Teaching in a Writing Center Fall 2019

This was an especially relevant reading for me this week, because the online tutoring session I conducted was in response to a student's personal statement for grad school. This student, like Lorainne, has hedged her essay on more formal/academic writing, which makes sense given her discipline of choice. Unfortunately, the expectations of a personal statement are implicitly creative, though that's not a distinction made explicitly clear by the language used in most non creative graduate school applications and selection committees. It is, however, the only way to mark the difference between a summarization of a resume, and the kind of statement or essay that will demonstrate to a school not only that you're qualified for the position, but that you're the kind of student they're looking for--that your values align with theirs, and so on. In this instance, and when I've taught the college essay in the pass, I am also met with a lot of resistance from my students w...

Apologies for the late reply! I just realized I'd forgotten to share. I have to second the sentiments of everyone here regarding the readings, which have brought me to think a bit more about my own experiences teaching. Personally, I've had to convince my students that academic writing is not just dry; it needs to have the same love and care brought to it that creative writing does. I also try to encourage my students to engage in creative writing throughout my classes, especially for larger projects. Granted, none of mine took the opportunity this time around, but hey, it's the thought that counts. I will admit that I preferred the non-fiction case study in comparison to the academic case study of Fei in terms of style. However, they are both in different modes, each trying to achieve different things. So, my question to you all would be, how can we try to incorporate these techniques for our students, and try to break down the binary between heady intellectualism a...

This essay is largely about the pros/cons of academic/creative writing in terms of expressing urgent and important ideas—but the essay is also, itself, demonstrating those pros/cons in the ways it manages to be most and least effective. The narrator is trying to show Lorraine that creative writing can be a uniquely powerful mode of expression, due to its ability to create scene, detail, description, dialogue, interiority, etc — the same aspects of this essay that, to me, made for a more engaging, personalized narrative. While it is helpful to read case studies like Fei's to take a broader, more objective look at a student's experience in the Writing Center over time, it does eliminate a lot of the internal hemming and hawing that I know other tutors must experience, and kind of flattens the unique challenges and interpersonal dynamics of each session. While the specific dynamics between Lorraine and the narrator may not necessarily apply to most of my student interactions in th...

"Lorraine's Story" makes me hate academia even more fiercely than I already do. This creative case study charges me to do something about the injustice at hand, unlike an academic (and likely dry) case study might. This may be why ethnographic writing appeals to me so much, since it often combines scientific rigor with pathos. But college doesn't teach creativity or individual expression and identity development. It offers a narrow set of tools for falling in line with hegemonic standards. Lorraine was boxed in by her training to reach a narrow, specific, powerful audience. By senior year, she hadn't learned how to flexibly cater to multiple audiences, including her very personal audience- herself. What bugs me the most about this is that personal statements for fellowships, scholarships, and graduate programs-- all stepping stones to prestige and power, as students like Lorraine seek-- require the ability to write for a wide audience in a distinct, non-academic...

I identify a lot with the teacher who wrote the nonfiction piece, "Lorraine's Study," in needing to convince students (especially those who are trying to write personal essays!) of the power of scene and detail. The piece showed an interesting tension between two truths; my favorite part was how the teacher thought academic writing is "wordy and tedious" while the student thought creative writing is "wordy and frivolous." Tedious vs. frivolous is such a good encapsulation of that age-old debate between academics and creatives! Also, perhaps because of the close interaction between Lorraine and her tutor, Lorraine's personality was much more apparent than the personalities of the people in the more academic studies. I do think anecdotal nonfiction case studies might work better for describing individual experiences in the writing center, but would be less effective and authoritative for describing trends, patterns, or multiple people. This case s...

The most immediate difference between the two types of case study (at least for me) is that in the non-fiction version, the tutor is a tangible character. His biases are immediately apparent, and I found myself responding to his voice more than just the information contained within the piece. One of the aspects of this that I admired is that by his own voice being so foregrounded, it highlights the presence of the tutor in the Writing Center relationship. It shows the tutor/tutee relationship as formed by two individual personalities and intellectual approaches. Further, it emphasizes the collaborative nature of the relationship and doesn’t isolate the student on their own with tutors represented as a set of stated Writing Center values. Because of the essay’s structure, however, it isn’t as immediately clear what the larger takeaway may be of Goedde’s case study. In fact, it’s a structure that rejects any reader who may approach it solely looking for a quick tak...

I share basically the same concerns that others have expressed when it comes to the pros/cons of asynchronous/online tutoring. On the one hand, one of the most rewarding aspects of the enrollment program for me has been the experience of building that rapport with them, finding out what lights their fire, and really learning who they are by talking through the topics they're drawn to writing about. On the other hand, when you're not working with the same student every time, there are lower stakes to those occasional but inevitable times when you crash and burn. Although, in what situation am I most likely to crash and burn? I feel like I'm much better at expressing myself through writing than in speaking, and so I may be able to give stronger, and possibly even more honest feedback when I have the luxury of parsing / editing my thoughts before I express them, through the distance of a screen. For me, when the student is looking right at me, waiting for me to say something...

This week's chapter is especially relevant to my own work, as I tend to do asynchronous edits and work with my own students. The points that they raise about the negatives are quite valid and prescient; for example, there is something lost in the lack of face-to-fact interaction with students. However, I've found that asynchronous edits and work has been the work I prefer, primarily because it's a one-and-done deal that I can do on my own time. Over the summer, I worked as an ESL TOEFL online remote grader, and a lot of the points that are raised apply to that job as well. Still, I realize that it isn't the norm, but because of the flexibility, while I do adore making in-person bonds and edits with my students, I do have a soft spot for online editing. On that note, I am having some issues logging into the online tutoring portal, so if anyone has any tips for logging in, please let me know. On to my questions! How many comments should we do on online essays? Do w...

I actually do asynchronous on-line tutoring quite a bit with Chinese students' personal essays for college. Often, they are in a different time zone so they don't even get to see my comments for a while and vice versa, though I will work with the same student over an entire season so we have plenty of opportunities to connect. Challenges I've found include limiting my sheer volume of response in writing vs. speaking. Since I have a more personal relationship with these students, I also communicate with them in a social media messaging app and often send them long voice messages in addition to written comments. While the written comments are specific suggestions, my voice messages explain the reasoning behind the suggestions without needing to type out huge paragraphs of justification. On the other hand, I do feel that using the medium of writing to critique writing is an interesting way to learn by example. The snippets in Remington's article where the tutor tried to...

I appreciated Remington's piece immensely. While I understand Kyle's concerns about establishing rapport, the beauty of asynchronous tutoring in that such rapport is of a different timbre. There's less pressure to perform the "tutor" or "writing expert" role and more time to shift between being a reader, a modeler, a focused professional, a sympathetic fellow student or peer. I experienced a shade of this difference when I tutor appointment students, compared to returning Enrollment tutees. More rides on the Enrollment tutoring relationship because of its development over time. If I say something stupid, it means we may both be uncomfortable for weeks to come. The relational aspects of appointment tutoring allows me to get down to business more quickly. If the student thinks I'm a weirdo, it won't haunt us at every assignment we gather over together. As long as I attend to the student as writer, the student as acquaintance is happy and recedes....

The aspect of asynchronous online tutoring I feel most concerned about is the complexity of establishing a genuine rapport with the students. In both teaching Interpretation of Literature and working in the Writing Center, I find that creating a comfortable and safe dynamic with the students right at the outset is central for making it easier for them to hear and digest constructive criticism. I really appreciated Ryan and Zimmerelli’s promise that we will become like pen pals with our online students. Knowing the manner in which many students respond to feedback in online English classes, though, as well as remembering Fei’s irritation with many of her online tutors’ comments on her work, I have to admit that I’m doubtful that’s quite the right comparison. I did, however, appreciate many of the tips offered, such as beginning responses with some personal background to help the writing center student know a bit about the person offering feedback on their work. I’m wo...

I was struck by Bean's insight that students often struggle with considering themselves in conversation with the author, because in my own experience I've noticed that difficulty crop up in a few different ways. A common one in my literature classes is the assumption that the author's authority is unquestioning, a-temporal, and all-knowing. When I taught Giovanni's Room last semester, I remember it being especially tricky to convince my students that Baldwin's narrator, David, was unreliable--and that his motivations as a character might not be entirely altruistic or even downright amoral. One of the approaches I've found helpful is assigning books by authors whose authority is itself, perhaps, a bit suspect, or authors whose biases or blindspots crop up in their texts, and pointing that out to students as they read, so they get a sense that the text, no mater how lauded or canonized, is capable of error, is constructed and occasionally incomplete or ineffecti...

There were a lot of moments in this Bean chapter that made me reflect on some of the difficulties I've been having during my first semester teaching Interpretation of Literature. To pick one, the section that discussed students having "difficulty with assimilating the unfamiliar" (problem #9) was one of those resonant moments. I have this one student, who is, in a lot of ways, a joy to have in class just because his energy is so engaged. He's always excited about participating, always has his hand up, always has an idea to share, is doing the reading, etc. Just a big ol' sweetie pie. Yay!! The trouble is, so many of his comments, and especially what he writes in his reading responses, are some variation of "This reminded me of this time I went snowboarding" or "I related to this part because I also feel happy sometimes" or whatever. Which...I mean. I guess I can't really blame him, because as the reading notes, learning and unlearning is ...

In reading the chapter for this week's reading, I was stunned by just how relevant it has been to my students' reading experience. The tip that Bean gives to admit when you, as an instructor, don't understand the text either, has been immensely helpful in my own experience of teaching texts. The aspect of cultural codes / history has also been very relevant to my class - since I teach a lot of foreign media, I assume that they do not have the background necessary, so I spend a class lecturing them on the background of a work. It usually works out well in their favor, but with more difficult texts, it shows that we can all learn together. This actually happened yesterday when I was teaching Mulvey's Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema; most of the students had attempted to read the reading, but admitted that they had no idea what Mulvey was saying. So, at the least, the effort was there, which I appreciate. Which of Bean's tips has worked best for you all in terms...

The reading this week reminded me of a chart I saw in a General Education Literature PowerPoint (below) that seemed relevant and also student- and literature-oriented. Sometimes it seems that students approach any book they have to read for class very formally, as if even their thoughts or notes in the margins have to be formalized instead of genuine, in-the-moment reactions. I think giving examples of more informal ways to interact with texts (the way they would interact with reading for pleasure or even TV) could be highly useful as part of showing students your own note-taking and responding process. I often find in the classroom that I would like students to bring in their own experiences or connect the readings to outside cultural objects but perhaps because they're in a classroom, it's difficult for them to relate the texts or characters to their own lives in a deeper way. Circle/Square/Underline WORD CHOICE or “DICTION” That seems interesting, ...

Though I found this entire chapter useful, the section I’ve been most thinking about is the one concerning cultural codes. I’ve noticed this as a problem for my own Interpretation of Literature students and for some of my writing center students. In both Interpretation of Lit and Rhetoric, historical/cultural context poses a huge stumbling block for students. After all, how can you effectively analyze what a text is saying/doing if you’re considering it entirely removed from any sense of intended audience or the cultural code and system from which it was produced? This kept coming up recently when working with a Rhetoric student in the writing center. He was trying to analyze a series of 19 th century war images, but he didn’t know anything about the specific war they were depicting or who the original audience was for the images. I’ve tried to improve my own approach to this issue in teaching Gen Ed Lit. The first semester I taught, I assigned Angels in America...