Teaching in a Writing Center Spring 2020

How does the case study in “Crossing Cultures” bring to mind experiences you have had as a teacher of and/or a writer in a second (foreign) language?  I have two Chinese students in my Rhetoric course this semester.   One of them is the strongest writer in the class.   For our first essay, her rough draft was by far the most well-organized and clearly articulated.   My other Chinese student misunderstood the assignment entirely.   Instead of writing about a single topic, she wrote about the three topics she had initially submitted during the proposal process for this essay assignment.   I offered her a deadline extension.   I like that this article points out the educational opportunities that exists for both tutor and international student during their sessions together.   I’m looking forward to learning from my students about the cultural differences between American and Chinese values.   Which transfer problem...

Which transfer problems like these have you noticed in the writing of second language writers? While I can only think of the students that I have had in the Spanish Writing Center, transfer problems seem to also be apparent in the process of learning Spanish. There are some phonological transfer when it comes to the letter 'h'; while the letter is silent in Spanish, students would usually pronounce it like they would in English. Pronouncing single and double 'r'  also seems to be an issue sometimes. There are also grammatical transfers such as the use of articles; the definite article (el & la) is used frequently in Spanish, and it can be hard for students to know when to use them. Regarding discourse transfers, like Chinese, Spanish also has two ways in saying 'you' depending on our relationship with the person. When speaking with our peers, we use 'tú'. However, when speaking with someone's parent or a teacher, we would be required to use ...

How does the case study in “Crossing Cultures” bring to mind experiences you have had as a teacher of and/or a writer in a second (foreign) language?  I haven’t had a tutoring experience like this yet; I had a student in my Rhetoric course last year who came to office hours to discuss her paper draft, and an important issue we had to deal with was cultural understandings of sexuality—we discussed cultural information so that I could get a better picture of the argument she would be making. The student was South Korean, and her paper discussed rhetoric used in public backlash against a celebrity’s social media postings. In our conversation, I decided to just ask her to explain what elements within these postings would be problematic in Korea, and then widened the scope to ask why, and then shifted the conversation to “how this is working”. If she had been in my enrollment tutoring, we could have had some good informal writing exercises to accomplish this. ...

Please post at least before Tuesday at noon so we have time to read one another's posts.  As per the syllabus, in addition to posting, please also respond to someone else's post.  Also, as per the syllabus, you need to do these blog posts in order to receive an S (for Satisfactory) in the course. Suggested Questions for Blog Post #3:  How does the case study in “Crossing Cultures” bring to mind experiences you have had as a teacher of and/or a writer in a second (foreign) language?  Which transfer problems like these have you noticed in the writing of second language writers? Which of the rhetorical and linguistic features (from the Appendix list) do you think would be easier or more difficult for second language writers? Homework for next week, Feb 11 : 1)       Read from The Tutor’s Guide , “Crossing Cultures with International ESL Writers.” 2)       Read “Possible Transfer-Based Probl...

"What are you favorite and least favorite phases of the writing process and why?" I feel that my favorite phase is between generative and organization. It's a mental space in which I've already produced as much content as I can at the moment on the assigned subject, and now get to take a step back and look at where I can find threads, unbury some potential structure, and piece together a main point or thesis. My least favorite phase would be generative, because of my tendencies to self-edit and my proneness to distractions!

Hello! I hope I am posting this correctly.   For this post, I chose to write about my process--it's something I've been thinking about in preparation for teaching in the Writing Center, as translating and adapting my knowledge to best serve a student's needs might be challenging depending on the circumstances. In my writing process, the best part is when I am in a place somewhere near the end of a first draft where I am not rushed, not feeling overwhelmed by the material or expectation, and am able to play with words, structure, and creative expression; that’s where I have the most fun in writing. My least favorite part of writing is the stage between the first and second draft, where I must “kill my darlings” and cut sections—however, I recognize it as extremely helpful. For this reason, I think my greatest strength as a writer is that I welcome rigorous critique; as a former editor, I ask whoever is looking over my work to be brutal ...

                                                                    Options for Blog Post #2   How might tutoring non-native speakers differ from tutoring native speakers?  How might tutoring graduate students differ from tutoring undergrads (see handout)?  How does the writing process chapter apply to your own work as a writer and a writing teacher?   What are your most and least favorite phases of the writing process and why? What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of your own writing process? Of your classroom and (what you know so far about) your writing center students’ writing processes?