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!
Rachel, I like how you point out that no consultation is perfect. So far, all of my consultations have been out of the ordinary in some way, and it usually ends with the consultant apologizing to me. I think it's important, as you say, that we encounter these situations now so we're better able to handle them next semester.
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