Some Lessons Learned In My First Week

Hello again for another insightful look at my ongoing development as a Writing Center consultant.  I use the term development very loosely, I might add!!  But seriously, I am starting to get my consultant "legs", even though it is not pretty!!

I had three appointments last week and while they were not horrible, I did come away with some valuable lessons learned about proper consultations.  The first consultation was with a lady who was applying for graduate school.  She had written a paper discussing why she thought that she deserved to be accepted.  She had revised the paper a few times already, so it was really nothing more than a matter of spot checking the grammar and the flow.  It was very well written and her goal was to describe her medical skills to someone who might not be knowledgeable in those areas.  Needless to say, I was the perfect audience for her paper.  We discussed the purpose of the paper and determined if her final draft met the requirements.  My main goal was to make sure that I addressed her concerns while not getting caught up in minor details (something I picked up while in English 303).   I felt that it was a good session and she seemed pleased.

My next consultation would be a handful for me as it was my first ESL (English as a Second Language) appointment.  I was worried about how it would go, what I could do to help, and if it would end up as a train wreck.  My client was from Saudi Arabia and he was doing an interview essay for English 90.  As I sat down, so many thoughts were running through my head as to what I should say and how I should approach his paper.  It seemed, however, that the longer we talked, the easier it was to understand where I needed to go with him and what he needed to do to further develop his paper.  He seemed to have a good grasp of what the assignment was about, and had picked a great person to interview.  The main point of what he had written was why his interviewee chose to go into marketing.  He had two great stories that he wanted to convey, and as we discussed those stories, I talked with him about different ways to relate the stories that were grammatically correct and coherent.  I think that I focused more on LOC’s which would enhance the HOC’s.  Sometimes, I have learned that if you focus on the little things, the big things will take care of themselves.  And I feel that that is exactly what happened in our consultation.

The final consultation that I had for the week came on Friday.  As I walked into the Center, my client was sitting on the new chairs in the waiting area.  By the way, the new chairs that we have in the Writing Center are SPECTACULAR!!!  Kudos to Melissa and Clyde for the acquisition!!  But I digress.  My client had filled out all her paperwork and surmised that I must be Bill.  I checked the schedule and saw that she was my only client for the day, so I mentally filed that information away, thinking that time was not going to be a problem.  Boy, was I ever wrong!! 

We sat down and I asked what the assignment was and when it was due.  She volunteered the syllabus and I read over what the assignment concerned.  It was an evaluation for English 101 and she had chosen to evaluate the Albertson’s Library on campus.  Part of the assignment was to identify who her audience was.  This was easy to do because it was directed at new college students who might not know what services the library offered.  It was a rather lengthy paper, roughly five and a half pages.  That should have been a warning sign to me, but I did not pay it any mind (Mistake #1).  I decided that I wanted to read it and make comments as I read.  We sat at the table by the computer, which had no clock.  I was subconsciously thinking that time was not an issue anyway, as I had no other clients scheduled (Mistake #2).  The paper flowed well for the most part, but I did see some things that I wanted to point out to the young lady.  We discussed the voice, and correctly using the proper tense, as there was a mixture of past and present tense throughout the paper.  As we discussed possible corrections, I made sure that she consented to what we talked about.  Then, I wrote down changes on her paper.  As we went along, I also noticed that she had a certain affinity for the word “excellent”.  To correct this, I suggested that we use the computer to search Thesaurus.com for alternative words (Mistake #3).  I should have grabbed an actual Thesuaurus book.  After I read through the paper and we had discussed possible changes, she read it aloud.  This was very time consuming (Mistake #4).  As she was leaving, she was very appreciative and commented that she would only be making future appointments with me.  I must say that I was flattered and felt like I had accomplished something great.

Then, when she had left, the hammer dropped!  I noticed the time at exactly the same moment that a (much more experienced) fellow consultant pointed out to me how long the appointment had taken.  I am still embarrassed to say exactly how long it was, but it rhymes with "an hour and a half".  Talk about a kick in the gut!!  I went from thinking I was the world’s greatest writing center consultant to feeling like the inexperienced rookie that I was. 

I thought an awful lot about how the session went and identified numerous mistakes that I had made (as evidenced by my comments above in red).  I feel that the session was nonetheless a success, because I helped out a writer, learned some valuable lessons, and no one suffered as a result (except for my self-perception).  But, a good learning experience regardless.

The next morning, at the Center wide meeting, time management issues were brought up (no names thank goodness) and I subconsciously felt the spotlight directly on ME.  But, I had already identified the issue and so I feel that I have (hopefully) corrected the problems.  People make mistakes and fall down.  The key is to get back up, identify my mistakes, correct them, and keep on keeping on.  And that is exactly what I plan to do!!

Theory versus practice in the Writing Center

Hello to all my adoring fans who read this...all one or two of you...probably down to one now!!  HAHA!  As I move along in Eng 303 and learn more each week, it is beginning to make sense to me as to why we are learning the differences in writing center theory and writing center practice.  While the theories that we are learning sound great (in a perfect world), I am reminded daily that we do not live in a perfect world, therefore things that make sense on paper will not always transfer over to the real world.  But understanding the theories does make a big difference in how the theories relate to the actual practice.  I will admit, this whole writing center concept has given me headaches, as I try to understand how the theories relate to practice.  I guess I am able to pick up the way that practice and everyday hands on consultation work.  I have never been big on theories, as a theory is an unproven hypothesis that must be proven to work in reality.

I have always been a hands-on disciple, because if it works in reality, then it has merit.  And being a non English major, as are many of my comrades (not in a Soviet style of comrades, that is) opens up realms that I have difficulty wrapping my little pea brain around.

I can perform a task in practice much better than I can understand the theory behind it.  My mentality is 'keep it simple, silly', also know as the KISS principle.  Learning the proper way to open the session, and some things to look for as I work with a writer, plus questions that I should ask the writer to maintain their active participation, are things that I can grasp.  And once I actually get my feet wet with writers and make my share of FUBARS, I will be able to take those lessons learned and apply them in the future, thus building my confidence and my arsenal of skills and tools which will benefit me, as well as the writers.

I had my first solo run with a writer on Friday, in which an Eng 278 student brought his final draft in to get it looked at.  He still had a week before it was due and I must admit I was a little nervous as we sat down.  I jokingly told him to be gentle on me as he was working with a 'new meat' consultant.  As we sat down, we talked a little about some commonalities we shared.  We were both prior service military  and were both from the South.  He was a North Carolinian, whereas I am an Alabamian.  So, we were both speaking the same terminology and dialect.  As I asked him about the project, he told me that his professor had looked it over and liked his introduction (thesis) and his conclusion.  He wanted me to see if there was anything I could see that could make the body better in supporting his theory.  As I took the paper and read it aloud to myself, I could see, as well as hear instances where his sentences and flow were choppy.  For instance, he had some sentences that did not properly address the intent he wanted to convey.  As I read it out loud and asked him if he thought it made sense, he agreed that the structure of the sentence was not up to par.  I made sure that I pointed out good things I saw, and we were even able to tie some of the concepts he was writing about to the military.  I also noted some places where he used past and present tense in opposition to each other,  As I asked him questions about how that sounded, he understood what I meant, and let me make notes on his paper.  I thought that his body supported his thesis and we shared some laughs over the characters that he was writing about.  I felt that this familiarity and bond we had made it so much easier to objectively analyze his style and voice.  Other than that, we mainly focused on LOC's as he seemed to have the HOC's under control.

For my first consultation, I felt very confident in my role as a consultant and he and I both learned some things, mainly about proper  use of punctuation and grammar.  Some of the material he cited needed some clarification and I encouraged him to consider some small changes.  I made a conscious effort to not monopolize the conversation, and he did not really seem to care that I pointed out some minor deficiencies with his paper.

This first consultation was not the miserable failure that I had envisioned it would be.  My confidence was raised as he truly understood what I was suggesting to him.  I found that doing it is much easier than trying to understand how to do it.  My mojo really needed a boost and it was the perfect writer to raise my level of confidence up.  Now that I have had a successful (at least in my eyes) consultation, I feel that I will only get better, so long as I do not try to impose my will on the writer.  The trick is to make them think that they are learning these mistakes on their own and I am just the spark to set off the recognition in their eyes.

I am eagerly looking forward to getting my hands dirty helping writers see where they can improve and helping them to realize that their writing is good and can be even better.  I even used the old tried and true adage that writing is primarily a conversation that takes place in one's head.  Therefore, it is much better to read it out loud to yourself once you are finished to determine if it sounds right.  It has always seemed to help me out and my writer really embraced the concept.

So, in closing, I feel much more confident  actually doing it than learning the principles behind how to do it correctly.  I look forward to helping writers become better as they go.  My mojo is back in the saddle and I plan on keeping it there.  There is nothing better than getting in that cubicle and taking the bull by the horns.  Will there be mistakes along the way? Of course, but learning from them and applying the lessons learned will only make me a better consultant.  As the old saying goes, "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger".  After the consultation, I feel like a writing ninja, and it can only get better as I do them more.