Peer-to-Peer Marketing

After my previous blogpost, I really wanted to find some examples of peer-to-peer marketing of writing centers in high schools, universities, or other institutions that used peer consultants in their writing centers. Unfortunately, it proved to be more difficult than I imagined to find marketing tools that reach out to the students instead of requiring the professors to be intermediaries between the writing center and those that it was created to help - the students. Why can't the writing center speak to the students themselves? Though I did not find specific examples, I did come across an entertaining video online created by a high school writing center that had some great ideas and points on marketing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtDg6Nks3pI

The video itself was pretty hilarious, but I garnered some great ideas from their presentation that could possibly be applied to the University of Richmond context.

1. Making a youtube video - As we have discussed in our readings on literacy, new media is essential to the new literacy of this generation. Everyone goes watches youtube videos, makes videos themselves, and posts them on their myspaces, facebooks, blogs, websites, etc. Thus to ignore even the content of the video itself, the idea of making a video to put on the writing center website as well as youtube introducing the writing center, what it does, and maybe the tutors themselves would be an extremely prevalent and effective way of getting the information out to the student body themselves.
2. Posters - I have noticed writing center posters in the center itself and some in Jepson, but no where else. The reality of this campus is that posters are the primary marketing tool used by clubs, events, and organizations, so why shouldn't the writing center jump on board? Putting posters in every academic building, as well as in bathroom stalls for special occasions would guarantee that every student will at least have heard of the writing center.
3. Word of Mouth - I felt fairly stupid when I watched this segment of the video for not having thought of this marketing tool before. Our student body is fairly small and tight-knit, and so word of mouth would be a great way to not only get the writing center's name out there but also what it really does. Maybe tutors could be encouraged to talk with their friends/classes about the writing center. Even better, the example of the tutor providing a student with a pass to fill out gave me another idea. The center could table in the commons every now and then with a way for people to sign up for appointments right there, bringing the center to the students instead of requiring them to go searching for us.
4. Attitude - Throughout the video, especially when they were demonstrating the "good" vs "bad" marketing techniques, the thing that set the good apart from the bad was the atmosphere and attitude created by the center and the tutors. Though we have discussed this before, I think it is extremely important to remember that the center should be a relaxed, casual, peer-motivated place where writers from any background, discipline, or stage of the writing process can come and discuss and work in a collaborative atmosphere. The minute the writing center gets grouped with terms like "failures", "problem students", or "mandatory", it loses the power that peer tutors give it. 

Marketing the Writing Center

When Professor Dolson mentioned that we could do our own project for the final, my mind automatically jumped to marketing. It's funny, because marketing has never been my strong suit. I have always been more of a theoretical person, someone who likes to think about lofty ideas and theories that never really make it into reality. Yet this entire semester the marketing question has kept on coming up in my blogs and in my mind. I remember very vividly sitting in class with Gyra and Allie, discussing why the Writing Center is so empty and how we could change it - they came up with the brilliant idea of the Writing Center doing a campaign to help with love letters on Valentines Day. And so when the idea of doing your own project came up, I automatically jumped on board with Gyra and Allie to start thinking about exactly how we could get the Writing Center out of Weinstein and into the rest of the campus.

I found a very interesting article about just this, marketing the writing center, in the Writing Lab Newsletter (linked below)
Marketing the Best Image of the Community College Writing Center

Though (as you can tell from the title) this article deals with community college writing centers, it has some very interesting strategies to get the name of the Writing Center out there. For example, it gives a list of recommendations for instructors in encouraging their students to use the Writing Center:

1. Give students a specifi c task(s) to complete in the writing center. 

2. Tie the task to an assignment or a graded paper. 

3. Have students bring specifi c assignment(s) to the center. 

4. Keep models of good completed assignments in the center.

5. Focus on the hierarchy that works with all levels of student writers. 

6. Tell students verbally and in their syllabus that they should take advantage of the writing 

 center’s services. 

7. Take their students into the center and have the staff explain the process and  services of 

  the writing center. 

8. Ask someone from the writing center to talk to their class. 

9. Be aware of what the writing center does and does not do. Accentuate the positive. 

10. Help students to become wiser users of the center . . . learning what questions to ask 

 and seeking guidance for the higher order concerns instead of looking only for editing 

 corrections. One way we can help instructors is to share our hierarchy with them. 

Emphasizing inclusivity, lack of labels for both the Center and the students, and intimate relations between the instructors and the Center, this article provides some answers in how to both eliminate the stigma attached to the Writing Center and how to make each consultancy more effective. 

However, this article does not touch at all on how to reach the students directly rather than going through the channel of their professors. Perhaps that is a less popular means of promoting the Writing Center, but I think that in the University of Richmond context, it would be extremely effective and beneficial if we could get the students to use the Writing Center out of their own free will, not because told to by professors. In fact, separating the Center from professors could create a more collaborative, relaxed, and less stressful environment. How can we reach the students themselves?

No Show

This Wednesday I went to my weekly writing center shadowing appointment, and my consultant did not show up. Perhaps it was a miscommunication, perhaps he didn't have any appointments, perhaps he simply forgot. I'm sad I didn't get a chance to shadow and observe a consultancy, and I will try to find some hands-on consulting experience on my own this week. I can't imagine it would be too hard, especially if everyone has as many papers to write as I do!

Boys and Girls Club, Take 2

Yesterday we went to the Boys and Girls club for a second round of tutoring. Michael and I had tutored a girl last time together, and though it went fairly well, the girl was not very invested in what we were saying or in the project in general. Though it was not a failure, it was not a rousing success either, and I remember leaving feeling a bit let down. I suppose I expected to go in and really feel like I was helping someone, whereas when we left I didn't really know what we had done to bring this girl any closer to finishing her story or helping her be a better writer.

When we returned on Monday, I didn't know what exactly to expect, but I did not expect what happened. It turned out that the girl we worked with before was no longer with the program, and we were assigned to another girl who also had not completed her interview. This is yet another example of the disparities between theory and practice, between the class room and the "real world" - nothing ever plays out how you think it will. At first I was a little worried, as we had spent all of last time forming a bond with this girl and now we had to start all over again. Yet it was a wonderful experience all in all. The new girl we tutored was very talkative and, more importantly, seemed genuinely excited about the project. She had many ideas as to what she wanted to do, and she seemed interested in our descriptions of what a digital story is, how we conducted our interviews, and our lives as college students in general. We helped her formulate her own questions for her interview as she had yet to receive the prewritten questions that they handed to every student. This ended up being a wonderful exercise for us to help her with, because we were able to discuss what makes a good story, what makes her want to interview her grandmother, and it helped her focus on what exactly she wanted to convey at the end of the project. The fact that she was able to focus her questions and see the story as having a goal, a message, rather than the ramblings of some older person, was really exciting, and it was even more exciting to help her get to that point.

What's the lesson I've learned? First of all, never expect things to turn out the way you planned, especially in hard-to-control situations. Secondly, no effort or time invested in a tutoring is lost or wasted. Thirdly, never underestimate the student you're working with, because they will surprise you!

Preparing for the paper...

I just received a copy of Michael's paper to revise for the Classmate Consultancy project, and am beginning to determine how I will conduct the appointment, how and if I'll mark up his paper, and in general what kind of writing consultant I'll be. To be honest, though no one likes doing work, it has been interesting looking back through our readings and even looking at essays we haven't read to determine what I want to do. I have a blank slate, I can take whatever direction I want, as long as I can justify it. The St. Martin's Sourcebook for Writing Tutors has been one of the best resources so far, and so I have been looking at the introduction to think of essential questions I need to address in my paper. So far, I have come up with this list:

Current traditional rhetoric vs expressivism vs social constructionism?
What role do I take? Teacher? Guide? Peer? Collaborator?
How do I create a context for the consultancy, especially with someone I know already?
Who will have the power in the consultancy?
Minimalist approach or not? 
Directive or nondirective?


The introduction separates a consultancy into three stages: Pre-textual, Textual, and Post-textual. These separations will prove helpful for both the outlining of the session and my justification, as I will have to make crucial decisions on how to handle each stage. 


Michael's paper is in the idea stages, more of an outline than a paper itself, and I have been looking for articles that specifically deal with idea-formation. I know that Lunsford's article on collaboration and the different perspectives on knowledge creation will be helpful, but I am having trouble finding others...does anyone have any suggestions?  

Empty Writing Center

Last night I went to the Writing Center to shadow my consultant. Unfortunately, he did not have any appointments during that time, and so I was not able to sit in on a tutoring session. I am always surprised and a little disappointed when the Writing Center is so empty, and this sensation struck me even more strongly yesterday. This is the time of year when essays are piling up, when students are stressing in the library until 2 am trying to write that final essay that will pull up their grade or in some cases just allow them to scrape by. In short, this is the time when the Writing Center should be filled to the brim with students, when there shouldn't be any open appointments left. But it was empty. Why is this?

Though I cannot fully answer this question, I have some ideas as to the causes. For one thing, we are a university of procrastinators. Even the best students will sometimes wait until the night before to write the paper, and I'm sure if one conducted a survey the results would show that at least 50% of students procrastinate on their papers. This unfortunately stands in the way of them using the Writing Center, as you obviously cannot take a draft to the Center at 3 am the morning of the due date. I honestly don't know how the Writing Center can do anything to change this. Perhaps if a student goes to the Center once then they will develop better writing processes and learn the importance of recursive writing and various drafts, therefore creating a consistent client for the Center. Yet for this to happen the student has to get into the Writing Center in the first place. And the majority of people I know have never stepped foot into the 3rd floor of Weinstein.

Another reason could be bad publicity. Many of my friends don't even know where the Writing Center is, let alone what they do and how to make appointments. I know that once we were joking in class about the Writing Center offering to edit love letters for Valentines day, and as goofy as that idea is I think that fun things like that could really get the name out there. Rather than see the Center as an intimidating place where teachers send you if you're a bad writer, students need to see the Center as a common resource and a collaborative environment that everyone should feel comfortable using, even a fun place. Why not use hoky advertising or tabling things like the love letter idea to get the name out there, to change the Center's reputation?

Entre les Murs

"According to Flynn, these kinds of negative first impressions seem to be a vicious circle in high 

school classrooms.  Students like Tina go into a class challenging the teacher to teach them— 

they have a standoffish attitude that seems like hostility but which is actually, according to Phil, 

more of a challenge to earn their trust.  But some teachers perceive that attitude to be hostility, 

and they respond in kind." - Tina: A Portrait of Literate Awareness 

Christie S. Johnson 

While reading Christie Johnson's Honor's Thesis on literacy and its application in tutoring "at-risk" or "difficult" students, her problem defining literacy was what jumped out at me the most. This was partially because I myself have had many difficulties defining literacy - is it being able to read? to write? Or more broadly, is it simply able to understand and communicate effectively? Or is it how Johnson seems to see it, an double-sided issue of acting and reflecting? All of these questions are important, especially in this age of literary crisis. 

However, another aspect of the article stood out to me after having viewed a film for my French film class later this week. The movie, "Entre les Murs" (directly translated to "Between the Walls"; its English title is "The Class") details a year in a middle school on the outskirts of Paris, one of the arrondissements that deal with poverty and increased immigration. The movie hit many chords with me, but most relevantly for our writing class was its depiction of the often vicious circle of student-teacher interactions in difficult classrooms. Just as Johnson notes, a sense of hostility comes about when students "challenge" teachers to in turn challenge them, and this is detailed sometimes painfully in the movie. One of the students, Khoumba, has a very strained relationship with the teacher, M. Marin. At first I did not understand her hostility and then his responding hostility, but placing it in the context of Johnson's article it makes perfect sense. It is a simple yet large problem if miscommunication - Khoumba was wanting to be viewed seriously and to be challenged, but her stand-offish attitude just seemed like insolence to M. Marin, which caused him to treat her with even more condescension, exacerbating the problem. 

This is mostly a problem in the classroom, and I am not quite sure how the Writing Center can help or what role it can play in decreasing miscommunications between students and teachers. Does anyone have any ideas?

Common Ground

This past Monday we went to the Boys and Girls club to help students with their digital stories and more importantly, to learn ourselves how to interact and create a safe and productive atmosphere with people other than the typical Richmond student. 

To be honest, I'm not sure how effective our session was. First of all, we had to pair up because there were not enough students to tutor. This presented many difficulties. For example, I'm afraid we intimidated the girl who we worked with a little bit since there were two of us trying to help her at the same time. Possibly if we had known that we would be teaming up and who we would be teamed up with, we could have worked out a strategy together and been both less overwhelming and less unorganized. Secondly, our student had not yet done her interview, which left us a little at a loss as to what we should do during the hour. Thankfully, both Michael and I realized the importance of finding that common ground that Smith speaks of in her article, "Non-traditional students in the Writing Center", and spent a majority of the time simply getting to know her, making her feel more comfortable with us, and casually discussing what she thought of the project and what she thought of stories in general. In this aspect, I feel that we were fairly successful in establishing a rapport with her, and she seemed fairly interested in what we had to say.

The most interesting observation I have taken away from the experience is the concept of speaking in the same language. This very much relates to the concept of common ground, of having things in common with the student you are tutoring. I was very nervous about speaking in the same "language" as this girl, as we did not have much in common at all. Even at the most basic level, I wanted to make sure I didn't use words that she would not understand that I would typically use in a classroom, such as "exposition" or "denouement" while also not seeming condescending in speaking in overly simple terms. And to be honest, it was fairly difficult and there were times when I saw just blankness in her eyes while I was talking, like she did not understand a word I said even though I was speaking English. However, when I asked her about her life and what she liked to do, she answered that she loved to read, and that immediately created a commonality that I tried to play off of during the rest of the hour. Honestly, I was giddy the moment she said that, to find something in common with her, and it definitely helped ease the tension and create a backdrop off of which I could move towards discussing what makes a good book, what makes a good story, what she wants her story to convey, etc. 

Harsh

"They appear very rarely—only, it seems, when the teacher is sufficiently frustrated with the level of

work represented by the paper to abandon worries about harming the student's

selfesteem. For example, one teacher wrote, "The poor quality of the ideas, style,

and proofreading tells me that you didn't spend much time on this paper."" - Straub

In our discussion of end comments a few weeks back we focused mostly on overly positive or watered down end comments made by teachers on papers. Yet this week at the Writing Center I encountered a paper with quite the opposite type of end comment. A senior brought in a rough draft of a paper for a senior seminar that his professor required him to bring to the Writing Center. This paper contained the professor's comments, which were some of the harshest if not the harshest I have encountered in my academic experience. Fully in the "judging" genre, the professor in short stated that the paper was in no way appropriate for a senior seminar, that it made no sense, that there were an unacceptable amount of mistakes, that he was a horrible student in the class itself, and that if he didn't change then he would fail the class. After reading these comments, I was almost scared to see what the student would be like - I expected someone sullen and unresponsive, or someone unintelligent (stereotypes I regret taking a part in). Yet when he came into the appointment he came with an open mind and very responsive attitude. He asked questions, took notes, marked on his paper, and was extremely active in the meeting. He seemed to genuinely want to write a good paper, and when prompted by the writing consultant seemed interested in what he was writing about.

The student painted by the professor in the end comment and the student I encountered were completely at odds with each other. Granted, while the student was very good at expressing himself vocally, when prompted by the consultant to write down what he just said he always lost something in translation between vocal and writing. Yet the entire experience made me question the end comment itself. Was the harshness the cause of a turn around, did it scare the student out of his passivity? Or was it too harsh, too judging? I'm not sure if there's any way that I can judge the comment since I have had no experience with the student in class, yet an end comment that brutal cannot be beneficial in my mind. 

Boys and Girls Club

In class this past week we discussed establishing a rapport during a consultancy, and asked the very important question of whether one can have a successful appointment if there is no common ground between the consultant and the student. Tomorrow we will have the very real opportunity to apply this theoretical discussion into a very real situation at the Boys and Girls club. As always, theory does not fit perfectly with experience, and it will be interesting to see how what we talk about in the classroom applies to not just the University Writing Center but also outside of the Richmond bubble. 

In preparation for this appointment, I have thought a lot about how exactly to find this common ground, especially with someone with whom on the surface I might not have a lot in common. I will introduce myself, ask them about themselves (grade, school, extracurricular activities, how they like the Boys and Girls Club, why they wanted to do this project), and then just talk with them a bit about the project and who they're planning on interviewing. I think it'll be very important to show them that I care about what they say and who they are, all the while creating a relaxed atmosphere, hopefully helping them see me as an ally and not a power figure. Talking about what brought them to this project and who they are going to interview will be important and will help segue into discussing their own digital story. I found a good example of a digital story on the center for digital stories website:

http://www.storycenter.org/stories/

and I will most likely show them one of our stories as well. What's important for me is for the student to leave the appointment knowing exactly what they want to learn from their interview, good interviewing techniques, and an idea of how to transform this interview into a story. Discussing what makes a story a story, maybe talking about popular movies or books, will also help. 

I'm excited to see what tomorrow brings!

Difficult Appointments

I just had my shadowing appointment with my writing consultant, and the hour could not have been more applicable to what we have been talking about in class. The past appointments I've shadowed have been extremely successful, with a wonderful level of communication between the consultant and the student, and with everyone leaving happy, feeling like they made a contribution to both the paper and the idea of writing as a whole. Consequently, I have to admit I've begun to view the Writing Center through rose colored glasses, pardon the cliche. I began to think that every appointment was successful, every student was receptive, every paper was improved by an hour with a consultant.

Unfortunately, this week presented a more difficult situation, one not so nice and neat and pretty and clean. The girl who came in brought a creative writing assignment, which was interesting in itself because I had never considered how to edit something like a creative writing paper. However, it posed problems, most obviously description. The student was having a very hard time describing the gravestone about which she had to write, and no matter what kind of coaxing or methods the instructor attempted to use, she just seemed to shut down, unable to come up with adjectives or metaphors or similes of any kind. I just watched this tortuous dance for 15 minutes, both lamenting at the ineffectiveness of what was taking place but also not knowing what I would do differently if I was in the consultant's shoes.

I suppose sometimes you get students with whom you cannot establish a rapport with - but should we just resign ourselves to failure (to use a very relevant word in relation to our class discussion)? What can we do in these situations?

F stands for Success

Everyone knows that feeling. That feeling of sweaty palms and queasy stomach when the teacher announces that they're done grading the test. That sense of dread as you slowly turn the paper over. That drop in your stomach once you see the red markings, the big, angry "F" on the top right corner of the page. That thought that inevitably crosses your mind as you quickly shove the paper into your backpack before you have to look at it again, the thought that your class grade is that much lowered, which will in turn lower your GPA and hinder whatever plans you have - in short, failing this test demonstrated how you just fail at life. Over dramatic? Absolutely. Applicable to most students? Definitely.

"Failure is not an option" is the motto subliminally pounded into our heads as students of the American school system. An "A" stands for good work, excellence, success. "F" stands for, well, failure. Yet if what we discussed in class is true, if failure is truly the only way people learn, my question is how well is a 4.0 student learning, or is he/she simply regurgitating knowledge, demonstrating already acquired skills? This system that penalizes failure pervades our educational system, from marking up papers with red colored ink to idolizing the GPA. This house of cards comes a'tumbling down in the face of this new information, but how can we build a more solid house?

I have a sense that many teachers truly understand the importance of failure and are as frustrated as the students are with the state of the system. Yet I always hated when professors would say "Don't worry so much about grades, it's more about learning, it doesn't matter what grade you get as long as you learn as much as you can from this class". I wanted to stand up and say to them "Don't tell me not to worry when this arbitrary number/letter I get from you determines what organizations I can participate in, whether I can study abroad, what grad school I attend, how successful I am at finding a job! It might not be a big deal for you but it damn well is for me, so don't you dare treat it flippantly". As you can tell, I take my grades seriously, but only because the system has taught me to view them that way.

What can we do to fix it? How do you make room for failure? Should you reward failure? How can the actual learning take precedence over a number or a letter?

No Show

This week my writing consultant did not come to our shadowing appointment...I don't know whether he forgot or didn't have anyone to tutor, but it was a little sad because I had some experience last week with editing my friend's and sister's papers and I wanted to see how I could apply that in an actual tutoring session. Thankfully, another of my friends had asked me to help him with his paper, and so I at least had some sort of tutoring experience this week.

This assignment was a challenge both for him and for me. He had been writing summaries of articles all semester, about two pages each, and this assignment was to synthesize and play the articles off of each other  into some kind of thesis and write a 4-5 page paper. Such broad instructions can either be liberating or just baffling, and in this case it baffled him. I just had him talk through the articles, explaining to me the main points of each, or the argument of each, and then helping him see them not just as individual, unrelated blips on a screen but as interconnected and interrelated, either how they supported each other or brought out each other's nuances. Simply mentally mapping them this way helped him find an argument to get behind.

Even more interesting than this was learning about his writing style. In our digital stories we have been hearing about all different kinds of writing styles, from literally filing information into a book to pouring it all out onto the paper and then sorting it from there. Most likely because they have been professors, none of the writing styles have been bad, just different. But when I asked my friend how he typically writes a paper he answered "Oh, I usually just start writing and then figure it out as I go". And my first reaction was to scream "THAT'S A HORRIBLE IDEA!" and run out of the room. Just kidding. But I did NOT think that this was a good way to approach an essay, especially coming from the highly structured way I typically write.

Then again, that raised an interesting question for me: Is there such a thing as a "bad" writing process?

Compare and Contrast...Don't we all love that?

First of all, a belated welcome back from fall break! Now towards Thanksgiving!

Secondly, I meant to write a blog on Wednesday night detailing my informal writing session with my sister over fall break in lieu of my shadowing assignment, but then I talked with my friend who wanted me to help her with HER paper on Sunday, and so I decided to postpone the blog post so I could compare and contrast the two informal appointments. One of the first lessons I learned from both was that a writing consultant never quits. Ever. Once my friends and family found out that I was taking a class on editing, learning to be a writing consultant, I have received many frantic emails and calls asking me to look at papers. It's a lot like what my dad deals with as a dermatologist - everytime we're at a party or a big gathering of people someone inevitably asks him to look at some rash or dry skin or weird mole. And though it sounds like I'm complaining, I actually love it. First of all I love that people care enough about their writing that they ask me to look at it. I love that the label "writing consultant" isn't an anathema and that people view me as their ally. And selfishly, I just love reading other people's work, brainstorming with them, feeling like I've helped them write something truly good.

So when my sister asked me to help her with her midterm essay while I was visiting her at Stetson University over Fall break, I tried to play it cool with a nonchalant "Oh man, it's Fall break! But I guess if you REALLY need my help"...but we all know I was jumping with excitement on the inside. She actually hadn't started writing anything yet and was having trouble with the ideas at the base of the essay - the essay asked her to define a sociological method and then give examples. I honestly didn't understand the method so I asked her to explain it to me. Then by talking it through with her, we discussed some options - I led with questions, because I had an idea of what she could do but I wanted her to stumble upon it herself. And when she did, everything fell into place and she even though of things I hadn't thought of. It was collaboration at its finest.

Then when I got back, as I said before my friend asked me to help her with HER essay on Sunday. This was a completely different kind of editing process because her essay was fully completed. She was at the point where she had spent so much time on it that she couldn't step back and view it objectively and needed a second pair of eyes (I don't know about you, but I feel like that all of the time. Sometimes you just get so tangled in your own writing you just don't know if it's good or absolutely horrible). So I read through it with her, helped her with some style and organization, marked on the paper with her there and gave her a pencil (a strategy we discussed in class). It was a great contrast to the brainstorming I did with my sister, and really showed me the diversity of what a writing appointment can look like.

Don't worry, I'm a fast reader

This Wednesday I had my weekly shadowing appointment, and was able to sit in on a very interesting consultancy. I know that ideally, the writing consultant gets a copy of the writing assignment so that he can look it over, perhaps make notes on the page, and have ideas of what to discuss and go over with the student during the writing appointment itself. But as it is in most situations, the ideal situation is far from the reality, and this appointment was a perfect illustration of this.
The student brought in a 7 page paper that Bill* had never seen before. If this had been me, I would probably not have known what to do, and been a little frustrated at the same time. But Bill handled the situation like the perfect writing consultant with the lighthearted comment "don't worry, I'm a fast reader". Thankfully, I am a fast reader as well, so we were able to read through the document fairly quickly. But more importantly, Bill decided not to read through the entire paper, making the student wait uncomfortably in silence. Instead he took it a paragraph at a time, commenting on things and raising questions in order to keep the student active in the appointment rather than passively sitting by. This created a casual yet active learning environment.
However, though Bill handled the situation very well, there are serious drawbacks to having to edit a paper that you're just reading at that moment, especially a paper that is longer than a few pages. The argument should be fairly complicated, and so simply skimming it can lead to overlooking points and misunderstanding the author, which can complicate the process. Also, it cuts into the actual editing time of the appointment, and does not allow for both the consultant and the student to go deeper into the paper and the argument itself. However, I am sure I will have to deal with situations like this if I become a writing consultant, and so this Fall Break I will definitely be brushing up on my speed reading!

Everyone have a wonderful break, and I'll see you all on Wednesday!

College Essay Appointment - An Exercise in Brainstorming

This afternoon I skyped my sister, Julia, a senior in high school to go over her college application essays. She had previously sent me a copy of her Common Application essay, and I went into the appointment prepared to go through that essay, but also wanting to try out idea formation techniques that would help her brainstorm for the essays and short answer questions she has yet to write. I've edited many papers before, whether it be my friend's or my classmate's, but I have never before this class attempted macro edits, or constructive rather than descriptive comments. In short, I knew I could rearrange sentences and fix grammar to make the paper sound and look better, but I had never tackled the essence of the paper itself - the ideas. Also, I wanted to take into account Straub's article about control. As a person who likes to take control, I wanted to make sure I let Julia take the reins and just act as a sounding board for her to create her own ideas.

The appointment went extremely well, and I felt as if I learned as much (if not more) than she did. We began by just catching up, and I asked her about her college application process and how she felt about her essays so far. I had the benefit of already having a personal connection, so it was easy to fall into a comfortable discussion of her writing. We started with a short essay that she had yet to write with a prompt that asked the student to pick one adjective to describe themselves and then explain their choice. This was interesting because at the beginning she was not excited about writing her answer at all, but after we discussed what kind of image she wanted to present herself as she became much more invested. For example, we discussed the 2 ways she could go - either pick a positive adjective like "responsible" and write a straight essay, or pick a more controversial and even negative adjective to shock and interest the reader and then somehow turn it into something quirky. I think I did a good job at leading her with questions towards both becoming excited about her response and raising some interesting options for her without handing her the response itself.
During the second half of the appointment, we took a look at an actual piece of writing that she had just written that day for a specific college's application. I had to fight the urge to rearrange sentences or words, to make stylistic edits rather than focus on the big picture, but I'm very glad I did because we were able to have a wonderful discussion about the ideas central to the essay. The prompt was on the values, experiences, and goals that one has. Julia's answer, though well written, just sat on the surface of the question rather than dove into the deep end, and by asking her questions like "What is your definition of values? How are values, experiences, and goals interconnected and how do they build off of and create each other?" I was able to help her really sink her teeth into the prompt.

All in all, I was extremely pleased with this appointment. Helping someone I know and love was a wonderful way to ease into the position of writing consultant, but I look forward to the challenge of helping and collaborating with someone whom I do not know.

Who has the power?

"At one extreme, some comments are overly 

harsh or disrespectful, and usurp control over student writing, making 

sweeping editorial changes and dictating what should be said or how it 

should be presented from top to bottom. At the other extreme, some 

teacher comments are so minimal and generic that they become detached 

and offer no help, no real response. Both extremes ought to be avoided. "

The question of control in editing a paper is definitely an interesting one. When I first read Straub's article, "The Concept of Control in a Teacher Response", I was a bit skeptical. Having been on the receiving end of many teacher responses and comments on papers, I honestly like a teacher who takes control and tells me what they want. It is probably the lazy aspect of me that doesn't want to do any more work than I have to, but maybe it's the part of me that says "I've laid it all out there, I've given it my best shot, if you don't like it you better tell me what to change". And so I expected Straub to chastise teachers who give directive comments and to promote watered down comments that don't really guide the writer anywhere, just leave them confused as to whether the teacher liked it or not. 

I was presently surprised, then, when Straub recognized the importance of a multi-faceted approach, comments that both guide but encourage, that form as a sounding board. Most importantly, Straub realizes that not every teacher is the same, not every learning situation is the same, and not every student is the same. Therefore rather than prescribe one specific type of editing he encourages for teachers to find what works for them, as long as it is not one of the extremes in the quotes above. Again, this brings me back to the personal attachment a student has to their writing. Harshly directive comments will just crush a writer's spirit, but confusingly vague questions will just frustrate. It will be interesting to see what direction my style of editing will take in the months ahead.

A Conversation with a Writing Consultant

This week I went to the Writing Center to shadow my writing consultant. Unfortunately, he had no students on the roster for tutoring, but it opened up time for us to sit down, get to know each other, and talk about writing, the Writing Center, being a writing consultant, and the stories that go along with it. Though I didn't get the first hand experience I was hoping for, our conversation was great for establishing a connection between us and for gaining an inside perspective on what being a writing consultant is like.

The most interesting thing we discussed was the question of dealing with the difficult or complicated situations that occur every day in the Writing Center. Though there are a fair share of appointments that go smoothly without any hitches, the reality is that we are humans working with humans, thus miscommunications are bound to happen. My consultant said that he found Bedford's Guide to be extremely helpful in dealing with difficult or tense situations. For example, he related a story where a girl came in with an essay based on her personal experience with her grandfather. At some point during the appointment, she became extremely emotional, and my consultant recalled that if he hadn't known about leading with questions and the personal skills that are referenced in the Bedford's Guide, he would have frozen up. If anything, this reinforced the idea that when it comes down to it, you are dealing with people, and knowing how to deal with people is one of the most important skills to have, just as important as knowing the correct grammar and how to form a good thesis.

In the Hot Seat

When I signed up for Intro to Composition Theory/Pedagogy, I didn't really know what I was getting into. I thought we might be learning some grammar, some editing techniques, hopefully learn how to become a better writer and editor in the process but I honestly thought it would be a fairly boring, technical class. I had no idea that I would be put on the hot seat per say, that I would be placed on the other side of the desk as the person whose essay was being edited. To be honest, I had never gone to the writing center, and so this was  a new experience for me. I had edited friends' and siblings' papers before, and I had always been quite skeptical about people who are sensitive about their writing. I had always had the perspective that people should disattach themselves from their writing, allow it to be commented on and criticized, in an effort to better themselves and their essays. I had the idea that I was this way, disattached and unemotional when it came to my writing. Oh how wrong I was.

Sitting up there and having people take apart my essay, though very politely and constructively, not negatively, I realized how personal writing is. It's a creation, a child, a part of my brain and my thoughts and my fingers. And this is not something to be embarrassed about. What is important is finding that balance between cherishing your writing and being able to take critiques and mold your writing. As I have been editing my essay I have tried to take both of these sides of a writer's identity into account.

Free Write...

I'm a bit stressed with thsi class. I am learning a lot, granted, but I am overwhelmed with the sheer amount of assignments - I feel as if I might be forgetting something constantly. I feel ok about my blog posts - I have never been a blogger and so having a blog in the first place has been a great experience, being able to participate in the online forum and take part in online conversations with my classmates and with my professor. But right now I only have about 50 points, and I need 30 more by next week. I would love to spend more time on my blogs, perhaps bring in some multimedia (pictures, videos, etc), but I hope that I have time to invest into each blog post. I would hate for any of my work to resemble the bullshit that we have discussed so often in class.
As for the other projects, I'm not quite sure where I am. I need to to edit my sister's college application essay, which I plan on doing this week. I have already done my interview for the digital story, but I feel like I need to start working on the actual compilation of the story because, let's be honest, I'm absolutely horrible with technology and it will probably take me a while to get it down. I also need to do the classmate consultation project with Michael, since my essay is due October 15 and I want to get a draft in to the teacher by October 5th hopefully. I think these are all the projects, and now that I have it all written out I feel much better. The blog essay is due soon as well, but I don't really know the details on that. For these next few weeks I will need to plan my schedule carefully so that I can allot the time that each assignment deserves, and so that I can get the most from each project.

How to be a Shadow

Last night I went to my first writing consultant shadowing with Rob Lindston. If I could only have taken one thing away from this hour it would be the absolute importance of hands-on learning and experience in any kind of classroom situation - following the learning of head knowledge to its application on the ground.

I could possibly write pages on what I observed, but I would like to focus on one comment I heard that struck me very strongly. When Rob was discussing the paper with the student, he pointed out that some of the information she included because her professor liked the example did not really fit with the thesis of her paper and could potentially be cut or revised to improve the overall presentation and writing of the paper. Her response was "I really don't care if my writing is good I just want to give the professor what he wants and get an A". She was obviously stressed, editing a paper the night before it's due for a professor she did not trust or necessarily like, and so everything besides getting a good grade, which in this case meant to her including superfluous information, was obsolete.

This subject of giving a professor what he/she wants at the expense of writing has been brought up over and over again in our class, and so when I was considering what I would focus on in this blog post I initially thought to ignore this comment. However, I think it is so important for us to remember that all of the theories and opinions we discuss and initiate in class have practical applications, are based off realities that take place every day in and outside of the writing center, realities that apply to our experiences as students as well. Rob did a fantastic job of handling this, calming the student by staying positive and pointing out the good points of the paper while helping her improve her paper's writing in general all the while keeping the information that she viewed as essential to her grade. I learned a great deal, not just how to handle this type of situation but about the situation itself.

Digital Story Interview

This past week I sat down with Dr. Hicks for the interview on writing, his identity as a writer, and his view of the writing process in general.
I went into the interview with almost no idea what direction it would take. Dr. Hicks teaches my living and learning class, Leadership and the Common Good, and so I have a fairly solid relationship with him as a professor and an individual. However, I was nervous about stepping into his office, questioning him about his world view and his writing. What if I ran out of questions? What if I asked a question that rubbed him the wrong way? I went in with the purpose of not only recording his observations on writing, but with the purpose of getting to know him as a person and as an academic better. I knew that he had written and published multiple books, and was interested in knowing his motivations for writing - does he love writing as an art form in itself or does he view it simply as a tool for communication? Finally, I wanted to know his opinion on things we'd discussed in class, like the bullshit essay and the role of audience vs personal voice in writing - these were more selfish questions as someone turning in papers for him to grade, and as a student wanting to hear the perspective of the "other side".
I came away with more than just an interview for my digital story - I came away with a better understanding of the academic life of a professor, and personalizing the sometimes impersonal grades that one receives on a paper. It hit me that this project is more than learning how to use this technology or  even how to communicate with multi-media. It brings us closer with professors, who as writing consultants are our allies and our suppliers, not the distant judge that so many students view them as, even in the small liberal arts school setting.

Music and Writing

In our class discussion on the role of the writing tutor on Wednesday, I suddenly saw a connection between two areas of my life that are influential in the formation of my identity but, until then, completely separate: music and writing.
As a piano student of over 15 years and a singer since I can remember, I have gone to countless music lessons, learned countless songs, and performed countless times. When I was in high school, I began to give piano lessons now and then, adding the role of teacher to my identity as a student. In becoming a writing consultant, I see this same process happening again, yet this time in a different arena. Not that I have mastered writing - or music for that matter - both disciplines are ones that take a lifetime or more to master, skills you can constantly be improving and perfecting. Yet imparting a love for the art of writing and music to others is a tricky yet rewarding thing. The question is do you cater to the piece of music/writing or to the student himself? Do you teach someone how to write this specific paper/play this specific song, or do you teach the student how to be a better writer/musician in general? More interestingly, does addressing the writing lead to becoming a better writer, or must you focus on skill sets solely?

Griots and Storytellers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95Khdd3PskE

I have always loved stories. My grandmother is a storyteller, making up stories of fairies who lived in the foxgloves in my back yard and animal families that shared a tree. My father is a storyteller as well, and would weave tales of magic and adventure, of orphans who ran away from orphanages and princes in search of some lost totem. There were true stories thrown in there as well, such as the story of my birth, of his first date with my mother, of the adventures of his own childhood. My childhood was composed of stories, brick by brick, the line between reality and fiction rarely clear.
So when I heard about our chance to help with laying down the stories of an older generation, whether it be our professors or the elders of the Richmond community, I felt like I had come home. I feel as though so often people, especially in an academic setting, worry so much about writing that they forget the story. In my History of Africa course last semester we learned about oral histories, about the griots that stood as the libraries of the community, memorizing and cataloging story after story, stories of magic and of childbirth, of wars and of love, of everyday life and of extraordinary lives. The clip above is from a movie we watched about griots in Mali, specifically the training of a new griot. The relationship between the old and the young and the passing on of information along a channel of stories is what intrigued me the most. This is what we're doing with our professors, and what we'll be aiding at UR Downtown.
How to write a story is also intriguing to me - what voice do you take? What are you trying to illicit from the listener? All questions I look forward to finding the answers to.

Knowledge is like a...

What is knowledge? How is it produced? What is the role of the student, teacher, tutor in the production of knowledge?

All of these questions are raised in Andrea Lunsford's essay "Collaboration, Control, and the Idea of a Writing Center". While her essay mostly focused on the role of collaboration in a learning environment, the most striking question raised by her comments was that of the nature of knowledge and how it is produced.  Lunsford believes that knowledge, rather than being an external, unchangeable force is "mediated by or constructed through language in social use, as socially constructed, contextualized, as, in short, the product of collaboration" (48). Knowledge is not doled out like rations of food (a view purported by the Storehouse Centers) . Knowledge is not like a jewel to mined out of oneself (a view purported by Garret Centers). Rather knowledge is like a house, dreamed of by architects, constructed from external pieces, and created with multiple hands and viewpoints. This is the collaborative approach that I long to see in my classes, but unfortunately does not exist. Too many times is knowledge handed out by the teacher like blueprints, collecting dust. At the other extreme, too often knowledge is laid out on the floor of the classroom by students like pieces of wood, nails, and hammers, never synthesized into anything of worth. True collaboration brings these two together, a professor guiding and drawing out ideas and the class constructing them into something new. If this kind of collaboration can exist, then the bullshit discussed by the previous article will hopefully be made irrelevant, as the best ideas make the best houses.

"I have to go read that bullshit article..."

"For Ashe, race and HIV stand as significant threats to his view of the common good as a society built on twin and intertwining pillars of justice and morality; however, it is exactly his close relationship with these two impediments that allows him to lead by example, blazing a trail towards the common good."

- A nondescript bullshit essay by Rachel Templeton

When I read the title of the article, A Kind Word for Bullshit: The Problem of Academic Writing, my stomach dropped a little. I have always been a good student, especially in writing intensive classes, priding myself in knowing how to give each teacher exactly what he or she wants. In high school I viewed each paper as a complicated juggling game, the balls of teachers' expectations, vocabulary words I had to use, and the prototype of the "perfect five paragraph essay" rising and falling around me, my hands scrambling to keep them all spinning through the air. As is the case for many students, original or intelligent ideas and even my own voice would get lost in the cacophony of what I viewed as academia. And so I would turn out bullshit like the quote above on a fairly regular schedule, draping overly simple ideas in flowery words and covering up holes in my arguments with complicated sentence structures, creating an elaborate conjuring act solely to pull the hood over my teacher's eyes and even my own. 

And so I expected Eubanks and Schaeffer to unveil me for the fraud I am, hence my hesitation. Yet their partial acceptance of a type of bullshit as "inevitable when people are attempting to write well" gave me hope. Their separation of academic bullshit into the bullshit of professors (nonprototypical) and that of students (prototypical) seemed to be a bit unfair, however. Though many students do bullshit papers in the sense of writing on books/subjects of which they have no or very little knowledge, I would categorize most students in the first category of "earnestness...earnest tedium". So often do students, like me, hide use academic writing as a shield to hide behind, to appear intelligent, and to impress professors. This does not differ from the academics of the Modern Language Association, who employ academic writing to "enhance the reputation, or ethos, of the writer" centered around the reward system of tenures and grants. The academic environment of students is similarly constructed, not around tenures, but grades. Bullshit exists and thrives in both arenas, and as Eubanks and Schaeffer adeptly argue, is a necessary staple of both arenas as well.