WRA Observation #2

I observed my second session this afternoon in the writing center and once again I was shocked. The client was a young international student named Tim. Tim did not tell me what year he was here at the university, but I do know that he is a packaging major and that he had brought in 1.5 page “memo” in “office” format that he needed to write for class. He told us that it needed to be professional and business sounding, so he wanted help with his organization and flow of arguments. Grammar was not something that he said he really wanted to focus on, but he did mention that he was having some trouble with certain aspects of his grammatical writing.

The consultant explained the usual steps that we take while working through a session and had Tim begin to read through his paper. Immediately the consultant begin jotting down notes in the margins, crossing out words, changing sentence structures, and correcting subject and verb tenses so that they agreed. After Tim finished the first paragraph it was necessary to stop so that the consultant could go back over and explain what it is that he changed. This continued for all five to six paragraphs within the paper.

After reading the entire paper Tim and the consultant discussed the overall structure. Tim was concerned that it was not formatted professionally enough. The consultant assured him that to the best of his knowledge he though it was, but he was careful to put in the disclaimer that he has never studied business and thought that perhaps someone of a business background and focus may approach the writing in a different way and with a more critical eye. This idea seemed to confuse the client. After learning about the writing center satellite that is located in the BCC the client decided that he would re-write his paper and bring it in their before it was due.

I once again found myself surprised at how much grammar correcting and editing the consultant did. In this case it was not that Tim was pressuring the consultant to focus on grammar, but rather that the consultant seemed to focus on grammar himself. I felt that the consultant was a little too authoritative with his editing. I feel that correcting grammar to the extent that he did is expectable only under the assumption that the consultant will explain and discuss all that he is doing so that the writing understands his or her mistakes and is empowered to be a better writer in the future. At many times it seemed that Tim was very confused and a little overwhelmed with all of the blatant corrections his tutor was making on his paper. This session re-enforced in me the idea that a tutor must not only find the appropriate amount of grammar to discuss, but the appropriate attitude to discuss that grammar with. I understand that this is only something that I can fully relate to and begin to understand once I have sessions of my own, but I felt that this client could have learned a little bit more about the technicalities of writing in the English language if the consultant had been willing to be a bit more of a teacher rather than an editor.