Open High Missed Visit

This is my take on the questions asked by Professor Carleton. Hope the trip goes well, sorry I will not be there (stuck in Dallas).

1. Introductions & personal writing histories

My name is Kevin Walsh, I am a freshman at UR and this is my first attempt
at something like this program. I feel that I have an extremely time
conveying what I want to say in written words. In high-school I was a
state champion, and national qualifier in speech and debate. Because of
this I have no problem speaking in front of groups and preparing speeches.
In fact I believe this is my biggest strength.

2. Brief discussion about college writing and expectations

Boy, oh boy, college writing! It is a totally different world than the
writing you are doing now. My first ever college paper was returned to me
with a note attached, "This is not college-level work, re-do or take a
zero."...and this was in a HISTORY course! The expectation is that your
writing is refined and well thought out. So far I have found that most
professors have different expectations but that they all expect your
absolute best.

3. Brief overview of UR class and importance of collaboration

This program we are all part of is attempting to teach us how to teach
others about writing. It was designed with the intention that many of us
will move on and become tutors for the school next semester. Collaborating
with other writers is so crucial to the writing process but many students
are afraid to ask for help. I have learned very quickly, through a series
of blunt peer and teacher reviews, that all writing requires work.
Absolutely none of my, or you own, writing skills are perfect. If they
were you would have nothing to learn.

For my tutoring "skit"

I would base my skit on a recent experience I learned about from my
writing tutor (the one I am shadowing). She described to me a recent
situation that had her in tears. The student was sent to her for
"required" help, and didn't want the help. Yet when the tutor saw the
paper it was filled with so many surface errors that she turned the entire
paper red. By the time the student had a chance to defend his paper, both
parties were flustered and upset. (I will be posting a through posting on
this once I return to UR and have my notebook).

This skit will show the students what not to do, and then afterwords I
would ask the students what they would expect from a tutor if they were,
"FORCED" into attending a session.

Seventh Visit

4/9/2008

Rolled into the writing center with my mind adrift and dead from countless hours of calculus. I had thousands of things to do still and didn't know if I could handle any drama. Thankfully, upon arrival the student who was being tutored was geared up and ready to go. The tutee was writing a paper about Resident Assistant's. She had written the entire paper, but it was all things considered quite rough. Emily began acting as a psychologist helping the tutee guide herself through the paper. Acting as a peer tutor/psychologist reminded me of the article by Christina Murphy, in The St. Martin's Sourcebook for Writing Tutors titled "Freud in the Writing Center: The Psychoanalytics of Tutoring Well." The key behind the session was the ask and tell session that Emily conducted. Rather than fix the errors, Emily asked the writer what she would rather say, or what she wanted to say. The question and answer session helped the author better understand what she wanted to say. As the paper progressed Emily suggested that we attempted to "de-clutter" the paper, and eliminate un-needed statements. For example, the author had a lengthy rant about whiteboards, however it was exactly that, a rant. When Emily asked if it would be better to leave it out the author got defensive and insisted that the whiteboards were a vital part of the resident life and the paper.

As I continued to listen I realized that the author was a perfect example of a "tough tutorial." Even though she wanted help, she was not extremely receptive to the help offered. Emily and I discussed at the end that the paper was hard to edit because we both felt it was poorly organized. We both agreed that the paper had good points but in the end it would have been much better if it was better organized. As I stumbled off to my own tutorial in calculus I realized that Emily does a great job of leading discussion and forcing the student to acknowledge flaws within the papers they wrote.

Sixth Visit

4/2/08 New start time (Noon) and day (Wednesday's) for the remaining sessions. In this particular session Emily and I both had other places to be and since no students were there to be tutored we agreed to meet and briefly discuss the week and then re-assess the plan next week. She also gave me a book titled "The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors" which she feels is the most helpful book possible for any writing tutor. She said she even looked over it before returning to school Second Semester in order to prepare for her fellowship. I am currently looking it over and reading it before I return it to her next week. I will post a summary before my next visit.

Visit 5

3/27/08

Continuing down the road to the promised land...WOOHOO, almost there...April that is...BASEBALL SEASON!

I arrived at the Writing center just on time, bam 1 PM (new start time), and immediately sat down in the claustrophobically tiny room with the little door, the cramped desk, ...and THREE SEATS. Talk about rough, boy oh boy, tiny. The session itself went amazing well it was easily the first session that I truly learned how to tutor international students at. The student was a Bulgarian who was quite quiet and shy, but extremely receptive to any and all ideas. At the end of the session Emily and I had our customary chat about what we saw in the session. She mentioned that almost all visitors to the writing center who are international are very disciplined and open to help but very unwilling to contribute much of anything to the discussion. She said although many speak well very few grasp grammar properly, so she helps sort it out, but does not correct it. Doing so allows the student to learn and the paper to keep the authors voice. Emily said she was "easily doing all of the talking," but that the student did occasionally pitch in a suggestion or two. She mentioned that she believes she has seen more international students than American students and that on average the international students papers are typically filled with better overall ideas, but sometimes weaker content. To close the session with me she said that it is key to not be "falsely encouraging and tell a student, this is an A paper," because you never know how a teacher will respond to the paper.

Fourth Visit...a conversation about life...not about writing.

3/20/08

Ok i'll admit it I was still stuck in Spring Break mode...but it was hard not to be when you just got off a plane and headed straight for the writing center. Upon arriving (albeit 20 minutes late), Emily and I sat down and chatted, once again no students took advantage of the writing center. The conversation this time however had nothing to do with writing but rather life. Yes it was 2:20 PM on a Thursday...but I had literally just gotten off a plane after an "Amazing Race-esque" Spring Break. Guess I better go into details, huh? On March 7th my friend and I headed off to the Richmond International Airport hoping to catch the 1 PM flight to Dallas/Fort Worth and then the 6 PM to Salt Lake City. That however did not happen, flights were cancelled and we were told we wouldn't be able to leave until Monday or Tuesday. So we did the logical thing (NOT!) and hopped into another friends car and headed for Washington DC. Upon arriving in DC we headed to George Washington University and stayed with yet another friend for the night. At 4 AM a cab arrived and whisked us away to the Reagan National (note not International, no flights leave American from DCA) Airport. From there we boarded a 655 AM flight for DFW. Made it Dallas no flaws, smooth flying from there right??? WRONG! Instead we are stranded in Dallas and wind up spending the night with my Uncle in Plano, Texas. Finally on March 10th, at noon we arrive in BEAUTIFUL Park City, UTAH, my home...skiing and fun stuff goes down...fly back to Richmond on 3/17/08...no problems right???...WRONG! We made it to Dallas with a huge hitch, my friend got violently ill and had to be hospitalized in Dallas. Then all the flights on the 18th were cancelled, pushing the flight we were going to take back to the 20th...Fun. 

Anyway we made it safely and in one piece back to campus on March 20th, and from there I went straight to the writing center only to find out that Emily hasn't had a client all week. Oh well...at least I am back on campus.

Third Visit

Talk about bizarre, my third visit to the center was exactly that. I got into the room and sat down with Emily. Almost immediately afterwords another student joined us wanting a little assistance with the development of a dance paper. Who knew you had to write about dancing??? To me dance seems simple, flail around and sway your hips...wait maybe that's why I am not a dancer. Although that said I think I am a pretty good dancer while at the lodges and hockey team socials...

Back to the subject of writing, the girl who visited Emily on this day, 3/7/08, needed assistance on a paper about Josephine Baker and the "shuffle". The student had only written one paragraph but was already lost at sea. She was quite confused by the general process of writing and seemed timid to ask questions. Emily quickly defused this by making her feel more comfortable. The paper was quickly edited and then the student left giving Emily and I a chance to sit down and discuss what was wrong with the paper.

The first and foremost problem we had with the paper was that, despite it being only a paragraph long it was filled with quotations. To make it worse, none of the quotes were sourced or cited!!! The student was a senior and she didn't have CITATIONS!!! AH! Emily then began to critic herself about what had occurred in the session. She mentioned that the paper was poorly organized and that the organizational flaws were made more obvious by the fact that the student had an extremely WEAK introduction. Emily admitted that she went way too deep into surface errors and said that she would like to fix this by avoiding a majority of these errors. Lastly the student was very apologetic about the entire paper. The entire session, although brief, was informational and I do feel like I learned a little bit more about the writing process, and how to be a better tutor. Off to Park City, Utah for some skiing and family time!!! CYA after break.

Second Visit

Ah back to the wonderfully confusing world of blogging. In the following four posts I will document each of my past four visits to the Writing center where I met with my peer, Emily Smith. In this session, 2/29/08, we were alone and had no drop-ins so we spent the time discussing the value of the writing center and how it helps us academically develop. This time period was particularly helpful to me because it allowed me to become more comfortable with the idea of working in the writing center. As I went through the motions of "interviewing" Emily I realized that working with her over the next month would be much more of a privilege than a burden. Emily is very forthright and honest and I really appreciate that, it makes the sessions seem easier. Although we didn't have any work to go through with I believe that this interview was essentially a writing center visit minus the paper portion of the visit. All in all this interview with her was brief but quite informative, I hope we will be able to have more conversations in the future.