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.

Session as Primary Consultant #4

This was one of the few non-ESL sessions I've had. The student was much like me when I was a freshman - just trying to get through her required science lab. I had written the same paper she was working on, although she had chosen a different topic. So I was more or less familiar with what was expected of her with this paper, which made it much easier to help. I could tell she was pretty frustrated, because her comments on her last paper were pretty ambiguous, and when she went to her TA for help on citing sources, her TA gave her information that was just plain wrong. So she needed my help citing her sources, because her TA told her the wrong way to do it. Other than that, her main issue was organization. She had a paragraph or two that either had nothing to do with her topic or actually refuted it, so I explained how to shape those parts so that they supported her argument instead of undermining it. Some of her language was convoluted, so I had her explain to me what she was trying to say and then we looked at her paper to see if she was effectively saying it. That's quickly becoming my favorite tactic, because a lot of times students just have trouble putting their ideas on paper. Overall, this was a good session, because once the student got over her exasperation with the paper and the TA, she was very open to what I had to say and working on her paper.

Session as Primary Consultant #3

In this session, I was helping an ESL student organize an essay. Like many of the ESL papers I've seen, all the ideas were very good solid, just getting a little bit lost in translation. I often used the method of explaining to him what I thought his sentences meant, and asking whether I had the right idea. Most of the time, the answer was yes, so we just worked on clarifying the ideas to eliminate any confusion for readers. When the answer was no, I had him explain to me what he was trying to say, and then helped him get that idea across on paper. At the beginning of the session, I asked whether he wanted to work on content development or just structure. Again, like most ESL students, he only wanted to make sure that the paper made sense to a native English speaker. In this case, his content did not really need much work, but it's a little frustrating that very few ESL clients want any help with content development. I know we've hardped on this a lot in class, so I won't say any more about that here. This was a good session overall, because the client was being an active participant in the session and I felt like we were really working together to be productive.

More Thoughts on Creative Remix

I agree that the methods we tried out in class were really useful tools for working with creative pieces. With the color exercise, I think it's pretty rare that a piece is going to have/need to have all 5 senses, but it's nice to be able to get an idea of what kind of sense words you DO have. I also liked the cutting exercise, but I think it would be more useful in non-creative pieces, when the author is having trouble organizing an essay. Usually creative pieces are rather dependent on their organization... the author wrote it how they did because it is a chronological story, has a rhyme scheme, etc. But, if you have a poem that is not dependent on a rhyme scheme, you can get some pretty cool things from rearranging it arbitrarily.

Even though we've had some instruction on tutoring creative pieces now, the idea of doing that on my own with clients terrifies me still. I am not really a creative writer, and I feel like I'd have to have a really solid and thorough knowledge of what makes a good creative piece to be able to work with it. Yeah I have a surface knowledge, but I don't think that's enough. Especially with poetry... I would be uncomfortable on many levels telling someone how to change their poetry. Plus I'd be so unsure of myself whether I'm actually giving them good advice.

1st outside observation

My first outside observation took place at the library. It was actually kind of accidental, since I was there for completely different reasons, but I happened to walk by and see consultants I recognized. I had to wait a little till a new session started. As I was sitting there, I realized how really noisy it can be inside that part of the library. I thought of this again once the session started too. The girl who came in (she wanted someone to look over her IAH paper for organizational problems) didn't seem to be bothered by the noise, but I was pretty sure I would have been had I been in her shoes. I don't know if I think that's the best place to try and tutor someone during the library's busy hours. In any case, the other big difference between the library and Bessey was time, as many people have already discussed. The paper was only a little over four pages, but there were content issues (as in some of her arguments simply didn't make sense in the context) as well as the organizational ones. I felt the tutor did a pretty good job trying to handle everything, but I thought he glossed over the middle more then he should have while focusing on the intro and conclusion. Those are important parts of the paper, but I didn't think some of the issues with her arguments in the middle of her paper were discussed enough to really give the client a real idea about how much revising she probably needed to do. At the time, I didn't feel I knew enough to intervene, which would feel rude to me anyway. I came away from watching that session thinking that I'd really rather not work at the library, as being surrounded by noise and pressed for time doesn't seem like the most effective environment for tutoring.

Creative Remix

I was a little frustrated today when trying to revise my creative piece. I was a fan of the color exercise, it helped me as a writer visualise what images I was trying to create. When working with creative writers, I believe that method would be effective for both poetry and short stories. However, I wrote a very abstract poem. I think my poem works well even though it does not use many sensory images. My literacy narrative 1 & 2 pulled specific details and examples from my life to show and explain my multiliteracies. I chose to write an abstract poem to try and tie all of this information together, leaving out the details this time. It is a short piece meant to guide the reader into what may have attributed to my overall multiliteracy development. I like poetry and did mention it in my first literacy narrative as one of my favorite genres. I may have chose to write a more abstract piece because that is the kind of poetry I find most interesting.


Personally, I think I would have been hesitant to come to the writing center for help with creative pieces before taking this class. I know how friendly and easy it is to talk with someone over your work. As a consultant we must be careful not to judge the quality of a students work. I know we are all already aware of this. When I write personal pieces for myself, I am always afraid to share with others. I am afraid of some sense of approval I may not recieve from someone else. Creative writing is often used in more personal experiences. Having another person look at your piece based on all typical writing criteria: audience, genre, word choice, grammar, arrangment, ect., can help anyone including creative writers.

Working with different types of clients

Working with grad students intimidates me. I feel like I can probably be helpful, but I don't always think they feel that way. I remember once close to the beginning of the time I started working, I had a client come in who refused to work with me because she had originally scheduled to work with a grad student but had been switched to me because of scheduling issues. She was sure that I, as an undergrad, wouldn't be able to really help her (I was sitting right behind her and heard everything she was saying, though she didn't know I was the undergrad tutor). Whoever the receptionist was that day reassured her that all the tutors were competent, but the client was adamant. Now, I had actually sat in on a session with her before and remembered her paper, so I am quite sure that I could actually have been more help than whoever she ended up with, but that wasn't my call to make.

Right in the beginning of Pemberton's article, he says that working with grad students is both no different and very different than working with any other type of student. I can agree with that, but I doubt that most graduate students think of themselves and their writing as being in the same category as the other types of writers and writing we work with. And yes, there is a lot of difference between a freshman in an intro writing course and a grad student with a dissertation, but I agree with Pemberton that most of the strategies we usually use would work fine when dealing with grad student writing. However, I know there are different issues to take into account, such as the fact that grad students' papers are usually longer, more complex, more technical or specialized, and use different kinds of conventions from the ones in undergrad papers. I haven't tutored many grad students thus far, but I hope that with time I will find them less intimidating.

Mike said in class that he'd never worked with a student with a disability--or at least he'd never known about it. I feel the same way. I've certainly never had a client tell me about any special circumstances, and I haven't noticed anything unusual in any of my clients' abilities either. I've had a few clients, ESL speakers and native speakers, who refused to read their papers aloud, but that in and of itself doesn't necessarily mean anything. I think pretty much everyone else who commented on this subject has the right idea: we probably won't know most of the time if a client has some kind of disability, and the important thing is that we really listen to each client and run the session according to the cues they give us (unless those cues are that they're really only interested in us copyediting). I think that I handled my first few clients with a "one approach fits all" kind of mentality; that is, my mindset was something like, "If I develop a method like the ones we've read about in class, I can repeat that, for the most part, for every client." Obviously wrong. I never consciously thought that either, but I can see now that I wasn't looking at me clients individually enough to really cater to their differences.