Welcome to Our Busy Season

Good Morning Staff: As you may know, I have just finished penning my IRB application for the Embedded Tutor Program, which I will upload today. Starting Friday, I will be floating through the center to shadow and co-tutor. Please do not view my presence as that of an evaluator. Rather, I hope to learn from and with you as well as to share some of my own strategies and suggestions. Because I cannot possibly work with everyone every day, Genevieve has generously agreed to be your consultant mentor again this fall. As such, she will be taking herself out of the scheduler to shadow and co-tutor as well. She will be contacting your via email later today to explain further her role. You need not wait for us to approach you. If you would like someone to give your immediate feedback, or if you are struggling with a client, type of client, or a session, please ask for a second set of eyes and ears.

Read it Backwards!

To continue with Jessica's unique approaches to helping with different stages of writing, I have a new technique I have found helpful for many writers who struggle with clarity and conciseness. Generally, when we want to examine clarity, we focus on the paragraph or section that needs work. I have found that instead of reading it forward (first sentence to last sentence), reading it backward (last sentence to first sentence) helps in two ways. Initially, when reading the sentence backwards and out of context with the rest of the paragraph, I can see tone and construction. If the writer is using passive voice, it sounds even more strange and the writer catches it when they hear the sentence read on its own, free of connection with previous thought that is usually in the sentence above. Secondly, the writer can identify sentences that cannot stand on its own (e.g. needs the previous or last sentence to make sense). When I read the paper backward I first have to consider a few things: 1) The writer does not have concerns about the requirements of the paper (they understand the basic premise for writing the paper) 2) The grammar will not get in the way of reading the draft (if you find that reading backwards is great way to edit a draft, you have found a great tool to use on your own and suggest to clients to use for personal editing but I would caution not to use it to edit while working) If you find these two concerns in the paper, I would work in a more traditional way because reading backwards may hinder the collaboration process of working through assignment clarity and structure. As always, grammar should not be a major focus and reading backwards makes it difficult not to overlook grammar issues. Try out this technique if you have the chance and post your thoughts, comments, successes and challenges!

Thesis Statement Exercise

Hello All! Well, this is my first post ever. I thought I would share something I discovered today in a non-writing class that would be useful for helping clients write good introductory paragraphs with thesis statements. My professor proposed a 5 step process as thus: 1. Make a Statement 2. Define terms/clarify 3. Give an Example 4. Ask, "So, what?" 5. Answer the, "So, what?" 1. Make a statement: This is in response to a general topic/someone's elses statment/what an article has to say/etc. It's your feelings about something. For example, I read an article that says "high school is the most critical period for character-development" and I disagree. My statement might be, "High school is only one part of a long life journey." 2. Define Terms/Clarify: At this point I now was to clarify what I'm trying to say. I might start a sentence with, "In other words..." Running with my statement in #1, "In other words, human beings are shaped by their experiences from birth until adulthood, which everyone will reach at a different point, despite the expectations of society." I've now developed my topic a little more. 3. Give an Example: At this point, I should illistrate what i am talking about for further clarity and development. "For example, some people act immaturely at age 50, still possessing adolescent behaviors like getting black-out drunk on a regular basis despite the consequences, because they didn't push themselves to develop beyond their high school years." 4. So, what? Now, we need to ask a ,"so what" question in response to what we've said so far. In the case of what I've written so far I might ask myself, "So, why should we care what high school does and does not do for personal/character development?" 5. Answer the "So, what?": Give your best answer. What results should look something like a fairly prescise and concrete thesis statement. I had answered, "If people do not recognize all the facors that contribute to maturity beyond high school, they will likely fail to understand, much less achieve, what signifies a fully developed character." Let me put all the parts together now: "High school is only one part of a long life journey. In other words, human beings are shaped by their life experiences from birth until adulthood, which everyone will reach at a different point, despite the expectations of society. For example, some people act immaturely at age 50, still possessing adolescent behaviors like getting black-out drunk on a regular basis despite the consequences, because they didn't push themselves to develop beyond their high school years. So, why should we care what high school does and doesn't do for personal character development? If people do not recognize all the factors that contribute to maturity beyond high school, they will likely fail to understand, much less achieve, what signifies a fully developed character." It's not perfect. Of course it's not. But if done correctly, this process will show a paragraph that introduces a topic, develops it a bit, and ends up with an argument. From there, revision and polish can be worked through, but I often find clients struggle to get something written down to work with in the first place. With a little tweaking, I think this 5 step process can be adjusted to fit a lot of assignments that include arguments and asserting opinions. Anyway, try it! It worked for me!

adult autistic students

Hi, Sorry this post did not seem to go up at the time that I wrote it. I just now realized that there was no post here..lol. But anyways, the original post was regarding the occurrence of seeing adult autistic students in the writing center. Though not extremely common, it does happen, on occasion that you may be assigned a student who falls somewhere on the autism spectrum. My most recent experience has occurred just this year. When I was first told that I would be working with an adult autistic student, to be honest, my reaction was one of "where is this session going to go?"... (In terms of my analyzing of what could be coming up next). And in essence, since not all autism cases are alike, a consultant really does not know what is ahead for them when they are told that they will be tutoring an autism student. One thing I had to check myself on was my mental process of visualizing a tough case before it ever happened. I think it was the word "autism" that caused me to jump to this visualization. I automatically pictured a difficult appointment. To my great revelation, I now know that I was silly to do this, because this appointment was probably one of the best ones I have ever had. Let me explain. This student seems to use his autism almost as if it were a gift. Rather than giving in to his frustrations, which happens in students with autism (heavy emphasis on routine and a dissuasion of breaking it) he was able to catch and check himself. Also, (and again, every autism case is unique to the person) he was indeed demonstrating very clear thinking, and he is very passionate about the subject that he was writing about at the time, which made for an excellent paper. In summation, I would recommend, don't let the word "autism" throw you, and cause you to have a (albeit, perhaps subtle) impression in the back of your mind which exists only because you heard the word "autism" before the appointment began. In this scenario, the old adage defiantly rings true: one cannot judge a book by its cover, or shall we say, its medical diagnosis/label. Perhaps these students, in some way, are actually here to teach us....

The Use of Honorifics in 2011

Hey, Guys! I thought this short article on Dictionary.com was interesting. What do you think?

What is “Mrs.” short for? The answer may make you blush (or at least laugh)

June 7, 2011

History and etiquette tell us that Mister and Missus, known by the contractions Mr. and Mrs., are the proper form of address for men and women. Beneath the surface of these everyday honorifics lies a linguistic glitch that has spawned social havoc since “Mrs.” entered mainstream English in the 17^th century.

Mister is a direct variant of master, which in turn derives from the Old English maegester meaning “one having control or authority.” Already a discrepancy rears its head: The period that follows the abbreviation Mr. is usually omitted in British English grammar. According to the Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation, “If the abbreviation includes both the first and last letter of the abbreviated word, as in ‘mister’ and ‘doctor’, a full stop is not used.” However, a period always follows the title in American English grammar – as in Mr. President and Mr. Speaker.

Once used to address men under the rank of knighthood, by the mid-18th century mister became a common English honorific to generally address males of a higher social rank. English domestic servants often used the title to distinguish the eldest member of the household – a practice that is, for the most part, obsolete today.

Mrs. is a contraction derived from Middle English maistresse, “female teacher, governess.” Once a title of courtesy, mistress fell into disuse around the late 14th century. The pronunciation, however, remained intact. By the 15th century, mistress evolved into a derogatory term for “a kept woman of a married man.”

By the early 17th century, Mr., Mrs. Ms. and Miss became part of English vernacular, creating an awkward socio-linguistic discrepancy. In an attempt to avoid the use of “mistress,” a variety of phonetic substitutes have been utilized, including “missus” or “missis.”

While Mrs. does refer to a married woman, according to The Emily Post Institute, Ms. is the proper way to address a woman regardless of marital status — the term alleviates any guesswork. Miss is often used to address an unmarried woman, presumably a girl under the age of eighteen years old. Note however, that “Miss” also derives from “mistress.”

In 2011, what is the proper manner of address for men and women? Miss, Ms., or something entirely different? Are these honorifics too formal for our society, or the perfect bit of courtesy?

Weird End of Semester Requests

Hi all, Just wanted to mention to be on the lookout for any strange requests from students these next couple of weeks. As it is getting to the end of the semester, people are becoming barraged with many things to do, and for some, it drives them to a point of desperation. Yesterday, I received two requests for me to type papers for students. The answer to that is a big over- sized NO!! Why might someone request this, I mean, don't all students operate with the same integrity that got us here to college to become respectable intellectuals and members of the labor force? ...Nope. They don't. The sad reality is that many could care less. Sometimes end of the semester pressures get to students, especially those who may be already floundering in their academic pursuits. We may appear as a light at the end of the tunnel when they are operating on a deadline. So what could happen? Well, some of the following has already happened to me. You may get students coming up to you in the middle of appointments with other students, or you may get a request for a student to be squeezed in between appts. I have squeezed some students in if they just need something looked at really fast, but generally I advise against this because you never know what you are getting yourself into. They could need more work than five minutes allows. Here are some ways students could push the boundary and get more time than allotted: -"Can you look at this really quick, I know you have another appointment, but I have a deadline." -"Can you type this paper for me?" *(no joke, this has actually happened, they seriously just wanted a typer. This type of request we have to deny) -"This will only take 10 minutes." (Yeah right buddy) -"I have already had an appointment, but they just went over grammar. Can you look at this and tell me if it sounds right?" (bigtime smokescreen for more editing). -"I really wanted you, but you are booked up. Can you just look at this for me. (..."I really wanted you"... ? ... sounds kind of creepy). -"I'll do half and you'll do half (ummm...quid pro quo...=ILLEGAL, plus you are not the author) -"This is due at 1:00pm, who can I get to look at this?" (Um... yourself if were all booked) - "I was in here earlier, and my friend has an appointment but can't make it. Can I take her spot? (easy way to try to get two in a day). -"Help me I'm desperate" (Aren't we all?) So just to sum up, it may get a little strange with desperate people coming in, but if we are firm and stick to our guns, students will begin to recognize what the boundaries are, and the students who have followed procedures correctly will be able to get the assistance they requested.

Winter Semester 2011 Wrap Up

Looking back on the semester this year I found that I was able to learn more about how other people tutored so I could compare, contrast, and understand the different ways of helping others with writing. While I know that many consultants thought I was grading and evaluating their performance during sessions, I would like to clarify one more time that I was not. Instead, I was observing (as we all did as RHT 320 students) and trying to see how the center functions as a whole by understanding each of the parts. In my observations I saw incredible progress, thoughts, compassion and lots of great peer collaboration. As a recap, I will summarize and generalize a few sessions that I have observed either by directly sitting at the table or through observation at the staff table throughout this semester. All in all, almost every time I saw a difficult situation either because the client was hostile, indifferent, confused or just plain hard to work with, the consultant reacted in the best possible way by either being infinitely patient, encouraging, and/or understanding. The wide range in which I can see each consultant work makes me really excited and proud that I work with others who can be flexible yet firm in their commitment to tutoring. This semester I saw a client get defensive and the consultant ignored the negative reaction and calmly continued to work, another client go through half the session saying "I'm confused, I'm not sure what is going on" and the consultant rewording and rephrasing until she was blue in the face all the while smiling until the client finally said, "oh, I understand now, it makes much more sense." It is always easier to remember the outlier sessions, so I want to also say that I saw many sessions run "according to plan" in the sense that the client and consultant initiated pure collaboration that left both parties refreshed and excited about writing. While I can compliment the writing center staff all day long, I also would like to suggest an area of improvement that I have noticed in the past few weeks. Sherry predicted earlier in the semester during our professional development day that with the end of semester arriving, we would be bombarded with appointments and she warned against this coping strategy when we were exhausted with clients: editing. Occasionally, in the past few weeks, I have seen consultants furiously scribble edit notations on a student's draft. In one specific instance I saw the client was browsing the internet with his smartphone while the consultant had the draft and pencil in hand. I want to think that maybe the client was looking up information relevant to the paper, but I had a feeling that was not the case. Just remember, we are not doing the client or ourselves any favors when we shrug our shoulders, drag the paper into our circle, collect the pencil from the jar at the center of the table (Ron organized that for us) and sit intently trying to ignore the gross lack of clarity, focus, and organization just so we can 'get through' the session. In fact, today, I had 4 back to back appointments and most would agree that after that many appointments he/she would be tired. I thought I was done for the day so I sat down in front of my session logs and breathed a sigh of relief. Actually, I didn't even get through my breath when Ron pointed out another appointment, fortunately, my last. Even still, I was not even able to catch my breathe before I had to restart my brain and get back into tutor mode. Normally, I can make it through a session okay because I ask a few good questions to get the client thinking more about his/her paper. This session was different. First, the client was not really sure what the professor was asking. Second, the client did have good content but a weak thesis to tie it all together and knew it. The client kept asking me "what should I do? How should I word my thesis?" It would be so easy to read the rest of the paper, collect the main points and say, "your thesis should say....." It would be just that, too easy. If I gave the client the answers and a thesis based on how I understand the information then she would still be struggling once she got home to incorporate the information because the thesis was not hers .  The same kind of struggle goes on when we edit a paper for a client. The mistakes clients are making will not be corrected because they are not required to be cognizant of the errors and understand why they are wrong, we just tell them it is wrong. Just yesterday I saw a fellow consultant who collaborated in a session with me point out a few grammar mistakes to the client who then immediately found the a majority of the other similar mistakes as he continued reading. It was so rewarding to see the progression and improvement of writing in just one session. Not only was he more aware of his comma use when using transitions, he also became aware of his audience when he found he was missing descriptive words. I think tutoring is a hard job. If there are times when you cannot work anymore because of fatigue or illness, please talk with another consultant because we are all really nice and always willing to help if we can. I can also attest to the kindness of our staff because just today I had another consultant take an appointment tomorrow so I could move my schedule around. Thank you Phil! If you see something that you like or don't like or want to see happen, this is a great place to share those thoughts and feelings with everyone at the writing center. I just wanted to share all the great things that I saw this semester and my experience as a consultant. I have to give a big thank you to all the consultants for making this semester fun and enjoyable! Peace, Genevieve p.s. If you haven't posted on this blog yet, it isn't too late!

WRT 150 FILM PSA LECTURE NOTES - aaron j. hall

FILM PSA GUIDELINES

MEDIUM IN THE MESSAGE - -The medium is the message is a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived.

FILM: is the best way to do a PSA. Film is far better than print. Reading a PSA is active. Watching is passive. But if the message is compelling then the viewer becomes active as well. You must involve viewer.

THINGS TO CONSIDER

FILM METHOD: what is your budget. Find your setting. Use lighting to your advantage. Minimalistic camera movement (NO SHAKY CAM). Be aware of background action. Don’t distract your viewer.

IDEA - Your idea must be powerful.

SIMPLICITY- one sentence test. Or even a fragment.

MINIMALISM- in film technique.

TYPED MESSAGE vs SPOKEN WORD

-This is a CRUCIAL DECISION (Use either/or because it is tough in an editing sense to combine them)

DON’T OVERWHELM THE VIEWER! TOO MUCH IS BAD

TIME - 30 SECS TO 2MIN

MUSIC - Use film soundtracks or ambient music. No vocals.

****YOUTUBE VIDEOS****

President Obama - “The More You Know” NBC PSA

One Take. No Cuts. Slight zoom at the end and we have a logo.

Animoto - you can do this one with Sherry’s link …

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL -- STUDENT PSA POLLUTION VIDEO. Not a good song.

Anorexia PSA- Okay, but too long, too cheesy, too much of the same theme. The viewer shouldn’t know what to expect.

Bristol Palin’s PAUSE- Great editing, but mixed message? What does it mean?

Don’t make your viewer jealous of you.

Don’t condemn the viewer … condemn yourself … or just inform and CALL TO ACTION

MODEL YOUR PSA AFTER THESE:

Rob Bell - Chairs - Stats with Talking

Make Dirty Water Clean -- 20Liters

Charity Water - Jennifer Connelly - No talking simple message.

Other Water one - 30 secs.

SOUND: Speechless VIDEOS TV / REMEMBER Hollywood Writers Strike of 2008

Woody Allen … Speechless Hollywood video

HUMOR: The Office PSA’s vs CBS Cares “Family Jewels” Valentines Day (only 15 secs) shock ending

Paraphrasing: The Skill No Ones Been Really Taught

As time has gone and I've worked with regular students and Cite Right students, I've realized there is a major skill that many people do not realize they have not perfected: paraphrasing. When you open up the APA manual to the section about paraphrasing, all you'll see is a small paragraph--it may be the smallest part in the entire manual. Until I looked through the Chicago Style manual, I had not seen an example of paraphrasing that broke down what is and what isn't paraphrasing. Because the main purpose of Cite Right is to discuss ways to cite correctly and to not commit plagiarism, the topic of paraphrasing is something that is discussed at length. During these discussions, I've found that most of these students do not entirely know what constitutes paraphrasing. Now, this isn't that surprising since these particular students are in the program for plagiarism; however, as I've become more aware of this problem, I've transferred this towards normal Writing Center sessions. In the past few weeks, I have asked multiple students about paraphrasing. If a sentence is cited without quotes, I'll ask them if it's paraphrased. Most times he/she will say that it is, but as I continue on, I usually become more and more suspicious that this student does not know how to correctly paraphrase. As the conversation continues, I'll ask the student on what they believe paraphrasing constitutes and maybe how they do it. By opening up this dialogue, I've found out that a good few of my clients do not know how to paraphrase correctly. At this point, the session turns into a discussion on how to paraphrase. I even had one student come back the very next day to have me look over her paraphrasing to make sure she was doing it right. Something I've been telling students to make them feel more comfortable with the conversation is that it's a skill that no ones really been taught. Personally, I don't remember a teacher ever going over what constitutes good paraphrasing, and most of my clients don't either. Because of my work with the Cite Right program, I've become especially careful with possible plagiarism within students papers, especially unintended plagiarism. During the session I'll give examples of what constitutes good paraphrasing and then tell the client that if he/she feels unsure, to read the sentence or passage and look away and restate what they read. I'm finding now that I've begun to really focus on this, many of my clients have benefited from a conversation about paraphrasing and what constitutes plagiarism. During the discussions with the students in Cite Right, I realized that many people do not know what plagiarism is--and this is not unique among Cite Right students. This conversation within an appointment I think can be beneficial for all types of students. Because we are administering the Cite Right program, I think it is our duty to especially warn students against plagiarism and do everything in our power to help them to not even accidentally do it. Since I've found this technique to be so beneficial to so many students, I will continue to mention the skill of paraphrasing when citing and try to open up a dialogue with all students willing to discuss what they think it means and what it really is.

Breathe Life Back Into Our Podcasts

Believe it or not everyone but people are saying "we enjoyed the first podcast, 'Comma Drama', but where are the rest?"

To continue using technology in a proactive way and gain more recognition from the community on our innovative approaches to reach out, we are asking for ideas and even your time in helping script, read, act, videotape or edit both new podcasts and you-tube videos.

To generate some ideas and start the ball rolling I have thought of a few ideas I would love to see bloom!

Podcast

*What do students want from us?

1. Describe what the writing center does

2. Obtain a few common concerns from the "hope to accomplish" section of the session log

3. Interview a few students about their experience before/after

4. Interview a few consultants

5. Bridge the student expectation of a "grammar and spelling check" to generating ideas about his/her writing process.

*Chicago/Turabian Style

1. What's the difference?

2. What one should I use?

3. What are some good resources?

Youtube

*How to format title pages and headers for APA

How to add footnotes for Chicago

Other paper formatting issues

What ideas or suggestions would you like to see added to our technology of products?

-Genevieve

Yes its true, they're just happy to be stuck with you..

As the title hints, I'm refering to Hewy Lewis and the News' song that could describe clients who like to work with you ... maybe a little too much. There can be many reasons for this, but as I have found, if you feel drained at the end of a session, almost as if you are driving the client around mentally, and you have multiple sessions like this, there could be a boundary issue going on. One of the great things that I have experineced as a consultant that has helped me even in my personal growth as an indivudual is learning the skill of discernment when it comes to what you can an cannot do during a consultation. It has been my expernience that, there are some instances where a person will come in, see how versed and skilled you are with the English language and develop the mindset that you can therefore teach them all their matierial for a class that they are struggling with. ... If only it were that simple:) First of all, you are not, and never were their "instructor". You are actually a peer consultant, key word being "peer" so you cannont take on any higher position than that. Second, its almost not fair to them to take on such a role because they need to go through the struggle of class so that they can learn to overcome what is challenging them, or discover that the current path they are taking may need to divert its courseway so that they can operate within their means (to stop biting off more than they can chew... so to speak). This has been the difficult part for me as I instinctively want to intervene and then realize that if I act upon this impulse, I have crossed the line into co-authorship. Also, its a mental exercize to try to take over the construction of someone else's project, so its not serving the other clients who come in later when you have only a couple drops of mental energy left. The good thing is that boundaries not only keep negative things out, they keep good things in. So allow your concentration to be preserved, and let the student work things out. This has been the lesson taught to me in the last couple of years. Even now, I still have to vigilently guard against losing my mental energy to a student who is struggling to stay afloat. A sobering realization I found tonight comes from wiki how describing how to properly lifeguard someone who is being pulled under, bearing an uncanny parallel to boundaries in consulting: "An active drowning victim's only concern is getting air. In fear, he/she may grab onto you and pull you under, resulting in two victims...."

Most rewarding things about being a consultant

Hi everyone, Just a note of encouragement for all of us consultants; the client is helped, but we are helped too! I have found that being a writing consultant is one of the most personally satisfying and rewarding things you could ever do, in the sense that you can see visible results in a client. So I have jotted down some of the coolest moments you will get to have as a writing consultant.. They say: -"Thank you, I understand so much more now." - "I never knew that, thank you." -"You know that paper you helped me with? I got a 96%." -"My second language is English, and meeting with you cleared many things up for me." -"You know that internship application you helped me review, I got the job!" Or, even better, you can actually see how their writing is improved You observe: -No more sentence fragments -No more comma splices -Better use of singular/plural endings for ESL students -The client is able to write a great paper based just off a brainstorming session What are some of the best things you have noticed about being a consultant?

Nursing students just learning APA (non-trad)

Hi everyone, I just had a quick idea about somethign for us to blog about. I am sure we all have been in this situation by now, and I am just curious about how other people handle it. No right or wrong ways per se, I am just curious about what course of action people take and maybe the sharing of ideas can lead to insight. The situation: You've been here before and you can almost predict it.... You notice that you have a new student and you have a blank slate as far as what you will be doing with them today. You meet them, and then after some small talk, you find the reason for why they are here. Perhaps you note that, they are a non-traditional and they have filled out nursing as their program on their logsheet. They grimace slightly as they mention that they have to use APA and they have a super-strict professor when it comes to proper citations. "Oh boy..." you think to yourself. They then say the words that you could have bet money they would say. Like a child confessing that they have just eaten a forbidden cookie from the jar, they nervously chuckle to disguise their true feelings of vulnerability, You hear the sound of their nervous ruffling of papers in their binder, and you observe that they probably have kids of their own your age.... "I haven't been to school in 20 years and we never documented anything, or did research or papers like this, now I have to learn this APA thing and its pushing me over my edge. Can you help me?.... These words can be a little unnerving when you first hear them. You think to yourself, wow, they are a professional with a career, going back to school, they have so much more life experince than me, and they feeling vulnerable doing something that I deal with all the time- APA. Akward huh?

One-on_one in 2011

As we enter the second month of the new year and await the blizzard snow, let's promise to engage in more online professional development via our blog. I have reinvitated everyone to join so that we might share the novel, the treasured, and the tedious consultation. To get started, I'd like us to think about how we engage (or fail to engage) our clients in a dialogue about their writing. In other words, what informs the process we employ? Is it reserach? If so, based upon what data? Is it anecdote? If so, shared by whom? Is it personal preference? Let's consider what we do each time we sit down with another human being and his/her writing, how we do it, why we do it, and how we know that it yields writing development. To ensure that we all hone our consulting acumen, I've asked Genevieve to meet with each of you about your process. In addition to talking with you about your interactions with clients, she will co-tutor and observe. Her role is not to evaluate you for rehire or to record your less successful moments. Her goal is to listen, affirm, redirect, and advise as needed. Starting this week, Genevieve will begin contacting you to set up initial meetings. You need not wait for her, though. She and I will be happy to discuss your role one-on-one as needed. While I am often busy with andministrative paperwork and meetings, please don't misinterpret my time in the "glass castle" as anything but required service. If you need me, I can quickly move back into studio circulation because without clients and dedicated staff, my paperwork is moot.