so close. :)

When I'm asked to write an essay, I first jot down the ideas that come to my mind immediately. Then, I wait for several weeks before I finalize on how I want to present my ideas to the reader. This is one of the most crucial parts in my writing process because professors in college are no longer looking for an essay that conforms to rules and standards, such as the 5-paragraph essay. My professors want me to think critically and convey my arguments through my writing. Hence formulating my ideas and arguments take priority above all. The next few steps all concern writing and not the thinking involved in writing. Occasionally, I might change my idea or argument but the backbone of the paper I am about to write is usually laid down in its pre-writing phase.
Next, comes the writing phase where I write the introduction and the conclusion. This takes me at least two days as I write my papers in paragraphs and not as a whole. In the writing phase, completing the introduction is of utmost importance, since I cannot begin working without one! I then write the rest of my paper in blocks and I spend at least two to three hours per paragraph. Over the years, I have observed that with each paper I consistently get spurts of energy in which my best ways to present the idea, or organize the sentence come out. I tend not to rely on this energy but this has happened quite frequently. Once done with my part of writing, I feel extremely relieved since the hardest part is done.

Funny, i thought i was taking existentialism next semester

so apparently our class is a place where we can undermine each other's fields of study now. i still fail to see how a discussion on tutoring approaches turned into a crazy existential debate about whether or not psychological disorders were actually just a philosophical fabrication of my mind. that was uncalled for and unnecessary. i wasn't even the one that brought up disorders, yet somehow i managed to become the target of a "your major and future phd are completely pointless" tyraid. maybe i'm studying psychology because i want to figure out why some people end up being such jerks.

catching up.

I did my first observation in January. I remember how Karissa was very polite to her tutee and gave her the time to settle down and then asked what concerns she had regarding the paper. This also happened when I observed Karissa the second time with another client. She asked the tutee to read her paper out loud and took notes as the session went on. When the tutee finished reading her essay, Karissa went over all the positives. I noticed how Karissa used this discussion to lead to the part where she felt a little confused or needed to be worded. This way, the tutee did not hear all their positives at once and become high. Nor did she hear all the negatives in their paper and become depressed. Even though I liked Karissa’s session, I feel that a strategy like that can only be carried after a long period of experience at the center. The way Karissa transitioned between the positives and negatives in the paper, as apposed to just dealing with positives first and then negatives amazed me. It also made me realize that as I gain experience at the center, I need to figure out a plan, which helps my best qualities as a minimalist-tutoring stand out.

Reflections on my Reading Response

After thinking about our discussion that shot off of Ryan's comments during Thursday's class, I realized that I made the mistake of grouping learning disabled students with new ESL students.  Shame on me.  Just because they use a different structure for their language and have troubles expressing themselves in English does not make them in any way similar to a learning disabled student.  They are disabled in a sense because of their lack of knowledge and experience using the language, but I was just plain wrong in making any form of comparison between the two.  Just wanted to throw out that confession. See you all in class.

- Nascar Kass

classroom reflection

hey everyone,

I want to share this experience with one of my students with all of you because I know you can appreciate it.

One of my students, I will call her Chris, stayed after class last week to work with me on our current writing project (Project #2). She was a bit confused about the assignment and wanted to go over structure, thesis, etc. We worked for about 30 minutes and she left my office feeling good about her work and with a clear direction for revision. So, today she decided to come to my office hours again to talk about the first paper she wrote for my class (Project #1). She was upset about her grade but has the opportunity to revise it for more points, so she was really engaged in our conversation. Again, we talked about structure, thesis, and genre--all things that needed significant improvement from her first draft. As she stood up to leave she said something every teacher and tutor (consultant, assistant) wants to hear. It was something like this: "I'm just now realizing that my rough draft isn't necessarily going to be my final draft--it's more like a starting point. It takes time to develop my ideas and my paper."

This sounds like such an obvious statement to us, but my students are at a really important point in their development as writers. For most of them, this is just their second semester out of high school, so they haven't been writing at the college level very long. I know that for me, I was a "one draft wonder" in high school. I wrote many of my assignments the class period before they were due and really didn't know how to revise an essay. I think that Chris has had a similiar experience, so it feels great to be a part of her development as a writer. I know that she would have gotten to this point one way or another, but I feel really special being there with her. I know that last part was super dorky, so I'm going to end this thing here:)

Carrie

international stuff...

i'm sorry i just wanted to say i had a really hard week...my hamster died like 2 days after she gave birth and i was ridiculously attached so i guess i learned my lesson...

What do you think when you notice a cultural difference in how a student is writing or responding to an assignment? how do you broach the subject? what things do you need to be aware of?

I am definitely interested when i tutor an international student. it's very obvious, because people who grow up in the US don't have heavy accents. (and even people who did had a different home life than me which would at the very least affect the reaction to an assignment if not the grammar.) It's fun to examine the ideas they've come up with because sometimes, they're just plain weird- things i wouldn't have ever thought about before reading their paper. I like the insight. i'm extremely curious and this is one way to satisfy my curiosity. i do, however, believe that correcting grammar is important because editing these students' papers it so difficult sometimes because the meaning is lost in translation. i am in no way interested in taking the voice away from them or their paper, i am only interested in helping get their meaning across. it is so apparent in a lot of papers i've read that the grammar is so jumbled i can't figure out what the sentence is actually saying. on top of that, i know our goal is to make everyone a better writer, but i think that our job is to help them with what they want help with. you don't expect a medical doctor to ask you about your emotional problems just like you don't expect a therapist to diagnose influenza...both of them have the ultimate goal of helping you achieve better health, but their jobs are fundamentally very different from one another. we are not teachers- we can't grade them or tell them what to write; we are not muses- we can't inspire their philosophical soul to express itself through the beauty of words (especially words that we can't understand because of jumbled tenses and incorrect diction); we are not mechanics- we can't fix the grammar without addressing the rest of the paper first (which i think you guys missed in my argument earlier...i never said we shouldn't address the global issues of a paper- there's never a time when we shouldn't discuss that with a client- however, helping them form sentences to express the thesis they are trying to write is another story- i look at that as helping them with a global issue, not with sentence-level revision. when sentence level revision is necessary for communication in the basic sense then helping them phrase the thesis seems like the biggest global problem you can possibly help them address and fix!). we are tutors- we are there to help them with what they've asked of us. the way i approach the subject, especially when the student is begging for help with grammar and punctuation, is similar to the action of a mother crushing a pill into a child's food when he won't take his medication. i go through the main points and ask them to point out where they appear (after finding out where the thesis is) and i will only help them with grammar if that particular mistake is relevant to or involves the actual point or thesis. in that way, they see it as me helping them the way they asked me to but in actuality, i am questioning every global issue involved in the writing process. and for the record, i would like to think that i am pretty intelligent and the allegation that i am correcting sentences that are only going to be taken out was kind of offensive. i do have the ability to go through with the student and decide which sentences to leave in the paper and which to take out before i correct a grammar mistake within it. i would not correct a sentence i advised them to remove. 

i have never had a student leave (when i was tutoring alone anyway) without feeling better about their paper. i've never had a student tell me they didn't understand how to fix their paper on a global level. i've never had a client leave without a developed thesis and main points to support it- that we've either identified within the paper or that i've questioned out of them. i feel as if because i was willing to acknowledge that students are different and need different kinds of help (which sometimes includes some huge grammar issues) that you guys were taking it as i was a bad tutor or that i had no concern for our goal to improve students as writers on an underlying level. i certainly think about that in every session and i have never approached a consult as a quick fix session. sorry, i had to clear that up...

That does bring me to the next question from the list stephanie gave us though...

Is it ever ok to give students quick fixes? 

I would say that depends. if a student comes in with excellent ideas that are well developed and supportive of a strong thesis, them asking for a read-over and some grammar corrections they may have missed in proof-reading is ok. They have a good grasp of the writing process and would i discuss the thesis and main points to see if maybe they could be better? yes. but quick fixes are not bad in this case. i often ask people (roommate or parents, for instance) to read over my paper because sometimes i just miss things. if someone came in and asked for a quick fix when they were missing any other part of a paper that was more important to the writing process, then it's a problem. of course, everything else (almost everything) is more important...

another case where it would be ok is when the mistake appears over and over and is a big problem to that writer. that signifies to me that they do not understand the rule that governs the use of that punctuation or that word. i will fix one sentence to show them the rule, help them fix another, then ask them to show me they can do it on their own. humans learn 90% of the information we take in through imitation. we are social beings and that's how we work. 

Strangers in a Small Town

I thought I would share another solo consultation experience that I had in the writing center yesterday.  I met a girl from my hometown with whom I share numerous mutual friends, but yet I had never met her. I think that this immediately situated us comfortably (except for the fact that we are technically cross-town rivals).  We covered a paper for WRA class about family history.  It generally had great flow, but there was on specific problem that I was shocked about.  The use of the word "like" before quotations.  It was similar to a Valley-girl from the movie Clueless.  I was like..and She was like... I made sure to correct that issue because it was the only thing that brought the paper down.  I am pretty sure that she now knows the proper words to use.  She was extremely nervous, but I eliminated that by light humor.  Actually I made her laugh so much that it probably developed into a distraction.  I need to keep that in check.  

Best,

Nascar Kass