I try to approach the Writing Center as a safe space where students can receive compassionate feedback. If the University is a stage, we are those who wait behind the velvet curtains, powdering noses and running lines. The trouble is that the audience expects - as they should - a five-star performance, and sometimes the actors were never taught exactly how to deliver that line or dance the closing number. Each student acts a different role, in a different genre - ballet, hip hop, vaudeville. Our role is to know it all, and to provide a helping hand unseen.
ASUWrite
A blog created and maintained by the ASU Writing Centers. A blog for writers about writing (and sometimes a fun video or photo of writer-like things).
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
Empathic Tutoring
Empathic Tutoring in the Third
Space
Writing Lab
Newsletter, 36.9-10, pg. 11-13
Empathic
tutoring methods enable a tutor to, when necessary, step outside the realm of tutoring
and into a role of advocacy. According to this Writing Lab article by Nancy
Wilson and Keri Fitzgerald, this occurs when a tutor identifies an issue beyond
grammar or content, an issue that could be in the classroom or within the
tutor/tutee relationship.
For
instance, the article notes that professors are not perfect; sometimes the
assignments they give overlook certain differences among students. An
assignment asking students to identify what they find attractive about the
opposite sex may ostracize gay students, etc. In my experience tutoring, I have
occasionally found the wording of an assignment to be strange. Typically I try
to justify why the professor might have worded it that way, while still trying
to help the student understand better. After reading this article, I can see
how sometimes the situation might necessitate something further. The article
says not to view the faculty-tutor-tutee relationship as a hierarchy, but
rather to view the faculty member as the audience. In other words, professors
are not far-off entities that make the rules that we must morph to adhere to;
they can be part of the discussion, too. I have met with many students who are
intimidated by their professors, and I would like to show them this is not
necessary.
Sometimes
empathic tutoring actually requires the tutor to take him/herself out of the
situation and leave their personal biases aside. Occasionally a student will
come in, typically with an argumentative writing assignment, and they will
present to you an argument that directly challenges your beliefs and values -
and then you have to help them strengthen their argument. This can be tough,
but you can still help them strengthen their argument by playing the respectful
devil’s advocate, the article said. In this discussion-based setting, both the
tutor and tutee could develop empathy for new beliefs.
I
like the idea that tutoring challenges the “banking concept” of education
(depositing random bits of knowledge in students’ brains with no context). I
think discussion among tutors, tutees and faculty can foster a healthier
learning environment for all parties.
(Annika, Downtown Phoenix campus writing tutor)
Hybridity
As a writing tutor and former English major, I (like many others) have
become familiar with the writing process and terminology. Yet, it is easy to
forget that the students who visit our centers most often are not as familiar
with the terms we throw around. Therefore, something as seemingly simple as
“run on” can catch a student off guard; they may not recognize the terminology
we regularly employ or understand how to respond. Recently, I had a student
tell me that she knew she had “run ons” within her essay, but she had no idea
what they were or what to do about it. This reminded me of how important it is
that we meet students at their level, whatever that may be. I think this is perhaps what Muriel Harriss
was referencing when stating that “a tutor is a hybrid, stuck somewhere between
a peer and a teacher, who cannot lean too much one way or the other” (380). I
do not believe Harris is discouraging the acquisition of knowledge, but rather
reminding tutors that knowledge can distance us from our tutees if we allow it.
For me, her words reinforce the importance of engaging students in an active
dialogue; my role is to encourage students to articulate their needs (if at all
possible) and to actively explain ideas using words that do not intimidate but
promote understanding.
Nanette--West writing tutor
Friday, March 1, 2013
Why Writing Tutors Are Like Ninjas
Writing
tutors are like ninjas in so many ways. First of all, we protect the sacred art
of writing from those who wish to tarnish its ways. (It’s night not nite…)
We battle incorrectly placed commas. We remind semi-colons that they can’t just
go anywhere they want. We fight our way into the deepest, darkest corners of
the human mind and won’t give up until we can find a proper topic sentence.
However, we
are not secretive ninjas. We are more than willing to guide you in our ways –
to teach you our methods so that one day you, too, can be a writing ninja. ‘Tis
far nobler for us ninjas to tutor you rather than simply correct your paper.
As the
saying goes: “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a
man to fish, you feed him for life.” And we don’t want you to starve.
Alyssa--West writing tutor
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Shall I Compare thee to a. . . Wait, What?
The art of creating a great simile/ metaphor
By definition, a simile is comparing two decidedly unlike
things whilst using the words “like” or “as.” To take an example from the
eternally great playwright William Shakespeare, “My bounty is as boundless as
the sea,/My love as deep (Romeo and Juliet 2.2). A metaphor, as you
probably know, is also the comparison of two unlike things, but you forgo the
“like” or “as.” Here is an example from the same play: “But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?/
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun" (2.2). The point of all this, then, is not to tell you what a metaphor/simile is. You are probably already aware of what they are. So, it might be more helpful to mention what they are not.
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun" (2.2). The point of all this, then, is not to tell you what a metaphor/simile is. You are probably already aware of what they are. So, it might be more helpful to mention what they are not.
Metaphors/similes do not:
·
Compare two things that
are alike. “Juliet is a girl” is not a profound comparison. It’s an observation
·
That being said, a
metaphor/simile does not have to be profound; it can be silly.
Metaphor/simile should:
·
Illuminate something
within the context of what you are writing. A misplaced comparison is just
confusing.
Here is a list of the 19 funniest, not so
effective, simile/metaphors (according to the internet):
- Her
face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides
gently compressed by a Thigh Master. - His
thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like
underpants in a dryer without Cling Free. - She
had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes
just before it throws up. - She
grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was
room-temperature Canadian beef. - He
was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
- McBride
fell twelve stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag
filled with vegetable soup. - Her
hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
- The
hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry
them in hot grease. - Even
in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one
that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut. - The
plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil,
this plan just might work. - The
young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating
for a while. - He
was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but
a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or
something. - The
ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg
behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant. - The
revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because
of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a
formerly surcharge-free ATM machine. - It
was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with
power tools. - The
little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a
bowling ball wouldn’t. - Long
separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the
grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left
Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19
p.m. at a speed of 35 mph. - He
was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as
if she were a garbage truck backing up. - Her
vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
Haley, West writing tutor
Monday, February 25, 2013
In my field, I won't need to write
No matter what we do, we're going to need to know how to write.
Yes you, the Engineer who does not care about the construction of your
paragraph or the mathematician who declares that everything can be solved and
explained with only numbers; you need to write to build upon what you do. Every
field requires writing, writing down concepts, ideas, and plans. We all need to
understand the importance of writing, even in its simplest form it is a means
of communication that is important in all areas of expertise.
So don't feel bad if your writing needs a little bit of help: the
writing center can help send you down a path of greatness! Guides in writing,
helpers in brainstorming, and just a second set of eyes can make all the
difference in your academic and professional writing.
Elisabeth--West writing tutor
To Writers of My Generation
While writing can sometimes be a painful process for many
students, for others it is a cathartic experience. However, those individuals
that fall in the latter category can sometimes seem few and far between. What
has happened to the art of writing among our generation?
I have always been the student that loved the social
sciences and English courses. Science and math were too logical, too fixed, too
constrained. My brain simply doesn’t work within the confines of pure
logic. Writing, though, was something
that I could delve into head first and not be afraid of. Brainstorming ideas,
forming a thesis, and elaborating on my ideas has always been an exciting
process for me, but I see it less and less in younger children.
We are the generation of social networks and smart phones
and a new language along with them. I have routinely come across essays written
in text speak, theses that are obvious, and narratives that are too dull to
even finish reading. What happened to us? What happened to our use of language?
What happened to the aspiring Hemingways, Brontes, Austins, and Wildes? And
what happened to our patience?
Nowadays people seem to loathe the process of writing and,
even further, they despise the act of reading. Tweets of 140 characters or less
seem to be all this generation can abide.
I don’t think that writing and reading are in danger of
becoming extinct. People will continue to be literate and writing and reading
will never dissipate from our curriculums. All I am advocating for is the
appreciation of the art. And that is exactly what writing is, an art. It gives
one the ability to open doors in their mind they may not have thought about
opening before.
The great writers of
the past have given us characters so vivid that we fall in love with them; they
have written stories so powerful that political upheaval has been wrought, and
audiences have had such strong reactions that book burnings have taken place.
That last example only goes to show how powerful writing can be, and those book
burners were trying to silence the words of those authors and limit the minds
of the readers.
Take pride in your writing. Take pride in the ability to
read. Write a letter in ink rather then send an email to your loved ones.
Handwrite thank you notes. Get lost in a book just for fun once in a while. And
jot down memories and articulate your opinions in writing so that future
generations may come to know who you are.
Writing is a powerful expression of self, it is a respected
outlet for imagination and opinion, and it is a way for students to learn and
research their subject matter deeply enough to appreciate it.
Find your words. Find your voice.
And write on.
Marshall--Desk Assistant, West campus
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