Collaborator or Thief: Negotiating intellectual property in writing center sessions

Since taking the graduate seminar course on Writing Center Theory, I haven’t made an appointment with the WC as a client since my undergraduate days. Now, let me tell yawl! I’ve had my share of good/bad session even before coming to work at the writing center, but I believe I had forgotten how valuable and useful the sessions could be. I left this particular session-I will describe-ready to write and eager to move forward with my writing. I was working on a teaching reflection on the irony of teaching standardized English in the land of diversity and overwhelming cross-cultural abundance...

I set up an appointment with a graduate student that I knew, but had never had the opportunity to work with. This consultant was an African American-and yes, I choice him because he was an African American. I also chose this graduate student because I really wanted to share my writing with someone to who had a teaching background and to whom I believed I could be honest with regarding my frustrations in writing this reflection. Does this mean that I choice him because I knew I would have been comfortable discussing the contents of my draft, perhaps?

In the session I talked through my paper (I had one 2 pages and was really hoping to talk things through) I wanted the session to be a conversation, and I made that clear at the beginning of the session, and It was indeed a conversation. We talked about the issues that were surrounding my paper and the consultant gave great input and asked questions that forced me to see my writing objectives clearer. We also came up with some great ideals, I don’t want to go into the paper content in details, however one thing I noticed and I thought-man I wonder if my own consultants feel this way-I noticed that at times I felt like the consultants was talking too much, maybe even veering away from my paper contents-I wondered if this was apart of his own background or understanding of theory and practice, or perhaps the questions I was raising lead him to re-consider the work he was doing…I don’t know I just remember thinking-Man! This is great information, but I’m not sure I’m trying to go that route with my paper and my own research.

Additionally, At one point the consultant outlined an ideal on a the side of my paper, as he wrote it he said: “This is my ideal”, I though his chart was a great way of looking at my paper, but I was so afraid to even listen or look at the chart because I though that he might think that I was going to steal his ideal. At the end of the session he gently pushed the paper with the hand drawn chart and arrows on it near me, I politely looked at him; graduate student-to-graduate student and said, hey no, that’s your ideal-maybe you could use it, it’s a great one! I though to myself-this is an interesting interaction, as a graduate student-I for one have millions of great ideals-just like my peers I’m certain of it…but when do you share those ideals and when do you house them? I didn’t want to take his chart because I felt like it wasn’t mine on, I for damn sure wasn’t’ tryin’ to be an intellectual thief…Interesting I thought.