It seems to me that I am constantly being surprised and informed every time this class talks about something. I had never thought much about the WC here (though I'm sure I heard about it at one time or another), but my vague impression was that it was a place for people whose writing needed improvement, as in it was not up to college-level standards. I have been discovering that this is not the case. Secondly, the notion of multiliteracies in a writing center is a completely new idea to me, but one that I will admit I find not only exciting but plausible.
Sheridan's article discussed MSU's DWC's and their work. Obviously, to an extent, the MSU WC is already a multiliteracy center. Perhaps to be more effective, more DWC's and advertisement of their services would be needed. In my mind, the WC can carry out the work of being a multiliteracy center as it is. Should there be more space? Maybe. But things seem to be working ok as they are now (though I admit that I am hardly familiar with the Center and therefore am not a great judge of this). I imagine that even if more people realized that DWC service was available here, the large majority of clients would still come for more traditional writing-related help. However, I would certainly have come to a DWC for help last year when I was taking 210. There were many times when I was working on a project and knew what I wanted, but I didn't really know how to get it there. Sometimes I almost had what I wanted but wanted to tweak something to make it a little better and in the end couldn't do it because I wasn't in class and couldn't ask for help. And even if I emailed my professor, he couldn't see my screen and could therefore only offer tentative suggestions as to what might need to be done. I also would have been and would be delighted if the section of foreign language tutors were expanded. I have always had a very hard time writing well in French and would have spent much time with a consultant already had I had that option. I could spend quite a while arguing for the usefulness and relevance of DWC's and other multiliteracy consultants, but I had intended to talk about other things.
I spent two hours shadowing consultants on Wednesday, which I found interesting and informative. I am not nervous about helping people with their work, though I understand why some people would be. I am comfortable with writing in in almost every aspect: creative, grammatical, structural, flow, inspiration, and so on. The only things I don't particularly like are creating titles and poetry. However, I look forward to the time when I can (hopefully) help other students with understanding and appreciation for their own work. The first consultant I shadowed was working with an international grad student who had been told by her professors to come to the writing center. She brought one the papers she had written last year (I didn't see how long it was exactly, but it was long) and wanted help mostly with her transitions, which she had been told were often choppy. She read three or so pages aloud at a time, and the consultant made notes in the margin or interspersed with the sentences as she read. When she finished, the consultant went through his notes and made suggestions, which mostly concerned sentence order in order to improve the flow and ease the transitions. I found it difficult to judge whether or not she was learning anything or simply seeing how her paper would have looked with a few more revisions. However, the consultant did explain his ideas and he thought they might help, so as long as she was taking his advice to heart, then I do believe that she left with the seeds of improvement her writing. The second consultant was also helping an international student, this one an undergraduate who wanted help mostly to fix mechanical errors since English is her second language. This consultant underlined words or phrases as the session progressed. I also believe that this student left with improved writing abilities. While the help being given may have appeared to be merely mechanical, I can say as a student who has studied a foreign language that purely grammatical learning often becomes stlylistic learning as you discover new and innovative ways to express the same ideas.
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