The Mountain

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

When is enough enough?

Ok so as I have mentioned in my last post I have been writing my these paper since the beginning of the semester. But now I have a question for you: is there a limit to taking someone's advice on a paper? Let me explain...

As I have been writing my thesis paper I have been meeting with my professor, and in each of these meetings he asks me numerous questions and makes suggestions of ideas I should research or themes I should look into in my paper. Now some of this advice has been very helpful and I think has developed my paper into a more mature academic writing, but it has now gotten to the point that I am confused where my paper is heading and if I should include everything my professor has suggested. Where is the point when you say enough to the advice and just continue on? Or is it that you must keep exploring new possibilities for your paper to make it better?

I want to be respectful to my professor and research all the questions he hopes for me to answer in my thesis but it has become overwhelming and exhausting to look in-depth to so many different perspectives. What would you do if this situation happened to you while writing a paper with a consultant? Would you try and make all the consultants suggestions or say enough is enough and forget them?

Thesis Paper Suggestions

I don't know why I haven't thought about this before, blogging about writing my thesis paper, especially considering how I am continually writing, editing, and perfecting it since August. My paper is comparing Sophocles' play "Antigone" to Hawthorne's short story "Roger Malvin's Burial." Now most people I've talked to at Richmond have read or heard of "Antigone" but "Roger Malvin's Burial" is not as popular as Hawthorne's other works (such as "The Scarlet Letter"). I def suggest reading "Roger Malvin's Burial," its short (only about 12-15 pages and very deep) but now I'm digressing, back to what this blog is about...

Anyways some suggestions I have for future thesis paper writers that has helped me tremendously in this process:
1-select a professor that you have already had in class or have a connection with as your thesis adviser if possible. This will help with communication between you and for you to be able to openly discuss ideas
2-schedule meetings with your professor periodically to talk about your papers progress. I meet with my professor once a week and it really forces me to progress little by little so I have something to present at the next meeting to my professor
3-make mini-deadlines during your writing process, that way it won't be so overwhelming at the end. How I did it was every two weeks I turn in 5 pages for my professor to read and edit, that way there is less for me to do at the end.
4- (lastly) ASK FOR HELP FROM YOUR PROFESSOR!! Don't be shy, ask your professor for help if your stuck, THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE THERE FOR! They know this is your first time writing something of this magnitude so take advantage of their wisdom.

Hope this helps :)

How could I contribute to the Writing Cener?

After our discussion with Prof. Essid I began thinking of a proposal I could make to the writing center to attract more students and to make the writing center more proficient. What I had suggested to Prof. Essid during class was the first part of this proposal, creating either a facebook or twitter account to get the word out about the writing center. But this proposal can also be more versatile...another way we could use a facebook or twitter is to post when the writing center has available appointments (such as a no show). These can be posted online where students can check and walk-in if they need some last minute help, without having to make a formal appointment.

Just some thoughts I think could help the writing center out :)

Censoring Students, Censoring Ourselves Article

Today I was assigned to the group editing Sherzel's paper, which was reviewing the article “Censoring Students, Censoring Ourselves: Constraining Conversations in the Writing Center” by Steve Sherwood. I thought Sherzel did a very good job with her article review, both summarizing and analyzing the article in a very condensed format. Through Sherzel's review I found the article to be quite intriguing, posing the problem is it better for a writing consultant to tell/give the student warning on writing what could be seen as an offensive standpoint in a paper or is it not the consultants responsibility and doing so would impede on the writer's first amendment rights.

I think we need a balance between these two standpoints. I think it was Fed in our group who stated that it is not our job as consultants who tell a writer if a paper is offensive and to change it, but instead we should bring up our concern to the writer and ask them to go to their teacher for continual help on the matter. I think this is a nice balance between not raising the issue at all and impeding on what the writer wants to convey to his audience: first raise our concern to the writer in session and then allow them to go to their professor to get feedback if the material is indeed offensive or not.

2nd visit to the Boys & Girls Club

I have to admit I was hoping to get more out of these experiences working with the boys and girls club. At our last visit Long and I just pretty much sat around talking for lack of students to work with. We tried walking around to get involved with some other activites going on in the building or atleast to see the dynamics around the building but our efforts were in vain.

I know that these visits to the Boys and Girls Club were not what Prof. Dolson had invisioned, mostly because of the long conversation we had last time after going, but also because its evident that there are many political moves being made behind the scenes. I usually try not to get involved in politics but it seems to me that the original intent of this project--finding pearls of wisdom for the elderly in the community--has been lost; and with it has been our loss of time.

Hopefully in the future Prof. Dolson can work out some of the political kinks the 'higher-ups' have put in place. But for now I have to say that I feel that I did not gain any experience nor insight from working with the boys and girls club.

ESL tutoring (2)

So our second time meeting with our ESL students I had a very much different experience than the first. My student on the first go around had been bumped around from country to country, she knew several different languages, but had a hard time remembering the differences in grammar and writing style. This time my student was a born American citizen, both of her parents are Ecuadorian and came over to the United States before she was born. I was slightly surprised when meeting her that she was in this program because she spoke perfect English, her paper was amazingly written (though she did have her teacher read it over once, so its hard to tell how much help she had), and she didn't seem to have any trouble articulating her thoughts onto paper.

I asked her why she was in the program, considering when you hear ESL you think a student who can't really speak English. She told me it was because they got special consideration when applying to U of R and a deduction on tuition (wish I knew about this program when I applied lol).

Upon hearing this explanation I asked myself why did I automatically assume that she in some way did not understand English or had some kind of problem in general with her writing. Then I thought about the article I had written my review on for class:“Creating a Common Ground with ESL Writers” by Mosher, Granroth, and Hicks. I had then realized I had made myself almost prejudiced to ESL writers, NOT in the bad way we think of prejudiced but in the sense that I automatically thought that she didn't speak or write English very well because of her participation in the program. I then thought about the article and reflected on my feelings about our meetings with the ESL students.

My first student was typical of what the article described: When working with an ESL writer normal techniques will not suffice. Instead, the idea of becoming a ‘cultural informant’ will allow the consultant to assist the writer with rhetorical patterns that shape both how and what should be said in one’s writing. When assisting on rhetorical patterns in the English language one also needs to keep in mind the cultural differences between the languages that are primary between the consultant and the writer. (taken from my article review of the article)

However, we should not assume that all ESL students are on the same level! Yes some students you may need to my a cultural informant, but in some cases just because a student did not learn English first we should not assume that they need any special assistance; other than what we would give to any student who asked for our help in a consultation. I think the article has definitely forgotten about this other half to ESL students, those who were either born in the US or those who studied English in their own country and know it well. But I think on the other hand that the article has justly stated the need for consultants to be aware that some ESL students do need some special considerations in a tutoring section.

I think this connection with ESL students and tutoring is what I will focus on my advice page to future writing consultants. There is a balance of insturction each consultant needs to be aware of, especially with ESL students, and it would be a shame not to put these specifc considerations into practice.

How am I doing in this class?

I have to admit I don't think I'm doing very well in this class. I'm the type of person who likes due dates from the start of the semester, I stink at writing blog posts on a regular basis (as you can probably tell), and I'm more of a note taker than speaker in class. I think I've done well on all the assignments that I have turned in thus far, but I am concerned with my over all grade. I do think I did very well on my article review and digital story (even though I talked a little fast in my recording) so hopefully that will make up for some of my lackings. I have although very much enjoyed all of our out of class experiences, which I thought I was going to dread (in the fact that I always seem to never know when they are lol).

My favorite part of this class I think I would say is working with the ESL students on their college essays. It was fun working with a student you can have a real conversation with and I felt like I did a lot of good by helping them with their essays. I hope my students get into their first choice schools, both of them had some very big dreams. I hope that they can achieve them to the fullest extent.

Boys & Girls Club (first visit)

I have to admit I was slightly disappointed with my first visit to the Boys & Girls Club. Long and I had two different children during are time at the center, both were good kids but neither had any work done on their Digital Story project. Our second student did in fact have someone in mind to interview, so that was a slight improvement then the first boy we were assigned but who had to leave. I guess its hard to have kids do assignments done for something other than school work since their are no repercussions.

I was slightly horrified in the fact that neither of our students had any idea on the basic questions to interview a person in order to get a sense of who they are. The only question that the students both came up with was "what year were you born?" besides that it was like pulling teeth in order to help them discover how to interview someone.

I know they are just middle school/junior high students but I guess I just expected a little more enthusiasm to be doing this project or at least a little more conversation. Maybe it was intimidating to have two college students looming over them and asking a whole bunch of questions that they did not have answers to yet. Maybe next time their teachers/counselors/whoever there overseers are will have them slightly more prepared.

This will not be me...

This cartoon is by Dave Walker. From http://www.weblogcartoons.com/

Only other writing center appointment this 2nd half of the semester...

So I only managed to get in two writing center appointments since our last blog paper. I'm disappointed in the fact of how many students don't bother to cancel their appointments and let their consultants know they aren't coming. But any experience is good experience I guess.

Anyways my 2nd writing center appointment was with a student who had great example from their book they had to read but not knowing how to correlate it into the topics given to them by their professor. I wasn't familiar with the book but thank goodness my consultant had read it in high school once.

The student had good examples from the book but as my consultant and I discussed them further with the student we decided that there was just too many of them. Sometimes students just over use examples from their texts, and this was the case for this student. We decided less was better than more, so we had the student pick out the examples that he thought really played a key part to the book and to work off those. After eliminating about two thirds of the examples I think the student was finally able to grasp how he was going to go about his paper. We brainstormed for the rest of the appointment, letting him take the lead in the discussion so he could find out for himself he really did know all along what he wanted to write about.

Writing Center Shadow--better late than never

Well I have been unfortunate in my shadowing at the Writing Center. So far since my last posting nearly ALL of my tutors appointments have been canceled. I was however able to meet up with her at different times in order to get some more shadowing under my belt.

My writing tutor and I meet up with one student the other day who had no idea entirely how to go about picking a topic for her paper. She was writing a CORE paper on "Brave New World," and for any one who has read it before you know that you can write just about on any topic from that book, so I can see why she was having a hard time narrowing down the topics. After discussing with her sometime on the VERY brief guidelines of the paper we were able to narrow it down to medicine correlations in "Brave New World" and medications in today's day in age. It was actaully pretty interesting when we started discussing the correlations and connections.

This section just really highlighted for me how a student can come in no matter what stage they are in to come into the writing center. This female student had nothing written what so ever, only with her book and brief instructions. And from that we brainstormed ideas and got her inspired to write on a topic that she was interested in. Go us! :)

What have I learned thru my bloging?

As I'm reading through my blog posts I'm wondering if I have learned anything. This class has seemed almost effortless with the material because it seems almost common sense. So have I learned to be a writing consultant? Am I at the point where I can honestly say that through blogging I have learned ...... I just don't know. To me it seems that I have these past couple weeks just writing typing out what was in my head at the time, not really thinking how they all connect together. But do my blogs have a common think besides just being for the same class?

I know I have intentionally written on my dream of becoming a teacher and what I hope this class will provide me in my future classroom. Is that the connection I need to talk about in my blog paper? Or is there something deeper that I have yet to discover? I hope I find the answer soon, since I am running out of time.

Response to "The Concept of Control in Teacher Response..."

In this article I found a quote that I think both relates to this English 383 class and my education class backgrounds:

"The teacher's proper role, [Joseph Moxley] explains, 'is not to tell the student explicitly what to do but rather to serve as a sounding board enabling the writer to see confusions in the text and encouraging the writer to explore alternatives that he or she may not have considered.'" (224)

Unlike the other article we read, "The Genre of the End Comment," which I found to disregard encouraging remarks made by teachers, stating they were part of a generic convention and not of sincere intentions. I find that this quote serves to better describe the teachers role in paper reading than the other article which I thought stated teachers were under educated on grading papers.

Digital Story Interview

Today I FINALLY was able to interview my professor for my Digital Story Project so I can get the rough draft of the script done on time. My professor is from the Education department so some of her points might not be understood by all but I totally understood her. There were some points in the interview that I thought were very interesting, especially in the view of this class. In one instance my professor and I discussed how the audience is such an importance on one's writing. She gave an example that if she had to write about something that she doesn't think any one is going to read then what's the point? Also, that id you don't connect with your audience its hard to write about something and feel confident in your work.

My professor just happens to be a procrastinator like me (hence writing 4 blog posts the day before they are due lol); so I asked her how she is able to complete her work on time, even though she waits till the last minute. Her Response was that even though she waits till the last minute to write her paper all the time beforehand she is thinking about it, synthesizing ideas, pondering over connections, etc. So I guess in a way she formulates an outline of ideas in her head of what she wants to talk about and just in a stream of conscience writes them all down at once.

I found the interview enlightening in some ways knowing that someone else has a similar process to me own. I hope everyone will like my Digital Story.

Totally how I feel when Im thinking about what I should say in my Blog...

This cartoon is by Dave Walker. http://www.weblogcartoons.com/page/2/

Where am I in this class?

From the last post "Where am I in this class?" I feel like I have been slowly warming up to the idea of blogging about class and the articles we have read in class. I feel that in my posts I don't really concentrate on the readings as much as I try to concentrate on my experiences throughout the class. I don't know if this is what we are supposed to be concentrating on in our blogs but I find the experiences through discovery about what a writer is rather than the materials we've read gets me more involved in what this class is about.

I'm happy where I am in the class now, even though I'm still a little behind in the posts, I feel like I'm on the right track. The only thing now is the Blog Paper that is due this week and the Digital Story Script that's due. I have yet had the chance of interviewing my professor due to scheduling problems so I'm nervous about getting the script done on time. But I'm sure it will all work out. Also, I talked to Prof. Dolson today about the due date of the Digital Story and was VERY CONCERNED that it might be due right after fall break when I was under the impression it wouldn't be due till the week after. I hope that we get this figured out soon because I have a plane to catch Friday and I need to know if I should have my project done before fall break or if I can do it after I come back. Here's hoping for the best.

My Response to "The Genre of the End Comment: Conventions in Teacher Responses to Student Writing"

When reading "The Genre of the End Comment: Conventions in Teaching Responses to Student Writing" I was very surprised what was presented towards the beginning of the article. More specifically the quotes:

"Teachers usually do not receive formal training in commenting and rarely share their written comments with each other." (249) 

and 

"Unfortunately, the positive-only convention in the evaluation of the paper is so strong that some teachers may write positive evaluations of the paper without actually belileving them, simply to confrom to the generic conventions." (253-254)

I was astonished that the author really found these conclusions from reading selected papers in a random paper drawing. In response to the first quote I know for a fact, from seminars and talking with veteran teachers, that most teachers do in fact go to tutorials and seminars on how to evaluate, comment, and assign a letter grade to student's papers. Also relating to the first quote, any first year teacher can tell you that the teachers in your community are the greatest resource you can have. That discussing with other teachers about evaluating students papers and what to say/do with their papers is of high importance. So that one can gauge what to expect from a student and what they should correct or help a student on.

The second comment all I have to say is that if a teacher were to write on a paper anything completely negative not only would the student's confidence completely diminish but also have to deal with parent's reactions as well (which can get pretty ugly). Writing can be a very personal experience, and to outright say that it was poorly written or other such things could cause the student to have anxiety for the next paper or any assignment the student might have to turn in.

2nd Writing Tutor Shadow

So today I experienced a tutoring session from a much different point of view than my last session. We had a freshman come in with problems getting her writing process started. She had tons of ideas and examples she wanted to use for her Sociology paper but she was afraid that she doesn't use her time efficiently and wanted some tips. The student explained how her normal writing process is more like a stream of consciousness, she writes down whatever pops into her head, but with this method she's concerned that she loses some fluidity and time spent in trying to make her thoughts into a cohesive understandable paper.

The tutor suggested that first she makes an outline of her thoughts so far, so is to help her keep on track and make sure the paper flows correctly. The tutor also went over what she might want to do for the introduction and thesis statement. (I suggested the introduction sentence and they both loved it :] ) The tutor also went over what each paragraph would say and suggested that the student pay particular attention to transitional words/statements so the paper would have more of a flow to it.

At the end of the session the tutor suggested that when the student has her first draft that she bring it in for further review if she wishes. Just to get a second pair of eyes on it which might be helpful.

Saw this Cartoon & thought of my thesis paper... :)

 

Found Cartoon on Writing, Life, and the Universe

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

To Use the Comma, or Not Use the Comma? That is the question

In this week's lesson we are looking at Style vs Error, and what really got me thinking was the 20 common errors writers make that we read in the "Grammar Hammer" book. Upon review of the example sentences I found my problem to be if I should use a comma or a period in a particular sentence. I know in the past I have gotten many comments on teachers saying I have run on sentences or over use of commas, but how do I catch myself in this error? It is just confuses me if a pause should be the stopping point in the sentence or just a breaking point to continue. So the method of "Oh well if you pause in saying the sentence its a..." doesn't really work for me.

As suggested I went on the U of R Writers Web website and found the page concerning comma usage. It was very helpful in the way that it explained both my problems of run on sentences & comma splice. Also another resource that I commonly use for paper writing, Purdue OWL website, also covers tips on commas that I will definitely be using in the future.

Even though I find it embarrassing that (as an English major and college student) I don't have the best writing skills, im really happy in the fact that with this class when we are trying to learn how to be writing consultants my skills as a writer are being improved as well.

Why the importance on the thesis statement?

Yesterday in class we had a very long discussion on one of the students papers, concentrating almost entirely on her thesis statement. Now I know a good thesis can make all the difference on a paper but should it really take more priority than the paper as a whole? Atleast that is the impression I was getting from our class discussion. I believe that a thesis should clarify the argument/stance you are trying to make in your paper, but I don't believe that it should make or break a paper, especially if its the case that you have good supporting paragraphs and arguments that clearly define what you are getting at.

Why am I taking this class?

I think at this time in my blog (before I get too far down the line in this class) to explain why am I taking this English 383 class...the answer is I'm not taking this class to be a writing consultant. I originally registered for this class to fulfill a requirement for my teacher certification for Florida. I've wanted to become a teacher since high school and as the years go by the more and more I am steadfast on the idea. I'm hoping to be an English teacher for students not older than 5th grade, but as I take more Education classes here at Richmond I think I might work best with even younger than 5th grade (more like 2nd or 3rd).

As I said before, when I registered originally it was just to fulfill my teacher certification requirement, but since taking the class for these 5 weeks I have really been able to see much more of a benefit to taking this class. This class is helping me with my uncertainty of properly grading/editing papers. And for wanting to be an English teacher that is a very big component of what I am expected to be proficient in.

So for every essay we read in class and every blog I post (even though they are not many at this time) I am both thinking of the class from your perspectives (the perspective of becoming a writing consultant) and in a perspective of becoming a teacher (how can I take information from this class and use it in my future classroom).

Where am I in this class?

So far in this English 383 class I think I'm doing ok...I know I'm not one of those people who talks a lot in class and DEFINITELY not one who blogs all the time, but I think I understand all the concepts that we cover in class and felt confident while in my shadowing session in the writing center. I am, however, nervous about the number of blogs required by the end of the year because I'm not really the "blogging type."  And by the "blogging type" I mean the kind of person who can just go online and write about there everyday life or questions about something or anything at all really. I have a facebook but don't really keep up with it, and I've had another blog for another class and did not keep up with it either. So I guess I just need to concentrate on being apart of this "class community." Hopefully I'll get what I need from this class for my goals outside of this class.

1st Writing Center Shadowing

Yesterday I had my first shadowing session with my tutor and a student from the Business school. When the student arrived the tutor and I both introduced ourselves, and small talked some with the student to make him feel more comfortable. The tutor first asked what the gist of the paper was supposed to be about, and to break up the formality of the appointment talked some about how school was going.

When everyone was good and comfortable the tutor asked if she could first read the paper aloud and was there any specific problems the student would like to concentrate on during the session. The student mentioned how his teacher was a stickler for grammar (he takes off 3pts for every 10 grammatical errors, or something like that) and how he was concerned if his argument was ok.

What really surprised me during the session (I have never been to the Writing Center before so I did not know what to expect) was how reading the paper aloud just highlighted any flaws in the paper, including grammatical errors, sentence structure errors, wording problems, and if the paragraphs flowed well with one another. While the tutor read the paper she stopped every now an again to ask the student "did that sound right?" "is that what you meant to say?" and made suggestions to the student how she might improve that portion of the paper, but ultimately letting him make the decisions on the corrections and correcting it himself.

Just a simple strategy of reading the paper aloud was such a efficient way of reviewing the paper. Not only did she not have to read it once to herself and then go over it with her student, but as she was reading it the student was also catching errors by himself. I think this technique is definitely something I would implore while checking my own papers and anyone who asks me for advise.

ESL tutoring

Hi all :) sorry that I haven't done any posts thus far...guess I've been kinda nervous to get started, and am not really sure how this whole blog thing works. Anyways my first blog post I really want to dedicate it to the wonderful ESL student I tutored this last weekend on a hypothetical college essay. This girl (I don't want to say her name so is to keep her privacy) has a lot to say and has a lot of emotion tied to the topic we jointly selected for her essay. She was from Afghanistan and was involved in war at a very young age. Her essay will concentrate on her struggles coming from a society where people believe that women are inferior to men, continuing with her traveling to the United States, and finishing with her decision to go to school and hopefully become a doctor!

Her writing isn't lacking intensity or substance, more her problems lie with organizing her thoughts and putting her experiences on paper. The writing process in this organizational phrase doesn't come easy to her, probably because of the fact that English is not her native tongue, and also because she has had to learn several different languages before coming to the United States. So I can see why writing in English must be hard for her with all those other languages and their alphabets and grammar usages are floating in her head. Hopefully with the encouraging remarks and tips that my partner and I gave her she can come up with a incredible essay by the next time we meet. :)