Teaching in a Writing Center Fall 2020

 Perhaps, one of the most notable aspects of Goedde's case study is just how personal it feels. Goedde evidently has established a rapport with Lorraine, which plays a very dominant role in how her story unfolds for us, as readers. I have no personal qualms with this style, since, in the way that it is presented, the case study gives us a little more insight into both writer and subject. In fact, I don't believe that a strictly objective view of the situation (i.e., an "academic" or scientific approach) would have made much sense. In fact, the case study would seem more clinical and wouldn't carry the weight of human experience that some of the more "creative" elements allow.  That said, I cannot say that this is always the most appropriate form for a case study. In fact, I might even say that as an anecdote it's interesting and says quite a bit about the author as tutor, but it fails to really push us as readers in any direction. It sets up the next...

I see great value in writing center staff conducting research. Something that has become abundantly clear to me recently is that we should always seek to examine and challenge our assumptions, and this is where the work of research comes in. Furthermore, growth is foundational for writers and tutors, and research gives the perfect opportunity for everyone to learn and grow. This semester, I have been working with students through the appointment scheduling side of the writing center, and it has been a unique experience to see the students who sign up for these appointments. Many of the students who sign up for appointments are struggling writers, but a few of them are writers simply looking for a second set of eyes or a sounding board for their ideas. They are not struggling writers, quite the opposite, yet they see the value in collaboration in their writing process. While I appreciate the chance to work with struggling writers on improving the quality of their work, it has been this ...

Something that reading these case studies prompted me to think about was how intimate of a relationship each writer has to language, even if the language in which they are expressing themself is not their first. Each writer, shaped by exposure to culture and their personal reading history, naturally favors certain diction and syntactic forms; the task of a writing tutor, as I see it, is not to dissuade students from writing in their preferred styles/modes, but rather to encourage them to be more mindful of how to adapt language to best suit their rhetorical purpose.  The Goedde study succeeds toward this end in encouraging the student to experiment writing outside of the academic register she traditionally favors; effective storytelling undoubtedly requires a different skillset than effective scholarly argumentation, where engaging the reader's interest takes precedence over thorough and robust evidence. However, I do think tutors, when working with students like Lorraine, should b...

I preferred the Goede article and enjoyed reading his approach to tutoring his student. I related to his caution about not overtaking Lorraine's story, even saying, "Or don't [regarding his advice] It's your piece." I've felt this way tutoring my creative writing student, and in many ways, tutoring the creative writing student is more work than the student who only brings me academic rhetoric and psychology papers. It's easy to tell my academic student that her thesis needs to be more specific, her arguments clearer etc. Like the Fan article research shows, academic papers are simpler to diagnosis: 16% of the errors are in word meaning, 29% in word form, etc. Tutoring creative work is so much more subjective, and the issues often aren't neat or easily classified. When I work with my creative student, I try not to judge his work based on my personal tastes, and I try to provide positive feedback, emphasizing what's working rather than what's not...

Lorraine's case study covers only a single project, while the Fan case study is a more comprehensive look at his issues and the approaches taken to address them. I think the former approach is easier to engage with for a few reasons. With a single example the author (Brian Goebbe) implies a larger trend in the student's progress without the audience having to keep track of what information is important. We can assume the problems Lorraine faced with the selected excerpt from the lunch room are the same problems she faced in her other projects. With Fan, his problems are difficult to connect with the actual projects he is working on.  The part of the Lorraine case study that bothered me most was how Goebbe writes her. The author describes Lorraine's approach to writing in terms of her background. I think this makes for a more interesting story, but at the same time it demeans Lorraine. For example, Goebbe characterizes the student's attachment to academic writing as a de...

I understand that both non-fiction writing and formal academic writing have different audiences and equally valid reasons to exist. The former wraps up its content in sweet and powerful narrative, and the latter, as described in Goedde’s piece, “gets down to business” and is designed to transmit super-specific information to fellow researchers as efficiently and precisely as possible. That exactitude, however, makes it a bit difficult to work through if you’re not as passionate or well-versed about the subject as the writer themselves. Because of that, I prefer to read non-fiction case studies over more formal academic case studies. Then again, I’m sure the content in both non-fiction and academic articles is equally interesting. It’s just the presentation, the style of writing, that adds some barriers to that inherent human interestingness. There’s a growing movement out there advocating for less opaque academic writing. Things like the 2010 Plain Writing Act and Steven Pinker’...

I enjoyed reading the Goedde text! I've been thinking a lot recently about the relationship between academic writing and "creative" writing and where and whether those two should ever meet. I thought this brought attention to some aspects of this that hadn't occurred to me before, which I appreciated. I think this style of writing is more accessible (like so many others have stated in their blog posts...) and makes it an easy ride. It does that fun trick of enacting the thing that it's talking about and the ultimate conclusions and analysis of this case study are all swallowed with a spoonful of sugar. Interestingly enough, however, and despite finding it more accessible and enjoyable to read, I feel that the more academic case study accomplishes more in terms of explicating on the topic it is undertaking. The amount of information and thorough research gives it significantly more validity as a case study. I'm wondering if my preference for the more creative o...

Given my advanced degree is in creative nonfiction, I should have a strong bias toward the Goedde essay on Lorraine. What was interesting, however, was how much the personalities of both Lorraine and Fan shown through, despite the pronounced difference in genre. Both students came across as confident, headstrong, and committed to their development as students and writers. Both essays, I thought, provided useful insights into the challenges of tutoring even very good students—perhaps good students bring their own set of unique challenges. Though I do find in my Writing Center tutoring that my stronger students are more well-prepared for the session, which always makes things a little easier (at the very least it allows us to be productive more quickly).  The Goedde essay reminded me how difficult it was to teach literary writing and that I strongly prefer to teach academic writing (an unusual preference for someone with a Master of Fine Arts.) Part of why I prefer to teach and tut...

  I generally prefer to read non-fiction case studies than academic case studies, since I find them more engaging to read. I think that this also makes the non-fiction ones more accessible to a wider audience than most of the academic ones (which I suppose puts me in the same camp as Brian Goedde and his advocacy for a more creative writing approach over an academic one). This approach I think allows readers to experience the lived reality of the tutoring more than academic case studies. A more academic approach does tend to provide a sense of formality and can lend authority (as Lorraine points out in Goedde’s piece), as well as working within a form that potentially gives readers more information that would allow them to replicate the experience.   It seems to me that both have a purpose and that both approaches could learn something from the other. I have never written a non-fiction case study (or an academic case study to be fair), but I would like to incorporate more crea...

The non-fiction case study helped to illuminate the author’s point about non-academic writing. Throughout the article Goode is informal and personable, using descriptive language to illustrate Lorain’s reactions to his suggestions. Goode has an ongoing argument with Loraine about the benefits of non-fiction creative writing, accessibility, description, and personalization, and these are evident in his writing about the dispute. The evidence on display in this case study are passages of the subject’s writing, showing how stylistic elements have developed, surrounding these with a similarly personalized and informal approach feels seamless. The academic case study is better for tracking larger amounts of data and recording survey questions and responses. An informal style would create a disconnect between the carefully recorded empirical data and the prose surrounding it. I prefer to read the less academic case studies because I am able to discern more of both the ...

The advantages and disadvantages between the two case studies, Lorraine vs. Fan, non-fiction vs. academic, can be boiled down to access: the audience’s access to the case study itself, access to the research methods being used by the tutor, and the student’s access to the genre of writing being taught.  I was more engaged with the non-fiction case study because it was written using the non-fiction genre as opposed to the academic writing style of the academic case study. It felt like a story, and my story-loving brain enjoyed being invited to the table. The academic case study, while interesting, made me work for the information it offered, and I found myself skimming in moments that did not capture my attention which meant I had to go back, reread, and check my comprehension. For this audience member, my ease of access to the non-fiction case study led to more enjoyment. The non-fiction case study did come with one key disadvantage: access to research methods that can be applied g...

    I think the emotional detachment that asynchronous tutoring allows offers advantages and disadvantages. I haven’t yet done document review or other forms of asynchronous writing tutoring, but from my experiences working as an editor at an online art magazine and editing writers who I knew personally versus those I’d never met, I know that it’s easier to give direct criticism to writers I’ve never met. If I’m friends with a writer, I’m more likely to offer extra praise and to word my criticism delicately. I feel the same way when I’m tutoring in person (or synchronously over Zoom/video chat) -- when I have an ongoing tutoring relationship with a student, I grow sensitive to their insecurities and weaknesses, and I’m very careful to protect their egos and to word my criticism delicately so as not to discourage them. I’ll catch myself saying things like “This looks good so far” even if it doesn’t. This often comes at the expense of directness -- if the writing has a lot of is...

    The article on the differences between the role of an online tutor versus an in-person tutor impressed me with how much it broke down the feedback process. When talking with a student face-to-face, it's easy to give a general answer. If the student is confused, you can immediately tell it based on their reaction and clarify without hassle. With an actual written response, there is more of commitment. Nobody likes constantly emailing back and forth, so there is an expectation that what you send to a student will be helpful without immediate feedback from them.     This brings up the obvious question: How do we take those virtues and add them to our current approach to tutoring? One possibility would be to add extra work by asking the student to send and receive tutoring through email in addition to the weekly tutoring sessions. The problem with adding this element is that it would be a lot more work for both the student and the tutor. A better approach t...

 I think the primary challenge in giving asynchronous online tutoring, for me, is providing feedback without having established a rapport with the writer, i.e., without a full sense of how they gauge their own ability and what they want out the tutoring experience. I also feel that establishing a personal relationship also establishes trust, and makes the writer more receptive to criticism, understanding that the intent behind that criticism is to help them develop their skills rather than denigrate their ability. While I was an undergraduate at Arizona State University I participated in a creative writing workshop for prisoners at the AZ Department of Corrections, which was done all online and asynchronously. Part of the protocol was that the tutors use pen names to preserve anonymity; this certainly added another element of distance to the tutoring relationship, but I felt that in a way writing feedback through a kind of "persona" made me more comfortable providing honest c...

 From personal experience, I can say that one of the most difficult aspects of document review is clarity. Specifically, I found reviewing students' work without them around often means many things go left unsaid. How do I get to know them? How can I connect to them? Can they sense my tone? Can I sense theirs? What if they have further questions about a specific aspect? What if I have further questions? The immediacy and candidness of working synchronously provides an exceptional number of opportunities to build a stronger rapport (at least personally speaking). However, I will say that I appreciate the kind of time that asynchronous tutoring allows for. I can closely review the writing. I can annotate and provide more thorough feedback. I can do it all on my time.  The question, then, is does the ability to be more thorough make up for the questions that cannot be asked. In effect, when reviewing documents, the tutor needs to anticipate questions, needs to learn to see their ...

  What strikes me about the asynchronous tutoring model is the fact that it focuses primarily on revision at the end of the writing process. While I don't mind this stage of writing, I find myself drawn more to the conversations that occur toward the beginning and middle of the writing process. I think reading a "final" version of the text that needs a lot of work as opposed to having conversations early on that shape the way a paper might take form, require me to tap into a different part of my brain that just feels less fun. That being said, there are of course many benefits to it. I love the idea of not having to talk to anyone and maintain upbeat energetic energy throughout tutoring (not really a big deal when there're only 2 students, but could see it getting tiresome when there are more). Additionally, the pressure of being able to filter everything I say through having to type it would relieve me of the pressure of making sure I give positive feedback, making s...

  As both Remington and the Bedford Guide point out, the lack of back-and-forth between tutor and student in the asynchronous format strikes me as the highest hurdle, especially as it pertains to fully understanding what the student is being asked to do in an assignment. My current WC students often bring in very complex assignments that require a lot of discussion to pin down exactly what the instructor expectations are. For instance, one of my enrollment students is working on a speech for her Greek History class in which she is supposed to argue that the Persian War had more positive outcomes than the Peloponnesian War—and she is to make this argument from the perspective of a poet living on the island of Lesbos 100 years after both conflicts had ended. We spent much of a session thinking about how to approach the assignment: how might we think about “positive outcomes?” How could we compare outcomes? How would her being a poet inform her argument? What about her being from Lesb...

     One of the issues I have found with asynchronous tutoring is time. I find it easy to lose track of time working on one section and needing to correct myself, widen my lens, and go over the entire paper. It’s also easy to over comment and over correct. I find myself marking every error I see and having to go back and combine comments to point out patterns of problems, or deleting comments on small errors entirely. When I am working with a student face to face I won't stop them to point out every error because it would feel disruptive or even rude; when it's just me and the computer screen I have to actively stifle my inner proofreader.      Modeling the correct form of a sentence is very easy with asynchronous tutoring. With a word processor at my disposal I can easily demonstrate where citations should go and how they should be formatted. It’s much easier to demonstrate with actual italics at my disposal.   I think that written explanations for ...

 The use of writing as the medium for communication and as a model for good writing in an asynchronous tutoring environment seems to be one of its key advantages. Even online synchronous tutoring has this advantage over in-person tutoring work, as Remington suggests. I’ve often thought about this idea in general as an English teacher. There is a certain amount of pressure to have one’s writing live up to the professionalism of teaching, particularly as an English teacher. I always force myself to read and revise emails before I send them to students because I see my own writing as a model for how I want my students to write. This modeling, whether the students realize it or not, is an important part of the learning process. Another advantage I see in asynchronous tutoring, as mentioned in the Bedford chapter, deals with the record that is left of the conversation between the tutor and student. The synchronous writing center we use has this advantage over in-person tutoring as well....

In my experience, I find that most students, even among those with various cultural backgrounds, tend to write in standard written English; those that don't, or perhaps struggle with the conventions of written English, are usually still able to effectively communicate their thoughts in language. That being said, I still think it's important to consider the value of contrastive/intercultural analysis of rhetoric, and, in the classroom, to validate and celebrate the richness and variety of alternative rhetorical/communicative forms. Contrastive and intercultural theories of rhetoric, as I see it and as Casanave mentions in her article, risks reinforcing essentialist notions of ethnicity and culture, that writers and speakers of different languages/dialects simply cannot think or write effectively in modes other than those they grew up with. In my undergraduate psychology classes we often spoke of differences in personality between individual-centered cultures (e.g. the United Sta...

  I was very interested in the distinction Bean makes between “surface readers” and “deep readers”. My GEL students are currently reading Toni Morrison’s Beloved , which has an intentionally complex and somewhat confusing structure that requires a lot of “deep reading" to understand. Morrison alludes to various incidents in the plot rather than explicitly explaining what happened, which is leaving a lot of students frustrated and convinced the book is “too hard” for them. Another problem students seem to be having with Beloved , which ties into Bean’s point about students lacking the “cultural literacy” assumed by the text’s author, is that many of them lack sufficient knowledge of the novel’s historical context, namely the history of slavery and Reconstruction in the US. I’ve assigned them several supplemental texts (podcasts, videos, essays) intended to provide overviews of this context, but I can’t help but feel like their ignorance of this history is the fault of the broken Am...

When teaching online, I try to give reading quizzes that require deeper, more thoughtful answers in order to steer my students away from "surface reading." For example, my reading quiz question for the first hundred pages of McCarthy's The Road is "Why did the mother leave and what happened to her?" The students who are close reading give the correct answer, which is that she couldn't handle the apocalypse anymore and then killed herself using a shard of obsidian. This detail is embedded in one of the scenes, and it's implied that this is what she did. I don't have the book on me right now, but the line is something like, "She walked off into the night with a shard of obsidian and that was that." So yes, if the student gives me the aforementioned answer, I figure they must be reading closely. There's always a few students who simply say "she left" or just "she died I don't know how." Overall, I found the article ...

 Reading the Bean article was pretty enlightening. I began to think about my own process in school and how I was never really taught how to read with a critical eye. Many of the strategies they describe to help students engage seemed like they were just supposed to be understood at some point. Hence, I was never exactly the most apt with "reading comprehension" portions of exams. Apparently, when I was younger, when the prompt on an exam said, "Describe the wolf," my response was, "The wolf was gray," and left at that. To be fair, I did answer the question, just not in a way that actually said anything about the wolf. I bring this up because what becomes evident is that I was looking for facts, and only facts. All during a time when comprehension correlated with reading speed -- as one goes up, so does the other. If this is what students are taught to value in the early years of their education, then how are they supposed to engage? With that, I must confe...

The most common problem with my students' reading is covered by Bean under the heading "Difficulty Seeing Themselves in Conversation with the Author." I like his assessment that unskilled readers see the text as "inert" and without relevance to themselves, their ideas, and their beliefs. Often, I'll assign what I consider to be an inflammatory text, like Eula Biss' "Is This Kansas" in which she derides undergraduate party culture as byproduct of White Privilege and even White Supremacy. I encourage a deep reading of the text by having students respond to an analytical prompt on the discussion board, but am often surprised to read student responses in which her core criticisms seemingly went unnoticed or were noted and quickly disregarded by the student falling back on the familiar myths of the "college experience" which the text is challenging.  After engaging with the Bean text, I think I could counteract this by reviewing the prompt...

 I really really love this idea of trying to focus on and teach deep reading, and absolutely feel like it is something that my students often struggle with. I used to start class with a day about ‘how to read’ where we talked about much of the material suggested here, as far as different reading strategies go. I did not do that this semester and probably should have, but it fell off in the wildness that we all live in.  I think one example of this from my students in my rhetoric class this semester comes from how they respond to The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld. The book is about ‘the media’, with a brief history of journalism, centered on the United States, moving into a conversation about biases present in the institution of journalism, and then some thoughts on what we can all do about it. My students have expressed a suspicion of ‘the media’, because it is “biased”, “lies”, or otherwise distorts truth, saying that they don’t believe anything. Ho...

While I was a practicum student several years ago, I observed a classroom discussion over “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin. It was a bizarre experience for me. The instructor obviously had a good grasp of the story and its deeper conversations. The students did not. Having just read the story myself, I did not have the slightest idea of how to begin interpreting--much less discussing--the story, and I sympathized more with the students than the teacher. Seeing the discussion was falling flat, the instructor proceeded to lecture on the meaning of the text. This experience came to mind as I was reading Bean’s piece on “Helping Students Read Difficult Texts” because it demonstrates some key concepts Bean was attempting to show about the difficulties students face when reading out of their comfort zone. The students, having been in this situation before, more than likely expected their teacher would lecture the text if they simply embraced their confusion. These students had learned t...

 I found this text incredibly interesting as this topic seems to be popping up everywhere lately (in other classes, with my partner). It's interesting to me as well to begin to notice the more practical reasons for decline in things like reading comprehension. For example, I'm sure the fact that students likely read a large number of their texts on pdf readers or their laptops inhibits their ability to quickly jot notes in the margins. I know that when I read on a screen, I only take notes when I see something I know I will use in a paper rather than as a more general engagement with the text. This is in part because I am terrible with technology, but I couldn't help but wonder about the students who read on screens. I loved Bean's suggestion to assign marginalia as a way of coaxing good reading habits out of students. I will definitely use several of the strategies suggested at the end of the Bean text with one of my students in the writing center who primarily asks f...

     While working with one of my enrollment students, a freshman in Rhetoric 1040 and a second language writer, we have worked on reading primary sources. Many of the issues my student had working with his choice of document, a letter from General Patton to then General Eisenhower (linked below), came from uncommon phrases, complex sentence structure, and missing context.      A large part of the student's assignment is to provide context of the historical period in a presentation where he discusses the rhetorical techniques on display in the letter. Beyond that larger historical context, there is a context of this being one letter in a series of letters between two people with extremely detailed expert knowledge of American military operations. The student and I discussed that both of us were on the outside looking in to a letter writing conversation that was already in progress so there was so information we couldn't have without all of the previ...