Final Shadowing

My consultant didn't have a session scheduled for the last week so I asked her some questions instead:

G: Is there anything you wish you knew before you started consulting? Or something you've learned this past year that you'd like to pass along?

H: Honestly, no. I feel as though my experience in 383 really prepared me.
One thing to pass along: don't be nervous! I was nervous during my first
couple consultations but after that it really becomes almost like second
nature.

G: What has been the most rewarding part of your job?

H: The most rewarding thing has been working with ESL students although these consultations are normally really tough becasue of (1) the language barrier and (2) the need to help with grammar and focus on the content as well.

The second most rewarding thing that I have gained from working in the WC has been its influence in my writing. Sometimes I find myself asking questions like: what am I trying to say here?, is this clear? or without looking, what is my thesis?. Working with other writers has really helped my own writing skills and my confidence in my writing.

G: Is there anything you learned that you found wasn't true? Or that didn't really help you?

H: No. As I said before, 383 really prepared me. However, I did discover that most UR students do not expect a fix-it shop consultation when they come to the WC which is really great.

G: What are your favourite/preferred kinds of consultations and why? (student w/solid draft, SCS student, brainstorming student...)

H: The best type of consultation is whenever a student sends a draft before the consultation. When students do this I have time to read the paper before the consultation and I can get an idea of what the consultation's focus may be and I can also write detailed notes. This makes the consultation go way smoother.

G: Do you think anyone could be a writing consultant or are there special qualities people should have?

H: I don't think everyone can be a writing consultant. I think that a consultant needs to be someone who is interested in writing. But this does not mean that they have be the best writer ever. I think someone needs to be confident in expressing their opinion but also reserved in so far so they do not give away answers, take over for the student or be aggressive.

G: If you could make any changes to the UR Writing Centre, what would they be? Would you make any?

H: No changes.

Questions for 21/4

Qualifying Claims about Contrastive Rhetoric
Severino puts forth some lofty research goals in this article. How far do you think they are actually possible? Can an outsider really reach into another culture and grasp its nuanced rules for language and writing? And then think about all the different subcultures within that larger state? Moreover, should we charge ourselves with trying to categorise everyone? Should we not leave it up to their own scholars to write if they so choose?

Influence of Cultural and Linguistic Backgrounds
This was an interesting, but I fail to see how this knowledge can practically help a writing consultant (beyond what we have already read). It is not possible for us to take crash-courses in the language backgrounds of all the cultures we may encounter. However, since this isn't possible...can you think of something that might be?

Creating Common Ground
I think the most persuasive (and easily accomplishable) task this article calls us to do is be observant. I think it's cool that we might work with a student that holds on to their own cultural style of writing, because we could learn a lot from that perspective. However, we would also want to make sure they've written as clearly as possible within that style. Are we qualified to do that since we're not from the same background? With all the questions we could potentially be asking, it might turn into a reverse consultation session (not that that's wrong). What do you think?

Shadowing #5

This week in the Writing Centre, I observed a more directive session. The student came in with a Core paper, and although she had some good ideas, they didn't translate very well onto the paper. Some of the main concerns Helen had were that the student did a lot of plot summary versus analysis, and that her sentences weren't well constructed so they caused the reader confusion. To fix this problem, Helen asked the student a lot of questions. By explaining the point behind each summary, and what she meant at every confusing instant, the student essentially made all of the amendments herself.

On another note, something else happened during the session that I think is worth talking about, even if its more or less a common sense issue. The student started coughing a bit at one point in the session; she posited that she was having an allergic reaction to something in the room. Helen told her she could get a drink, but even after she came back, the coughing didn't stop. After a few minutes, Helen suggested that they switch rooms and we all got up and went to the waiting area. The student was relieved and could concentrate better now that she wasn't embarrassed about coughing so much. I think it was very observant of Helen to pick up on the coughing. However, I think it's more important that she considered the comfort of her student and gave her the option of going to another room, rather than feeling like the consultation had to be done in the Writing Centre. This was a really small gesture, but I'm not sure everyone would have done it. Its key to be flexible with students and their needs, in order to have a successful session, and although we've talked about SCS and ESL students, I think physical considerations should be entered into this equation as well.

Questions for 12/4

St. Martin's - "Planning for Hypertexts"
How do you feel about hypertext training for Richmond tutors? Do you think there is a need for this on our campus?

St. Martins - "Protocols and Process"
This essay really makes me wonder about the nature of the dialogue in these online tutoring sessions. I think it might be awkward if there were a one-sided balance for the tone of the conversation? If for example, the tutor didn't capitalise, spell words in their entirety or use shorthand expressions like "lol". However, they might do everything by the book and in so doing intimidate the writer a little because they are not used to online conversations being so formal. How could you regulate this kind of issue? Would you tell both tutors and writers up front how they should type/write/speak? Would you let the pair determine the tone for themselves?

Project: Ideas for Training Session

Since several people have already made great posts about the actual content for the orientation, I won't make this one redundant and will focus on more action-oriented aspects of the session instead.

1. Show a video to break up the monotony of discussion and provide another form of stimulation

2. Break into groups and allow them to complete a small task related to a consulting session or actually doing commentary

3. Only have 1 handout (even if the information has to be bound) so they are less likely to lose what we give them and can do "one-stop shopping" when referencing the ideas we discussed

4. This should be a more general session since it's the introduction. I think it's best to lay a broad foundation and then just pick maybe 2 areas of the things we introduced to focus on for later sessions, that way they still get a lot of information but aren't overwhelmed by too many details.

Questions for 5/4

St. Martin's "Cultural Conflicts"
The results from Harris' study sound like the students were all at larger universities. Do you think this would have an effect on how they view tutorials? I think that if they went to UR for example, they would be more comfortable with a one-on-one session because we have smaller, more discussion based classes (at least in the Arts and Sciences) and students are encouraged to go to their professor's office hours. I think that this initiation to a liberal arts education would help them feel freer to ask questions and be open with their thoughts/ideas about their paper.

Bedford Chp. 5
After reading the tips for writers who have learning disabilities, are non-native speakers or non-traditional students, do you think that there is one rule that we can say applies to students in all three categories? One single approach or attitude that would help us in consultations regardless of the writer's situation?

Questions 29/3

In Defense of Conference Summaries
It never occurred to me to question the process of writing reports to teachers. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Do you think it's really necessary? Does it interfere with our dreams of an open discussion-oriented Writing Centre?

Writing Centre Ethics...
Have you ever shadowed a consultant working with an SCS student? How did their relationship appear to you? Now that you've read this article, what do you think from what you saw? Do you interpret it any differently?

Non-Traditional Students in the Writing Centre
I know this is a little off the beaten path with the general direction of this article, but I took offense at the statement that non-traditional students are more motivated than traditional ones. Maybe in Smith's day. Or maybe for some students. But I certainly don't take my opportunity to have a university education for granted, and I think other UR students would say the same thing, even the ones who are more "privileged" than others. What do you think?

St Martin's: "Thirty-Something Students"
Do you think we should establish a department of the Writing Centre that is more geared towards SCS students? With other SCS students as consultants?

Questions 24/3

Overdue yes, but still useful!

Bedford Chp. 8
I was a little upset when I read that when we are faced with an antagonistic writer, we're not to "become hostile or punitive with statements like 'You can't talk to me like that!'. Personally, if a writer is rude or disrespectful to me, I'm definitely going to tell them so. Being patient and understanding of their frustration is one thing, allowing them to take out their anger on me is another. There isn't anything in our contract that says we have to take students' abuse (I'm pretty sure). What do you think?

Sherwood "Apprenticed to Failure"
He brings up the importance of discussing failure. How feasible does this seem to you? I don't think he goes into enough detail about ways this could happen. Not every consultant will feel comfortable enough to email the director about their problems, or even bring them up to another consultant. Do you have any ideas about how such a discussion could be facilitated?

Shadowing #4

This week's consultation was interesting for two reasons: one because the student had brought in just one paragraph of the paper she was writing and two because I participated somewhat in the consultation.

In the beginning of the session, when I saw how little the student actually had written down, I wondered how long the conversation would last and whether or not the consultant could be that helpful. I was reminded of what we learned about the prewriting process and was anxious to see if it really would be possible for there to be a meaningful session even though there wasn't much for the consultant to work with. It turns out that the student did actually get a lot of the meeting. She asked many questions about things like how she could structure her paper and things she could do to make the writing process easier.

I contributed a couple of times during the discussion. The assignment was a literature review and I gave suggestions about how the student could possibly structure the paper, a tip for the type of citation she had to use (which the writing consultant had never had to use before) and gave advice for how she could frame the question she was answering in her introduction. I had never participated in a shadowing before, so it was a new and somewhat exciting experience for me.

As the weeks progress, I'm getting more and more comfortable about working with students and the various stages of preparation they have done.

College Mentoring Project - Meeting 2

Before our second mentee meeting, I found myself nervous again. This was a different kind of nervousness than the one I felt for our first meeting though. Instead of being concerned about how I would do personally, I was more concerned about how my student would have taken the comments that I made and the points that we discussed last week to re-craft her paper. I was worried that things would remain more or less the same, or that perhaps she hadn't made any changes and the paper was exactly the same way it was when I last saw her.

Fortunately, neither of these scenarios was the case. My mentee had taken the things we discussed during the last tutorial to heart and used them to inform her second draft. It was the appropriate length, focused on the write things (the last time she had brought in a second article) and had quotes to support the things she was saying. I was happy that she had done so well, but there were still things for us to work on. The content was good, the organisation wasn't. We spent the bulk of our session going over how she wanted her ideas to flow, and how best to do that. I asked her to summarise the main points of each paragraph; once that was done we went over their order and changed it around until she had them the way she liked them. I think this exercise was really helpful and that she'll be able to use it in the future.

I'm glad we've had this opportunity because I know I've benefited from being able to work with my mentee. I've gotten far more confident in my ability to work with someone on their writing, on both interpersonal and content-based levels.

Shadowing #3

When I went to shadow this week my consultant did not have any appointments lined up. Instead of leaving right away, I took this opportunity to ask her a few questions.

One thing we spoke about was doing a consultation for students whose papers are on subject areas you are unfamiliar with. My consultant said that whenever this happened, she would tell the students that she was not versed in the subject area, but that she would do the best she could to help them. I think this is a good approach, because it tells the student that you are committed to working with them, while allowing them to feel free to schedule another consultation if they want to.

I also asked my consultant about Writer's Web handouts and how she used them. She told me that she hands out sheets at the end of a session, to help students improve things they spoke about in their consultation. Interestingly, she also told me that the scenario she mosts finds herself giving out tip sheets in is when she and a student are unable to cover a problem she noticed (like transitioning). She said that she wraps up the session with saying something like "you can use this tip sheet to help you make a transition between your paragraphs as you work to reorganise your paper in the way we discussed". I think this is a great way to bring up a problem that you've noticed without demeaning the writer.

Those are the two main things I got out of our conversation. Hopefully someone will be at the Writing Centre next week so I can watch my mentor in action!

Questions for 15/3

Brooks
How do you feel about Brooks suggestion to imitate student body language if they are not cooperating? It seems as though yawning, slouching etc. would be unprofessional and counter-intuitive to what you think of when you hear writing centre.

Shamoon
What do you think about these authors' suggestions for more directive sessions, especially their discussion about rewriting paragraphs/sections for students?

Questions for 1/3

Writing Centre Reports
There are obvious problems with the first report, but is there anything that bothers you/that you feel is missing from the 'model'?

St. Martin's: "Subjectivity"
I found it really interesting when Freed brought up the issue of students from another culture. As a Bahamian, I can see how some of my own value systems or even the lens through which I view the world could affect my writing and in a consultation cause not necessarily a problem but perhaps spark a conversation. Have you ever had this kind of experience with an international peer?

Bedford Chp. 2
How has reading this chapter affected, if at all, your perception of your own writing process? Do you think you will be more conscious of what you do now/try and incoporate some or all of these instructions?

Shadowing #2

This week I had a pretty interesting shadowing experience. My consultant had an older client, a middle aged woman who is a student in the law school. I was pretty surprised to see her at first, I know that we help older people but I never thought that it happened on a regular/normal basis. When I realised that she was indeed at the Writing Centre for help, I was intrigued about how the session would play out.

For one, I found the content of the lady's paper interesting. She was writing a fictional letter to someone (I suppose the lawyer for the opposition) about a wrongful dismissal lawsuit, and she was on the side of the company that did the firing. Through the course of the conversation I gained some insight into the world of human resources and employment policy. This made me think about the things that we as consultants can learn from the people who come to see us. Beyond just theoretical considerations about writing and what a good paper looks like, we have the opportunity to delve into fields that we might not have otherwise. I know we talked about this a few weeks ago, but that was in terms of whether or not we are qualified to assist these writers, a point which I will evaluate later. I think it's cool that we can glimpse into other disciplines, even if all we get is a snippet of (potentially biased) information. Philosophy, law, religion, biology...the list goes on. This might sound kind of strange but I'm excited to have that kind of opportunity, there are plenty of valuable, or at least thought-provoking, things that we could read.

Regarding whether or not I think the consultant was qualified, I did notice some difficulties at times. However, these were minor if you consider the help she was able to give. The problems were mainly about technicalities, the consultant was confused a few times about the proper layout for the letter and some of the legal phrasing. I don't think these are enough for me to say that we shouldn't work across disciplines though; she was still able to work on clarity, expression and persuasiveness.

As a final note, the consultant showed the same amount of respect and courtesy to this older student than the one I observed her with last week, although perhaps she was a bit more suggestive rather than directive with her comments. I also thought it really interesting that they both had pens and wrote on the paper.

Questions for 22/2

This is a Redneck Argument
How do you think the writer would have felt had the tutor not been Turkish? (I looked him up) Moreover, if the consultant had been a white American, do you think that they would have felt more comfortable addressing the writer's position in a more open/agressive way?

Reflections on Teacher Comments
Were you surprised by the graduate students' (in scene 3) reaction to their professors comments? Has this scenario changed your perspective of teacher commentary and how long it takes to be able to 'decipher' it?

Bedford
These tips all come from a situation where the writer has time and motivation to revise. How would you modify them if one or neither of these were the case?

Hjortshoj
Do you own a writing handbook? If so, how often do you use it and has it been noticeably helpful? If not, after reading Hjortshoj and Bedford would you consider buying one?

College Mentoring Project - Meeting 1

On my way to the Commons this afternoon, I tried to analyse my feelings about our mentoring task...just so I could have a clear understanding of myself I guess. I didn't come up with anything concrete, but my overwhelming sense was one of nervousness. I was thinking - how in the world am I going to be able to help this student? I've only had one shadowing experience thus far, and despite all of the discussing, theorising and reading we've done in and for class, I knew actually using all of the skills we talked about would be a different story.

I'm happy to report that everything went so well! I had such a good time talking with my mentee and I am excited to see how her paper develops after our discussion. To break the ice, I did the introductory thing - what's your name? are you originally from VA? do you have siblings? - and answered the same questions about myself. Then I asked her to tell me about the reading she chose and why she picked the person that she wrote her letter to. After listening I read her paper aloud and we got to work.

We discussed a lot of different ways she could improve her paper and I tried hard to focus on larger issues and ideas rather than grammar and sentence structure. My student was open and communicative, which really helped me to see how she was digesting what we were talking about and how I could further guide her. We were a little slow going initially, but when Dr. Gale called for us to stop, I was surprised because we had gotten into such a good groove.

Overall, I'm really pleased with how today went. I do have a comment to make though - Ms. Dolson came over and noted that I was writing the guidance points down myself, rather than having the student do it. I don't really know how I feel about this because I have seen writing centre consultants doing it in the past, but at the same time I can see how you might want the student to write themselves. It is an interesting thing for me to think about. I wonder how other people feel about this?

Post Script to Consultant Shadowing #1

I forgot to add that Jim actually missed his first consultation, and that Helen was luckily able to take over for him because her student cancelled their appointment. This made me very upset, firstly because I remember how vehement Dr. Essid was about not standing up our students, secondly because this put Helen in a difficult position and thirdly because he did not even apologise to Helen or show any kind of understanding of the consequences of his actions. This unprofessionalism probably added to the reason why I was less impressed with Jim than I was with Helen.

Consultant Shadowing #1

I'm so happy! I've finally had my first shadowing experience. I'm supposed to be working with a consultant in Freeman but nothing has come of that yet, so I thought it would be a good idea to go to the Writing Centre.

I was supposed to be shadowing a girl, let's call her Helen, at 8pm. When I got there, there were two consultations going on. Helen was just finishing up one and another guy, let's call him Jim, was just starting one. Helen told me that I could observe the tail-end of her consult and then watch Jim, since she did not have an 8 o'clock appointment.

I really thought Helen did a good job with her consult. She helped to guide the student rather than telling him what to do. Basically, she did what we've talked about, you know, getting the student to talk about their ideas. She encouraged him to be clear and make sure that his ideas flowed through the paragraphs of his paper. At the end of the session, she gave him a few tip sheets and I thought that was helpful.

The next consultation I observed did not go nearly as well, in my opinion. Not because Jim did not help his peer, but because he helped him a little too much. In some instances, he created sentences and made specific comments about word choice. I was actually a little uncomfortable about the kind of help he was giving, because it did not at all look like what I thought a consultation should be. Moreover, he kept fiddling with his cell phone, which although I can understand might be necessary in certain situations, I think he did it way too often. There was one thing that I thought Jim did really well though. He gave sincere compliments - about the student's use of quotations and some analyses - and I thought these were well deserved, after all, I was listening to him read the paper and new which parts he was referring to.

Overall, I think this was a good introduction to the world of consultations, because I got to see two very different sessions and since they were carried out within minutes of one another every observation was fresh in my mind. Lastly, I think its useful to note that although I have my own opinions about the success of each meeting and the work of each consultant, both the students left the writing centre happy with the help the received.

Observations

On Saturday morning I woke up to a transformed campus. Everything was covered in snow and it continued to fall. I was so excited by the prospect of going out to play that I yelped for joy. Obviously, since I grew up in the Bahamas I never experienced snow until I came to Richmond. However, in the three years since I've been here, this weekends snow fall has been the biggest we've ever had.

Sadly, I couldn't go out right away as I would have liked, in fact, I didn't get a chance to really let loose until after dinner, around 8pm. I headed out to Boatwright Beach to meet up with all the other Bahamians - we had planned a snow party. As we took pictures, ran around and threw snow at one another, I noticed that another group of students had come out to have fun as well. A few of the Bahamians left and what was left of our group merged with the other students. I watched how our interactions with one another and noted how, although we were for the most part strangers, we were able to talk and laugh with one another. Our mutual love for the snow and a desire to take advantage of an atypical kind recreation (at least for UR students on a Saturday night) quickly built up a relationship between us. The students helped us Bahamians figure out how to slide down the beach with dhall trays, sitting, standing and in pairs. They were patient with our questions and our fears and cheered for us whenever we made it down the hill in triumph. We reciprocated this friendly behaviour, encouraging the brave ones in their more daring feats and commiserating with those among them who were a little more timid, like us.

I marvelled at how well we all fit together, as if we had been friends for ages instead of not even an hour. It was a great example of how sport can really bring people together despite realities (such as age or religion) which might prevent them from doing so in any other situation.

On 'What if Drugs Were Legal?'

I thought our class discussion on this person's paper provided us with an insightful look as to what is acceptable writing, a live example of academia's requirement for academic bs. Of course the paper was bad, even terrible, we could all see that, and when I read it beforehand I was just as appalled as everyone else in class. However, I feel as though we may have been too harsh on the writer - we tore his/her paper to shreds! I think the main problems were with grammar and spelling. With some leading questions to get the author to flesh out his/her main idea, I think the paper would be on the swift path to recovery.

Maybe I am just too sensitive or too nice, but I really feel as though we should take a more humble stance when it comes to editing other people's writing. Granted, the student did not come to us for help, but we should still be a little more understanding of what might have been a first draft or what may be a handicap. I think that even in our private moments evaluating papers before our Writing Centre appointments, we should be mindful that an actual person is behind what we are reading, and that they are taking a risk by putting their thoughts out there for us to read. They are looking to us for help and constructive criticism, and we should be mindful of the fact that we are only students and far from experts as we strive to do this.

On Wingate and Perry

I thought Wingate's views on student utilisation of writing centres was a little two-dimensional. There is a lot more to academic success than whether or not one visits the writing centre. I've had discussions with friends about how sometimes the 'key' to getting a good grade in a class is finding the writing style your professor prefers and whatever side of the issue at hand he/she ascribes to and playing those up to the best of your ability. Perry speaks to this when she discusses students trying to use 'academicspeak' and rephrasing arguments they've already read to sound more intelligent and please their professors. Clearly, these nuances are not and cannot be captured with a tutor at the school's writing centre.

Another thing to consider is the natural ability of students, which I believe we discussed in class. Some people are naturally gifted and don't require the services of their writing centre and they do just fine in their classes. I'm not saying these things to discount the importance of the writing centre, just to express the opinion that they are not a surefire way to achieve success.