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."

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