Resistant Tutees... with a twist

This morning, while driving to campus in my usual state of rage and impatience, and I began to reflect on my tutoring experiences (random, I know). Being already unhappy because I was in the car driving through Oakland County (worst place to drive, I swear), I began thinking of difficult tutoring sessions. I found that usually, when students resist, there are ways to get them to "give in" or in some cases, just try as hard as possible to get them help, whether they want it or not. But, and this hasn't happened in a while, there are times when it's not merely a matter of getting the student to "give in" but also saving the face of the Writing Center itself. Gasp! Whatever could I mean? Well it has to do with tutoring styles. I found that sometimes the hardest students to work with are those who have worked with previous tutors at the Writing Center and expect me to work the exact same way as the previous tutor did. When I politely refuse and attempt to handle the session how I usually do, the student sometimes begins to resist me and my tutoring style. I know that we are supposed to be flexible, depending on the student, but in this situation, it is hard to give in. Mostly, this happened to me last summer. Students would come in and expect me to take complete control of their paper, writing on it and reading it. Sometimes, and we've all had this happen, they would use the Internet, text, or, and this only happened once, try to get up and go do something else while I "checked" their paper. So, while each tutor handles each session differently, I think the real issue here is saving the face of the Writing Center. A situation like this may cause the student to not return, or even tell others that the Writing Center is not "worth it." Students may see us as inconsistent in our help, which is something we are trying to remedy through great sessions like Genevieve's APA session a few weeks ago. But I wonder, is there anything we can do to keep students from feeling this way, in this regard? I know that many of us took the RHT320 (is it still RHT?), but we all still work in different ways. One idea that might work is to have more sessions from individual tutors, on tutoring styles. I think that each of our styles is unique and that no one style is wrong, but instead if we had individual sessions, maybe with lunch again (hint hint), then we can learn new tips, brush up on our own methods, and continue to improve the Writing Center so that we have less instances of students feeling that the Writing Center is inconsistent with it's help.

Thank You for the APA tips

When I attended the APA presentation put on by Genevieve, I was not sure how much information I would retain, if any at all. But, I just wanted to let everyone know that it did pay off. In obtaining my degrees, like many others, I was mostly required to use MLA for research. The first time I worked with a student that was required to use APA, I looked for the handbook and ended up asking Genevieve for assistance, because I knew she was more familiar with it than I was. However, after attending Genevieve's presentation, the next time a student came in with an APA paper, I was not overwhelmed whatsoever. I realized that I had learned some key points. For example, I remembered that the year comes right after the author's name, which is so different than what I'm used to with MLA. Also, I am more confident looking things up in the handbook we have, having been so familiarized by the presentation. Therefore, I am offering thanks to all who had a part in the workshop. Thank you.

Welcome to Writing

Hello to all! I started working at the Writing Center yesterday morning, bright and early. I'm not much of a morning person, but I was in a good mood all day. I'd forgotten how much I like to help people with writing. It's such a big part of me, I suppose I take it for granted that I know how to write a good essay, I'm familiar with formatting, syntax, and basic grammar. I was even reminded that I know how to chart sentences when I watched someone helping a student with his grammar homework. I also created a google account, abandoning my desire to keep my accounts and blogs to a minimum...but there's something different about being a part of a bigger blog. Hearing a student say, "Thank you so much, you really helped me. I feel much better about my essay," is beautiful. I may not want to be an English teacher, but I'm excited about being able to connect with people over something so important to my life - and their grades. I wanted to also extend a thank you to all the wonderful tutors I've met since I began working here - you've already made me feel welcome. I'm looking forward to meeting more of you. With warm weather in mind, Irene =)

APA language... Many Teachers Speak It Differently

During my years at the writing center and in class, I have learned that determining what the professor wants/expects is extremely important to consider while writing. I specifically want to focus on APA style and what is expected according to the APA manual versus what the teacher expects. I have found many inconsistencies between the two that lead to confused students and sometimes confused consultants. First, it is important to understand the fundamentals of APA in order to address the specific requests of an instructor. I have encountered many teachers that want the student to include the year after each time a reference is mentioned within the paragraph, even though on pp. 208 in the APA manual (2001) it states "... you need not include the year in subsequent references to a study as long as the study cannot be confused with other studies cited in the article..." This is just one example. I recall specific sessions when many students visited the writing center and had a specific sentence they needed to use in their paper that was a) grammatically incorrect and b) insensitive to APA language. According to the students, the professor demanded that the beginning of the sentence was written to assist the students in learning how to write in APA as well as to identify the results of the study within the paper. Such cases that may not be limited to APA style are unfortunate, but need to be done in order to get the "grade". Those are just a few examples where the rules of APA are thrown out by the professors and the students have to follow their lead. It can be confusing because they do not even know what the thrown out rule was or why it is changed. I always try and ask for a syllabus when working with students with APA questions because I want them to follow the guidelines set by the teacher. For APA reference, I would suggest to those who are still unfamiliar with APA to use the Keys for Writers guidebook or the OWL website. These resources are user friendly and less intimidating than the APA Publication manual (note: this resource is for those looking to publish research. Aka, very intimidating to some). In the next post I want to discuss some key points to help students establish appropriate language use and style suggested by the APA manual.

Please submit a Statement of Purpose...What?

As I am faced with the end of my Undergraduate career, I find myself absolutely freaking out over applying to Grad schools. Perhaps the scariest aspect of the application process is writing the Statement of Purpose. The schools I have looked at so far ask for essays ranging in word length anywhere from 500 to 2,000, and some do not even specify. The SoP, I believe, is slightly different from the personal statement, which I am very familiar with. Since I'm not a 4.0 student, I really need to make myself more appealing. Does anyone have some wise words for muh? Cheers, Ashley #1

Body Language in the Writing Center

Yesterday, in one of my "teacher classes," we examined an interesting article entitled "How to Train Your Mate," by Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. While the title evokes a potential Cosmo article, it raises some interesting psychological questions that actually can be connected to education--and, as I found, perhaps tutoring. Dowd quotes anthropologist Helen Fisher, author of "Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love," as follows: "Men and woman tend to get intimacy differently," she [Fisher] explained. "Women get intimacy from face-to-face contact. We do what we call the anchoring gaze. It comes from millions of years of holding your baby in front of your face. Men tend to get intimacy by doing things side-by-side, because for millions of years they faced their enemy but sat side by side with their friends." I'm not suggesting we should read this article to gain helpful tips for flirting with our clients. Rather, we should examine the ways in which body language affects how we appear to our clients when sitting at the round table. Maybe sitting face-to-face with a male could be interpreted differently than it would be sitting next to a female, or vice-versa. Also, body language can be interpreted differently according to culture-- something else to think about in our diverse WC. Body language is another important way in which we listen to and respond to our clients Eager to find more information on this topic, I googled "Tutoring Body Language" and found the following links that may be worth a glance or two: Penn State iStudy, The Positivity Blog - 18 Body Language Tips, and Strategies for Intercultural Tutoring. Not only should this be useful for our client-tutor rapport here in the Writing Center, but also in our future careers.

From: Esther Cadili (atebo1874@gmail.com) To: Writing Center Friends Picture Book Dummy Creation (Children's Literature) A picture book contains 24/32 pages You need 16 pages to fold into the dummy= 32 pages (You can buy a large artist pad from Michaels and then simply fold and staple. Always buy your supplies on sale.) Think about: Idea--Format--Theme--Age-level Theme is the universal that binds/drives the story e.g., my story idea is about a dog and his/her peers. My dog feels bad because he is not accepted because he is different. My dog has a very long tail. Something big does not have to happen on each page. David Weisner, the latest medal winner who makes a ton of money, leaves pages blank and then each reader must think about what is happening. I'm good at the blank page. Retell your favorite fairy tale in your own words--create a dummy. See you soon. Esther Cadili