Jillian+Weiss

__April 27, 2010__

For this post I am going to discuss the reading from the Purdue owl about creating strong thesis statements, using research and evidence, organizing your argument, and rhetorical strategies.

First, I like what it says about thesis statments, that it must be something "that people could reasonably have differing opinions upon." Subconsciously, this is one of the reasons that I chose to change my question to the future of the book, because of course there are good and bad things about the kindle. However, after doing my research on the future of the book, some say that print will prevail, and others say we need to prepare for a future on screen. Therefore, my thesis on an easily debatable topic.

My favorite part of this reading is the segment on using research and evidence. The first draft of my annotated bibliography was lacking in the assessment portion because I was doing more reflection than anything else. This reading has provided a wonderful list of questions to ask myself about the sources I chose ("Who is the author?" "What is their purpose?") so that I can expand my assessment section.

In the next part of the reading it talks about how to best format your argument, and that you should not forget about the counter arguments. I believe the most effective argument comes when you address the opposing side and then find a way to refute it. I believe this is something we need to remember, as consultants, because twice I have had clients come into the writing center confused about how to address the counter argument because they do not want to make it appear that they are rooting for the other side. The clients were confused as to why their professor would even ask them to do such a thing. It's important that we explain it to them so that they will know the most effective way to argue in future papers.

Questions: 1. What way did this reading help your writing process? What are some good sentences that introduce counterclaims and rebuttles, but still ensure the reader that our argument has not changed?

__April 25, 2010__

Something that I have learned about my own writing process during this project is that I need to keep on top of things. It is essential that I know the day that something is due, all the time, so that I can plan to finish it. Too many times this semester have I checked my class syllabus only a week before a big assignment is due. However, our writing center class is helping me battle this because of it's structure. It constantly forces me to think forward to future tasks and to always stay on target.

And now, in this project, I am needing to force myself forward. I have learned to write things down on sticky notes, or on the white board on the wall next to my desk, or print off a schedule and tape it to the shelf in front of my eyes. It is vital that I do this for large projects like this that need to be accomplished in stages.

The calender has been helpful for this. Of course the days I want to complete things change, but I am learning about the positive outcomes of setting a strict schedule for myself. I really appreciate this because of other classes this semester where there is hardly a schedule at all. I need to implement structure into this class becaus all motivation must come from me; I must propel myself forwards because my teacher is certainly not doing it for me. This project has given me ideas on how to do this.

Questions: 1. What techniques do you use to ensure that you get things done of time? Has the structure of this project changed your writing process?

__April 24, 2010__

I have never written such a thorough annotated bibliography before, so it has been a very interesting process. When I first started working on it I would find the sources and write them down and then come back to write the annotations later.However, I soon realized that it was more efficient to work on the annotated bibiography as I read the source, instead of coming back to it later. This way, the source is fresh on my mind and I can at least make a draft of the summary section. Now I am going to weigh the usefulness of creating an annotated bibliography.

Positives of the annotated bibliography:

As I started working on them I found it suprisingly easy to find things to say. I thought it would be extremely hard to conjur up things to reflect upon and assess, but using my small background in history classes, where I had to analyze sources and apply them to my own theory, words seemed to appear naturally. Of course, as I found out later, the majority of my assess sections were actually reflections in disguise. I definately think it is a valuable thing to do because I get so much more out an individual source when forced to think excessively about it. Also, I will be able to easily look back on my sources and find out the most valuable information I got out of each one, without having to read the whole thing over again (although I will probably have to do that when looking for useful quotations). Either way, it is a wonderful way to keep track of sources, especially when there are so many of them.

Limitations of the annotated bibliography:

I do find it very difficult to write thoroughly about a source when I only need a few facts from the source, like the year the Kindle was invented, or the current price of communication technology. I have become averse to finding facts like this because I don't know how to create an annotated bibliography for it. On the opposite end of the spectrum, large texts, like entire books written about the future of the book, are extremely hard to summarize for the annotated bibliography without reading the entire thing. I would rather not have to read a whole book in order to produce one page of my annotated bibliography despite the helpfulness it may be to my overall research. Additionally, as I will be writing an article for BA|BS, they do not allow having citations for the text, unless it is a direct quote, so no one will really know where this information has come from.

Despite these limitations, writing my annotated bibliography has been an undeniably useful stage of the pre-writing stage of my project.

Questions: 1. What limitations and advantages can you find in using annotated bibliographies? 2. Do you find annotated bibliographies more benefitial than a regular works cited page?

__April 23, 2010__

The main thing that I have learned about the writing process so far, in the pre-writing stage, is that expect your question and thesis to change as you research your topic. Because I did not have a firm opinion on the topic I was writing about, I kept getting swayed by different arguments as I read more and more about my chosen topic (Amazon's Kindle). Often I would lash onto one particular aspect and then learn more and more about that until something else came a long that I liked better. This was the order of my ideas:

1. What are the negative aspect of the Kindle and other reading technology? 2. What are the implications of the Kindle and other reading technology on the writing industry? 3. What are the implications of the Kindle and other reading technology on readers? 4. What does the future of the book look like?

I have decided upon the latter question because I think it will appeal to my audience the most, because college students are all readers whether they like it or not. I, however, am most intersted in the implications on the writing industry because hopefully I will be joining the writing industry one day. Therefore, I decided to put the interests of my audience before my own, which is rather valient of me if I don't say so myself.

This whole process is reminding me how imporant research is, and that you may not know as much as you think you know once you start reading what other, more experienced people have to say on the matter. I can still see the negative aspects of the Kindle, but I noticed from reading other works that I need to make my research question not just about the Kindle but about the future that it purposes because that is what's interesting. A good way to figure out what is interesting, is simply seeing what entices you as you research. The moral of this story is: research is vital.

Questions: 1. Has your reseach question changed througout the process? 2. If not, why?

My research question has changed slightly since I began researching. When I initially started researching, I wanted to look at the detriments of taking students out of an immersion setting -- like students moving to a 6th grade non-immersion program from a K-5 immersion setting -- but I was having a very difficult time finding research with that topic. I decided to switch my question from focusing on the negative to focusing on the positive -- so looking at the benefits of immersion education and why (if) students need to stay in an immersion setting beyond K-5. Just by changing my topic ever-so-slightly, I have found much more information. Thanks for letting me reflect on how my question/topic has changed!
 * Comment from Megan:**

//COMMENTS//: I have drastically changed my research question. When I first started to brainstorm, my question was, "How could we and why should we create a supportive environment in the Writing Center?" Now, my topic is, "Why parents shouldn't take their children to zoos." I decided to switch my topic because I wound up choosing the first one by default; I am now pleased with my topic choice and I am glad that I decided to change it. - Kristin

Comments I have made: - Kristin (April 27) - Kelly (April 27)

__March 25, 2010__

For this entry I am going to reflect on my overall experience with the writing center so far. Honestly, I feel like I have been working there much longer than a mere month and a half. My expectations were that it was going to be hard, and that I wasn't going to be able to help my clients the way they should be helped. I expected to be stressed, disappointed and confused with all the paperwork. However, I must have had at least a little faith, otherwise I wouldn't have taken the class.

Now I can say thankyou to that bit of faith because I can happily say that this experience has been anything but stressful. It is definately not a large burden on my academic schedule as other jobs can be, and have been. I have had about eleven sessions so far and I can confidently say that I helped each client in some way. Their assignments and their writing did not worsen after listening to my advice, which was my biggest and most irrational fear.

I must admit that my expectations were off having never been to the writing center before wanting to work there. I expected all talking and all work would come from the consultant (before taking this class I would have referred to them as "tutor" or "advisor" or even "teacher"). Fortunately, I was wrong. I have found out that I like collaboration and that I like helping the writing improve and not just the single paper. Not only does this take off some of the immense pressure that I assumed was hovering on all consultants, but it's a much more effective way to create better writers in the long run.

Questions: 1. How were your expectations of the writing center different from what you have experienced? 2. How have your thoughts on the role of consultants changed?

//Kristin's Response// When I first registered for Writing Center Workshop, my thoughts were similar to yours. Personally, I was worried that I would not be a good consultant, that I would not be able to help anyone with their writing. Because I had never attended a writing center session before, I was also scared of the Writing Center environment and concerned that the other consultants would be grammar kings and queens and look down upon my sessions. Over the course of the semester I have learned that I am able to conduct successful writing center sessions that help students with writing in the long-term rather than on single papers. I am also happy with the sense of community that I found within the Writing Center – everyone is friendly and I am proud to work there.

__April 1, 2010__ I am going to dedicate this entry to a discussion about grammar. Grammar has always been one of my writing frustrations. My grandmother picked on my grammar problems so much that an aversion to using grammar correctly has risen inside of me. Shamefully, I did this because I did not want her to win.

I don’t know whether it is because I grew up in England, but I was never taught how to use grammar correctly. I never learned the grammar terminology. If anything, I get them wrong, calling parenthesis “brackets” and periods “full-stops.” The British cannot have the word for a woman’s bodily function also mean a part of punctuation!

Because of this, I suppose I have always relied on grammar 1, or “the grammar in our heads.” Therefore, I have never been aware of grammar 2, the rules, but this has not stopped me from understanding grammar 3, which is, according to the source we looked at, “linguistic etiquette” because I am a reader. I picked up on the right way to speak and write through modeling the sentences and paragraphs in novels and textbooks. That is how I learned how to appropriately use quotation marks. Another way I learned punctuation is through submitting fan-fiction to a popular //Harry Potter// website (yes, I really did this) in which the online readers would teach me the rules and make me correct myself before submitting my stories online.

This method of learning worked pretty well for me throughout high school. I never had huge grammar problems because I could use the grammar in my head to decipher whether sentences sounded right or not. However, I realize now, that only knowing about grammar 1 could not help me teach or fix problems. I am taking a grammar class at Elon this semester and it is all new territory to me, although it is undeniably good territory. It frustrates me sometimes because knowing these rules forces me to take more time with my writing because I must make sure that everything is in its right place with the right tense and the right function. Grammar 2 is in my head now, and I have been able to recognize its benefits. As it says from the online grammar source we discussed, I have always been able to “//do// grammar,” but only now do I “//know about// grammar.”

Questions: 1. Do you take more of a liking to grammar 1 or grammar 2? Why? 2. Why is it so important to know about grammar 2 (grammar rules)?

__April 6, 2010__

In my experience at the writing center, the clients tend to not be terribly worried about citations. I don't know whether my clients in particular are just irregular people, or whether they are too embarrassed to admit that they don't know anything about citations. Whereas, I'm sure some actually know what they are doing and don't need help.

However, in my last session I had a client who was //so// ridiculously worried about her teacher thinking she was plagarising that she gave in-text citations for almost //every// sentence. This, of course, gave her no credit at all for the paper because the bombardment of citations made it seem that none of the ideas are her own. Also, the bulk of her paper only used one source so there was no comparison or evaluation between sources, it was just a condensed version of one source. I had never had a client that worried about being viewed as a plagarist.

So how do I console this worried writer? How do I teach her when citations are necessary and when they aren't, without playing down the need for them? Thankfully, I had had a class with her professor before so I was able to say that there were no plagarism issues in the class that I know of, and that the professor never even mentioned being careful with in-text citations. She said she had never had an issue with plagarism before so I wasn't sure where this fear was coming from. This made me think of the reading we read called "The Logic of Citation," and the principle of intellectual property. A quotation says "authors give credit for ideas borrowed from others as part of the process of knowledge building; we build upon- or refute- the ideas of others."

I should have talked over the purpose of citations with my worried client. I should have explained to her that, as this source said, we borrow ideas in order to build upon them, or refute them to make a thesis stronger. We do not use quotations from a text in order to summarize its basic point. Another point from "The Logic of Citation" is that the purpose of citations is to show the culmination of acedemic knowledge. I think that if I talked through with her why teachers have us cite sources this may have eased her soul a little bit.

Questions: 1. What might you do in this situation? 2. Is it better to be overly careful with citations, or to not cite enough?

Megan's comment: Jillian, I think that if I were in this situation, I'd tell the student that while citations are important, the writer's name is on the paper, so it should be the writer's work, not a mere compilation of other sources. There may not be an easy way to fix that if the writer is far along into the writing process because he or she might not remember which words were the writer's and which he/she got from another source. I'd encourage the writer for next time to remember that this is HIS or HER work and that it's okay not to cite after every sentence or two. To answer your second question, I think it's very important to cite work that I got from another source (as it's the Western way!), so it's important to be very careful with citations because you are using others' work in your own (especially if you're writing for a professor who looks like a relentless stickler for citations...).

__April 6, 2010__

In a session that I had today I found mself at a brief loss at what to say. The client needed to produce ideas on her topic as her paper was two pages shorter than the minimum requirement. However, she had a clear aversion to brainstorming techniques such as creating spider diagrams and freewriting. I was temporarily torn between merely giving her suggestions on how to brainstorm and making her do it as she sat with me in the session. Although I thought that it would be best for her to do a brainstorming activity during the session (as she would be forced to see the fruifulness of it) I didn't want to make her do an activity she didn't want to do because that would be putting me in the position of teacher, and her in the position of pupil, instead of being peer-to-peer in a collaborative discussion.

This inspired me to go back to the readings that we read a while ago on the pre-writing stage, in order to find an interesting, less laborious, brainstorming technique. I looked back to Ryan's //The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors// because I think it is the best book we have for practical and simple writing techniques and guidance.

What I found most helpful was the idea of brainstorming a list, and then asking questions about each item on the list. My clients paper was about the decreased amount of funding for art education. So as an example, one item on a list could be 'the funds come from the government' and then I would ask the question, what is the government interested in? Why would the government want less money for the arts? What subjects would the government want //more// funding for? Why?

I used the suggestion on page 41 as a point of take-off. This activity could create chain of thoughts, and help create a stronger paper, but I will have used her original brainstorming list as a trigger therefore keeping an aspect of collaboration. In the end, I didn't do any brainstorming in the session, I just gave her some techniques she could try (not to her excitement) and explained the benefits of doing them, telling her //they really do work//! However, I knew full-well that she would not attempt them on her own.

Questions: 1. Is it okay to enter into 'teacher territory' if it is for the good of the client? 2. What are some other interesting brainstorming activities you have come across?

Comments I have made: -Kristin (March 29) -Kelly (March 30)

__February 23, 2010__

For this entry I am going to focus on the Freud reading from //The St. Martin’s Sourcebook for Writing Tutors// and how I can apply it in the writing center. The beginning of this chapter talks a little bit about the “hurt” client that could come into the writing center damaged by lack of belief in their writing ability. The book says these individuals “express fear to the tutor that they will be treated in the same judgmental or abusive way that they have been treated by teachers.”

This reminds me of the importance of being empathetic, supportive and encouraging. I failed to do this in my very first session with a client in the writing center. He wasn’t a very responsive client, however that doesn’t mean he isn’t one of the “hurt” individuals. Thinking back on it I don’t think I said a single positive thing about his letter he was working on. I was not mean, but I was not nice.

I kept this in the back of my mind as I worked in the writing center the next time. I really worked on equally balancing out the number of suggestions I made with the number of encouraging comments I made about their papers. I ended up enjoying these sessions much more. I also found that these clients were much friendlier and willing to work than my first client, be that to the encouraging comments or their general disposition I do not know. Either way, it is a very important thing to be actively thinking about when in a session, and to consider the idea that “the tutors role often is primarily supportive and affective.”

Questions: 1. What should you do when you can find absolutely nothing positive to say? 2. What positive language/phrases can you use when creating constructive criticism?

Kristin’s Response Jillian: The questions that you asked are linked. When there is nothing positive to say concerning the student’s paper, we must still use constructive language. If I were in a situation where I found nothing attractive about the student’s paper, I would probably ask him about his goals in each paragraph. “I really like what you are trying to do with this paragraph,” I would say. “But, I don’t think it’s clear. Maybe you should…” Also, the Ryan readings talk about referring students to other consultants. If I find myself stuck in a rut, maybe another consultant will be able to accurately and efficiently address the student’s issues without causing him any offense.

__March 1, 2010__

The last time I worked in the writing center I had two interesting sessions that presented me with new challenges. For my first session of the day I worked with an ESL student. I was able to bring in the things that we had just talked about in the class the very same day. For example, in ‘The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors’ Ryan says ‘ask questions that will help you to understand what they are trying to communicate. Paraphrase why they have said to see if you have understood correctly.’ I definitely used this technique as he was explaining the thesis to me in his heavy accent. He was extremely interested in his paper topic which was fun, but also meant I had a lot of listening to do.

For the first five minutes I had to really think about what he was saying, but then after that he became much easier to understand. It says in Ryan to ‘watch for facial expressions as he or she speaks. The combination of watching and hearing can help you to follow what the writer is saying.’ This is definitely something I put into practice. I think the combination of watching and listening is something we all do naturally in order to understand people better.

He had already worked on organization and grammar with another student, so during my session we focused on transitioning from one paragraph to another. I also picked out a couple mistakes that he made not due to not know grammar but because of cultural differences. He briefly gave an account of the story of Adam and Eve, but called her ‘Eva’ because that was how it was said in his Hispanic country. It was fun learning little details like that.

My second session I had a problem with timing. I was working with a freshman girl on a paper for college writing. I failed to regard the time and before I knew it we can already been working 25 minutes. I gave her the option of staying until the next consultant comes because I had to go to class but she didn’t like the idea of switching consultants because she had already formulated ideas with me. Therefore in the last two minutes we briefly made a list of things she can work on in the paper and I apologized for the sudden dismissal. I would advise all other tutors to learn from my mistake and keep an eye on the time and if there is an abundance of problems to focus on one or two of the most pressing ones instead of taking on a paper sentence by sentence. Also, I didn't alert her to the fact that writing center sessions are only thirty minutes as I should have done since it was her first time visiting the center.

Questions: 1. What is the best way to deal with an ESL student who simply cannot be understood, no matter how hard you listen? 2. What are other techniques consultants could use when running out of time?

Kelly's Response: Jillian: I really liked your example of how consultants can learn from clients who come to the Writing Center and how problems may be culturally based rather than intellectually based. As to your first question, if you really can’t understand a student it might help if you read their paper aloud to them. They would obviously still be the one to write the corrections and it would still have to be interactive, but at least this would get you on the same page. In regards to your second question, I also had trouble with timing. Ryan’s “Inside the Tutoring Session” reading helped me, or you could just check out my second Journal entry for a short review of Ryan’s tips for closing a session.

__March 6, 2010__

In one of my last sessions I applied a reading that we just looked at in class: the segment on business and technical writing from //A Tutor’s Guide// by Ben Raforth. I am not sure if I would have been able to help my client if I had not been thinking about the reading previously.

The client came into the writing center needing help on a professional letter that had already been graded but will actually be sent to a corporation. She was a senior and her professor told her that there was something wrong with her writing style, but didn’t tell her exactly what it was. Therefore, she did not know what to fill out on the form where it said what her higher and lower level concerns were because she didn’t know what was wrong.

She began reading through the letter. It was very impressive; full of nice examples and fluid writing. Half way through the reading, I found myself at a loss of what to say, beside a couple very minor errors. Near the end of the reading however, I found myself bombarded by neat topic sentences and technical information, put together very nicely, but with the neatness of a robot. This brought my thoughts to what we had read in Raforth about business writing still needing to be human.

I talked to her about professional writers, about how sometimes “they don’t see that treating the reader like a person, instead of a policy number, can be good for business.” Raforth also points out that “readers of business and technical documents are also human. They don’t want to read documents that sound as if they were written by, and for, a machine.” Therefore, in my head, I consulted the //What To Do// section which suggested telling the writer to treat the reader like a loved one, such as a father or grandmother. I told her to put a little bit more of herself into the letter, a little more excitement, and a little more personality. I will never know whether this was the writing style problem that her professor meant for me to uncover, but I feel I made a useful suggestion.

Questions: 1. I told my client to add a little more personality into the letter, but how much personality is too much personality for a professional document? 2. What are some other ways we can guide writers who are stuck in robot mode?

__March 9, 2010__

In a session I had today, the client had an assignment sheet without enough instruction. She had no idea how long it was supposed to be or how much information she should include. This made me think back to the article we read from //The Writing Lab Newsletter// called ‘The Assignment Sheet Mystery.’ When a client comes in with an assignment sheet I have found out what a blessing it is because we can more easily work on higher order concerns rather than just sentence structure and grammar.

My client had read over it and made notes on the questions she was to answer although she was still confused on how much she was supposed to write. At present, she had written a page and a half and said it was difficult to summarize and answer questions on a twenty-three page document (this was her assignment).

I had grown accustom to the assignment sheet as most of the other clients I have had have brought in very thorough ones. One of my first clients brought in the assignment sheet, her first draft, her second draft, and three photocopied sources that she had used. Therefore, I was not used to this lack of information and not sure how to address it. If the student does not know what they are doing, how can consultants help them? My client figured out herself that next class she should ask her teacher what exactly the requirement are without me having to tell her. But we still managed to work on some things, like sentence clarity, grammar and run-on sentences.

In the end, my client confessed to me that she did not like writing. I gave her suggestions on how to elaborate on some points, and conclude her assignment however she wasn’t thrilled simply because she didn’t want to have to write anymore. It seemed as though she didn’t care if the teacher was asking for more information because she didn’t want to write anymore. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do in this situation, except tell her that she needs to get past this hatred of writing when it comes to academics.

Questions: 1.What advice should consultants give to a client who doesn’t like writing? How can we encourage them? 2. What other ways can we help a client who is unsure of what the assignment demands?

Comments I have made: -Kristin (March 7) -Emily (March 1)