My fourth session that I observed was quite a bit different than all the ones I'd observed previously. In fact, it sort of broke just about every rule we've been taught about conducting a session thus far. First, the tutor sat down across the table from the student... holding a red pen. The student had completed a full draft of her paper and the assignment sheet with her. The tutor read through the sheet and then had the student read her essay, paragraph by paragraph. As she read, he marked it up with his read pen, and the end of each paragraph, he told her what he thought. He said what he thought looked ok, what needed to be taken out or changed, and what could be elaborated on. He asked a few questions, but the student didn't have too much opportunity to speak. The session definitely reminded me of a professor/ta - student interaction. He did encourage her to build her paper around what she knew - focusing her paper on her own experiences and how that was important to what she was writing about. He asked questions like, "Who's your audience" and "I see a good idea here that you could expand upon" and "I've had to write things like this too, and I understand how frustrating it is." But for the most part, he was very directive in his approach, and he surprised me by saying, after the intro was read, "Ok, this is your thesis."
At the close of the session, the student said that the tutor was very helpful, and from what I saw he undoubtedly was, and the paper will end up being much better per his suggestions. He was very very knowledgable about writing and how to shape the essay to what the professor was expecting. He looked at the ideas of the paper first, and then the structure, also adding help with grammar. I saw that he was making suggestions just as new ways for the student to think about things. So as far as helping with the paper and giving the right kinds of help given the talent of the student and the development of the paper, he was an effective tutor, it just alarmed me that his approach was so contrary to what we've been discussing in class. If I had been the student, I would have been very grateful for his help, but I also would have been a bit intimidated and a bit unsure of my writing abilities when I left.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Observation, Round 3
My third observation session at the center was really pretty tough, and a bit disconcerting. I knew there would be some problems when, at the very beginning of the session, the student refused to read his work out loud. The tutor handled it well, explaining why we have students read and how much of a help it can be for the student. After some serious coaxing, the student began to read in a barely audible voice. The student said that he had a lot of problems writing, because he was only required to write 3 papers in high school, and he grew up in a bilingual community - Spanish was his other language. The student just wanted to be told what to do - he began to get a pretty serious attitude and when the tutor said, "You'e got to clue me in to what you're thinking here" (he had been sitting in silence) the student responded with, "I can't clue you in if I can't clue myself in." At this point I was a little uneasy at the tension, but I also felt really bad for the student. He soon admitted that he had a lot of trouble differentiating how he speaks in social situations and how he needs to write academically. He had ideas in his head, but hadn't the first clue how to organize them or put them on paper.
I was really impressed with how the tutor handled this difficult case. He refused to give in and do the work for the student, instead he focused on getting the student to develop his own ideas by talking them out. He was very quick to find positive things to say to keep the student from getting discouraged, like "I like this metaphor, I've seen a lot of these essays and no one has ever been this creative with it" and "This intro is great, it fulfills all the requirements and really engages the reader." He continued to ask leading questions and encouraged the student to just talk with him, to try to get idea flowing. After periods of silence, he would change the subject and try different questions and approaches to get the reader to talk. He found that the student liked sports, and used a great analogy, telling the student that just like you can't get better at a sport without actually playing, you can't get better at writing unless you just go for it and write. The tutor handled the whole situation really well, never losing his temper or giving up. He stuck with it the whole session, encouraging the student to come back. I know I'll encounter difficult cases like this, and I'm glad I was able to observe one.
I was really impressed with how the tutor handled this difficult case. He refused to give in and do the work for the student, instead he focused on getting the student to develop his own ideas by talking them out. He was very quick to find positive things to say to keep the student from getting discouraged, like "I like this metaphor, I've seen a lot of these essays and no one has ever been this creative with it" and "This intro is great, it fulfills all the requirements and really engages the reader." He continued to ask leading questions and encouraged the student to just talk with him, to try to get idea flowing. After periods of silence, he would change the subject and try different questions and approaches to get the reader to talk. He found that the student liked sports, and used a great analogy, telling the student that just like you can't get better at a sport without actually playing, you can't get better at writing unless you just go for it and write. The tutor handled the whole situation really well, never losing his temper or giving up. He stuck with it the whole session, encouraging the student to come back. I know I'll encounter difficult cases like this, and I'm glad I was able to observe one.
My Writing Process
We discussed our individual writing processes in class this week, so I thought I'd write about mine for my blog post. I'll start off by saying that ever since starting college, I've felt that my writing process is bad/wrong. In a lot of my English and professional writing classes, professors have repeatedly stressed that we need to begin work on papers 2 weeks or more before the due date, and we must have several drafts; if we don't do this, then we're not putting in enough work and we're not coming up with the best possible final paper. And so, I've spent most of my college career feeling guilty about my writing process, but it WORKED for me, so guilt wasn't enough to make me change.
My process goes something like this -
I generally don't even look at the assignment sheet for a paper until about a week before it's due. I have so much going on that it just stresses me out to begin the process any sooner than that. Based on what else I have due around the time of the paper, I'll start it anywhere between 1 week to 12 hours before it's due. I begin by jotting down very messy notes on the assignment sheet about what I want to talk about, a draft thesis or several, etc. If I don't jot down what I'm thinking, I'll never be able to put all my thoughts together. When I do start writing, it has to be totally quiet. I get my notes, quotes, books in front of me, and I write. I have to write it all in one day; I take breaks in the middle, but I generally have to at least get a draft down in a day. I'm more the type that revises as I write. I write a few senetences then go back over them, and I don't move on until I'm satisifed. For this reason, I don't write drafts unless I'm forced to for class. I won't move on until I'm completely happy with what I write, so when it's all done, there's little I want to change. After the whole paper is down, I HAVE TO get away from it for at least several hours. I can't judge how to make any revisions at all unless my mind has been totally cleared and I'm looking at it anew. Then I catch sentence level mistakes, occassionally take sentences out, occassionally add, and sometimes rearrange paragraphs. But for the most part, my revisions aren't incredibly extensive. I'll keep reading over it until the day it's due, when I print it out just before I leave for class.
I haven't tried too many other methods of paper-writing because I like my process, but I guess I can't say for sure whether I'd do better by making lots of drafts, starting weeks ahead of time, etc. That's just not the way I've ever done things, and I don't really see a need to change now. As long as I am happy with what I turn in, which I almost always am, why fix what's not broken? Yeah it sucks to end up staying up all night writing (which happens occassionally when I'm totally blocked) but it gets done. One time I was obsessing over a thesis for a paper (I can't start writing until I have a thesis) and nothing was coming to me. It was getting to the last minute and I was panicked. So I went to sleep, hoping for a miracle, and get this - I DREAMED UP my thesis. It was awesome. What I wanted to talk about in the paper and how I was going to talk about was my dream... never thought that could happen. I'm glad I've heard how other people write papers, and I feel a little better now that my process isn't "the wrong way." Everyone is just different.
My process goes something like this -
I generally don't even look at the assignment sheet for a paper until about a week before it's due. I have so much going on that it just stresses me out to begin the process any sooner than that. Based on what else I have due around the time of the paper, I'll start it anywhere between 1 week to 12 hours before it's due. I begin by jotting down very messy notes on the assignment sheet about what I want to talk about, a draft thesis or several, etc. If I don't jot down what I'm thinking, I'll never be able to put all my thoughts together. When I do start writing, it has to be totally quiet. I get my notes, quotes, books in front of me, and I write. I have to write it all in one day; I take breaks in the middle, but I generally have to at least get a draft down in a day. I'm more the type that revises as I write. I write a few senetences then go back over them, and I don't move on until I'm satisifed. For this reason, I don't write drafts unless I'm forced to for class. I won't move on until I'm completely happy with what I write, so when it's all done, there's little I want to change. After the whole paper is down, I HAVE TO get away from it for at least several hours. I can't judge how to make any revisions at all unless my mind has been totally cleared and I'm looking at it anew. Then I catch sentence level mistakes, occassionally take sentences out, occassionally add, and sometimes rearrange paragraphs. But for the most part, my revisions aren't incredibly extensive. I'll keep reading over it until the day it's due, when I print it out just before I leave for class.
I haven't tried too many other methods of paper-writing because I like my process, but I guess I can't say for sure whether I'd do better by making lots of drafts, starting weeks ahead of time, etc. That's just not the way I've ever done things, and I don't really see a need to change now. As long as I am happy with what I turn in, which I almost always am, why fix what's not broken? Yeah it sucks to end up staying up all night writing (which happens occassionally when I'm totally blocked) but it gets done. One time I was obsessing over a thesis for a paper (I can't start writing until I have a thesis) and nothing was coming to me. It was getting to the last minute and I was panicked. So I went to sleep, hoping for a miracle, and get this - I DREAMED UP my thesis. It was awesome. What I wanted to talk about in the paper and how I was going to talk about was my dream... never thought that could happen. I'm glad I've heard how other people write papers, and I feel a little better now that my process isn't "the wrong way." Everyone is just different.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Reflection on being tutored
As a writer I am constantly revising my work. I always value a second opinion as well. I did not hesitate to think about asking a tutor to look over my work. I want to make sure that the message and information in my writing is received clearly, and going to a tutor helps.
The writing center here at MSU does a great job of keeping sessions entirely based on the writer. The writer is asked to read his or her own work out loud to help identify issues and problems within it. After reading my paper out loud, I was able to catch a couple small grammatical errors.
I had brought in a persuasive paper I had written for a class. Sometimes as a writer I feel I get so involved in my content that I over look minor details. Although I did not have any major issues with my paper, I was able to realize what specific points I wanted to emphasis. This led to adding further revisions to my paper helping define my argument clearly.
I did not feel uncomfortable or confused at all during the session. The person consulting me was very friendly. He asked me specific questions and immediately told me that "I really like this paper" and "I think this topic is really interesting". He was very supportive and helpful. I am sometimes hesitant about sharing my writing with others, but I felt completely comfortable with my tutor.
The writing center here at MSU does a great job of keeping sessions entirely based on the writer. The writer is asked to read his or her own work out loud to help identify issues and problems within it. After reading my paper out loud, I was able to catch a couple small grammatical errors.
I had brought in a persuasive paper I had written for a class. Sometimes as a writer I feel I get so involved in my content that I over look minor details. Although I did not have any major issues with my paper, I was able to realize what specific points I wanted to emphasis. This led to adding further revisions to my paper helping define my argument clearly.
I did not feel uncomfortable or confused at all during the session. The person consulting me was very friendly. He asked me specific questions and immediately told me that "I really like this paper" and "I think this topic is really interesting". He was very supportive and helpful. I am sometimes hesitant about sharing my writing with others, but I felt completely comfortable with my tutor.
Writing Center Observations - 2nd session
Today the client I observed was a Social Work grad student who had come back to school after 30 years. The first thing was that his assignment sheet was unclear, so he and the consultant looked at it together to make sure they both understood the assignment the same way. Next, the consultanat asked what he was most concerned with in the paper, and he said the references and the overall coherence of the paper. In case they ran out of time, the consultant asked which areas were his highest priorites, and he said format was what he was most worried about.
He was fairly unfamiliar with APA format and his teacher hadn't explained it much, but instead of working through the works cited page with examples, the consultant told the student about easybib.com to automatically format the page for him. I thought it was a good idea to give him such a convenient source so that the session could be spent focusing on other things.
Next they focused on the in-text citations. The client pointed out a few he was unsure of, and the consultant got example sheets and APA books that they looked through together. She explained everything thoroughly and made sure he understood before he penciled in the corrections on his paper.
Next the client read the paper aloud, and often stopped as he went for corrections. The consultant only gave opinions and general advice rather than specific suggestions. The major problem with the paper was that the client was using excessive, long quotes without explaining their significance. The consultant made two good points I wrote down: "Where is your voice" and "It's you, the writer, who we want to hear more." His problem was that his sources were making his argument for him, rather than supporting his own opinions. Once he understood this, the consultant suggested he break up the quotes and use more paraphrasing, and to be sure to state the quotes' significance to his overall argument. He seemed well-prepared to do this later, so they didn't focus on it during the session.
After all that there were a few minutes leftover, so the consultant got a laptop and actually showed the student the easybib.com website so that he would be more familiar with it on his own.
I'm still a little uncertain of how confident I am of handling a few different problems in one session though. As a client we only focused on my paper overall (not citations or other issues) and the first session I observed as similar. However, I think this session provided a good example of a mulit-part session. The student and consultant set up priorities and focused deeply on the areas that needed more work, and the consultant had plenty of examples and advice ready for the more specific questions about formatting and references.
He was fairly unfamiliar with APA format and his teacher hadn't explained it much, but instead of working through the works cited page with examples, the consultant told the student about easybib.com to automatically format the page for him. I thought it was a good idea to give him such a convenient source so that the session could be spent focusing on other things.
Next they focused on the in-text citations. The client pointed out a few he was unsure of, and the consultant got example sheets and APA books that they looked through together. She explained everything thoroughly and made sure he understood before he penciled in the corrections on his paper.
Next the client read the paper aloud, and often stopped as he went for corrections. The consultant only gave opinions and general advice rather than specific suggestions. The major problem with the paper was that the client was using excessive, long quotes without explaining their significance. The consultant made two good points I wrote down: "Where is your voice" and "It's you, the writer, who we want to hear more." His problem was that his sources were making his argument for him, rather than supporting his own opinions. Once he understood this, the consultant suggested he break up the quotes and use more paraphrasing, and to be sure to state the quotes' significance to his overall argument. He seemed well-prepared to do this later, so they didn't focus on it during the session.
After all that there were a few minutes leftover, so the consultant got a laptop and actually showed the student the easybib.com website so that he would be more familiar with it on his own.
I'm still a little uncertain of how confident I am of handling a few different problems in one session though. As a client we only focused on my paper overall (not citations or other issues) and the first session I observed as similar. However, I think this session provided a good example of a mulit-part session. The student and consultant set up priorities and focused deeply on the areas that needed more work, and the consultant had plenty of examples and advice ready for the more specific questions about formatting and references.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
3rd and 4th Observations
My third writing observation only lasted for a half hour. This is not the normal procedure for the writing center, but we weren't dealing with a normal writing center student. The student who came in was a graduate student and she was working on a mathematical paper for her independent study course. She had made a few changes to her paper and wanted the tutor to look over them for her and to make sure that her grammar in these changed sentences was correct. From the get go this wasn't a normal session. The girl didn't want to go paragraph by paragraph through her paper, and that was a good thing. Her paper was upwards of ten pages. Instead she had underlined the sentences to which she had made changes and just wanted to have the tutor look at those. So the tutor asked her to read these sentences aloud and he would help her as best he could. The first page went swell. We were helpful and everything was lovely. The second page was slightly harder to get through but we persevered. And then the third page. Oh the dreaded third page. The last sentence in the first paragraph on that page was underlined. In this sentence lay the horrid term "apply derivative formula". The tutor nor I had ever heard of this term before and were therefore completely confused as to whether the sentence should read "applied to..." or remain the way it was. We asked the student multiple question as to what exactly this formula was, but she couldn't exactly explain it. After spending several minutes on this conundrum the girl told us that she was thankful for our help but the session should end here. The rest of the paper only got more technical and we would be beyond our means in trying to help her. Our tutor offered her a different person she could try and talk to about the paper who worked in a different area. She said thank you and walked out the door. It was the most exhausting and uncomfortable session I had ever been a part of.
In my fourth observation, the tutor gave very specific suggestions to the girl. The student didn't seem to enjoy having her paper that was due tomorrow critiqued quite so harshly. She also had very specific questions about citation so the tutor printed her out pages to help her with that and she also gave her examples of how to cite when paraphrasing. The tutor allowed me to join in on the session and the student and I got on very well. I was able to offer some helpful ideas that she really seemed to like and felt like a bigger part of the writing center. With ten minutes to go the tutor said that I could finish off the session while she printed out the papers the girl had requested. I pointed out some final suggestions for her paper and help her rearrange a few sentences that we all had agreed belonged in a different place. It was a really helpful final observation.
In my fourth observation, the tutor gave very specific suggestions to the girl. The student didn't seem to enjoy having her paper that was due tomorrow critiqued quite so harshly. She also had very specific questions about citation so the tutor printed her out pages to help her with that and she also gave her examples of how to cite when paraphrasing. The tutor allowed me to join in on the session and the student and I got on very well. I was able to offer some helpful ideas that she really seemed to like and felt like a bigger part of the writing center. With ten minutes to go the tutor said that I could finish off the session while she printed out the papers the girl had requested. I pointed out some final suggestions for her paper and help her rearrange a few sentences that we all had agreed belonged in a different place. It was a really helpful final observation.
Exercise 2E
When I get a writing assignment I read over what its asking of me and immediatley decided what novel and what topic I want to write about. This way any thoughts I have while I'm reading or prior to my beginning to write I can focus my thoughts. Before I start to write the paper, I write out what I want my main topics to be and what kinds of details go along with them. I think of quotes that I want to use from my book and mark those pages. When I finally sit down in front of my computer its usually a week or two weeks before the assignment is actually due. I like to get my writing done early so I don't have to worry about it later on. I turn on Itunes and pick out some music I want to let play on low while I start writing. For the next two hours I pounded out my paper, without speaking to anyone. I extremely hate when people interrupt me when I'm writing because it completely throws of my train of thought. I write my introduction and thesis first and then continue through out the paper. When I get done with my paper I always end up rearranging my paragraphs, thesis, and introduction. Once my paper is complete I print it out and hand it to a friend to read because I can't reread my paper without losing my mind from having spent the past two hours doing nothing but working on it. Once I get back their critiques, I go back make changes, print off another copy have him go over it again, repeat the process of making changes to my paper. Then I print out another copy and give it to a different friend and have them write down their ideas. Once this is done, I turn the paper in. The end.
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