Taking the Penguins for a Little Stroll

Here is my response to Geoff's post:

#1: I too have spent time just trying to clarify assignments with students. It is actually pretty frightening how many students don't really know what their assignment is, and they've already wrote 10 pages on it. I have found that alot of these cases end with me telling them to go see their prof. so they can figure out their assignment.

#2: ESL students can be a difficult case, especially the ones who don't really know what we do. I too have had many people coming in looking for a proofread (alot of them are native English speakers by the way), and need to explain to them what we do in the center. Once the student gets over their initial disgust, the tutorials go pretty well. The main problem I have found that ESL students have is with prepostions.

#3: I too have had many people come to the center looking for a quick proofread. The saddest part is that many people in our own department have no idea what the writing center is for. A physics professor probably won't know much about us, but the people in the English department really should know better. I also try to spread the word to other grad. students (especially GTA's) and anyone who is within ear shot.