Reading Responce 9/25

Oxford Guide For Writing Tutors, "Tutoring is conversation/tutoring not just any conversation":

The author in this reading talks about how during a tutoring session there are specific points that are hit. The session can definitely be friendly but there is a specific set "schedule" that is laid out to follow for the appointment. The appointment usually tries to look at what goals the writer wants to achieve and get out of the appointment. Feedback can be super helpful for both the student and the tutor. The feedback should be encouraging to make both people feel they are off to a great start. The tutor mustn't be the only one doing the work. Both the tutor and student need to come together to have insightful ideas to add. My reflection on the writing Is that it is important to stay on track when in a session. It is normal for side conversations to happen sometimes but appointments are only so long. I like it when a tutor has a planned session it helps us stay organized during the session. The question I am left with is, let's say you're in a session and the tutor or student keeps getting off track multiple times, how would you go about this?  

Bruffee "Peer Tutoring and Conversation of Mankind": 

The author of this article feels that the best way to learn is to communicate and share ideas. During a tutoring session, if the student is asked questions where they can be creative and share ideas it helps them know, "I am the one being tutored but this is still my paper." I think that is really important because it can be hard to not feel that the tutor is above you. It also helps when the tutor can provide some ideas as well. The tutor should not just tell a student "This is wrong, here let me fix it." The tutor is supposed to help guide the student. The tutor can help guide the student towards wat is right by making sure the student is also critically thinking. Saying things like " what do you think would be better," is an example of doing so. My reflection on this reading is that both the tutor and the student can learn from a session. Even though you may be the one being tutored, it does not mean you can't help the tutor learn new things too. Getting rid of the "I'm above you" approach is important. It helps the session feel more comfortable overall. I am interested to see how my own tutoring appointment goes. I wonder if it will feel as if they are above me or if we are equal. 

 

Reading Responce's 9/19

 Bedford Guide Chapter One: 

Chapter One of Bedford's "The Writing Center as a Workplace," explores the role of a worker in the writing center from a more professional stance. It explained the various responsibilities that tutors in the writing center must follow in order to be the best tutors that they can be. As tutors, we should not be so harsh on the students. It is important to support the students that you are working with. As we have mentioned a lot in class before, the whole process of writing she be carefully looked at instead of just the final paper. All students have different skill levels so the tutors need to be able to adapt to the different skill sets of the students. The writing center is not just a place to learn how to write better but also how to communicate with each other and be open to giving/receiving constructive criticism. My reflection on the chapter was that it is I never looked at our writing center as a place to develop other professional skills. Now that I read that perspective it has changed how I will approach the center in the future. The question that I am left with is what are the most important skills for the tutor to have in order to succeed? 

 Bedford Guide Chapter Two: 

Chapter Two of Bedford's "Inside The Tutoring Session," talks about what a session would be like in a writing center. the chapter talks about how it is important for the tutor to listen carefully to what the student has to say/ask. It also can help if the tutor asks questions as well to create more in-depth conversations about the writings. Setting goals can also help guide the session. It is more helpful for tutors to work with the students to think critically about the questions asked rather than provide the answers. My reflection on the chapter is that I learned what higher and lower-order concerns are. Higher order is more important, like the layout of an essay, while lower order comes after. Lower order are things like punctuation. This is something I will keep in mind the next time I write a paper. I am not left with any questions. However, I do feel I learned some new skills from this article. 

Oxfords Guide: 

The reading Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors, "Tutoring Is Conversation/Tutoring is not just any conversation," talks about how there are specific ways to communicate within a tutoring appointment. The tutor and the student should both equally share input and ideas during the session. The session will not be successful if the conversation is mostly one-way. The tutoring sessions have certain goals to achieve and going off task will not help achieve those goals. Guiding the student through questions, answers, and ideas is really important for a successful session. It will help the student open up more and create ideas. My reflection on the reading is that I always attend tutoring appointments and let the tutor take charge. It is interesting to read that if both the tutor and student equally take charge, it will be a better outcome. A question I am left with is how can you balance being approachable but also professional? 

Reading responce 9/12

 Lunsford Reading: 

Lunsford's article was about three different writing styles and collaboration that can be useful to anyone. These styles consisted of using a writing center as a storehouse which is a place that provides information, skills, and strategies. The appointments may consist of modules and learning activities that are just for individual work. Another style was using the garret center which is when writers work together to have a better understanding of their ideas. The third method is a parlor system, where two equals are working together. Another big idea that was in this article was collaboration. The author emphasizes the helpful outcomes that collaboration within writing can bring. My personal opinion of this article was that it was helpful. I never have heard of a storehouse or garret writing center. Usually, when I think of writing I always assume it's a solo activity rather than something you can do with more than one person. A question I have left to ask is are there any negative aspects when it comes to collaboration?

North Reading:

Stephen North's article is about the thoughts that he's gathered based on his own experience working in a writing center. He specifically feels that a writing center should do more than just correct problems that papers have. He feels that writing centers should work towards improving students' writing skills overall. This is so it helps in the long run rather than just quickly fixing a paper and the student just moving on, not learning important skills. He also emphasizes that the writing center should not just be for experienced writers. It should be for people of all different writing levels. My personal thoughts on his article are that I very much agree with him. I have been to our school writing center a few times but each time I went it felt like I did not learn any useful skills. We just worked on my paper and then I went along with my life. Once I turned the paper in I never really thought or looked back on my experiences in the center. I think learning skills would be very helpful especially for me because I could improve my writing. My question I have after this reading is what can we do to make writing centers more collaborative and skillful?

Mattison Reading:

Mattison's article talks about how the writing center's teachings have improved drastically and evolved into topics such as more diverse work. Mattison promoted talking about topics surrounding social justice and other important matters. He also gives his thoughts about North's articles surrounding writing centers. My reflection on this reading was it was honestly more of a challenging one. It was hard for me to understand if he was agreeing with North's article or having a different perspective on it. MY question I have after reading this article is, what are some ways writing centers can expand diversity within the center?

Latta's Reading:

In Latta's article, she talks about the thoughts that students who struggle and do not necessarily have good writing skills, have this due to lack of motivation. She feels that students can improve writing by utilizing what they already know and growing from the skills that they already carry. She feels teachers need to be more supportive to students which can help improve their writing. My personal thoughts on this article are that I somewhat agree with her. In class, we talked about how professors sometimes say things like "This writing is not good." Things like that are so discouraging, if a professor told me that I would just wanna give up on writing overall and feel like I suck at it. Instead, they should be more encouraging and make students want to learn to improve their writing skills. My question after reading the article is if teachers are not already supportive how can we improve? 

College Writing Center's

Writing centers:

• Harvard University Cambridge Massachusetts 

• The writing place is North Western University, Evanston Illinois 

• Columbia college writing center Upper manhattan new york 

Harvard University Cambridge Massachusetts:

How does this center describe itself?

• This center is supposed to help students with writing skills and help with any writing assignments. 

• They offer seminars and lectures 

In what ways does the center connect to its history?

• Not sure 

          What sorts of terms does the center use for the people who work there and the people who come for its services?

• They use personal bios about what the staff is interested in such as hobbies etc and a picture of the staff member. 

How does the center's website use colors and images? 

• They use pictures of the staff. 

• The colors that they use are black, white, and navy blue. 

Words and phrases that stand out to me and why?

• “Quick links” stand out to me because they are easy links to navigate through the website. 

• “New handouts- strategies for essay writing handouts” stands out to me because it looks like some tips for writing essays. 

https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/

The writing place North Western University, Evanston Illinois 

How does this center describe itself?

• Engaging peer writing consultations, supporting beginning writers, and a program for undergraduates called “Creative Writing Program.” 

In what ways does the center connect to its history?

• The writing place is Its sponsored by the Cook Family Writing program in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

• The graduate place is supported by the graduate school

  What sorts of terms does the center use for the people who work there and the people who come for its services?

• They include pictures of the staff as well as bios mentioning their academic accomplishments/ how they hope to help students within the center. 

How does the center's website use colors and images? 

• The website uses the color purple a lot as well as many colorful artworks. They also have some pictures of the campus on the website. 

Words and phrases that stand out to me and why?

• “96% of the students who completed a survey about their visit would recommend us to others!” This fact stuck out to me because it is a statistic and was bolded in purple.

• In-person and online appointments 

• “3345 Appointments Were Held Online and In-Person”, 

“1705 Clients Came in for Appointments”, 

“97.92% Of Surveys Completed Rated Appointments "Very Good" or "Excellent" - this stood out to me because it was bolded and has more statistics. 

https://www.writing.northwestern.edu/

Columbia College Writing Center Upper Manhattan New York 

How does this center describe itself?

• Ivy League schools with useful resources to help with writing assignments 

• high-quality tutorials, and a writing center also hold various courses on literature humanities, contemporary civilization, as well as art and music. They also offer group classes on various topics including creative and academic writing.

In what ways does the center connect to its history?

• not sure

   What sorts of terms does the center use for the people who work there and the people who come for its services?

• Provides some pictures of the staff. It also shows what year they graduate/graduated and what they studied. 

How does the center's website use colors and images?

• They use this light blue color but do not have any images. 

Words and phrases that stand out to me and why?

• “What we do” was bolded and tells the purpose of the writing center

https://www.college.columbia.edu/core-curriculum/undergraduate-writing-program/writing-center

Writing experiences and goals for the semester

 I have a lot of experience when it comes to writing. My experiences are all from academic writings not personal. I have written various blog posts in my past communications class. Those blogs were probably the most fun that I have had with writing. For the most part, we could write about our own topics we were interested in. I wrote mostly about fashion, makeup, and skincare. I personally do not enjoy writing. I find it very challenging to form my thoughts into sentences. I also have trouble with grammar overall. I hope to get many things out of this writing class. The first is, I'd like to grow my confidence as a writer. The second goal would be to improve grammar and spelling. The goals that I am going to set for myself this semester are to get B's or A's on my paper writing assignments. I also would like to feel more confident as a writer. Lastly, I would like to be better at forming strong sentences and improving my spelling.