Rewriting and Models

I want to focus on the Shamoon and Burns article that explores more hands-on tutoring methods. They cite a variety of examples where a student felt their writing was drastically improved after they submitted it to a professor, who then tore it apart and essentially rewrote it. I believe a professor's "rewriting" a paper is effective because the professor is considered an authority on the subject, so the student assumes they know what they're doing & what they're talking about. But, in a way, students often view their instructors as unapproachable. To tie into our collaborative learning readings, they are not really engaged in a "conversation" with the professor since many times the student wouldn't be contributing anything after initially submitting the paper, they will just go and make the changes. I think this "unapproachability" causes a fear of showing dependence or inability, which is why students feel that they can't run to their instructors to have their papers rewritten every time.

So while this process may be a way for students to receive (possibly) constructive feedback on their writing once or twice, it doesn't really help in a writing center setting. If a student were given this kind of "help" at a writing center, they may think that a tutor can rewrite their paper every time, no matter what class, so they won't learn as much from feedback when they assume they can just keep coming back for the same experience. A writing center is where you're "supposed" to go for help with your writing, so the fears of dependence or inability are no longer relevant. This enables the writing center to become a tool or crutch that allows students to get comfortable and used to using such a radical hands-on approach.

I think an alternative strategy for a writing center is to have a student write a general model of one of their problem areas, (a thesis, a well-referenced quote, etc.) and then receive direct intervention and feedback from a tutor. When this practice is applied to the specific assignment that the student has brought, it simply becomes a quick solution to the student's problem, and I think it will be difficult for the student to see any benefit to using the methods involved on their own. But making the student think about their problems in a different context helps them to learn more broad strategies that they can see applied to two pieces at once--the model, and their assignment.