Personal Statements

This week, we had several students who needed help with personal statements. Ali was in the Writing Center with me, so we both tried to help the students brainstorm ideas. I was in the middle of helping one student when I stopped and asked him, "So, is this helping?" He had seemed a little taken aback by the whole situation.

He finally said he had come in for grammar, and hadn't expected us to discuss things like clarity, flow, and theme. I told that, except for a few small errors, his grammar was fine, but with personal statements, you've got to try to make them interesting and at least a little bit different from every other personal statement the graduate school receives. He agreed, and said the session was really helping him.

But I wonder if it's intimidating to students when we tell them about other issues with their paper when all they want is grammar help. I usually try to ask the student what they think they need help with, and go from there. If something else pops up, I'll definitely mention it, but otherwise, I try to let them lead.

These students have never been to the writing center before, and I don't want them to say "oh yeah, this helps, thanks!" while we're there, but, because they've felt intimidated, curse our names when they leave because they think we told them they should write their personal statement OUR way.

An Uncomfortable Situation

Earlier in the semester, John and I talked about an older engineering student who came into the Writing Center for help on his powerpoint presentation. I am not sure if you guys remember, but this man was not my favorite person--he was rude, pushy, and very opinionated. Quite honestly, he made me feel uncomfortable, but I wasn't so uncomfortable that I had to stop working with him. Rather, I just ignored his comments and let John take over the session a little bit more. But, what should we do when we are faced with a situation or person that makes us so uncomfortable that we can no longer tutor well? Do we ignore our guy reactions and keep tutoring? Do we ask someone else to take over? Or, do we ask them to leave?

I realize that this is a touchy subject because the Writing Center is open to everyone who needs help, but where do we draw the line. A good example of this comes from my undergraduate tutoring experience. There was this man, "Frank," who came into the Writing Center a lot. He was an adult learner, and it was obvious that he had some kind of learning disability, so his writing wasn't that well developed. Clearly, this man needed our help to improve his writing, but there were several cases when he was behaved innappropriately to female tutors. He never attacked anyone or anything like that, but he would make weird comments, ogle girls, and just get a little too "friendly." Even when he wasn't outwardly acting inappropriately, he sent off a weird vibe. I remember working with him once and just counting down the words until we finished working on his paper because I felt so uncomfortable.

Anyway, after several meetings with our coordinator, we decided that Frank shouldn't work with female tutors anymore because we were all so creeped out. Instead, Frank was assigned to a specific male tutor, who helped him whenever he needed it. Frank was no longer allowed in the writing center unless that specific tutor was there. Luckily in this case, things worked out, and we developed a good system. But what should we do in that initial confrontation, when our gut reaction is to get away from someone, and we feel uncomfortable? And what if that feeling occurs when we are alone in the Writing Center?

Free Mind Mapping Software

Hello friends-
I found some great mind mapping software that is free!! The good thing about it is that you can save your work on your computer, and it has a lot of features similar to the program we used in class. Here's the link if you're interested:

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Two students

At the beginning of the semester, Dr. Fishman and Mrs. Ramirez said we shouldn't work more than 3 hours at a time. I didn't necessarily believe them when they said we'd get stressed out, but after these last two weeks, I've changed my mind.

I know I'm not the only one that'd gotten swamped. The majority have been lab reports - another day of brewer's yeast cell labs and I could replicate the process at home from memory - but I've also had a few ENGL200-level students.

I wanted to write down my thoughts on two students.

The first is actually a pair of students who came in for help with their yeast cell labs. I had worked with them both before, but today Ali took one (Student A) while the other (Student B) waited while I finished up with another student. I looked over Student B's paper and it was really well-written. There were maybe a couple of grammatical mistakes, but nothing big. I asked her about her last lab, and she said she only had a few points taken off for grammar - everything else was perfect. Ali had to leave so I took over with Student A. She needs a lot of help with run-on sentences and comma usage. Since Students A and B always come in together, I wanted to tell them that if Student B would look over Student A's paper, she wouldn't need to come to the Writing Center. I know that's not necessarily the way we work, but it just seems odd that two totally different writers would be friends and not willing to help each other out.

The second situation was with an English student (Student C) in a 400-level class. After a day of reading labs, the paper on Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams was a welcome change. But I had a problem. With the labs, I mainly read for grammatical mistakes and sentence structure. I'll read the science out loud (or have the student read it) and ask them if it makes sense. I don't know the science, so that part is up to them. As I read over C's paper, I found myself chugging along, checking for errors in grammar and sentence structure. I got through a page or so and realized I had no idea what I had read. It wasn't that C's paper made no sense. Rather, I was just so focused on grammatical errors that the content and meaning of the paper had escaped me. I had to start over, refocus, and read closer.

I think the "close" readings I'm doing with literature in other classes are helping with my tutoring, and vice versa. Once I got a handle on C's paper, I started asking questions like, "What does this word mean for you here?" and "Why is this sentence important." C had a tendency to use words that sounded nice, regardless of their importance to the paper. By pinning the student down (nicely), you make them think more about their word choice.

The situations with these two students aren't related (except that both the paper and lab were due within hours), but both are helping me grow as a tutor. I'm adjusting my tutoring style depending on the student, and I'm trying to ask the questions that get students thinking.

Brochure stuff

Let us help you improve your writing!
We will collaborate with you to identify errors in your writing, make suggestions for improvement, and answer your questions, all in an informal and nonjudgmental atmosphere.
What to expect:
At the Writing Center, we strive to put the power in the student’s hands. We do not proofread or edit; rather, we will work with you to help you write your best. Appointments are recommended but not necessary.
What to bring
The assignment description/instructions
What you’ve written so far
A pen or pencil
A style guide, if you have one
Please remember, we don’t do your writing for you, so bring your questions, too.

Readings I would like to do

Here are the readings I am interested in discussing:
"Writing Center Assessment: Searching for the 'Proof' of Our Effectiveness"

"Cultural Conflicts in the Writing Center: Expectations and Assumptions of ESL Students"

"Reassessing the 'Proofreading Trap': ESL Tutoring and Writing Instruction"

3 Suggestions

I'll second Ember's suggestion of the North essay, and add to that:

- Intellectual Tug-of-War: Snapshots of Life in the Center
- by Boquet, page 116, St. Martins
- Postcolonialism and the Idea of a Writing Center
- by Bawarshi and Pelkowski, page 79, St. Martins