What do they want? Personal statements, bourbon, and a whole lot of questions

https://writinglabnewsletter.org/archives/v23/23.9.pdf

This article discusses how to approach personal statements and how to deal with questions that may come up dealing with "touchy" subject matter. Personal statements are not something commonly thought in depth or great detail. The information within a personal statement can vary from topic to topic depending on the individuals life and background. This article is a great resource because it gives insight into how to help with trustees personal statements and also my own personal statement.

Final Journal Reflection

As the end of the semester drew close the anxiety in the writing center increased tremendously. I was bombarded by so many different questions from students. They ranged from not understanding how to do an annotated bibliography to brainstorming. When it came to the annotated bibliographies the most common problem was they quoted the source in the summary. I explained why they shouldn't use direct quotes in the summary. When it came to students needing help getting their brain working I gave them prompts or slight hints and they would take off from there. I would often reassure them that its just thoughts kinda like brain vomit and it does not have to be perfect its just a matter of getting it on paper. There were also some random problems with grammar which were easily fixed by simply telling them the "rule," giving them an example, fixing one with them in their paper, then allowing them to fix the rest. It has been a great semester. I learned a lot from all of the students along with my fellow tutors.

A guide for writing tutors working with dyslexic students

https://writinglabnewsletter.org/archives/v21/21-10.pdf

This article defines dyslexia and how to properly and appropriately help a student with dyslexia. I did not have a student this semester with dyslexia as far as I knew, but I think this is an important thing to read and be aware of because it is always a possibility to get a student with dyslexia. This article could help prepare tutors for such sessions.

Zen and the art of writing tutorial

https://writinglabnewsletter.org/archives/v28/28.2.pdf

This article discusses how the tutor has to know themselves before being able to tutor efficiently. The tutor has to have a grasp on how they view writing and all of the parts that in comps the job of a Writing Center tutor. This article would have come in handy when I first started tutoring, but I learned who I was as a tutor to further help students by on the job training like most tutors.

We don’t proofread, so shat do we do? a report on survey results

https://writinglabnewsletter.org/archives/v37/37.3-4.pdf

All semester I was approached by students just a handing me their paper in hopes I would proofread it and "fix it" for them. This article discusses what the writing center does and how it is done. It touches on how and when to approach students writing when it comes to grammar and other possible issues throughout their paper. 

 

Building an Appropriate Rapport

"Getting to know You...Building Relationships as a Tutor" by Karen Castellucci

I read this article to learn a few tips on how to make a student comfortable in sessions but what I discovered through Castellucci's article is that an appropriate tutor-student relationship rarely happens in one session.
Tutor-student relationships are more developed and more personal than teacher-student relationships, yet tutor's can't be "buddies" with the tutee, so the rapport has to be in a middle ground. Most students don't realize that the tutor-student relationship is has a collaborative objective.
In Castellucci's primary example, it took her an entire semester for one student to become comfortable with her and to trust her. She accomplished this by probing questions about her writing and by asking personal questions about the student's life. She tried to show that she cared about the student's success. But in the end, the student learned to trust Castellucci through the process of collaboration - that they were both students learning from one another.

https://writinglabnewsletter.org/archives/v16/16-1.pdf

Plagiarism and The End of The Semester

https://writinglabnewsletter.org/archives/v21/21-6.pdf

As the semester has progressed, the amount of citations within papers has decreased. I'm sure this is due to the time constraints and pressure put on students; at least I hope it is. Whatever the case, a couple of things I've noticed that always seem to raise a red flag for me:

1. The student can't speak about their paper without reading it.

When I notice a student is relying on their paper during brainstorming sessions, I'll ask them to tell me what they want to say without looking at their piece. A couple times this semester, the students knowledge of the subject has seemed to vanish, they don't know anything about the research, and they become frustrated. This is either a sign that they haven't crafted a proper thesis, or perhaps plagerism.

2. The paper contains flashes of incredible writing surrounded by mediocrity.

This one is a bit more tough, but I've seen it twice in the last week. Now, I'm not saying that people can't write this way, but when I see a complex sentence using grammar rules I barely understand in one paragraph, and then the inability to use a comma in the rest of the paper, somethings up.

In both these cases, i never came right out and said what I thought, I instead spoke about citation rules in regards to paraphrasing. In all cases this semester, when I use the word paraphrase instead of plagiarize  the student has been more receptive to properly citing and even admitting that they borrowed from somewhere else. I'm there to help, not accuse them; that's the professors job.