Reading Response 7

I am going to jump on the bandwagon and agree that my biggest cultural preference is the format and concision of a typical academic essay. Frankly I acquired this taste from getting many returned essays in middles school that said “too wordy, be more concise.” My personal opinion used to be that style and argument were the most important points in writing but now I have become “one of them” and have adapted to my linear ways of writing.

When I see what appears to be a cultural difference in an ESL students writing I usually take note of it and bring it up in discussion. Often times the clients have asked me “how do you say this here?” Generally, I just give them my answer and explain it to them. The decision of whether or not they want to change it is entirely up to them. The biggest thing I have noticed is that in trying to say one thing the ESL students typically end up saying the opposite. In this case I bring it to their attention and ask them to clarify what they are trying to say. If I find that they are in fact trying to describe the opposite I make them aware of it.

The most important things to be aware of and watch for are the differences between a mistake and an error. I believe this to be a very crucial part of not only ESL tutoring but of all writing sessions. I personally am well known for my typos such as “were” instead of “where” or “their” instead of “there”. This clearly does not mean that the tutor should assume I don’t know the difference but perhaps think that it is a typo and double check with the client at the end when the more important subject matter has been dealt with.

Reading Response 6

First of all, my favorite clients so far have been my international students! However, they have been upper level students who were in English 201 or Gen 099 rather than an ESL class. I had such a good session on Monday with a guy from Russia! I really enjoyed the whole hour that I spent with him. He wrote such an interesting story. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. He also made me laugh a lot. I was discouraged to hear that he had come here before and still received many comments about his grammar from the professor. Hearing this, I decided that we would just go through the whole paper sentence by sentence and discuss them. I found that all his grammatical errors consisted of tense issues and the lack of articles. Halfway through the paper he was catching them himself and we got to spend most of the time enjoying the story he was telling instead of searching for missing articles.

In my personal experience, ESL students are much more cooperative and eager to hear the ideas of the tutor. They seem more invested in actually learning the process rather than just “fixing” it this time for their paper. However, I must admit I have been lucky and have had very few reluctant clients. (The few I had were annoyed because they had to be there just to pass their paper).

Bruce talks about a student’s first time in the writing center on page 33 in the second paragraph. I can easily relate to this because I have never actually been to a tutor before, although it would probably benefit me to visit a Spanish tutor, and I assume I would be nervous and apprehensive about going to get help from a tutor. I found the final sentence of that paragraph to be a bit odd. It reads, “Just by walking in the door, students are admitting to themselves and everyone there that they need help” (33). I thought that was a little deep considering that this is tutoring; it is not an alcoholic support group. This is not to say that I don’t agree that clients need help or that tutors don’t offer those clients support, I just found it odd.

I think that ESL students are not the only people that “have no idea what a writing center is or how it functions” (34) and this worries me. ESL students may come from a country where there are no writing centers, so that is excusable. On the contrary, American students, especially college age students, should be well aware of a writing center and its purpose. I think one of the main reasons that this is not occurring is because of the PR for writing centers or the lack thereof. Writing rooms want their mission to focus on the student rather than the text yet today I saw a sign in the library that read “who needs help with a paper?”

Bruce talks about the importance of making a plan with the client. I admit to forgetting many of the methods we discuss in class, due to nerves or what have you, this is one method that I stand by and always use. I also agree with him about compliments and how paying attention to the client, in this nature, can help the student feel at ease. I am a firm believer, and follower, of compliments. They go a long way and can help people cheer up a little bit. I know I always enjoy a compliment, even if it is just about my earrings or necklace.

On page 36 Bruce discusses time management in a tutorial and how setting a plan will save time. I used the same argument in my observational analysis. However, I am unfamiliar with the clients who “come to the writing center with specific requests in mind” (36). I have yet to meet this student. So far when I have asked the client for their personal goals of the current paper, I have merely received the response, “I don’t know. My teacher just said I had to be here.” My ESL clients, on the other hand, usually have a better plan of their goals.

I also agree that writing tutors should “not attempt to fix every phrase just because it sounds different. Sometimes, these variations can be refreshing, if not poignant, and leaving them intact goes a long way toward preserving the student’s voices” (36). I tried very hard to keep some of **Slavik’s (my international client) original phrasing but still keep them grammatically correct. The story he was telling sounded really exciting from a Russian narrator’s point of view. If he would have been writing for a creative writing class I would have been hesitant to change much of anything.

reading response 5

I really liked our revision activity in class. Before I went to last week’s class I held in my hand a very “cookie-cutter” essay that was lame and boring. In fact when I was trying to revise it I was boring myself. During class time I mainly focused on the adding method of revision. I compiled a very long and critical list of questions and comments. I wrote them as if this paper was someone else’s. I asked questions using “you.”

In my fast write I defended each comment or edited my work to answer the aforementioned questions. I ended up walking away with a completely different idea and approach to my paper. I am much more pleased with it now.

On another note:

This week I tutored a former ESL student. She was from Turkey and was working on a paper for 098. At first I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to understand what she was trying to say or that I would not get my ideas across to her properly. After a few minutes I found that we related quite well. At one point she said that she thinks it is interesting that people are generally more familiar with the grammar for their second language than they are with their native language. She said that she could read a Turkish essay and notice an error but would not be able to explain why it is wrong. I told her that this also occurs frequently in English writing because we are so tempted to say “I don’t know why it is wrong but it is because it just sounds wrong.” The session ended up going very well and we accomplished a lot. I was afraid that I would put too many words in her mouth but she came up with everything on her own and I just aided her.

The super tutor my group created was named Iron Maiden. We chose the picture of ironman (this is where iron derived from) and went off of the phrase midwife. Somehow this made the name iron maiden. He was also shooting fire and we thought that was cool. The six superpowers we chose were: sense of humor, understanding of writing process, knowledge of grammar rules, strong writing skills, lots of writing strategies, and patience.

I thought that good listening skills should have been included in our superhero. I would probably trade it with knowledge of grammar rules. Yes, this is an important quality but so were all the other ones we excluded. Grammar rules are accessible through a handbook. However, a handbook cannot listen to the students ideas like a tutor can.

I think that patience is the most important superpower that we chose. Many students enter the writing center frustrated and getting help from an equally frustrated tutor will likely not help them. Since the foundation of tutoring is communication one must keep in mind that miscommunication will also frequently occur. If you are not patient the session will not go smoothly. This could even prevent the success of the session.

An understanding of the writing process is also very key to a successful tutor. If I do not understand how to write a paper how in the world can I help someone else write one? This would be like going to a math tutor who does not understand math equations. I am not saying you have to be perfect or know everything about tutoring I just think this is a fundamental start. Although, a person probably wouldn’t have made it this far if they did not possess this understanding.