Within my readings for this week, I was particularly struck by the chapter on voice and audience. I was actually thinking about the same quote Lei did in her post: "“Good readers usually recognize a problem, though they may not always be able to explain it technically." Since I grew up only speaking English, this is a problem I've run into in my own life, and with my own students. So, I just want to second that thought as well! My question is actually quite similar to hers: What do we do if we have a student actually asking us for more technical grammatical advice, and while we are able to tell them what the fix is, what would you recommend aside from, "Oh, it just works"? I've found saying "Oh, this sounds more natural" is good enough for students, or asking them to read their work aloud, but that definitely doesn't hold up in terms of how grammar works. If it did, the English language would be far less messy!

 Another thing as well: If we have experience with the native language of our student, would you recommend drawing on that as well in tutoring sessions? I ask because for the most part, I can tell which language is a students' native language just from how they conjugate or write, but I know that not everyone knows when to recognize a Japanese speaker, a Mandarin or Cantonese speaker, or a French speaker. Is drawing comparisons to the grammar of that language considered a good move, or should I just focus on English?

 Regarding working with graduate students vs. working with undergrads, in observing Claudia, I've noticed that the undergraduates primarily need more contextual help in terms of working out their ideas, getting the process started, etc., whereas graduates usually just want to have help with polishing their writing and doing more technical work.

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