The Penguins Strike Back

I am in total agreement on slackers Dan. I'll try to help out anyone who comes in, but when someone flies in 10-minutes begging, "Can't you just look at it real quick?" to me, especially when I'm not even working, I can't stand it. Cocoa, you raise a lot of good points, and a lot that I agree with. I definitely had to adjust to not writing on students' papers this year, but one of the things I've noticed is that it really allows me to focus on their writing even more, and to sometimes make sure that they understand what I'm saying, if they write it down.

Slackers Suck

One thing I have noticed around the writing center is that we have two types of students. First, we have those that are really hard workers and who plan ahead. Second, we have students that run in fifteen minutes before class looking for us to "fix" their papers. I am just writing to say that the second group of students, otherwise known as the slackers, really annoy me. I find that I am much more willing to work with the first group of students than the second. I try to help everyone, but some people really try my patience.

Return of the Penguins

These articles are interesting, and in "Censoring Ourselves" and "Subjectivity in the Tutorial," two points are brought up that I, and other tutors, often deal with. The question can often be how do I address this or how do I say this in such a way or how can I let them write that when he or she is totally wrong. Having been a tutor for two and a half years now, I've had several experiences where I ask these questions when reading a student's paper. I have managed to keep my opinion out of students' papers, something that can truly be taxing at times. The dilemma that would be rough is if a student was blatantly sexist or racist in the paper. I've never dealt with this situation personally, and if I did, it probably would be the roughest tutorial ever. I would be as tactful as I could, but unlike in "Censoring," I don't think I could let a student walk to an English class with a paper like that. Let's just hope that this is one of those theoretical situations that we never have to deal with.

What a Paradox! Part 1 and 2

I have to admit that when I first came to the Writing Center at Clemson University and was told that we weren't allowed to write on students' papers; I was shocked. This was the way that we always did it at my previous university. However, after employing the practice and also the practice of letting the student read their paper aloud, I found that these practices were much more affective. Peter Carino argues in his essay, "Power and Authority in Peer Tutoring," that because centers have a preoccupation with non-directive tutoring they can become unethical. Carino assumes that because these practices are employed to give power back to the student, it takes away all the power of the tutor. This is just as much a fallacy as stating that there's no power relationship present in the writing center. Let's explore the first practice that my WC uses: We aren't allowed to write on a student's paper. Now this policy was probably first employed to protect tutors from allegations of plagiarism. What's important to note is that this practice was a reaction against other's misconception about what we do in the WC and not a reflection of how we view it.
However, this is not to say that the policy isn't a good one for other reasons. First of all, it does put the students in control of their papers, as well they should be. It's their papers!!! Not ours. We exert our power because we have in our possession rules about grammar and punctuation and, what I like to call, the big book of examples--ways you "could" approach this or that. Furthermore, why does Carino think students take notes in lectures? Because, if students don't interpret they would retain, i.e. putting it in your own words. This is the same situation in the writing center. Students need to write in their own words what they "interpret" from what we say. What's truly "unethical" is not being able to see concretely that they understand your comments and sending the student away with your foreign handwriting sprinkled all over their pages assuming that they can decipher your letter or that they even speak your language.

Holy Good Readings Batman!!

Wow, I think that this set of readings that we have for Monday could spark some good discussion. The readings pose some questions that there are not a right or wrong answer for, and I am looking forward to hearing what everyone else has to think.