedback that I could apply not just to this assignment, but also to my writing in general. Furthermore, the workshops we did in class gave me a better idea of how to address creative writing samples that clients might bring in. Overall, all of these experiences have helped me develop as a consultant.
Final project/presentation
My final project/presentation is today at 6 p.m. Here are some of my concerns:
1. I have outside sources, but I don't feel they're relevant to include in the final project (the one I am actually turning in). I've read many sources that discuss grammar biases and how others perceive language misuses, but my final, which is based around a usage survey of a cross-section of undergraduates/graduates and writing consultants, doesn't rely on the perceptions beyond the sample. I could be wrong.
2. I ramble. And I'm long-winded. I won't pretend. So that makes me nervous.
3. I guess that's it.
I'm excited to do my presentation in a way, too. I like interacting with writing consultants and classmates when it comes to grammar and language usage issues. I feel I always learn something new, so I hope that's what today brings. I've really enjoyed my time with people in this class, and I hope we band together and lead a revolution in MSU's Writing Center. I'm not sure what that revolution may be, but we'll do it.
Peace.
1. I have outside sources, but I don't feel they're relevant to include in the final project (the one I am actually turning in). I've read many sources that discuss grammar biases and how others perceive language misuses, but my final, which is based around a usage survey of a cross-section of undergraduates/graduates and writing consultants, doesn't rely on the perceptions beyond the sample. I could be wrong.
2. I ramble. And I'm long-winded. I won't pretend. So that makes me nervous.
3. I guess that's it.
I'm excited to do my presentation in a way, too. I like interacting with writing consultants and classmates when it comes to grammar and language usage issues. I feel I always learn something new, so I hope that's what today brings. I've really enjoyed my time with people in this class, and I hope we band together and lead a revolution in MSU's Writing Center. I'm not sure what that revolution may be, but we'll do it.
Peace.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Chalmers
Like Cat and probably everyone else, I wish the Chalmers partnership had worked out. I don't thnk anyone is to blame though. I sort of thing they dropped the ball in not responding to our posts, b/c from what I heard, we had all made a post (however reluctantly) that never got responded to, and do the conversation stopped. As bad as it sounds, I think everyone involved needs to be required to make posts for a grade... otherwise I think we all know there's little motivation to do it.
I think we could have learned a lot from the Chalmers students, both about writing center work and academic life in another country. It would have been cool to see the difference and similarities. But I think one thing that could have made the partnership more interesting is if we had a set plan to do something OTHER than talk about our experiences, because that's what we already do in class, and we can only rehash the same topics so many times.
This was the first attempt, so of course there will be kinks. In the future I think everything just needs to be more organized and planned, and we need to commit to the partnership and make it an active part of class.
I think we could have learned a lot from the Chalmers students, both about writing center work and academic life in another country. It would have been cool to see the difference and similarities. But I think one thing that could have made the partnership more interesting is if we had a set plan to do something OTHER than talk about our experiences, because that's what we already do in class, and we can only rehash the same topics so many times.
This was the first attempt, so of course there will be kinks. In the future I think everything just needs to be more organized and planned, and we need to commit to the partnership and make it an active part of class.
Leading Sessions 4 & 5
Today I had two leading sessions back to back, but it was with two opposite students. The first was a very motivated writer, and she was awesome to work with. She was a grad student and an ESL student studying to teach English to ESL students. We worked on her word choice. She often forgot to put "the' or 'a' in front of certian words such as "Teacher should answer the students" should be "The teacher should answer the students." She was genuinly interested in developing her writing in English. She asked me how I edit my own work and if I could tell that her paper was written by an ESL student. She did begin to catch some of the akward wordings she used. I suggested to her to read her paper out loud to herself and to print it off if that would help her. It was relieving to be able to work a student interested in their writing more than their actual grade.
And then my day turned around. The next session I lead was with a stressed out ESL writer who said he wanted me to help him with his word choice. He really just wanted me to edit his paper, asking me for my opinion and avoiding working on any other aspects. His paper was only 2 pages but he was in a hurry and explained when he left, after only a short 15 minute session, that his paper was due at a 6 o'clock class. Although his paper was very well written, it was frustrating to go back to working with a stressful "help me get a 4.0 by editing this for me" kind of student.
He did not put much effort into the session. I tried to ask him questions to spur his attention away from grammar, but he was not interested. I guess you get what you put in.
And then my day turned around. The next session I lead was with a stressed out ESL writer who said he wanted me to help him with his word choice. He really just wanted me to edit his paper, asking me for my opinion and avoiding working on any other aspects. His paper was only 2 pages but he was in a hurry and explained when he left, after only a short 15 minute session, that his paper was due at a 6 o'clock class. Although his paper was very well written, it was frustrating to go back to working with a stressful "help me get a 4.0 by editing this for me" kind of student.
He did not put much effort into the session. I tried to ask him questions to spur his attention away from grammar, but he was not interested. I guess you get what you put in.
ESL discussion input
My commentary on ESL writers in the writing center is a bit belated because most of us have already discussed pitfalls and strategies in tutoring. I wanted to throw in my two cents in the spirit of blogging (and forgetting I had never written out my input but instead had voiced my opinion in class).
I'm still unsure how I would handle situations in which I was tutoring a writer whom I can literally not understand. We've discussed imagery and drawing shapes to communicate, but I can't see how that would be time-effective in a one- or in even a two-hour session. I've already had this experience, as many of you know, and I eventually gave up because the writer ended up constantly arguing with any suggestion I made — assuming either of us understood the other — so do you find another consultant to take the writer? Do you just sit there and let the writer finish reading the paper? Because that's what I did. And I felt useless and frustrated and completely unprepared for accepting another client.
It's draining. Despite the ways that have been outlined to handle ESL and international students, sometimes there aren't correct solutions and the only thing you can do is sit there. It's sad but...alas. I'm feeling deflated about the issue, and dear diary-ish.
I guess that's all.
I'm still unsure how I would handle situations in which I was tutoring a writer whom I can literally not understand. We've discussed imagery and drawing shapes to communicate, but I can't see how that would be time-effective in a one- or in even a two-hour session. I've already had this experience, as many of you know, and I eventually gave up because the writer ended up constantly arguing with any suggestion I made — assuming either of us understood the other — so do you find another consultant to take the writer? Do you just sit there and let the writer finish reading the paper? Because that's what I did. And I felt useless and frustrated and completely unprepared for accepting another client.
It's draining. Despite the ways that have been outlined to handle ESL and international students, sometimes there aren't correct solutions and the only thing you can do is sit there. It's sad but...alas. I'm feeling deflated about the issue, and dear diary-ish.
I guess that's all.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Chalmers stuff
I wish Chalmers had turned out differently. I was really looking forward to discussing the bigger questions with our faraway peers. I also wanted to know how writing centers are perceived there versus here, but then I wondered...how ARE writing centers perceived here?
Before I started working here, I had no opinion of the writing center. I just thought, hey, there's a big room by my classroom and people always ask if they can help me with stuff when I mosey on in to grab a reference book. But I never considered the kind of work people did or the type of people/students they helped. I feel that the writing center itself is severely under-promoted, and I'm certainly not saying that falls on anyone's shoulders — I just think it's something that's difficult to "promote" and, even if you can, who are your target audiences? Freshmen? International students? Well, they already come — so what about the people who don't come who could actually get a lot out of everything?
I want to know these things about Chalmers University. How do people perceive writing centers, do they understand them, do they even have an opinion of one in existence? Are they at all common? Is collaborative learning a common practice there, or is writing consultation simply a different entity?
I feel that if there had been fewer responsibilities on both ends for participating students, we may have been able to make this a priority. Maybe in the future, it can be like a three- to four-week project where we actively engage with the students. But the problem with that is similar to the problem we occasionally have with consultants — without interaction on their end, how do you possibly compensate?
Questions to ponder.
Before I started working here, I had no opinion of the writing center. I just thought, hey, there's a big room by my classroom and people always ask if they can help me with stuff when I mosey on in to grab a reference book. But I never considered the kind of work people did or the type of people/students they helped. I feel that the writing center itself is severely under-promoted, and I'm certainly not saying that falls on anyone's shoulders — I just think it's something that's difficult to "promote" and, even if you can, who are your target audiences? Freshmen? International students? Well, they already come — so what about the people who don't come who could actually get a lot out of everything?
I want to know these things about Chalmers University. How do people perceive writing centers, do they understand them, do they even have an opinion of one in existence? Are they at all common? Is collaborative learning a common practice there, or is writing consultation simply a different entity?
I feel that if there had been fewer responsibilities on both ends for participating students, we may have been able to make this a priority. Maybe in the future, it can be like a three- to four-week project where we actively engage with the students. But the problem with that is similar to the problem we occasionally have with consultants — without interaction on their end, how do you possibly compensate?
Questions to ponder.
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