Session as Primary Consultant #5

This session was interesting because the student (an ESL student) had been to the center with this piece of writing already. He had written an intro and a conclusion since the last time he was there with it, and it was very obvious which parts had already been worked on with a consultant. Again, this student did not really want content development, but there was a lot of work that needed to be done that was more than the "grammar issues" he wanted to work on. A problem I encountered here that I've encountered with other ESL students is that if you try to get them to come up with alternate wordings etc. on their own, they really have no idea what to do. They worded it the way they did because that's the only way they know how, so saying "how do you think you can word this differently?" is pointless because they just give you a blank stare. So I make suggestions to get things moving, and they just say "oh yeah yeah that's good that's what I mean." So I'm not sure what crosses the line from constructive help to the student just copying my words. I can't find a way to express to them that I am just giving suggestions and they don't need to (and shouldn't) just take what I say and use it without giving it another thought. But anyway, I wondered if at the previous session, the consultant had worked strictly on grammar, because there were a lot of content issues, even in the sections that had been edited for grammar. There was an entire paragraph that completely contradicted the thesis, so I explained to the student how that paragraph was functioning, and suggested that he just remove it, unless he wanted to reshape it in a way that it was strengthening his argument. I told him I could help him do that if he wanted to spend the time on it, but the paper was pretty lengthy so we moved on. I ran up against the issue here of running out of time. I tend to be a slow reader, and I like to take time on things to make sure the student understands, but that method seems to get me into trouble with the hour time limits. I'm not sure how I would handle a 5+ page paper in a half hour session like at the library. I just get so caught up and I don't want the client to leave without addressing everything that I feel needs to be addressed, although I know that we have to pick our battles.