MARK my words: WLN Review
Beckwith, Jennifer. "Tutors' Column: 'My Idea of the Writing Center: Through the Eyes of a Client Turned Consultant.'" Writing Lab Newsletter 41, no. 4-5 (January/February 2017): 26-29.
Jennifer, who I presume was an undergraduate student and tutor at Worcester State in Massachusetts, offers a very positive and insightful take on her experiences as a student and as an instructor in the same Writer's Center. Here are some bullet point highlights:
"...[A Writing Center is] simply a place to progress." As a student, Jennifer assumed a tutor was an editing service, a place from where she could emerge with a finished paper.
"...My duty as a writing consultant is to honor the student's writing." I really like the title of writing consultant. "Tutor" has never felt right to me.
"...[Ask] them outright what they are struggling with the most." I'll be putting this to practice in about ten minutes. Questions like these should help students excel even when not consulting the Writing Center.
"Value all writing at all stages." This is hard, because so often I find myself wondering how much of my student's ideas are actually on the page, and which ideas have they not considered yet. I can imagine a Writing Center that's designed in stages, with a table for rough drafting, or a table for editing, or a table for revision. Hm!
This was a powerful refresher before jumping back into my consultations. I really do look forward to seeing my students and their writing!
Hope your sessions went well and that all your students showed. I'm guessing that what they might be struggling with right now might be more existential--like fear of the unknown,or on having to learn online.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed that some of our best Undergrad Writing Fellows have had the experience of being tutored at our Writing Center or somewhere else. In fact, having been tutored might even be as valuable an experience for developing empathy as having tutored.
I like your idea of stations of the writing process (sounds like Lent) in the writing center, especially for appointments. First you go to the triage tutor at the front desk who diagnoses and assigns you, based on where you're at in your writing process---brainstorming, thesis-formulating, drafting, revising, editing, or proofreading-- to a particular table where a tutor awaits to help you with that stage. My guess is that the revising tutor would be the most busy and the brainstorming tutor the least.
Hi Mark,
ReplyDeleteI also really like this idea of creating "stages" in a writing center, and making it clear that it is not only okay but important to revisit tables and move between them. I have never thought about there be multiple uses for "what do you struggle with the most" from their perspective, but it makes sense that it would not only be valuable for the purposes of the session but perhaps help the student to rethink their big picture issues.
Hi Mark,
ReplyDeleteI thought the notion of "to honor a student's writing" was so interesting and refreshing...in a way. I never thought about it like that. We always seem to get lost in "fixing" the student's writing. Using the term "honor" seems really important and reminds us to value it more.
Stages does sound like an excellent idea! I think organizing them in a way that leaves it physically unclear how one progresses from stage to stage would also be useful, to emphasize Kathleen's point about it being okay to revisit tables or move between them. Tables should shift (the revision table not always in the same place, and not placed in a way that makes it seem like the "final" stage). I think this could also be a cool way to think about the idea of a more collaborative writing center space, which is something I've been thinking about with a lot of our readings. How can we encourage students to engage with one another's writing? Having tables set up as stages, and encouraging movement, might also help foster some of that sort of student-to-student engagement and learning process.
ReplyDeleteI'm also way into the "honoring" phrasing; like Bethanny mentions, it feels so much better than "fixing." Less prescriptive, less punitive, less rigid, less transactional. If the writing in all of its stages exists to be honored, then our job as tutors (or "consultants") is to become conversant with that writing, to honor it by recognizing/praising/amplifying/highlighting its strengths.
ReplyDelete