This essay is an excerpt from Ben Rafoth's A Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers One to One, which is in its 2nd edition (2005). I find it particularly appropriate for Rafoth to begin this collection with "Setting the Agenda"!
Agendas can be handy, yet particularly tricky when you do not have the slightest clue about where you should be at the end of a 30 minute session with any given paper . . . For another example, if pressed, I would have no idea how to set an agenda for this blog because I have no idea where it might take us . . .
However, my questions for you folks, for this post, would be: Did you find this essay useful? If so, in what specific ways? What parts were dull or non-applicable to our setting? Why? What observations can you make about Macauley's style or voice? Could you write something like this for, say, a conference?
Try to respond by Thursday, July 24th.
9 comments:
I think the essay was useful, but I also think it will be challenging to establish an agenda at the beginning of sessions. It has been my experience that many students don't really have any idea what they want to work on or need help with. For these students, I find it helpful to spend the first part of the session reading through their papers and discovering problems, so that we may then address the issues.
I do think that creating a schedule for tutoring sessions can be helpful for some students. Some students come in with a good idea of what is lacking in their papers and where there is a need for improvement. I've never created an agenda on paper before, but I imagine that it would help to involve the student in the decision making process, so that they come away from a tutoring session having addressed their concerns and not only the problems that tutors saw.
Overall I found "Setting the Agenda" very helpful. I would like to try out some of Macauley's ideas.
You said: "It has been my experience that many students don't really have any idea what they want to work on or need help with."
How true!
So, my next question would be: "Are we [folks at the Writing Center] here to help build better writers or better writing"?
If we want to help build thoughtful writers, perhaps we'd better first help them find the right questions.
Very insightful, Katie! Thanks.
I completely agree with Katie. So much of the thirty minutes we have would be wasted trying to assist a student, who has no idea what is needed in the paper. (And more often than not, isn't overly interested).
A writer can't be built. Just as someone could not make me into a successful semi-truck mechanic, I can not make someone become a writer. Accepting that everyone is not going to care about a paper is hard for most of us, as we are writers.
Writing a "road-map" for the tutoring session would be a way to assist them in writing, especially for after they leave the center. I have used scrap paper to write down what we (me and the tutee) decide upon, giving them a reference. I work this into the session.
How long is thirty minutes in Macauley's world? Most people cannot come up with a thesis in that time, let alone make decisions about content. Thirty minutes is not that long of time to fix a paper so I feel comfortable signing off on the work.
Does anyone else have this problem?
Are you suggesting that skills can't be built? That students remain static in writing situations? Surely not, Karalea!
:-) If so, what is the purpose of education? Of taking Freshmen comp then Jr. comp?
I do, however, believe you bring out one good point concerning tutee engagement/desire: in Macauley's world, and a lot of literature I've read this summer, tutees are often not _required_ to come to the Writing Center. Instead, the Center serves as a space for working with students who truly care about putting forth their best work.
So, in these types of Centers, tutees genuinely want to improve their papers and projects--that's why they are there! Under this paradigm, Macauley makes more sense.
For us, we do have a bit of a challenge. We are supposed to "win over" and/or inspire all tutees, who may not want to be at the Center in the first place, to _care_ about their writing and to see places where they can improve and be more successful. Admittedly, this process is a whole different dynamic.
I'm up for the challenge. In fact, some of my best sessions start with a tutee who seems not to care (but often is intimidated by the writing process or suffering from writer's block--or even just pressed for time)and progresses on to some insightful work on the paper.
Perhaps she's never realized how easily transitions can work and help clarify her writing or where to develop her paragraphs more for audience.
She leaves with a couple a new skills that help "build" her into a more thoughtful writer.
you just didn't like the frankensteinian metaphor, huh?
or, was it a six-million dollar, bionic metaphor?
Leona Wrote:
On "setting the Agenda," I think page 5 makes many good points. Many students don't want to get help at all. While others only do so because it's required for portion of their grade.
It's hard for me to deal with this type of student sometimes. I have a tendancy to take things personally. So it can be hard for me to know how to go about dealing with those who don't really want to be here. I feel responsible for opening their eyes to the world of learning. And it does hurt my feelings sometimes when comments are made about how useless our tutoring service is.
But, in reading page five it became clear to me that just because someone is a college student doesn't mean they are interested in doing the best work possible. Sometimes, there are other factors behind the impatience. Maybe they have a job to get to, or family to take care of.
One thing is for certain, I can let myself off the hook, it's only necessary that I help them with their goal, not mine.
metaphor was bionic, at least that sounds better to me than Frankenstein's Monster Writer (wonder how that personal narrative would read?).
We can give someone the tools to make them better at writing; introductory phrases, fanboys rule, identifying unnecessary information in a paper, etc. This will equip her to write really good papers, and then she can graduate school and become a nurse, police officer, social worker or what ever she may choose.
I know how to fix my car. I can change and check the oil, change the plugs and wires, rotate tires and a few other basic maintenance type things. This does not make me a mechanic. This knowledge makes me someone who can fix a car on a basic level. To be considered a mechanic, I would have to know how to rebuild an entire engine. I have no interest in knowing that.
Same for writing. The police officer in the second paragraph whom I taught MLA format? She might write, but it isn't where her heart belongs. She can write a concise report because of her time in the writing center, and maybe her co-workers are jealous of her skill. I did not make her a writer, because it would be against her nature.
I am a tutor, not a magician. I cannot change nature. If I could, the outside temperature would never be above 85, and cookies would be healthy.
I disagree:
writing belongs to everyone.
People may define it differently, use it differently, but ultimately, more like speaking and thinking rather than like car mechanics, writing belongs to everyone.
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