In the assigned article, Matthew Ortoleva asks when it is appropriate for a session to become textually based. This is an age old question that will likely exist as long as there are writing centers. I think this is something that the individual tutor needs to decide for themselves. I doubt there can ever be a guideline to go by. Each session and client is unique and the tutor should just use their judgement.
Ortoleva discusses the "back and forth movement." I think this is a good compromise between the client and tutor. This way both parties wants and needs are fullfilled.
I can relate to the students being concerned with their grade and the "right now" scenario. It it very typical of our fast pace Americanized society to want the quick fix and solution. We often claim that we'll just fix it good enough to function for now, but we will come back to it later to look over the long term possibilties. This rarely happens. This applies to much more than a college paper. How many times have you just stuck tape on something and claimed you would fix it later? or just put five dollars of gas in for now but you will fill up later?
My solution to the consultant's issue with helping a science or engineering student is to have them meet with the subject based tutor prior to meeting with the writing tutor. This would relieve any stress from the writing consultant to worry about content or format and would enable them to focus on the writer. If this is not a possiblity, maybe this is the time to strictly work with the text.
I had a session a few weeks ago with an OT student. Since i was unfamiliar with the process of a paper such as hers and many of the terms and processes, i aske several questions about the content. I pointed out that not everyone will be familiar with the jargon used in her paper so a short description may be beneficial. She seemed very accepting of this advice and commented that it was not something she had thought about before.
Matthew's decision to make the tutoring session with Karen text based seemed to be sufficient. Karen had brought a sixth or seventh draft of this paper to the writing room and said that she was to the point she could not catch her own errors. I think this is a very good stage of the writing process to help the client with the text of their paper. This scenario is much different than the most frequent scenario that takes place at our writing center. Most of the time a client comes in with a paper that they typed up late the night before and haven't even read over it since they typed it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I laughed at the analogy to "sticking tape on something." Maybe because my granddad was notorious for repairing everything with duct tape! Anyway, I think this is an accurate characterization of how many students treat their writing for school: I'll make it good enough for now, and worry about learning later. Maybe that happens because we put too much work on undergraduates, and they can't properly focus on anything? Or maybe it's cultural, as you point out. In any event, it does make for tough tutoring situations, and I think you're right that the best we can do is aim for flexibility that honors the client's wishes without totally going against our "idea of a writing center."
ReplyDeleteI really like your analogies! I completely agree with what you are saying. We do have that belief that we can put something off and just fix the main issue at the moment (which leads us to be text-based). However, when we focus only on text, we get a better essay, not a better writer. So there we have it: one improved essay, and not another to follow because we have not taught the student anything. However, we need to be somewhat text-based as tutors because it sets an example for the student to learn from. It's not helpful to be completely student oriented either. I could read an essay and say, "I see you have trouble understanding comma use; let's talk about it." They would learn something, but application is so important in the learning process. Therefore, we should use the text to show our points. We should say, "How could you fix this sentence with your new knowledge of comma usage?" That way the writer improves and the text improves.
ReplyDelete