working in the library, more observations, catch-up

so, i noticed that i haven't posted on here in a week or two...my apologies. i'll try to wrap a few things up with this post.

first, i have completed all of the observations with consultants, moved on to taking clients on my own, and done far more than the five required. i have worked with esl undergrads a majority of the time, mainly in wra classes, but have also spent time with several grad. students and many american students, both graduate and undergrad.

i have helped clients working on cover letters for grad. school apps and scholarships/grants, memoirs, master's theses and dissertations, research papers, reading responses, and a variety of other projects and papers. i have also tried to help several students through the prewriting process.

as of three weeks ago, i have begun working at the library on wednesdays, and, in spite of what i have been told about working there, i am actually enjoying it and the fast pace at which clients normally show up there. i'm actually glad that my longest shift is spent there, as i usually grab a coffee and take client after client, making the time pass fairly quickly. it's a bit stressful, but it is nice to help frazzled students and get them to calm down and focus on their assignments (which in many cases are due very soon, hence their being at the library and stressing out).

i'm noticing that many of my clients are coming in for the same thing: (guess!...) help with grammar! in all seriousness, it is a bit troubling to see even american-born students mistaking it's for its and their for there, along with a host of other very simple mistakes. this is where i'm really realizing how important it is to get the clients to read their own papers to you as the consultant. i think a lot of them are simply not reading their papers out loud, and therefore missing many of their own mistakes. i've begun developing a simple, but i think effective way of getting them to improve their proofreading skills.

mike's (flexible) five-step guide for consulting sessions (assuming the client has brought in a draft):

1) get the client to read their own paper out loud, paragraph by paragraph, assuming they are comfortable doing so.

2) hand them a pencil and tell them to fix the mistakes they find as they read along.

3) go back over the paragraph and find the mistakes they miss, explaining why they are mistakes and how to fix them.

4) continue on, trying to get them to recognize more and more mistakes, especially the ones that you have explained to them.

5) at the end of the paper, i generally make notes for them on particular things they need to focus on, such as flow, sentence structure, certain grammatical/spelling issues, etc. tell them to keep reading the paper out loud to themselves to catch mistakes and find awkward sentences, etc.

obviously, this system hinges upon the individuality of each client, and is flexible to their needs, and it will probably undergo a constant evolution as i develop as a consultant, but i think it brings together many of the concepts expounded in class, as well as my own observations and experience in the wc. i feel like i'm really getting into the groove of working here, and learning how to nudge clients in the right direction so that they are capable of helping themselves more and more.

also, i think the wc should consider opening an outdoor consulting center for spring, fully outfitted with a barbecue grill and lemonade instead of coffee, in celebration of the (fingers crossed) beginning of spring and end of a terribly grey winter. i need to go play some frisbee.

until next week,
m

Presentation of Fox's "Listening to the World"

As promised, here are some notes from class today. I think we had a really great discussion of Fox's book (though there was soooooooo much more we could have talked about), and I want to thank you for being such good sports about the Manchester Essay. I've sent along two handouts to Trixie so that she can post them to angel (the Manchester Essay assignment sheet and a more formal outline of Fox's book), so make sure you keep your eyes open for both of them.

We brought up some interesting ideas during class today that aren't necessarily reflected in the outline that I've created, so I wanted to make sure they got posted here.

• Agression: we discussed aggression in two ways: 1) diction, 2) parody. The assignment sheet seemed to be aggressive not only because of particular uses of diction, but because the parody of writing assignments was so strongly developed. The threat of "expulsion" for not citing sources really seemed to ring true for some of us.
• The term "original": we contemplated the meaning of the word original and talked about how world majority students may understand this word differently than us. The ideology from which world majority students come deeply and profoundly affects their writing, and the same applies to mainstream American students.
• Linear thinking: as a class we mapped out common linear modes of thinking that often get applied to the writing process (brainstorming, drafting, editing) and the structure of an essay (intro, body, conclusion). How else might we say that an American/Western ideaology guides our writing, thinking, and doing in this culture?

I want to thank everyone again for participating in my presentation today. I hope you found our conversation as useful as I did.

Carrie

I Watched the Presentation too

I had an extremely uneventful afternoon as a receptionist, so I decided to take my time to observe Noah and Natalie's iMovie presentation.  As with Deanna's notes, you couldn't help but notice the blank stares received from nearly every student in the room.  With the exception of a select few girls, there was no loosening up of this tough crowd until after the first video.  WHICH BY THE WAY ~ What a great choice to demonstrate the CRAP method of video analysis. (For those of you who dont know C.R.A.P. is Contrast Repetition Alignment Proximity.)  It was a commercial from several years ago by Volkswagen advertising for the stylish Beetle Convertible.  I think the music and the easy to catch patterns in the video sucked the clients in enough for them to participate.  After that the class flowed well and more and more kids began to participate.

This leads me to my point:

WHY IS THERE NOT A POWERPOINT FOR THESE PRESENTATIONS!? Is there not a base to help presenters organize their class?  Writing on a whiteboard is all good and well, but it is sloppy and slow and puts kids to sleep.  Just seems silly to me 

presentation

So i was observing Noah's presentation of I movie today and i was struck by some thoughts. The presentation was fairly straightforward, but what struck me was the students themselves. they began the presentation by asking if anyone had been to the center before and explained what it was. First off, no one responded with "yes" to the first question. their professor knows Noah well and seems familiar with the center, yet none of her students had been here previousy. more interesting was the lack of interest on their faces when they were describing the benefits of the center. Natalie had trouble getting anyone to answer "no" to whether or not they had been there and i was expecting them to fall asleep while they were presenting. this is so sad. we as tutors are so excited to write certainly, but more interested in helping others improve their writing. on a personal level, i enjoy tutoring because i love the smile i get when people leave a successful conference and i ask them if they feel better about their paper. i feel like i'm accomplishing something, that i have a purpose. considering the amount that each of us care about our jobs, it seems reasonable that other people would be happy to expect the help we are so willing to offer. it doesn't matter how much we want to make someone a better writer- the reality is that if the student doesn't want to improve, they won't. is this a problem that can be addressed? is the issue about awareness of the center? or is it lack of motivation to get help? i can't tell you how many times i considered going to a professor's office hours because i hadn't done well on a previous exam but decided not to- not because i didn't want or appreciate the help, but because i was afraid to admit to myself that i really needed it or more often, i had something better to do. this is definitely something i would like to explore more after we get out of this class. how can we motivate students? how can we show them that we are actually very nice and this place is helpful, not scary or boring or anything bad? how can we get students to be more aware that the center exists and to remember once we've told them? does anyone have any ideas?