MERRY
SEMESTER'S
END!!!!

"Making Writing Visible"

This article, by Mary B. Nicolini, represents what we're trying to do through this blog: use writing to learn rather than to show learning. Even though it focused on a specific high school, "Making Writing Visible" emphasized some of tenets that define our approach in tutoring:

1. "Writers need to get it down before they worry about getting it right." That's why fluency comes first for our lab-based students. I know some of these students have been initially frustrated that we haven't emphasized grammar and punctuation in that first week or two of the semester. But discovering what one has to say must take priority. Also, one of our former tutors pointed out that once she found her writer's "voice," she became a lot more invested in taking care of mechanical issues.

2. John Mayher was cited in Nicolini's article: "Teaching writing as a process can either lead to anti-writing in its commonsense domesticated version where the attention still remains focused on producing 'essays,' or it can lead into thickets of discovery." I like this distinction, and I suspect these "thickets of discovery" can and do occur during our tutoring sessions.

3. "Students learn to write by writing." To a certain extent, we need to get out of their way so they can charge into those aforementioned "thickets of discovery" without us as barriers. Of course, it can be a struggle to find that fine line between offering needed guidance and giving student writers the room they need.

What ideas did you take from the article? What fresh insights--or important reminders--did you glean from it?

"English as a Second Language"

This is well-traveled territory, but I do appreciate author Karen Gocsik's clear breakdown of some of the common issues we face when working with international students.

I also liked the points she made about other ways of looking at writing and research. Many of us share the American cultural bias to get straight to the point, make it short and sweet. It makes me wonder what we're missing by axing digressions. How much subtlety are we sacrificing?

What other aspects of this article piqued your interest?

"Tutoring Graduate Students in the Writing Center"

Thanks to Cynthia Burgess for finding this (blessedly brief!) article. It addresses a population we haven't work with extensively: graduate students. However, as Madonna adds graduate programs, we're likely to see more demand for this specialized tutoring.

A couple of ideas I'd like to discuss are:

1. More tutor/faculty communication and training; and
2. More faculty/student interaction.

Jeri Ann has made the point that to develop a true writing community, we need to involve not just students, but faculty and staff, too. However, as is probably true at many universities, these three groups at Madonna feel overworked and stretched to the limit (and then some).

I suspect we all agree that we need more collaboration among students, staff, and faculty. Tutors need additional training in tutoring for specific disciplines, graduate students need more direction about the writing process in these disciplines, and professors need to touch base with their students' needs.

So how do we do this?

"Formative Assessment and the Paradigms of Writing Center Practice"

I have to admit this article took me a while to wade through. (That's what I get for reading only murder mysteries.)

Some of the central ideas I took from it were:

1. Writing centers help change the writer;
2. Real education changes the learner;
3. Social constructionist theory argues that we need to help students not to just fit into an academic paradigm but to challenge it; and
4. It's time to question our traditional standard of literacy, which penalizes nonstandard discourse communities.

Although nos. 3 and 4 are interesting and valid points, I don't know that we're ready to tackle them.

I'm intrigued with the idea that to really have an impact, we need to change the writer/learner. As Ann has said repeatedly, we focus on the writer more than on the paper. One key seems to be promoting reflection on the writing/learning process itself. I was especially struck with the quotation, "Writing centers...focus on another important component of formative assessment: generating in the learner a capacity for introspective evaluation of the writing process and the quality of written work created through that process." This is why we ask our student writers so many questions: We learn to write better by thinking about our writing.

What ideas did you take away from this article?

"Problems in the Writing Center"

"Problems in the Writing Center"

Although author Kathryn Evans addresses professors more than writing center personnel in this article, unclear writing assignments have plagued us all as tutors and students. Teachers (including me) are so familiar with certain concepts that we can easily forget that that these concepts are brand new to our students.

For example, in the Writing Center we see students who don't understand what a thesis statement or topic sentence is, or who don't bother with paragraph breaks. Many of our students don't understand that academic writing is almost a separate language, and that generally, slang, curse words, and sentence fragments are frowned upon. We may assume that because students were accepted into Madonna, they have some of these basics, but that's not always the case.

Jeri and I kind of laughed at the prospect of asking Madonna professors to modify their writing assignments to include more detailed criteria as well as many levels of scaffolding. Like so many educators across the country, much of our faculty feels overworked and frazzled--just as we often feel in the Writing Center.

Larger writing centers sometimes have a student liaison to work with a specific department. If we were a larger writing center, for example, John might work with Katie O'Dowd in Humanities and Holly might work with Dan McDougall in Sign Language Studies. This individual may help decode writing assignments or maybe even work with the instructor to create these assignments. Who knows? It may happen yet. (This means, of course, that John and Holly can never graduate.)

-- Frances

"Expand the Audience: Excellence in L2 Writing"

When I read Susan and Marian's excellent article, I was struck again by how much we're asking of our ESL students. Not only are these students struggling with content, organization, and mechanics--we're also inviting them to address a seemingly imaginary audience.

A couple of points really hit home for me:

1. How much a sense of audience can focus a student's (ESL or native speakers) choices concerning subject, content, style, and word choice. In this way, what seems at first like an added complication may offer clarity to student writers.

2. The challenge of moving into reader-based writing. For native speakers, it's often a matter of developing more intellectual sophistication, but it becomes more complicated when reader-based writing is not part of one's cultural background.

3. The importance of Writing Center tutors. Not only are we supportive readers, we also represent that vague audience. By revising text so we can more readily access it, ESL (and other) students are making their work more accessible to all their readers.

We've all been students. What do you remember about moving from writer-based to reader-based writing?

-- Frances

Blog Features

If you haven't noticed already, the blog looks a little different than it did about a week ago. Last Tuesday, I added some features that I want to tell you about.

1. On the right hand side of the screen are some links. These are the links that we have in our Online Resources handout. Take some time and look through them so you can recommend them to students or use them yourself.

2. Underneath the links is a poll. This week the subject was about which citation style you are most comfortable using. Every week it should change. If you have an idea for a poll let me know. I'm excited to see what the results are!

If there is anything else you think should be added to the blog please let me know! I'm always interested in hearing (or seeing) your suggestions!

--Holly

The Third Voice in the Session: Helping Students Interpret Teachers' Comments on Their Papers

As an instructor, I've noticed that students frequently correct minor errors I've commented on and ignore higher order concerns. These include thesis statements, topic sentences, opposing arguments in persuasive essays, and elaboration of interesting but under-developed ideas.Is this because it's easier to fix grammar and punctuation errors than it is to think more deeply? Or is it because students believe the lower-order concerns (surface errors) are more important than the higher order concerns (big picture)?

Following are a few nuggets of advice in "The Third Voice" that I liked especially:* We need to translate teacher comments into questions that spark conversation with the student about his or her work;* We need to break down the steps that the student needs to take so he or she isn't overwhelmed.When we're not sure what a professor means by a written comment, I believe we all encourage our student writers to confer with their instructors. This is the students' responsibility and part of their taking ownership of their work.What's your perspective, as tutors, students, and professors?

Posted by ffitzgerald at 12:40 PM