My first appointment at the Writing Center this afternoon was a bit frustrating because the paper was good and concise, and the assignment was merely to summarize (although it was a lot of summary) the research on the topic, so there wasn’t a lot of feedback I felt I could offer. We talked about grammar and puncation (the writer was an ELL student), but other than that, we didn’t talk ideas or organization much. I felt especially inept because I was being observed.
My second appointment this afternoon felt like it was going to be similar. We talked about the conclusion of her paper, and I praised her for her organization, good paragraphs, and clear thesis. What was wrong with me? Was I too tired (I need to get more than 4 hours of sleep)? Am I just a bad writing assistant? I can usually rip something apart (I’m pretty analytical, I like to think).
And then the writer asked, “What else do you think I should change?”
And I don’t like saying, “You should change this,” but rather talk about ideas and what works and does work for the paper and developing strategies. So I asked her a question back, emphasizing that I thought she was a pretty savvy writing, since she already knew what we needed to work on when we came in.
She replied, “I thought you’d be able to tell me what I needed to work on.”
I was a bit…floored? This was an insult: You’re not doing your job! Help me! And I was stuck, because at first I didn’t know what to help her on. It was then that I realized that this essay was good, but not great. If I were her teacher, it wouldn’t be an A. How do I help her move from being a great high school writer to being a great college writer?
Then it donned on me: Would anyone “argue” against her thesis? Her paper wasn’t an argument paper, but she wasn’t really saying much that was too deep (she had a good, valid point, but the “so what” of it, the “what’s at stake” wasn’t clear). So I asked why she chose her topic. She had “no idea,” but then, as soon as I glanced at the assignment sheet, and she noticed that I looked, she began talking about how the essay was supposed to draw on personal experience, and we were able to discuss the experience she wrote about in more detail, and then were able to talk about the “so what” of her paper – why she wrote it, what she wanted to say but hadn’t said in the paper. She was concerned about “getting off topic” by going into a “so what” and discussing some other ideas. I explained that she was a good writer, but that sometimes a writer needs to take risks and play with ideas to take the next step to being better. She seemed to get something out of that discussion, and I encouraged her to come back with her next draft.
My third appointment today went excellently, so it was a day of progress, I guess.
