What we do in Daniel 305

Ultimately, we do our best to help students to become better writers. How? Well there are many ways in which we might accomplish the aforementioned goal.

When students come in with a paper, the first thing is introduce yourself and create an atmosphere of ease in which ideas may be shared freely. Then, the you find out as much as you can about the task. Asking the students to explain the assigment aloud and to provide a copy of the instructor's description helps both of you to further understand the task at hand. If the students do not have any specific questions or problems in mind, they will now read their papers out loud while you listen attentively and read along. This allows the students opportunities not only to proofread their paper again but also to hear the flow of their words and gain a broad perspective of their paper. Meanwhile you able to get a feel for the overall structure and flow of the argument without running the risk of getting bogged down in minute detail before you can listen to the whole argument. You've been making mental notes of possible problem areas all the while.

writing center tutoring

On a typical day at the writing center, the tutors come in to work at 10:00 and leave at 4:00. Generally, there are at least two tutors on hand at all times. When a student walks in, one of the tutors asks if he or she needs help. Oftentimes, a student is looking for one of the professors who shares our office, or, perhaps, only needs to borrow a stapler. When a student is looking for help with a paper, though, one of the tutors immediately introduces himself and sits down with the student. The tutor asks the student about the assignment and what he or she hopes to take away from this session. Most of the time the student has at least a portion of a paper written and is asking for guidance on where to go from that point. The tutor is well-equipped to offer suggestions on the paper's structure, theme, grammar, etc. A tutoring session only lasts thirty minutes, however, so time is of the essence. The goal of the writing center tutor is to develop the writer, though, not the paper. Therefore, in some cases, additional sessions may be required.

The Writing Center's Purpose

The most widely held misconception about the writing center is that we, as tutors, are editors. This is not our purpose, nor has it ever been our purpose, and yet still this idea remains. The fundamental reason for the writing center is to produce "better writers." Not necessarily today, or tomorrow, but to establish a foundation within a student that has the capabilities of burgeoning into an accomplished writer. We do check for grammar, and we do help students organize their papers, and we do help students formulate ideas. But not in the manner that many think. Our role is a role of moderators. Not in the sense that we "control" anything, but that we guide the students into their own flowering--"There is a puncutation error in this sentence. Can you find it? Do you understand why you need punctuation there? You're argument seems to be a bit choppy here. What can you do to promote coherence in this paragraph? What are you trying to say in this sentence, in this paragraph, in this conclusion? What is it about gun-control laws, as they stand right now, that you have a problem with? An introduction must establish your argument, dictate the points you wish to stress, harbor a thesis statement. A conclusion is not a reiteration of your ideas, but the implications for those ideas in greater context. What do these arguments for us, the readers, mean? Why are they important?" As tutors, we must draw a fine line between "paper-checking" and "writer-enhancement," and it is our ability to recognize that line and stay on the latter side of it that makes us Writing Center tutors.

Tigerlily and the Cowboy

It's a typical day at the writing center. All is quiet. All are at peace. Then, a faint tap at the door. The tutors glance up from their academic studies. What was that gentle rapping? Again, the tap, slightly louder this time. A tutor, from Texas, opens the door. It appears to be a Native American princess. We'll call her Tigerlily. She is clearly upset about something. She holds a paper in her hand. It is unfinished and covered in tearstains.
"Is this the writing center?" she asks.
"Why, yes. Come on in, pilgrim," says the westernwear-clad tutor.
"I'm completely stuck on my paper, and I was wondering if you could help me," Tigerlily says.
"Sure. Now just come on in and have a seat and tell me what you're working on."
Tigerlily sits down. "Is that a pentagram on the COEXIST banner on the wall?"
"Umm...yes. We try to accomodate all cultures and beliefs here at the Clemson University Writing Center."
"That makes me feel a lot more at ease. I will now explain to you my assignment."

--Tigerlily explains the assignment. The tutor asks follow-up questions about her thesis and the structure of her paper. He offers suggestions. They are now in a creative dialogue with each other. Tigerlily begins to throw out ideas left and right. As she does so, the tutor becomes more of an observer. She is fully conceptualizing her paper. She picks up her quill, uh, pen and begins furiously writing all of her new ideas on her old paper. It is well-structured, concise, and many other wonderful things. Most importantly, she is more pleased with her paper than she ever could have hoped to be.--

Tigerlily gets up to leave the writing center. "I am going to go home right now and type up my new paper. Thank you so much, ---, for being so helpful and understanding me and the plight of my people that I'm writing about in this research paper."
"Well, you're welcome, little lady. Don't hesitate to come back if you have any more questions or if you ever need help on another paper."
"Thanks, I will. And I'm going to tell my friend N'Dutu to come by and see you tomorrow!"
"Alright. Bye."
Tigerlily walked out the door and the tutor felt a great sense of peace. But five seconds later, in walked another extremely concerned student.
"Well, I guess it's time to get back in the saddle," said the tutor.

Writing the Drawing of the Writing Center

In order to represent the student and tutor, we chose a rectangle and triangle respectively. The triangle being the most geometricaly sound figure we felt directly corresponded with the role of the tutor, he is both teacher and peer, not fully adhering to the student's paper, but working with the student as a "writer." Likewise, we felt a rectangle adequately represented the student, stable in the general sense and quite able to stand alone, but overtly asymmetrical in his academic strengths (perhaps more analytically oriented, the longer side, than creatively, the shorter side).
The first depiction, coming to the writing center, illustrates the rectangle (student) adorned with a headband and feather (signifying his/her Native American heritage, i.e. "otherness") with tears in his/her eyes, a look of confusion on his/her face, carrying his/her paper into the writing center. The writing above the door is the law we, as writing center tutors, have declared that visually illustrates the paradox between spoken language and written language; thus, being sympathetic to the difficulties associated with writing. The tutor (clad in a cowboy hat, boasting a holster equipped with a Colt .45, chewing a piece of straw, and adorning cowboy boots to signify the essence of "whiteness," and his placement in the South-the "norm") awaites the student inside. On the wall of the writing center is a banner with the word "Coexist" written in symbols on the wall to portray the need for the center to embrace all aspects of our "melting pot" society. The shelf of books, three of which are discernable-Webster's Dictionary, Freud's Interpretation of Dreams (the issue of psychology in the writing center), and St. Martin's Handbook for Writer's (a must)-gives the Writing Center it's "literary aura."
The second depiction, a session in progress, is made up of two drawings. The first depicts both tutor and student (still wearing a confused, frustrated expression) brainstorming together ways to enhance the paper (Q: coming from the tutor's side of the brainstorm to represent questions, and A: the student's side to represent the answers, or, for a better term, responses). An arrow is drawn between the two drawings and indicates a progression from drawing one to drawing two. Drawing two depicts the student with a lightbulb (a universal pictorial respresentation for idea) enclosed by his thought-bubble smiling, his paper bigger and shining (improved), and the tutor sitting back letting the student do his work. The cowboy hat of the tutor and feather of the student have been lain on the table, both have been open with regards to their cultures, accepted their differences, and the impact those differences have on writing.
The third depction, the result, has little illustration. The white space serves to illustrate the relative insignificance of all other details once the writing session has culminated. The bulk of the illustration is a glowing student, his finger hoisted into a "number one," holding a glowing paper. He/She has succeeded in enhancing not only their paper, but their abilities as a writer. The tutor is set into the background. Smaller, and withdrawn we recognize that he was ultimately a factor in this improved student, though little emphasis is placed on him as he remains relatively static (the same smile that he harbored in depictions one and two, he has once more in depiction three); for, the session is for the student, and the student is the product.

Ideogram

At first glance the two characters in the sketch are obviously quite different. We rendered them so for many reasons. Not only are they from two different cultural contexts (the anglo cowboy and the native american), but they are also shown to be from two contexts within which there has been lasting tension--thus the gun and the tomohawk. However, the cowboy that waits in the writing center is obviously informed and benevolent. Waiting below a banner that celebrates diversity and standing beside a book shelf full of sources for the writing tutor, he wears acceptance on his ambling visage. Whatever tension that exists between them (even if only traditionally or typically perceived) will be actively dealt with and overcome through an equal collaboration between the student and the tutor.

The thought bubble in the first of the during-session sketches attempts to capture this collaboration. While the arrow diagram in the bubble shows the reciprocity between the two, the Q and the A show the difference between the participant's input. The burden of creating answers and thoughts for the paper is placed with the student. For obvious reasons the pen and paper rest in possession of the student. He alone must own the text.

Much has changed in the second of the during-session sketches. Both of the participants' symbols of cultural identity are out on the table. Both the student and the paper have changed for the positive. Whereas the student wore almost a painful grimace at the beginning of the session, he now wears a confident smile and rests under the brilliant light of bright ideas which he has created. His paper glows with a royal sheen.

After the session, the focus is on the writer. He now glows because, ultimately, his growth has been the product of the session. He celebrates a newfound wisdom: he had the ideas and skill all along to write a solid paper, and all he needed was a partner he could trust to bring it out of him.

splish splash

I have yet to reach a final decision regarding the background for my splash page. I have finally narrowed my controlling metaphor to "the human condition," and my monuments reflect this. I have gathered pictures of monuments erected in remembrance of humanity's more despairing moments, such as the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. I have also taken into account more uplifting moments, such as the entrance to Ellis Island, a celebration of rebirth and limitless opportunity. Of course, monuments to the wars will be included as well as other more positive things. I found this really cool treated image that I may use on my splash page, but first I must determine whether it fully represents an element of the human condition.

My splash page

I have several images that would provide great background and "theme-reinforcement" for my splash page. I'm still not sure how to best set up a table on the page so that I can organize the images and the text. So, my splash page exists mainly in my mind, and the parts that don't aren't great.

Too keen a sense of peril

We bask in alienation

And name tendencies in silent concern:

Mediocrity, mirrors, rhythm, ease,

Terror, guilt, prose, deceit.

Silence where truth might unify.

Names suggest themselves

In analysis:

Too keen a sense of peril,

Defensive, bent in prayer

For security, serenity.

The beast turns new faces

Towards us, yet nameless.

The named. More powerful for

Having been so.

Why so full with naming?

Bent on Adam’s task, helpless,

I embiggen that I name.

I embiggen that I name.

Too keen a sense of peril.

No! In danger live the treasures:

Icons, idols, ancient texts in treatment

Of what might be found in mirrors,

What might be built on those foundations.

How embarrassing an invasion,

A plundering of my treasure.

These artifacts, findings,

This research must not be uncovered.

A plunderer’s unrestraint might

Prove vanity of my treasure.

How to deal with a problem

Of course, the first approach one would take when faced with a problem would be trying to solve the problem. The second would be to give up completely. But the first is how to solve it--the approach I will employ here. In the writing center class last week, I mentioned that my biggest problem is trying to limit the time I meet with a student to thirty minutes, a problem that will present itself when we get busier. This is a foreseeable problem, but one that has not had a need to be addressed at this point. When we aren't extremely busy, it only makes sense to spend more time with a student who needs it, which is what I have been doing. I will continue to do this until the point in the semester when it is absolutely necessary. Therefore, I will have to keep you posted on this issue until these further developments come to pass.

Maypole Calling

Maypole Calling

There's a maypole monster calling
from the closet, bed, and window.
Calling us to merry living.
Calling students to the lawn.

Duty's from our schoolbooks whining
for us our passions to withold.
Whining through the teachers warning.
Whining towards our guilty ears.

But, Siren song of spring is stronger
than all of duty's bootless whining.
Stronger still than "you'll succeed."
Stronger both in word and deed.

Filled-up fancy leaves our judgment
for the springtime fresh and green.
Leaving logic for the meantime
Leaving sleep for nighttime fun.

Sleeping we are through our due dates.
Abeyed the maypole through the night.
Sleeping still and full of dreaming.
Sleeping through Aurora's prod.

We obey the maypole's calling
stalling not a clock-tick longer.
Calling that is sweet with future
Calling cannot let us down.

But should our caller kiss and leave us,
with our glasspiece in his pocket,
Leaving us alone and worried
Leaving us with nought but loss,

At least we know we lived our fullest.
And midst that certain, dark, sweet hour
Living leaves and full forsakes us,
Living gained turns nought but loss.

How to act on the thing.

Well, I said that I need experience. One obvious way that I will act on this need is to work in the writing center for the rest of the year. But, in a more immediate context, I have read and will continue to read case studies of actual writing center sessions. The few that have come up in the reading have been very helpful. I am currecntly looking for a book of case studies to continue gaining a little bit from others' exeriences.

Splashing through my page

It has been raining lately, but I am coming to terms with myself. I am not satisfied, not content, not happy. I am here. Not there, but here, and shall stay as long as I stay dry. But my umbrella has folded itself upward to make a bowl. I tried to eat cereal out of it, but the rain water is not white like milk, nor thick, and falls upward toward the sky. My feet are cold, because my socks are dry (I think I left them in my apartment). I found some pictures on the internet about cafes, and used them for my splash page. I don't know why they call it a splash page, since the puddles I walk through seem much more splash-esque than my page. It's good though, I guess. Not much there. "My portfolio" with a picture of an ad for a Brazilian cafe. Good beginnings, but its the ends I worry about. Sometimes I get lost along the way, other times I wind up where I start. I keep finding more pictures I like and will try to use, but we shall see. That's the progress thus far. They say the clouds will break, but to tell you the truth I think their full of shit.

How to be a better tutor

The easiest way for me to act on the thing I identified in class (knowing my own writer to enhance my tutoring) is for me to write. The more I write, the more I come to understand all that comprises it. Grammar mistakes, syntax, diction, all elements pervading my writing correlate with my tutoring. The things I do wrong are the things I can fix in others' papers, and the things I do right can only serve to enhance the student as a writer.

My POWER

I am strong. Of this there can be no doubt.

How so?

Well, I'm glad you asked that. First of all, in my undergraduate schooling in English Ed., I received much instruction in grammar and in the teaching of grammar.

Wow! Do you think you're stronger than Superman?

Yes.

Me too.

Along the same lines, I can describe grammatical problems in students' papers with accuracy, and this ability allows me to explain to students why there are problems and how they can avoid said problems in the future.

May I sit at your feet for always?

Uhuh.

Here I go. Yayy!

THE END

Strengths and how I'm good at it

I can communicate well with others, and believe that my ability to relate to individuals is something that has enabled me to informally tutor thus far, and will continue to aid me in my formal tutoring. I feel that I can manipulate prose to my liking, and have a good sense of organization and creativity-a blend that I feel is vital to really "good" writing. I feel that one of my most pertinent strengths is the ability to relate to the writer in his/her context. It would be easy to enhance the student as a writer according to my standards. Unfortunately, this is not the key to the writing center, and would ultimately prove futile as the student has neither the background nor the ability to be in the place that I am. It is easy for me to discuss technical matters in a manner that students can understand. If I were to engage in very deep-seated grammatical talk with my students, it would intimidate them (not to mention the simple fact that they could very well walk away from the tutorial worse off than they were in the beginning). I have the ability to actively engage the student in the writing session, making it more bearable for me and more helpful for them. Je pense que l'étudiant est la personne la plus importante, et pour cette raison je les aide à comprendre mieux les processus de l'écriture. I will continue to grow as a writing tutor and a writer, and feel that this growth will only serve to better my interaction with the students and the overall outcome of the tutorials.

To be a better tutor

It is hard to designate "one thing" that would automatically make me a better tutor. I would need to know my own capabilities in grammar. I would need to know how to coerce a student into formulating their own ideas for bettering their paper. I would need to know the endless possibilities that writing permits, and the notion that no matter how many rules one writes there are others that undermine them. I would need to know the student, to have an idea of their own capabilities, their fears, and their strengths. But if I had to pick one thing, one thing that would make me a better tutor, it would be that I would have to know my own writing. If I can understand my own writing, know how it is produced, know its faults, know where it shines, then I can understand the writing of others.

The More You Know*

One thing I would need to know in order to be a better tutor is probably how to be more efficient with tutoring time. I know that soon the appointments will be piling up and that each appointment will have to be kept to a thirty minute maximum. To make the situation worse, I understand that some students' attitudes will be undesirable at times as they become more pressured around midterms and finals. I need to be more prepared for this type of scenario.

The More You Know*

One thing I would need to know in order to be a better tutor is probably how to be more efficient with tutoring time. I know that soon the appointments will be piling up and that each appointment will have to be kept to a thirty minute maximum. To make the situation worse, I understand that some students' attitudes will be undesirable at times as they become more pressured around midterms and finals. I need to be more prepared for this type of scenario.

The More You Know*

One thing I would need to know in order to be a better tutor is probably how to be more efficient with tutoring time. I know that soon the appointments will be piling up and that each appointment will have to be kept to a thirty minute maximum. To make the situation worse, I understand that some students' attitudes will be undesirable at times as they become more pressured around midterms and finals. I need to be more prepared for this type of scenario.

If there were one thing I would need to know. . .

I would need to know more about the successes and failures of actual writing center sessions. Simply put, I need to gain experience. Since experience is not a body of knowledge, I would need to gain it vicariously through those who have it. I would need to know how and why the best tutoring sessions have been profitable for the writer and the tutor. I want to be able to see actual sessions and hear from the participants. Without considering grammar, rhetoric, tutoring theory, etc., experience seems to be the best teacher.

If there were one thing I would need to know. . .

I would need to know more about the successes and failures of actual writing center sessions. Simply put, I need to gain experience. Since experience is not a body of knowledge, I would need to gain it vicariously through those who have it. I would need to know how and why the best tutoring sessions have been profitable for the writer and the tutor. I want to be able to see actual sessions and hear from the participants. Without considering grammar, rhetoric, tutoring theory, etc., experience seems to be the best teacher.

Strengths and weaknesses as a Tutor.

Weakness: I am too quick to offer suggestions. It seems that, without thinking twice, I see a "better" way to do something and I offer it to the student. Of course, he's more than eager to take it without thought. Therein lies the problem, without "thought." It's hard for me to create situation in which the burden of creation is placed on the student's back. I can accomplish this sort of thing better when it comes to minor problems, but I''m frightened by the thought of "three minutes of silence" that would probably ensue if I asked questions about the deeper stuff.

Strength: I feel that I'm able to create an atmosphere of ease for the student: one in which he might at least be able to be honest about the ideas he has in mind. If I could combine this strength with an inprovement on my above weakness, I think that the effectiveness of my tutoring would augment considerably. In other words, students would not only feel like they can be real about their papers, but they would also have the obligation to do so.

Strengths and Weaknesses

I feel I exhibit strengths in two particular areas, grammar and personal interaction. In terms of personal interaction, I succeed, I think, in making the student feel at ease upon entering the writing center. As cheesy as it sounds, it takes real motivation (at least I didn't say courage) for a student to make the first step of actually coming to the writing center. I don't really deliberate over what actions to perform to make the student more comfortable. I guess I'm doing something right, though, because the uneasiness just slips off their faces. In grammatical skills, I feel I may exhibit a weakness in my knowledge of the actual grammatical rules. I know when something is wrong, but I'm not always the most well-versed in the language of the rules. I will try to work on this a little more in the coming days.

Strengths and weaknesses as a tutor

The process of tutoring is a process not easy to define, and leaving itself, in most instances, inevitably undefinable. There is no "one way" to tutor; no right, no wrong, but just A way, as we all (tutors) must come upon our own voices in the manner that best suites us. Personally, I am a people person. I can relate to people, and feel that people can relate to me. I find that most students tend to "open up" throughout the tutoring sessions. Be it that I am easy to talk to or identify with, I am not quite sure. However, this ability, one that I do not consciously try to impose, but do so naturally, allows me to delve deeper into the student as a writer, and pry more into their process of writing than the mere surface mistakes. When a student feels comfortable with a tutor, their mind is free. I find it easy to distinguish between "good writing" and "bad writing" within a student's essay. Quite quickly, I can identify mistakes with organization, apparent grammar, sentence structure, information gaps, and the like. Because of this, I can spend more time developing a student's paper and their own drive to improve than searching for mistakes I feel obligated find as the "tutor." On a more lamentable note, I do second guess myself with grammar, and am anxious sometimes as to whether or not I am correcting a mistake or mistaking a correct. I am confident that I know grammar in my own writing, but fear that I will "mess up" when it comes to the student. This lack of confidence is building though as I see more students and settle into my tutoring method.

Lunatic

I am the lunatic sea begging to be high or low.
What pulls, pulls, and pulls, wanes, laughs and lets go.

If you only relinquish before lust turns to sin,
I'll break up the beach and in freedom begin

To sink sand between toes and dampen the clothes
of some other an object of my wavering fancy.

This is a poem

Still, he plays the cucumber--green and quiet.

They crack and pop like bones in him
Yet at the actions shirk
His laugh but whistle whispers
His smile but twitches smirks.

Alone, he types what passions kept
In sad truncated poems,
His lines the lone catharsis
But for cinema and home.

While sweep the urge impulsive
Out in ships to overseas
On the Rhine with her in Deutschland
Shielding sunlight from her knees.

To live with them on fictions shelves
A writer's graceful bow
In a great divorce from heaven
Having wrote the here and now.

Crapping for Dummies

The first book I ever read was probably a book about potty training. They tend to enforce those within kids these days. There is something about the nature of crapping on the floor that tends to be offensive. Be it the smell or appearance, it is quite safe to say that most people don't like it. However, I wouldn't consider a potty-training book a significant piece of children's literature. While it does harbor colorful illustrations and dumbed-down text, it reads more like a "How-To" than a "book." Should one put it into the context of adult literature, it would probably equate to "Crapping for Dummies." These books seem to be the trend: "Computers for Dummies," "Cooking for Dummies," "Breathing for Dummies"--as if all Americans are inherently incapable of learning such things in a "normal," intellectual way. "Dummies" is a rather negative term, and I would hate for a man who survives the epidemic that wipes out ninety-five percent of humanity to read the literature of our generation and postulate an idea of our people from a title like "Crapping for Dummies."

Mud blogg'n

Well, there are several, if not a couple of, interests upon which I would like to elaborate, one of which being my interest in legwarmers. Boy howdy! Pink legwarmers are attractive. Also, I am an avid believer in books. They are real! As such they deserve to vote, drive, and own land (but not necessarily in that order). Soapboxes aside, another interest of mine lies in leaves touched by wind and in the ensuing sound. Nothing doesn’t get my goat like breezes in treeses! And another thing, how come I can’t get no tang ‘round here? That’s interesting! To sum up, I like bloggin’. When you get your big ol’ tires in that mud and just stomp on the gas, wooooooeeeee! Sprayin’ it all over your truck, your boys’ trucks, your dog, and your classmates! MAN! Aint't nothin bettr'n uh gud blogg'n'!!!!!!!!!!

Met@4

In class last week, Doktor Fischmann seized the opportunity to...offer some insightful comments regarding the direction of my controlling metaphor. She told me to decide on a genre for my monuments; I should either choose monuments of individual people or specific places, etc. I have decided to do monuments to famous individuals but not limit myself to war heroes or anything like that. As the monuments will reflect the nature of my writing at the time, I feel it should not have to be strictly related to one academic field. I would like my scope to be worldwide. I would like for my monuments to reflect not just their own historicities but also the cultural atmospheres that surrounded the erections of said monuments. As an opening flash sequence, I would really like to get the screen from Street Fighter II where the little plane flies over the map and lands on the country of that particular fighter (you really have to see it to get what I'm saying). Then, the screen will open up into a monument from that particular country. Anyway, that's what I have for now.

This Is The Law, And All Shall Abide By It

On the twentieth day of September in the year of our ancestors two-thousand and six, it was established that all who shall enter the confines of the place known commonly as "The Writing Center" will inevitably and involuntarily impose upon theirselves the words breathed from the depths of the throats resting beneath the brown, red, and blonde heads of Cerberus:

"IF YOU DON'T WRITE GOOD, DON'T WRITE AT ALL."

This is the law, and all shall abide by it.

If I was to come to the writing center and need help with my paper and...

As Gordon Sauer III so eloquently stated in his treatise entitled "If I Were to Come to the Writing Center," the most fundamental issue in both the theoretical and pedagogical approaches to the development of writing, from the perspective of those who directly interact with developing writers, is that "writing can always be improved"(1). Past writers have conveyed similar ideas, but for Sauer to propose this theory in the twenty-first century is simply a phenomenal achievement. How, for instance, would Faulkner's "The Bear" hold up when viewed through the lens of Sauer's statement, a monument of hyperacademia, a pillar of twenty-first century literary analysis? Perhaps we can look back at the story's complete lack of punctuation (and coherence?) and contend that Faulkner didn't know no better. Twenty-first century students can learn from Faulkner's mistakes.

Seriously, though, one could always use extra practice with grammar. Also, with the constant changes in technology, one has to stay abreast in terms of the most cutting edge programs in technological communications. Also, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Gordon Sauer III for his inspiration and his "law" of the writing center.

I Don't Even Like Coffee

While I have not yet decided whether it would behoove me to use artistic representations of cafes or actual photographs to present my metaphor, I do know that I want to use the regional locations of cafes to portion off my portfolio. For example, should I write my seminar paper on a topic of Southern Literature I would represent this via a New Orleans cafe. Likewise, I might utilize different cafes in Europe (travelling between England and Holland and France per say) to represent various stages of development throughout the year. Furthermore, the cafe metaphor allows me to associate culture with literature (the cafe, to me, promoting a visual image of art, authors, and literature). I have not yet worked out the intricacies of all this, but I have established completely all that I want to do down to the smallest detail. Hopefully, as things progress and I come to more fully understand my metaphor I will be able to compose it in the manner that I have already worked out and come upon.

Post #2 Why you might come to a place like the writing center. Note: this should include something about your existing strengths and weaknesses . . .

I feel like I might use the wiriting center for collaborative idea making. In other words, Ich glaube, wie ich die wiriting Mitte für das gemeinschaftliche Idee Bilden benutzen konnte (Big ups to Gordy. Yayee yayee!). Often, the special catalyst for my own development is conversation about the "thing." No ideas except in THINGS, you know? If I can explain the premise for my argument to an expert writer and engage him/her in something of a tete-a-tete on the topic, then I have made best provision for construction of the necessary schema upon which I must drape the words of my argument. Really, I feel strength and/or power in the actual writing and mechanics of the act. It is in the vecinity of idea construction and organization where I require assistance. For help with this there exists nothing better than a conversation with a tutor about my topic.

If I were to come to the Writing Center

The foremost reason I would come to the writing center would be for my grammar. While I certainly understand (sitting on the otherside of the wall) that grammar actually takes a backseat to the development of the writer, my endless incompetence with English grammar would drive me to the writing center. As well, I would come to the writing center if I had trouble with the organization of my paper. These are the two reasons I firmly believe any student begins to seek help at the writing center. Unfortunately, I honestly feel that most students could care less about their own development as writers as long as their papers are grammatically sound and composed coherently enough to allow them to "squeak" through English class with a decent grade. With regards to communication or communication technologies, I feel that I have many weaknesses; the first of which being that I know little about technology aside from the compostion of a paper in Microsoft Word. Were I a student, I really don't know if I would seek help in the writing center for a technology based question, believing that there might be other venues more suitable for that matter. The attraction of the writing center lies in the employment of its rather suave and handsome tutors. This alone would drive me to seek the center as a venue for self-improvement. That and the simple fact that writing can always be improved, regardless of whether you are an English graduate student or a freshman math major.

Metaphors be present'n! Yayeee Yayee!

The metaphor of the literary anthology will provide for a familiar and helpful presentation of my content. With my extremely, very, really, and truly limited capabilities in web design I hope to create a web page that closely resembles, approxiates a book. I will attempt to create the illusion of verisimilitude so that the reader will feel as comfortable as if they were curling up next to the fireplace with their favorite book of short poetry or prose written under a pseudonym--say "Mark Twain" or "anonymous." Thusly, one might simply flip through the pages of my electronic portfolio with a click of the mouse, each page containing my own entry and allusions to great literature.

At Our Last Class Meeting

I think this week's activities in the 840 class were the most effective so far. We had just come down from the writing center where we witnessed a "difficult" tutoring session (to say the least). So we participated in the mock tutorials with a bit more vibrance than usual, because no one wants to get stuck in that kind of situation and not possess the skills necessary to work through it. Most helpful, I think, is the notion that you cannot let the student shift the responsibility to you. You have to keep them thinking about their assignment. Don't let them cling on to any idea you've thrown out there.

P.S.-I had forgotten how fun free association can be.

The Learning Curve

More and more I seem to grasp the idea of being a facilitator. It is still hard for me to determine though where the line is drawn between giving an idea and helping the student come up with their own. The mock tutoring sessions we engage in allow me to approach certain situations with a variety of manners to see which one precvails as successful in the end. Perhaps the most valuable piece of information today was the writing exercise. Not only does it allow the tutor to engage the student in an active, imaginative exercise, but it fosters the student's growth as a "creator."

I learned this!

The invention activities today reminded me how impotant it can be just to dump your ideas onto a sheet of clean paper. Even the least interested writer can spew out a string of thoughts dealing with a general topic. Before I've begun the activities, they never seem that promising, but they inevitably lead me to something worth investigating. I hope I'll remember to use them, and I hope I'll get a chance to recommend them to my li'l writers!

I learned this!

The invention activities today reminded me how impotant it can be just to dump your ideas onto a sheet of clean paper. Even the least interested writer can spew out a string of thoughts dealing with a general topic. Before I've begun the activities, they never seem that promising, but they inevitably lead me to something worth investigating. I hope I'll remember to use them, and I hope I'll get a chance to recommend them to my li'l writers!

Memorandum

Memorandum
Date: September 12, 2006
To: ENGL 840
From: Benjamin Shealy
Subject: Portfolio Proposal

As I previously mentioned, the governing metaphor for my ENGL 840 portfolio is, in the broadest terms, a network of monuments. Since my last transmission, however, the scope of this network has changed. I mentioned before that I hoped to incorporate monuments of famous (or infamous) dead people. Obviously, this needed a great deal of narrowing down, and with helpful suggestions from a colleague, I have been able to reconceptualize my project. I will still use monuments, but they will correspond to different developmental stages in my life and education. For example, the Marx monument could be used to represent my involvement in politics. A monument honoring one of the world wars can be used to represent my background (bachelor's degree) in history. A monument to Hemingway, for instance, could represent my current plight examining literary works. And how about Walt Disney (or Ronald McDonald?) representing a certain aspect of childhood? I could easily weave my own writings into the appropriate developmental stages. By this method, I can chronologically trace my growth as a thinker, reader, and writer, from Babar to The Waste Land.

Memorandum
Date: September 11, 2006
To: English 840
From: Matthew Fairman
Subject: Portfolio proposal

As a governing metaphor for the En 840 electronic portfolio, I have chosen the literary anthology. The subject about which I am most passionate is literature. A compilation of great writing, therefore, provides a fitting analogy for highlighting my passion for reading and analyzing literature. The metaphor, as I envision it, will allow me to include not only my own writing, but also the writing of my literary influences. Just as anthologies include many different genres, so will my electronic portfolio. I will relate my own entries in each genre to works by authors whom I have read in the same genre. For instance, I might allude to T. S. Eliot’s “Tradition and the Individual Talent” in the design of a page that includes my own entry of literary criticism, allowing Eliot’s expertise to clarify or augment meaning in my writing. I might create such a parallel to my work simply by incorporating a significant quotation in the design of the web page that includes my entry. Similar connections are possible for all of my planned entries. I hope to model my electronic journal after literarily significant journals. My creative work, whether verse or prose, will stand against the backdrop of similar work from authors who have played large roles in my development as a student, teacher, reader, and writer.

So, while my entire portfolio will be governed be the broad metaphor of the anthology, individual entries will take on a more specific controlling metaphor—that of a commonly anthologized work of literature.

Portfolio proposal

Memorandum

Date: September 7, 2006

To: English 840: Writing Center

From: Gordon Sauer

Subject: Portfolio proposal

I have chosen the café as my governing metaphor; however, in not limiting myself to the cafés in America I can utilize cafés from around the world to further my objective. The café is a cultural icon. All cafés are constructed under the same premise, and still, each seeks to become a product of the culture it inhabits. The café is literature. The romantic aura that bleeds from its walls draws the greatest of the greats to its tables. It is composition and creativity, scholarship and intelligence, caffeine and bagels. Literature of the South and Irish drama are both products of the mind and pen, and still each is wholly different in its thematic composition and stylistic format.

I want my portfolio to take on a creative stance as well as an academic one. I want to utilize my love of prose for the tutoring journal. The stylistic aspects of my journal will coincide with the stylistic aspects of my fiction. I want to reflect on my experiences as they become building blocks for my academic career and scholarship. I want to emphasize how working at the writing center will have helped my own writing, and how the tutoring process will have strengthened my interest in teaching.

I want the narrative to demonstrate the qualities of my writing that will have improved. While I cannot foresee any drastic alteration in my writing, especially its style, I must admit that I expect my writing to undergo a change for the better. Grammatically, my writing should increase ten fold, and this should become apparent in my narrative. Aside from this, I want my narrative to express my growth as an individual, as a tutor, and finally as a scholar. It should indicate my persistence and internal desire in becoming what I hope to become, and should point to the external aspects that shall mold the finished product. I am, after all, fashionable, and cannot imagine coming out of this experience unchanged.

I want the seminar paper to become the metaphor I have chosen. Not in the literal sense as I do not expect it to relate to a café, but it should function as a trope. It will examine a work of literature, or an author, or a body of literature (or any amalgamation of the three) in a cultural context. As I am attracted to Southern literature, I can say that I would like to write it on piece of that genre. I can relate to the works encompassed in the term “Southern literature.” I do not deny that I am a product of Southern culture, and I cannot deny that I let my own works draw influence from this. All I can do is bask in the knowledge that it in someway, somewhere, somehow enhances my work, and my scholarship. I do not like Southern literature because I feel some invisible thread somehow connecting me with it, but I like Southern literature because of the invisible, and not so invisible, threads that link it to Southern culture. It is literature unlike any other, a product of a culture unlike any other, and that is something worth looking at. To be honest, I do not know if the constraints of my seminar paper will allow me to do this; though, I can say that regardless of what elements I can and cannot examine, there is culture in everything.

Some important discoveries from class 9/6

I found that questions, questions, and more questions will give you great results. Asking the writer causes him to think and to create an answer. Even if it takes some inderterminant period of awkward silence, the writer is pondering and creating. He will come up with something to collaborate upon.

Another good tip may be to give greater direction for dealing with simple grammar problems. Sometimes the best way to gain mastery of a grammatical rule is to correct your paper over and over again in the presence of a tutor who can explain and model proper usage.

What I've learned

Perhaps the foremost lesson I have learned today is that I need to work on taking a more passively active approach. It is easy to become authoratative and dictate what are the premier ideas in any tutor session, but, unfortunately, that is not a good way to approach tutoring. As well, the notion of identifying the reader is an excellent one, and one that I do think will ultimately lead students to a better essay. I've learned that I need to work through the problems of the students that may seem shallow to get through a deeper hesitation or writing issue. While I certainly have in mind what I would like to discuss and how I would like to approach any tutoring session, open-mindedness and the ability to adapt will be the key.

Today's Class

Today's class gave me a great deal more insight into the university's expectations of me as a tutor. I think the most important advice dealt with how to handle the beginning of a session. When the student walks in, there is a certain uneasiness, because each situation is different. What, for instance, is the student's cultural background? Is the student a product of post-colonialism? Or a former citizen of a repressive communist dictatorship? Seriously, though, you do have to get a feel for every individual. It's most important to make them comfortable with you. Make them feel that you're here to help, not dictate. Let them take the lead. Ask them their goals for the session, and work from there.

Response to Matt's Metaphor

Matt,

I think your idea for a metaphor is pretty cool, actually. The best thing about using the literary anthology is that you have such an enormous number of options. You could be spot on with your website's design, because your writing should (must?) always at least be reminiscent of something another person has published in the past. As Eliot wrote, the writer (or website editor) "is not likely to know what is to be done unless he lives in what is not merely the present, but the present moment of the past, unless he is conscious, not of what is dead, but of what is already living" ( "Tradition and Individual Talent").

-Ben

A response to Gordy's cafe metaphor.

Gordon,
The metaphor of cafes definitely presents some interesting possibilities for designing your portfolio. I especially enjoy the fact that your idea lends itself to a regional or geographic arrangement. Each cafe can bring with it the atmosphere of its home--including art, literature, culture, etc. As you suggested, "traveling" to each can provide a paradigm for your own growth. Overall, the idea should be workable, original, and interesting.

A banal metaphor?

I'm planning on using the literary anthology as my controlling metaphor. While a figurative comparison between a collection of texts (an anthology) and a collection of texts (my portfolio) may be slightly literal, I nevertheless like the idea. Creative? Maybe not. But after fleshing the concept out a little, many possibilities arise. Under such a governing metaphor, each component gains the potential to display revealing correlations between my favorite works and my own evidence of personal development.

Monuments Metaphor

Ben,

I really like the idea of using monuments. I am particularly intrigued by your insistence that infamous dead people represented via monument will be utilized along with famous dead people. Not all good is good, and some bad can teach us quite a bit. As well, your mentioning of the fact that you will stray from limiting yourself to only literary figures is a fantastic idea. Some non-literary figures can teach us more about literature than authors. I think all-in-all your idea will make for quite the cool website.

Metaphor

My initial idea for a metaphor was a cemetery, but then I decided that's a bit morbid. So, instead, I think I will do monuments to famous (or infamous) dead people that reflect the direction of my work at the time. I don't think I'll limit myself to literary figures, though. For instance, I'm picturing a monument to Karl Marx, complete with communist propaganda images. I'm still working out all the details, but I hope this will end up being a cool website.

-Ben