Second Day of Tutoring: December 1st 3 pm and 4 pm

Today was my second day of tutoring, I didn’t feel as nauseous and I did on my first day, actually today I was very excited. I felt a little more prepared what was in store for me because I had the tutees email me their papers before hand. One tutee actually emailed me several drafts.

My three o’clock appointment arrived and since I already saw his paper I thought this session was going to be a very good one. This too turned out to be a disaster, I learned from this session that although it would be more beneficial to myself and the tutees if I received their papers before hand I probably should not make any writings on them. I now understand why Sarah did not show the tutee any markup copy but read the paper before hand got a good idea of what they were talking about and their weak spots but only had the unmarked up version with her. I also realized that having a markup version and just talking about what I saw in addition to their request could go against what the writing center stands for, FACILTATIVE TUTORING NOT DIRECTIVE TUTORING. So that was the first mistake. After he saw my markup version of his paper, he produced another draft that he had just finished and requested that I go over that version instead. I noticed in this version he did catch most of what I had noticed and his argument was much clearer in the presented draft. I also noticed something that one of my fellow writing apprentices talked about in class, I can not remember her name but she talked about gendered tutoring. I wished I had gone over her reading handout again before having this session because there was most certainly tension in the room and it was not coming from me. We went over our session by five minutes and I was upset that I didn’t pace myself properly, I must remember to do that with each session especially with tutees who have 10 pages or more. After the session was over I went over to get my next appointment and noticed him talking to a friend and did not seem to pleased or relieved just more frustrated. I wish we did follow up surveys to see if I was helpful to him. He did not have specific concerned or didn’t interpret me when I was speaking and did asked him a lot of questions on his paper when I found something confusing. I think he took offense to this, he did look taken aback when asked him questions about his paper. I was trying to be facilitative but it doesn’t look like I did a great job at this.

In my next session, 4 pm, I have to honestly say that I was very relieved that my next appointment was a woman and international, someone I could relate to. This session when must better than the first session. We went over her draft for her geography paper and then since we had thirty minutes left I helped her brainstormed for her CORE paper. She asked a lot of questions and I asked her a lot of questions although I knew I was supposed to be more directive with an international/ ESL student but in this case I think it was an exception because she went to an American High in her country and she did not seem taken aback by my questions but found it helpful to her paper. Because of the horrible session I had the hour before I asked her if I was helpful at all to see if I didn’t overstep boundaries and was understandable. Her response was yes although I do this it would be better if we had follow anonymous surveys

FIRST DAY OF TUTORING: November 24th 3 pm and 4pm

Today was so nerve wreaking! It was my first day of tutoring, all I could think of was I hope that I could help these students with their writing. I didn’t know that I had any tutees; I was on the writing center’s website and noticed that my timeslots were filled. I had to email Ms. Boylan to find out if I actually had appointments and why I didn’t get any emails for those appointments. Turns out my name was misspelled, but it’s fixed now. I was mostly nervous because I didn’t get a chance to ask the tutees to email me their papers so I could look at them before our session. And I wasn’t sure how helping someone with their writing while they were looking over your shoulder would work out.

My three o’clock appointment didn’t want any specific help in any area; he just wanted someone to look over his paper. I did and he really did not any thing particularly weak about his writing otherwise than rearranging a few of his paragraphs his paper was fine.

When the time came for my second appointment of the day, I was pumped. I had gotten rid of my tutoring jitters and I was ready to help. However my Four O’clock appointment did not go so well. My tutee came in with a prompt for her paper that she did not understand had not brothered to ask the professor to explain the prompt to her. And according to our reading this is usually the case for ESL and international students but my tutee was American so I was little confused on why she didn’t ask. To make matters worse she did not have a draft or an outline. And she wanted me to give her a thesis for her paper. And she wanted me to explain the films that she saw for her class and her readings to her. I had no idea what those films were nor her readings and I was most certainly was not going to give her, her thesis. Instead I wondered if in such a case it would be okay to turn her away until she could produce at least an outline. Since I wasn’t sure I worked on getting her to write an outline with my help. After I explained what her professor was asking for, I had her explain the films to me and come up with a common theme and then had her relate the theme to the prompt. After which I asked what was the theme saying about American culture was and the way society saw women. After having a discussion on this commentary she was able to come up with a workable thesis from which she gave me several incidents from the different films and readings to back it up. I’m very thrilled I was about to help her but I hope this does not happen too often. It is hard to help someone when they are unprepared

Eighth Shadowing

Shadowing Sarah on November 24^th at 11 am

Sarah’s second appointment of the day was a business student and who came in with a cover letter. There is nothing much we could have done to help with since it is a formatted style of writing. Aren’t they supposed to go to the Career Development Center for things like that? We just edited for grammar and organization and left her go. There was no room to be creative and no way for to use our collaborative training, directive was the best approach.

Seventh Shadowing

Shadowing Sarah on November 24^th at 10 am (canceled and walk in)

Today I shadowed Sarah however her first appointment canceled on her thirty minutes before the appointment. What an utter disregard for other people’s time, it is got that the tutee thought that coming in would have been a waste of the tutor’s time and his/her own time but it would have been nice to know a little earlier. I’m sure students do not do the same to the professor, although our approach to writing is different and we are not seen as authoritative figures, our time should still be respected.

However, I got to see one of the rare specialties of the writing center, a walk-in, while we were waiting for the next appointment a guy walked in hoping for some help. And because we were free we took him. His concerns like the many I’ve seen in my shadowing were grammatical errors and organizational flow. I really am going to try the reading aloud approach it seems to help the students a lot.

Reading Presentation

“Centering in the Borderlands: Lessons from Hispanic Student Writers.”

-Written by Beatrice Mendez-Newman

-First Appeared in The Writing Center Journal in 2003

Borderland Hispanic Student: Students that lack facility in Spanish and English, they acquire formal language for the first time when they start going to school, problems with the English language persists because Spanish is the main language that is spoken at home. (261)

Argument:

The writing center is the medium for the Borderland Hispanic student; it serves as an agency to their understanding and link into academia discourse.

· Hispanic students at borderland institutions have been overlooked due to the lack of knowledge of this specific type of student. It is important to understand that home-life, culture, and native language spoken outside of the university affects the student’s academic experience. “Strong cultural and familial ties “interfere” with academic expectations and situate them in borderland institutions within driving distance of their homes…the family creates a special type of on-going “interference” with their assimilation into the academy.” (253)

· The writing center is “an agent of access to the institution and to the avenues of success and acceptance an institution of higher education represents.” (254) After the social expectations and regulations of the life of a borderland Hispanic student.

· The writing center is more welcoming because it does not have an authoritative feel to the environment. Hispanic students do not ask questions in class because they are afraid that they may appear to be resisting authority. And do not approach professors during their office hours because they do not want to appear intrusive. (260)

Solution:

· Inspire confidence in the borderland student so he or she becomes an independent writer

· The writing center is the one place where the student will not be criticized or penalized for putting family first. In this situation tutoring via internet has to become an option.

· Visual deconstruction may be useless to some cases

Guidelines:

· Deconstruct the student’s writing to show and help the student get to a higher level of literacy. Keep in mind that borderland students only use English for school so being literate in English is low.

· Unlike tutoring native English speaking students, it is suggested that when tutoring Borderline Hispanic students a directive approach is best because they do not respond to non-directive tutoring. Asking facilitative questions would only leave the student more frustrated and make it appear as though the tutor is “withholding information on grammar and writing” (264)

· Most problems are caused by the family therefore strategies are essential to the writing process with these students

I think every writing fellow and tutor should read this article. As I was reading it I realized that this article applied to myself as well. Although I am not Hispanic and not a Borderland student, I am from a different country and from a completely different culture. And because this I remember I found it very offensive when the tutor during my first writing tutoring experience used the facilitative method with me. I couldn’t understand why he kept asking me more questions than instead of giving me answers or being more directive. I remember leaving the session more frustrated than I was before I did not go back to the writing center afterwards I just had my friends who were writing tutors edit my papers for me, it was much easier and I made it clear to them that I preferred them to be direct in their approach to editing my paper. It is also true that I found asking a teacher to look at draft in addition to everything that they did more of a hassle than actually helpful to me. However I have adapted to this practice and have no problem doing this now after-all teachers are here to help me reach my full potential.

ESL Students

“Cultural Conflicts in the Writing Center: Expectations and Assumptions of ESL students” ~ Muriel Harris

Muriel states, “ESL students tend to see a tutor as someone whose primary role is to answer questions and solve problems. ESL students often do not expect a tutor to ask them questions aimed at facilitating collaboration or returning the burden of problem solving to the students, and these conflicting expectations can impede learning.” When it comes to ESL students it very hard to use the facilitative approach because they find this as offensive and it may actually discourage them from using the writing center again. “Collaboration is viewed as empowering because it returns ownership of the piece writing and responsibility for learning to the writer. Tutors are there to guide, ask questions. As tutors we would be more helpful to them when we are more directive. This argument is also stated for Borderland students, I will elaborate further in my next blog. It contains similar arguments made for ESL students and it is my presentation piece.

Sixth Shadowing

Shadowing with Kathleen on November 23 at 5 pm

Today the tutee was a CORE student; her main concerns were grammatical errors. I noticed so far students have been coming in for help with grammar, it’s hard to focus on the creative process when the main concern is only on the mechanics of writing.

Fifth Shadowing

Shadowing with Anna on November 19^th at 7 pm

Tonight I shadowed Anna, her tutee came in with his second revision of his history paper (he sent her an outline before hand). His main concerns were organization of his thoughts and clarifying his thesis. We went over his paper with him and he asked us if it made sense then we where his evidence should go with each argument and actually helped him out of some of arguments because it was too much for a 12 page paper. And at the end of his session where he had his thesis a little more clarified he felt more confident in what he had to say and less frustrated. I noticed with this student it helped him a lot when we asked him questions about his work and what he was trying to argue with each paragraph and he was able to put his evidence and thoughts together better by himself. It also helped him when he asked us what he thought he was arguing that way he was able to see if he was making sense in his paper.

Fourth Shadowing

Shadowing with Jill on November 19^th at 1pm (cancellation)

Today had a shadowing appointment set up with Jill but the tutee canceled a few hours before our session. I thought this was an inconvenience to the tutor then I found out that when we have cancelled appointments or no appointments in our time slots. Tutors still have to go in because there may be someone walk-in with their paper in hopes of finding a free tutor and once we are on the clock we should be there to help them. This is good idea I’m sure if a lot of students know about this rule though. I didn’t know that we could do walk- ins. And of course this could not be publicized because if a lot of people start to walk-in this could turn into a major problem. But it’s nice to know that the writing center does do walk-ins.

Third Shadowing

Shadowing with Sarah on November 17^th at 10 am

Today Sarah and I had a very short and interesting tutoring session. The tutee came in for help with her core paper but had no pages, or outline. So we attempted to help her create an outline for her paper however she did not read any of the books for her paper which was evident when we begun to talk to about the books. I think she wanted us to give her the answers and write the outline for her because she expressed her frustration on how hard of a grader her professor is but since her indirect request was borderline honor code violation; Sarah had no choice but to send her away. And suggest having the tutee send her an outline or an actual draft after she had gotten something down on paper.

It is so sad when tutees do things like this, not only did they did someone else’s spot but they wasted their time and our time. I have no idea what possessed this girl to think that we were going to write her paper for her. I hope this kind of thing does not happen

Second Shadowing

Shadowing with Sarah on November 16^th at 6 pm

My first day of shadowing continued with Sarah as my second tutor shadow, her tutee for today came in with a history paper. This particular tutee wanted help in making her paper flow better, getting a narrow thesis and help on citing her sources correctly. Good thing the writing center has books on different citations styles how very helpful! I noticed that because Sarah received the tutee’s paper beforehand she read it and then printed out the paper with no corrections on it and read the paper allowed to the tutee. While she did this the tutee was able to catch all her mistakes and confusing sentences and was able to help herself more than Sarah was able to help her because she caught the mistakes herself. I think I like this way of helping tutees with their papers, it’s more interactive and definitely very beneficial to them. When we got to the final paper the tutee was able to come up with a more clarified thesis that worked better for her paper. I wonder what would happen if I asked tutees to read their papers to me instead of reading their paper to them. However I could see how this can be a little insulting to them and may not go over that well with them and could lead to frustration but I would still like to try this.

First Shadowing Experience

Shadowing with Kathleen on November 16^th at 5 pm

Today I shadowed for the first time, the first tutor I shadowed was Kathleen. I must say it was very exciting and a little nerve wreaking, I wasn’t really sure what I had to do. The tutee came in with a science creative paper which I thought was very interesting. Actually I have never heard of such a class. The tutee came in with concerns on grammatical errors and help with creative which she felt was stifled because she was not used to writing creative stories or papers as she is a science major, the most writing she does are lab reports. As new writing tutors we do have a challenge ahead of us by helping students with papers from different disciplines. I looked on as Kathleen helped the tutee with her creative writing assignment.

She did edit the paper for grammatical errors and when she found sentences that were confusing instead of saying that it was confusing she asked the student to explain what she was trying to say in here story. It was so interesting to see the facilitative approach at work, reading about it was one thing but to actually see in practice, it’s a different experience. Especially since it’s easier to just tell someone what to do instead of having them come up with their own ideas, for additional help on making the story more enjoyable to the reader, Kathleen suggested just looking at different writers and the way they used dialogue and imagery to make the stories flow. I would have never thought of using other writer’s samples to get ideas on how to write. Then again it does make sense; authors are the perfect source to get the dos and don’ts of writing. It’s like writer shadowing without leaving your room.

After we were done with our session Kathleen showed me how to fill out the tutee form, I think this is a great idea not only as a way for tutors to cover their backs but so professors can see that students are trying to improve their writing skills. I noticed there isn’t a form for tutees to fill out for their tutors on whether or not they found the session helpful or not. I would be nice to know how we are doing as tutors; maybe we can do surveys online or after each session?

INTERVIEW NUMBER TWO/ PRESENTATION

On November 12^th, 2008 we presented to the team leaders and one of their team members what we have been working on all semester. Today’s agenda was on the work related writing styles and format. My island group presented on email etiquette, personal evaluations, and work order forms. I think we did a great job and the staff responded positively towards some presentations. Although I felt a little bad about going up there and telling these people who have been filling out work order forms for how many odd years how to do their job. Then I realized that I was not telling them how to do their jobs but how to improve their writing skills on their jobs. This is what I suggested:

Writing A WORK REPORT

Since there is limited space and everything written will be time bound:

· Before writing anything in the work description it is suggested that you write whether or not the work ordered is an emergency or not.

· Although this is a handwritten form, it is easy to slip into informal writing, it is suggested that because it is work related to keep it formal.

· DO NOT use short hand abbreviation

· And because of the limited amount of space available make it brief and to the point. For example:

Building: North Court Date:12^th November, 2008

Dept: N/A Room: 171

Caller: Nikki Briggs Phone: Ext 6145

Email Address: N/A

WORK DESCRIPTION (BE SPECIFIC)

“Level of Importance: Semi- Emergency.

Student, Nikki called at 10:15 am this morning concerned about her heating system.

When she turns on her heater only cold air or no air at all is produced from the system.

In addition to which a loud racket is also produced.”

PRINT YOUR NAME: Nyketha Lyken

I think we did a great job as a group I especially liked what Alex and Connor had to say about personal evaluations there were things in there I have never thought of. And I think they responded to us in a positive manner I was a little worried it may be taken a little negatively but they were very receptive. I can’t wait for this project to get on its way

Take Me by the Hand

“The Concept of Control in Teacher Response: Defining the Varieties of 'Directive' and 'Facilitative' Commentary.” ~ Richard Straub

The writing is a collaborative environment, feedback given by the tutor should not sound authoritative or suggest that comments should be taken seriously. The commons of the tutor are mere suggestions, changing his or her paper is up to the student’s discretion. Facilitative is the way to go when it comes to dealing with student; giving feedback in the form of suggestions and not in a directive way of showing where the path of the paper should go is suggested for a few reasons. One of which is not to alter the person’s creative ideas, just improve them. We are not there to do the paper for them but to help them present their thoughts and arguments in a better format.

The author mentions three important collaborative theory authors that state:

Jeffrey Sommers- “teachers must become “collaborators rather than judges”

Robert Probst – “take on the role of “common reader” and abandon the roles of “hostile reader”, “proofreader”, “gatekeeper”, and “authority figure”…place the responsibility on the student.”

Elizabeth Flynn- “sets a ‘feminine style’ of response against the traditional directive style… a feminine style creates the teacher as a “sympathetic reader” and a “friendly adviser”.

Basically no matter how these writers spin, it all comes down to collaborating with the student and expanding on ideas. Tutors adhere to their words. Be facilitative and not directive. When we are facilitative we become supporters, advisors, explorers, engager, question motivators and interpreters. In a way in other to encourage students to become better writers, independent confident writers, we have to be constructive critics/ cheerleaders of their work. And beware of comments that are borderline directive or that are directive although in some cases it may be hard to avoid. Directive comments are “highly critical and sets out for the student in no uncertain terms what is not working in the paper and what it needs to be done”. This only frustrates the student and dissuades the student from writing or the student experiences a drop in confidence in their writing abilities. And keep in mind that being too directive takes away the student’s need and right to creativity.

Example: “Revise the opening to begin your argument. Select the parts of LeMoult’s article that are appropriate for your paper and omit the rest. Focus this paragraph on this argument and develop this one. Make this into a full closing paragraph. Be sure you focus each paragraph on its central idea.”

The above is both directive and facilitative because it is only about the context and organization and not about the student’s ideas.

Example of facilitative commentary “What about this starting point?” “Can you develop this argument?”

Facultative commentary is the way to go to make a successful collaborative environment.

REvision, REenVISiON

“Provocative Revision” ~ Toby Fulwiler

When it comes to revision, the concept is so tricky to me, to revise something to me means to modify, to slightly change, to make the paper/ idea better. And I would not be in the minority to think such a thing. Toby Fulwiler states, “Many college students, first year and graduate alike, assume that writing is essentially copying down what they’re already been thinking- well maybe with a little spell checking, editing a few awkward sentences, adding a transition or two, and throwing in a few supportive examples.” I guess revision was not really instilled in me as re-thinking concepts and ideas but just rearranging thoughts and fixing grammatical errors.

However as a writing tutor the author says that we must not leave the revision process to chance or up to the tutee, we must encourage it. It’s like playing a sport if you do not practice you will not get better. Revision when done clearly is one of things that will improve the student’s writing because the student learns to be more open to new ideas, or see a different way of looking at their topic that they had not thought of before.

He demonstrates four provocations of revision: limiting, adding, switching, and transforming. When revising a paper things to look for are generalizations, these usually make the argument weak therefore it is best to either limit or completely get rid of them. Limit unnecessary mention of time, place and action, this alteration can dramatically improve your paper. Revision also means adding more information and explanation and analysis not just looking at grammatical errors. This is something that is not known or practiced by most students. For example if you add dialogue it, “allows readers to see and hear a story in a dramatic rather than narrative way, increasing reader involvement and interest.” Adding interview questions and responses or quotes from an interview gives your writing a little more something.

Reviewing is about transforming ideas and making your argument better. This is can be done by following the guidelines above and sometimes by switching up the points of view and voice of your argument. For example when revising a research paper, make it more interesting, and keep an audience in mind when writing it. If you do not have fun writing your paper and you are not proud of your work odds are the reader will not enjoy the paper either because the effort was not there. Although the author does not talk about motivation and level of care taken and the amount of time and enough placed into your paper I think it is important to mention. If you do not care about your topic or your argument then why should your reader care? It seems pointless to not care about writing something and expect others to read it and care about what you have to say.

The author states, “When [tutors] discover writers locked into one tedious way of telling their stories, tutors can find out if there is any room in the assignments –or time in their lives- for experimentation and play.” Writing does not have to be a chore if you find something even if it’s a little section in a required paper for class that you can agree with and enjoy writing, do that portion and for the rest of the paper pay the same respect to the rest of the paper. Most professor give a board topic to write about, giving the student more freedom to writing whatever they chose as long as it relates to that topic so why not have fun writing about something as trivial as identity. There are so many realms to explore with this one topic, do what interests you.

Hypertext of the Future

“Planning for Hypertexts in the Writing Center… or Not” ~ Michael A. Pemberton

The author of this article is a little too worried about something that to me does not seem like such as big deal. He states, “Writing centers without the technology or staff to work with these students will find themselves no longer in sync with how writers write and with what writers need to know about writing processes as they affected by technology.”Hypertexts are online books, citing them and obtaining the same information from them should not be a problem, it’s just the same as acquiring information from a hard copy book. I however can say that using them is not as convenient as using a hard copy book. For one it’s tiring on the eyes from having to stare at the screen for hours reading the book. In fact the student may acquire more information and gather more insightful thoughts because they are reading on an instrument with internet access. It is certainly much easier to look up unfamiliar words and concepts and look at what other scholars have thought about their reading. And also if the teacher has a discussion board the student can chat with his or her fellow peers and see what their opinions are certain things instead of waiting until the next day of class.

The author provides three questions to ask:
Are writing centers generally willing to accommodate hypertext?
Do writing centers need to accommodate hypertexts?
If a need exists, how should writing centers prepare to accommodate hypertexts?
Technology is the way of the future is rapidly progressing, the writing center cannot afford to not join this trend or it will be left behind. The only thing that I can see that can affect the writing drastically in terms of hypertext is having to read papers online and collaborate with the student online. This is very difficult to do, it is not the same kind of tutoring and although the student can still be facilitative in this collaboration effort it would only benefit the student more if the tutor was more directive. Helping someone with their paper via the internet is very hard it is much easier to do in person. The writing center could probably have follow up sessions over the internet but the first session with the tutor for that particular paper has to be in person.

“Hypertexts…sometimes threatening often unfamiliar-will probably exacerbate any hopes of easy accommodation.”

FIRST INTERVIEW FOR UR TOUCHDOWN PROGRAM

On October 29th, 2008 we met with the supervisors of the Facilities staff to talk about the UR Touchdown project. The UR Touchdown project is the staff writing program at the University of Richmond started by the department to help employees strive for higher goals. These goals include acquiring a General Education Degree (G.E.D), nursing assistant certificates and taking advantage of the free class policy available to staff and faculty member who work at the University of Richmond.

The role of the University of Richmond Composition Theory and Pedagogy Fall Class of 2008 will be to help the program take flight by assisting the members of the faculty with their writing skills. We first started off with the Wiki website will be used as a drawing board for ideas and documents posted. And will hopefully transition to a real website where they will be able to easily assess and navigate the materials properly.

Transcript of Meeting:

Question ONE: How well known is Touchdown?
Answer: Very well known, after we introduced the program we met with each employee individually and asked then what they each wanted out of the program and what they thought about it.

Question TWO: What is Touchdown?
Answer TWO: It started to give employees the opportunity to expand on what they really want in life. Some want to go back to school and get their GED and nursing assistant certificates. Some just want to get something pleasurable out of it, learning wise. There are a lot of avid readers on our staff; they’re very excited about the program.

Question THREE: When is writing a significant issue?
Answer THREE: right now the employees write work order forms, emails, performance review, disciplinary forms, log books and accident reports. There is no major writing yet because most of the staff are now getting familiarized with computers. We teach them how to do basic things with them such as use an email account.

Question FOUR: What were employees interested in?
Answer FOUR: Getting their GEDs and Nursing assistant certificates.


After this meeting I was very concerned for several reasons: 1) Most of the staff are not familiar enough with computers to feel comfortable accessing the wiki we created; a hard copy of the site should be prepared as a back up. The site needs to be something that they want to read and not too complicated. It needs to feel like it’s really for them.
2) This project is a little too focused on us, writing articles for the collegian about it etc. What ever we decide to do we need to make sure that it is really about the staff members and not us. I like the idea of having an employee writer of the week and questions of their fellow workers.
3) Another thing that concerns me is the homework help page, that sounds like a good idea and I can see why and I don’t want to sound negative but something about it rubs me the wrong way. I can see how that may be an insult. I don’t know, maybe it’s not best to bring people’s
children into this.

BOUNDARIES IN THE WRITING CENTER

“‘This is a Redneck Argument!’: The Politics of Tutoring Paragraphing.”

This article is about censoring ourselves as tutors. In a country where freedom of speech is one of the most valued rights we have as human beings living in this land and going to a liberal arts school where the first day of class you are told to claim your education and be an advocate, the notion is easier said than done. But as tutors we have to make the environment comfortable for students to learn and explore their writing. They will not able to do that if they are constantly being judged for everything they write on paper. Besides it goes against what I believe is TRUTH when it comes to writing, there are not limitations, and it is fluid. I would be a hypocrite to say that censoring tutees instead of ourselves is appropriate but it is not, and yes there exceptions to every rule but in this case we are not talking about the exceptions but the majority. As tutors we have censor our own beliefs to better help students write to the best of their abilities with THEIR own opinions and not ours.

What was surprising about this article was the fact that the teacher said, “this is a redneck argument! Go to the writing center for help on your paragraphs!” What a difficult position to be in; knowing you should take the teacher’s side but at the same time knowing that the teacher not no right to write something as inappropriate as “this is a redneck argument” on the student’s paper. I think the tutor made the best decision when she decided to not ask him why he thought his teacher wrote that comment on his paper but instead focused on being unbiased and just asked him to support his arguments on generalizations such as “these people”, and get him to think of them as flesh and blood individuals; and other comments that required evidence to just back them up. The student stated in his argument, “everyone in the U.S. and that everybody had to learn English anyway, why publish manuals in Spanish: that “these people” are illegal. And that they don’t do any good for this country anyway… should be sent back where they came from.” Yes this is definitely a comment I would consider to be ignorant but if this is what the student believes then the only thing we as tutors can do is help the student prove their argument even if we do not agree with it. We should not censor someone else’s writing because we do not agree with them and especially because we are tutoring them we do not want to attach them, we much try as hard as possible to remind unbiased to do something similar to the tutor in this article who, read comments to him in the most negative way to get him to see how it sounds to other people in which some cases he agreed that it was pretty bad and he changed that language.

It is our responsible as tutors to be able to: “be able to carve a conversational space where I could talk to him (or any other student with similar cases) in a gentle respectful manner without alienating him through brusque confrontation.” And be very caution when we “[emphasize that he came off as offensive to many] and it was duty as his tutor to let him know about the possible repercussions of what he had written.”

Introduction to the UR Touchdown Program

The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker ~ Mike Rose

* “Cognition refers to those mental processes involving perception, attention, memory, knowing, judging.”

*“Skill is ‘proficiency, facility, or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training or experience.”

*“Work. What our society defines as work also changes over time and place…what classifies as work in one setting could be called a hobby next, it’s all about context.”

These are the three components for what is considered a job or a career. Very too often the working class gets looked down on because they have jobs that did not require them to go to an institute of higher learning. Therefore causing members of society who belong to the white collar class to think the workers are stupid and are only good with their hands. They do not give consideration to the fact that these workers had to go through some other form of training. And also that education is not just about what you learn from books and in school it is also about what your experiences, you grow and learn a lot about yourself and the world. What Mike Rose the author of this book is trying to do is show us that there is more to being part of the working class than not going to college, these people work extremely hard for everything and without them the world would be dirty, in despair and un-enriched. Rose talks about the journalist, Barbara Ehrenreich who went undercover and did research on jobs such as waitressing and cleaning maid services. What she found was that these people work extremely hard to make ends meet and they still come up short because they get paid the minimum wage. She also learned a lot about herself and her new found friends in this experience. But in no way were these people stupid at all, some were trying to get ahead in their life but were constantly being pulled back by their living situations and lack of savings since it was hard to live from paycheck to paycheck and be able to save money.

Rose states at the beginning of the introduction, “I’ve been thinking about this business of intelligence for a long time: the way we decide who’s smart and who isn’t, the way the work someone does feeds into that judgment, and the effect such judgment has on our sense of who we are and what we can do.” This statement is so true who really decides who is intelligent and who isn’t? Is it just limited to book smarts or book smarts and street smarts or street smarts? I have to say you may be the smartest person in the world but you do not have any common sense I would have to say that as a person living in this world you would be in a lot of trouble. I most certainly agree with Rose when he says, “our cultural iconography we are given the muscled arm, sleeve rolled tight against biceps, but no thought bright behind the eye, no image that links hand and brain.” Our ability to use our hands and create something beautiful such as a carpenter when he makes the most gorgeous carvings you have ever seen on the mahogany table you just had to get or the granite table found in the facilities conference room at the University of Richmond for some reason is not seen as something that required intelligence to make. Or the beautifully embroidered dress with the Versace tag on it you spent way too much money on; that required a lot of labor on the people WHO ACTUALLY sewed it. It takes more that the use of hands, the brain has to tell the hands what to do that brain also had to decide what design to choose and how to place it etc. It may not be the same thing as drawing up proposal plans or lobbing to get rid of a bill but it takes the same process and is HARDER that all the mental things. I can sew but no way am I able to sew something as gorgeous or even fit for sale as those men and women who sit in factory and sew the clothes that I buy. I tried to sew a black skirt with a side slit, and four accent colors flowing from the slit with a sash attached at the top and it was extremely hard in the end I just ended up sewing a black skirt and pinning the rest on. Before that experience I did not realize how hard it was to sew such a simple design. I also know what it is like to work to jobs one being a late night job after a long day classes, I quit after two months it was just too much.

On September 24th, 2008 Ms. Carmadee come into class today and gave us a brief introduction on the UR touchdown project. She explained that we would be helping the staff improve on their work writing, purposeful writing. We brainstormed topics that would be of interest to the staff. I think it is great the University of Richmond is giving back to the hard working loyal staff. I am told some have been here for twenty years. I would be nice to work with remarkable people and help them improve on their writing skills and help them when they take advantage of the free class for staff and faculty members.

Corrupt Standards

“Standardized Testing and the College Composition Instructor” ~ Gregory Shafer

Before reading this blog you should take a look at this view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFSN5AttlGk&feature=related

I’ve never gotten the hang of taking standardized tests, actually I hate them, Hate is a strong but I do greatly detest them. Leaving in Guyana I have not been exposed to taking many of them just one, the Common Entrance Exam which is a national that places students in High School according to their test scores and where they ranked in the country. I was eleven when I took this test. I understand why standardized exams are given, in theory it is a great idea, in actuality, it is not. The only thing I think it does is cause a lot of unnecessary anxiety and stress. When I came to the United States of America for my operation at the age eight I was horrified at the among of tests the elementary school made me take that were standardized, one too many for my liking. I just could not understand why they were trying to fit me into the American box, up to the American standard when in actuality my standard of education was higher in Guyana. I guess what I’m trying to say is stated by the author, “because tests require that one process language at an accelerated pace, they represent a decided disadvantage to those who process language through non- standard dialects.” As a Guyanese I didn’t fit the standard assigned by the American Government and it therefore became a frustration to the American teachers. The same thing happened in 2001 when I moved to live here, every class for every quiz and test used scantrons then the school started talking about taking the Standard of Learning test SOL and my education at my high school slowly but eventually became about what was on the test, we were only taught what was on the test, we took practice test. The school began to reward students that passed the test an exemption from taking the final exam because that was the final exam. All they could talk about was that test, no focus on the student but students passing the test. Then came the AP, Cambridge, SAT and ACT test period and all we could hear was getting a great grade on these test so we could get into a great college and do great things. And just when I thought we were done, they jump the bomb of GRE, MCAT, GMAT, LSAT on us. When will the madness stop? The only thing these test do is stress students out, reduce self –esteem especially intelligent students who are not great test takers/ standardized test takers and waste money. Yes they work in a way but they are unnecessary and are in a slap in the face to students because instead of teaching students what they are supposed to learn they are now only being taught what is on the test. The test is only so long that the second semester in high school is spent reviewing what was learned the previous semester and little new information added.


Another problem with this system is the issue of writing, when writing for the standardized test you have to learn to how to write in a formulized way, you do not get points for creativity or original thoughts. This test is definitely about looking into the camera lens and writing what you see and what they want you to see what they want. The author states, “the student writing becomes more teacher centered, more constrained, and less rooted in personal discovery and process.” This is not what writing is about, and not what it should become. I fear with the standardized way of writing becoming permanent and turning students and potential authors, writers and poets into zombie writers, writing for the camera; Unoriginality infecting the youth and causing a terrible writing epidemic. It was so unnerving to read the student’s paper that stated in the article, “I think it would be fun if composition were like poetry and musical lyrics- if writers had the chance to write “outside of the lines” once in a while.” From what I learned about writing in Guyana and other writing classes at the University of Richmond is that writing/ composition IS like poetry and musical lyrics sometimes even better. It has no boundaries, writing is fluid, there are not limitations, especially creative writing. But when “students are longer writing for themselves and using the episodic character of writing to develop an essay and create prose that is uniquely their own. Rather writing has become an endeavor to appease the invisible reader who will be recruited to evaluate the essay.” What can you expect of the student? So therefore it should not come as a surprise that the student expressed concerns about not being able to have a creative outlet in writing.

This is a serious problem and a possible epidemic with the future generation because, the “ability to engage in a rich, personal writing process affects their ability to think, compose, and develop into democratic citizens…Students should feel empowered to write “outside of the lines”, but this is only possible if we acknowledge and confront the dilemma of testing in high school.” The future of writing in the United States of America is in huge trouble, take away standardized testing or at least teach writing the way it is supposed to be taught. No limitations just creative flow, moments of Eureka are encouraged here.

I GOT IT!!!

“The Eureka Hunt: why do good ideas come to us when they do?” ~John Lehrer

Eureka is the insight experience.” The brain is a very intricate part of the body; it carries so many functions and is responsible for everything that we do. One of which is the writing process. In the article, “The Eureka Hunt” the author talks about being able to just relax and let the brain do what it does best. “If you’re in an environment that forces you to produce and produce, and you feel very stressed, then you’re not going to have any insights.”We are so busy stressing out about everything, forcing it to be creative under pressure that all we end up doing is just getting frustrated and experience writer’s block. This article demonstrates that the creative process should not be rushed it requires relaxation of the mind in order to have moments of Eureka. I never thought it of it but it does make a lot of sense. Whenever I try to rush the thought and writing process and especially when I am stressed, I can still produce something but it would not be as great when I actually sat down, let my mind relax and focus on the writing. And when that moment of Eureka occurs it becomes one of the most beautiful and exciting experiences. It could lead to masterpieces of the English Language such as Shakespeare’s works, You Don’t Love Yet by Jonathan Lethem, Emerson’s works, Milton’s Paradise Lost. Lehrer states, “insight… is like a revelation”, that moment of the light bulb popping into your head no words can describe the feeling.

How do we achieve these moments of eureka? Relaxation of course, the author states a research where a person is more likely to experience these great moments, “the relaxation phase is crucial… that’s why so many insights happens during warm showers…we do best of our thinking when we’re still half asleep.” I remember many times when I came up with solutions to problems just while taking a hot shower or bath, sometimes even topics for my short stories or poems.

The writing center at the University of Richmond should encourage their tutees to think ahead when it comes to writing their papers, relax and just let the Eureka moments come to them. Being stressed and writing a paper is not the best position to be in, especially when the writer’s block sets in. It would also make for a better tutoring session because the student will be better prepared and more aware of what they want to say and would have to rely on the tutor to help come up with ideas for the paper but instead use the writing center for what it was intended for; collaboration and transforming writing into beautiful arguments.

“An insight is a reconstructing of information- it’s seeing the same old thing in a completely new way.”

THAT MEAN OL' PROFESSOR!

“’My Teacher Hates Me!’ The Writing Center as locus for a rhetoric.” ~Based on the WAC Program.

One thing that the article stresses is that students today are too busy focusing on looking at the camera lens than striving to reach their full potential. “The students’ ability to hoop jump and academic double speak is an indication of the student’s awareness of two basic rhetorical concepts: audience and voice; which motivates us to write and publish in our academic fields.” This is most certainly not what the writing center wants to promote not what professors themselves would want their students to do. No one wants to read or hear their ideas from someone else’s mouth in their own words. Writing is about fluidity and having the ability to just explore. The author states, “The purpose of telling professors what they already know expresses frustration over “devaluing” of personal observation and experience in the sciences and the need to couch every in someone else’s words in order to achieve credibility.” It is like what Bartholomae said in his article, “Inventing the University”, when you write you enable privilege which empowers your writing. Writing is about words and words are very powerful and must be used with great responsibility. With power like that why would you want to write other people’s words or tell them what you think they would like to hear? That my friend is pointless. Don’t write to impress, write what you know, explore, be original.

BE CREATIVE!

“Inventing the University” ~ David Bartholomae

David Bartholomae, the author of the article argues that the moment the writer achieves EUREKA is the moment they have learned to invent the university. He states, “Every time a student sits down to write for us, he has to invent the university… the student has to learn to speak our language, to speak as we do, to try on the peculiar ways of knowing…our community.” We as writers must learn how to write for our audience; we need to learn how to grab their attention and keep it, and also how to gain their respect for us as writers. Therefore we have to write about things that will interest them and give them new insight into something they are already familiar with.

We as students do this every time we write a paper for our professors, we try to look at the camera lens and give them what they we think they may desire of us. I think this is a problem trying to write for someone to give them exactly what you think they may desire of you seems really pointless to me. You may as well not write for them, because they already know what you are going to write for them. The author’s argument of creativity as key is contradicted by his argument of writing for your audience through a camera lens. He states, “Teaching students to revise for readers…will better prepare them to write initially with a reader in mind. The success of this pedagogy depends on the degree to which a writer can imagine and conform to a reader’s goals.” Writing for a reader in mind is okay on some levels in my opinion, when applying for a job, school or writing for a teacher, it is wise to keep the reader in mind since this may be the only time they get to form some opinion of who you who are and in return you get a favor. It is a business transaction but when it comes to writing a book, short story or a poem for instance one does not have to keep the reader in mind.

The author states, “once you have your purpose clearly in mind, your next task is to define and analyze your audience…a sure sense of your audience is crucial to the success of your rhetoric.” This is not what writing is about; writing is about self expression about one’s exploration of the world. You cannot be graded on how you view it, there may be some people out there that agree and disagree with you so you have to be true to yourself and your mind and your craft. This is one of the things that the writing center at the University of Richmond is trying not to promote. Writing is empowerment; it is not about writing for one specific subject teacher and then not using it again. It is about developing your skill and being able to use for later references. You will not be able to use your writing experiences if you write for specific readers. How are you supposed to learn anything about yourself and your writing? The only thing you would accomplish is learning how write for one audience and thus narrowing your horizons and limiting your writing skills. Writing is not about limitations it is fluid, like water it is everywhere, it cannot be boxed in.

One student states in an essay, “creativity to me, means being free to express yourself in a way that is unique to you, not having to conform to certain rules and guidelines.” This student has the right idea, this is the problem with society today, we’re so used to everything being technologically charged and everything imagined for us that the youth have lost their sense of imagination. I do not remember the last time I saw a child just look up at the clouds and saw imagines of their favorite bedtime story characters, heros, enemies etc. The last time we just appreciated nature for its natural beauty, we’re too busy doing us and doing this and doing that that we become lost. And sitting down to write something creative becomes a chore and everything that is assigned and prompted become routine. Students begin to complain when a professor says come up with your topic instead of rejoicing for being an opportunity to express your original thoughts and not be confined to a box of normalcy and unoriginality.

Bartholomae states, “The moment of eureka was not simply a moment of breaking through a cognitive jumble in that individual writer’s mind but a moment of breaking into a familiar and established territory- one with insiders and outsiders; one with set phases, examples, and conclusions.” Yes indeed, don’t limit yourself to the box, think outside of it, unoriginality is never rewarded only moments of eureka or else there would not be so many brilliant authors out there whose books were once banned. Originality is key.

"THE WAY I IS"

“Grammar in the Writing Center: Opportunities for Discovery and Change” ~Carl W. Glover and Byron L. Stay.

Proper grammar skills are essential to succeeding in the world. The authors, Glover and Stay state, “limited English skills limit opportunity, good grammar and diction, correct usage and pronunciation help our graduates achieve success in college courses, in job interviews, and in business and social situations.” There are too many young people out there who lack the basic correct grammar skills especially children who live in the disadvantaged parts of the country and especially the inter-cities. And it does not help that words such as “Ain’t” is in the dictionary making it appear to be acceptable to use not only in everyday conversations but in formal settings as well.

It does not help that there are songs such as “If I ain’t got you”, “Girls dem sugar”, “The Way I are”, and “Ayer” are in the mainstream media right now. And with the main audience being young children it’s no wonder the youths are confused the proper grammar. According to the article, “Grammar has taken a back seat to the “making of meaning”, audience and occasion.” Rap lyrics; some have powerful meanings but with the sources of the messages being coded with improper grammar the youths are not exposed to the basics. It’s is like what Eminem says in his song, Sing for the Moment: “it’s like these kids hang on every single statement we make…but all their kids be listen'n to me religiously…idolize their favorite rappers and know all they songs.” Because these children spend their free time listening to these people and idolizing them it is possible that they not only will follow their examples in their songs but they will also speak incorrectly. It is more evident for the children who are at a disadvantage in overcrowded schools and classroom where teachers do not have the ability to spend the ideal amount of time on their students.

Sometimes we just need to go back to days of childhood when we say in front of the television on Saturday mornings and watch school house of rock. This lesson is on basic grammar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGN_NxKIIFM&feature=related

Glover and Stay stress that when you learn how to write well it enhances the personal development and growth of the person. And when it is taught effectively it can be used as a tool of empowerment. We as people have a great impact on the world and our peers because of our words, they are our most powerful tools that we have access to and do not even need a bag to carry them. When this tool is properly developed and enhanced more people take us seriously and believe in our words especially when we believe in them. It is our jobs as a writer tutor to show our tutees that even if they do not believe in what they are writing, their voice still counts for something so they should apply as much effort and thought into any assignment. If they disagree with the prompt, they have to write to do so and articulate their views with power, and proper grammar. And if done correctly they may even be able to sway the professor and their other peers to their side or at least gained their respect.
Glover and Stay also stress that is important to not only have the ability to use proper grammar because of empowerment but it also “informs student-teacher relationships because students can be victimized when they fail to be seen as partners in the learning process.” With good grammar you will be taken seriously, it is essential for professional relationships.”

PLAGIARISM

“The Economics of Authorship: Online Paper Mills, Student Writers, And First year Composition” ~Kelly Ritter

Plagiarism is always an issue in academia. It has come to the point where students think it is okay to acquire papers written by other students over the internet and not bat an eyelash about it. The reason given for this as stated by the author is that the students do not necessarily do it because they want to trick their professors into thinking that they wrote the paper “but because of their cultural and ideological disconnection from the system itself.” It is the internet, it’s accessible to everyone therefore it is not plagiarism. It is just a product, the process doesn’t matter; the author states, “the negligible desire to do one’s writing or to be an author, with all the entails in this era of faceless authorship vis-à-vis the internet; and the ever-shifting concept of “integrity” or responsibility when purchasing work, particularly in the anonymous arena of online consumerism”. To them it becomes an issue of general knowledge and what they are turning is a general knowledge paper. Something that was already known by society but now it is placed into words. The authorship does not matter. Education today especially in the American society has become a notion of consumerism. Especially in college, the student pay the money so they expect at the end of the four year not only to have the high paying jobs or get into the great medical, business, graduate and law schools but to get the high marks on their transcript that their parents hard earned money paid for. Students demand that professors relook their papers and give them a higher grade when it is not satisfactory. So it makes sense to some of these students to take papers written by someone else and place their names, on it, the assignment is completed. “First year composition students may only occasionally view themselves as authors, and by extension infrequently view the papers they buy online as “authored,” because they also place so little value on the actual work they produce as students.” There is definitely “a lack of recognition on the students’ part that authorship is valuable and that published writing is more than a product for the taking.”

On the other hand, the article talks about students feeling the pressure to write for professors as their audience when trying to look into the camera lens. The dangerous side to doing this is stress and of course, unoriginality. Students need to understand that feeding the professors their words back to them in a paper is not the way to go. Yes the idea was great that’s why they said it. Now is the time for the student to speak up and show the professor that they know what they are talking about on the related topic. Putting someone else’s words in that place just defeats the purpose.

The issue that is being debated here and in academia is “the idea of ownership versus authorship when determining ethical use of a paper, especially a purchased one, is less clear in many students’ mind, even as faculty understand- or profess to understand- what it means to create an “original” and quality text to “own” as an author.” Because the student views the paper as a product he or she either has to produce to get to the next level of their 10 year plan, it is okay to pay someone to write the paper for them because it has no relevance to anything they will have to do later on in life. But it is not considered plagiarism but of two reasons, they have the original author’s permission and they bought the rights to have that paper in their possession. You can see the student views it as a copyright issue, like publisher and other authors they have to ask the original author to reproduce their product in some way, shape or form. Then they too own these words and ideas but give credit to the source. The only problem here the students do not acknowledge the original writers for reasons such as getting expelled and banned from other colleges. And for this reason it is plagiarism, if you can not site your source to give them credit or if you pay someone for their work and try to pass it off as your own it is concerned plagiarism even if you did pay for it and asked permission. Credit should be given where it is due.

I’m not quite sure how this would be related to the writing center, because logically speaking no one that bought a paper online would not come to the writing center for help. Those that forgot to give credit where it was due will be reminded to do so and those that were caught by professors would possibly be expelled.

Here is an episode from the show, Facts of Life that demonstrates the case of plagiarism. One of the characters, Natalie submits her short story to a magazine only to have it rejected once again by the publisher. She later sees her story in a magazine under a different author with little alterations of her story. She decides to sue find the person and sue her for stealing her story. She goes through a frustrating process in trying to prove to everyone that what the woman who stole her story is wrong but later decides not to sue her due to her definition of writer’s satisfaction.

Part ONE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1loizHd7R0

Part TWO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eckCPpVJIc0&feature=related

Part THREE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwBIFvqbZ18&feature=related

"Prevention through education as well as punishment is key for violators."

No Title

Major Pedagogoical Theories

Article: "Contemporary Composition: The Major Pedagogical Theories" by James A. Berlin

According to the author, James A. Berlin there are four elements of pedagogical theories: Writer , Reader, Reality and Language. These theories are also the basics of the rhetorical theories which plays a major part in the writing process. It is Berlin's belief that whom ever is teaching writer they should keep in mind that true writing is about arguing for a version of reality, and the best way of knowing and communicating. This ideal leads to his firm belief in the New Rhetorician pedagogical approach. In this process the truth is relative, the truth has to be discovered by the writer. The Writer creates his/her own meaning, shapes reality to their liking this is the true ideal of making, making your own meaning, your own reality on paper.

The following video is a writer who explains his writing process, according to his speech he would be considered a New Rhetorician according to Berlin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLY_uXod8FQ

I agree with Berlin and the author in the youtube video, you have to write about what inspires you, it makes the story more realistic and more interesting to read because you paid more attention and invested a lot of time into what you were writing. So there is more of a believable writer's reality and meaning. The writer's version of truth is quite clear. As it goes to applying this concept to writing papers for classes with specific prompts the student would have to invest more time and thought into the assignment to make it more of their truth but also incorporating what was asked of them. If done probably they can get quite a satisfactory result.

For Example, Here is an excerpt from a paper written for class with my version of truth:
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"What the University of Richmond’s Westhampton College has done within the course of nine months was to condition their daisy buds to thinking as future wives, as debutantes, and as ring dancezillas demanding that everything is not only in order but picture perfect. Westhampton College teaches their women, “Gender is not the expression of a seamless internal identity; the essential ground action… the gendered self is ‘structured by repeated acts that seek to approximate the ideal of a substantial ground of identity… through recitation and repetition of actions that are always public or shared.” [1] To be an official woman of the Westhampton College it is felt that one must attend ring dance, if you could not make it your junior year, you are allowed to do it as a senior. You are not doing it because it is the only way in which you may obtain your ring since you can do that at any point of your life. No you are doing it because of the presentation ceremony to one’s peers, to the University of Richmond society. It was very necessary for the Westhampton College to display their women in this manner. Society must bear witness to their heterosexuality; there will be no question of a Westhampton College student’s sexuality after that night. This attitude discourages lesbians to participating in this ceremony. Although in reality no one would know because the father and not the date who walks the daisy down the stairs, it could still create awkward, uncomfortable situations. "

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[1] Nikki Sullivan. A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory. New York: New York University Press, 2003. Page 85.
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Then there is the creative writing portion as presented in the youtube clip:
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"He screams, “Wake up Cassandra! It’s not your time to go, talk to me… please talk to me!”
He started to sob, “Why did you do this?!.... Why!”
“Move out of the way sir, we’ll take it from here,” said one of the paramedics as another gently lifted him to his feet and attempted to walk him away from the scene.
“I need to ask you a few questions sir, can I count on you to co-operate with us for a while?” asked a pot-bellied officer, who appeared to careless about his feelings.
He paused and looked at Cassandra, her hair matted with blood, her clothes soaked in the crimson liquid. That morning she appeared to be so excited, they were going rock climbing in the Andes Mountains. Oh how excited she was, he couldn’t help to wonder if it was because of the adventure or… tears started to stream down his face again.
“Sir, are you okay?” asked the pot-bellied officer
Outraged he screamed, “Am I okay?! Am I okay?! My friend is on the verge of death and all you have to say to me is ‘Are you okay?!’” and with the last word he ran to her side as the paramedics were placing her in the vehicle.
“Is it okay if I stay by her side? I’m her friend,” he asked timidly.
“Go ahead,” said the paramedic with her blood now over his shirt.
With tear filled eyes he stepped into the vehicle with the one who had her blood on his shirt, the doors slammed behind him. He looked around and then at Cassandra, picking up her right hand and said, “It’s going to be okay.” With that they blared off, boring through the traffic filled street.
At the hospital there was nothing but mayhem, doctors and nurses running everywhere and barking orders, “Get her into Trauma eight now!”
“Her pulse is dropping doctor,” warned a nurse
“Hurry please SAVE HER, SAVE MY ANGEL!” cried the man and with that the doctors and nurses rolled Cassandra away to surgery leaving him alone in the waiting room."
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But either way, at the end of the day we tutors, regardless of the writing assignment have to do our best to help our tutees find their truths and realities and meanings no matter how serious or laid back the assignment the writer has a write to find meaning in their and the so does their readers.

Really Useful Knowledge

Article: Marilyn M. Cooper. "Really Useful Knowledge: A Cultural Studies Agenda for the Writing Center." found in The St. Martin's Sourcebook for Writing Tutors; edited by Christina Murphy and Steve Sherwood. Boston, MA 2008.

The author, Marilyn Copper distinguishes the types of writers into two types: traditional and organic. A traditional writer according to the author is a writer who are not in control of their writing, they follow a more structured set up and do what is expected of them, they do not attempt to blur the boundaries with their writing styles. They are the typical of students, actually traditionalists are common from where I am from in Guyana. We like do everything in a structured way, it may take a while for us to do the task as hand since we also believe in the saying "Slow and steady wins the race and slow down and take your time and do it correctly the first time". In Primary Three we had a class called Composition and we were always given a prompt and the teacher always told us what exactly he or she wanted and the students followed. I do even remember in Art Class we were specific instructions to draw a certain event and what color and materials to use. There was always a right and a wrong way to do art and write. However, this method is not that horrible in my opinion because although we were limited by a prompt or specific there was always opportuntities to blur the boundary and because we are individuals naturally all of our pieces whether it was an Art project or Writing composition were significantly different. One's individual self will always add to the limitations of a traditionalistic society. An organic intellectual however is a writer who is the agent of his writing, the author describes them as "agents of change...they develop through their fusion theory and practice and... critique of the common sense of their group." The organic intellectual is more of the idea of what the writer center wants to develop and protray but it may take a while to get used to this more liberal/ free spirited way of thinking about student writers. This concept always follows with the idea of having the writing tutors collaborate with their tutees, writing is not a task it is a talent and a craft and therefore the idea is not to give it structure and limitations but allow the student to explore and express their views in a welcoming environment.

This leads to Copper's ideal of making the writing center as a type of home away from home for the student writers. Writing should not be intimidating and students should be able to come to their tutors and feel right at home. The writing center should also be able to correct anything that may hinder the writer's ability to produce pieces worthy of the term, great. These centers are empowerment sources for students to be the agents of their papers. The tutor should only be a resource, the guide for the student writer; they should be able to help the student writer in such a way that they will know what mistakes not to make on their paper. The notion that the writing tutors are "paper fixers" is a myth; the tutor only makes suggestions and protects the tools and strategies for writing great papers. Tutors are not to criticize. Writing in the writing center is a collaborative effort.

I like the idea that the writing center should be the form of home away from the dorm/home but the only concern is that students may not able to see this perspective. Like the author said in this article students care about the grade and they do have the time to come to the writing center to feel like they are at home, they come to the writing center expecting the tutor to fix their paper to what the professor would like. A good majority of students at this school are probably the traditional intellectual type, they want to hear the phrase, “great paper” but they don’t want to formulate and strategize and explore their writing skills; they want whatever is going to get them the grade they feel they deserve. Also I find it hard to believe that a tutor would not find it easier to just fix a students paper especially if the student is not open to the longer process of learning how to write instead of learning to write that particular paper.