Experience with Online Tutoring

Wow. Well it is definitely hard not to go through and just fix the paper when it's sitting right there in front of you. The personal interaction is gone and I cannot see the writer of the paper. Therefore, I feel like it is so much harder to have a conference about the paper. It's extremely difficult to try to work on improving the writer when the text is sitting right there. The exercise where we had to do an asynchronous tutoring session made me a bit nervous. I hope that I focused more on the writer than the text. It was definitely a conscious effort. Also, I think that a really hard part of online tutoring is that you have no idea how the client will take your comments. When I am in face-to-face conferences with a clients, I can tell if my comments are making sense or if they are going to put them to good use. I have made useful comments to students before who seemed disinterested in them, and I could tell they were not interested in being a better writer. They just wanted a better paper. It's much harder to tell that online. If I don't get another message back, it could be because the student thought I was a horrible tutor. It could be that he/she didn't understand my comments and doesn't want to seem student. It could be because he/she doesn't care about becoming a better writer. In person, I can usually read if a person feels stupid or clueless, and I do everything I can to make them feel better about this. If I don't know about the problem in an online session, I cannot fix it. If they don't understand my comments the first time around and they don't shoot me a message telling me so, I'll never get an opportunity to explain it differently.
On a more positive note about online tutoring, I felt like I really had time to examine the text and to make comments. When I am sitting next to the client, I don't like for them to wait while I am thinking. This is the time period when usually pull out the cell phone, mess with other homework, or stare at the clock. It's hard to get them back in the working state of mind after this happens. In an asynchronous session, I get a few minutes to read and collect my thoughts on the paper. I also get all of my ideas out. Sometimes, the client and I get caught up talking about other issues and I forget to mention something I meant to. In these types of online sessions, I get a chance to type out all my thoughts on the paper.
I still feel like I would rather have sessions in person, but online tutoring has its benefits.

Online Tutoring

I have never had an experience with online tutoring, but honestly, I am a bit afraid of it. I know that in my sessions, I like for there to be a lot of conversation. I like to ask the clients questions before, during, and after I am looking at the text so that I can get a clear view of what they are meaning to communicate, and if what they are communicating is what they intend to. Asynchronous tutoring sessions would make this conversation-setting difficult since you have to wait for a reply. Online tutoring also makes sessions less personable. The consultant and the client cannot see each other physically, so they have no sense of body language or mood. It is important to get a sense of how a client is reacting to the session, and it is difficult to understand that reaction if the consultant cannot see the student's face or hear the student's voice. Murhpy and Sherwood's section about tutoring online also lists that tutoring online can remove the anxiety that clients have about coming into the writing centers. Overall, I can see both points and respect them. I would have to say though that if a student really wants a good tutoring session that he/she should come into the writing center. If they feel they absolutely must avoid this, I suppose online tutoring would be the next best thing.
The article also mentioned an example where a consultant sent a client a message concerning his/her writing. The message was written very formally and was not in a conversational manner. Had the session been set up face-to-face, the consultant would have most likely talked in a more conversational fashion. Also, the client would be able to give more of a reaction to this formal way of speaking. A look of confusion or of being put off, etc. would have told the consultant that he/she needed to be frank and conversational to keep the environment of the session comfortable. The client may feel "dumb" from this type of response and may not seek tutoring assistance anymore afterwards.
Carlson and Apperson-Williams' article "The Anxieties of Distance: Online Tutors Refect" addresses the fact that face-to-face tutoring sessions are not free of miscommunication or misunderstandings, which is true. However, in a face-to-face session, a consultant can ask questions about understanding to see if the client is following. A facial expression can often show if the client is not following or takes something in an unintended way. Then the consultant can see that the topic needs to be addressed in a different way. If I am working with a student who does not understand something, I usually try to find different ways of explaining it until we get that "lightbulb" moment where the student exclaims, "Ooooh, I get it!". A face-to-face session can show this moment more easily than an online tutoring session, where a student can simply type, "I understand now." If the consultant doesn't see it, they are unsure if it is true.

11/11

Some of the issues that thisarticle brought up were familiar to me because I have experienced them in the writing center. Ortoleva brings up the issue of scientific writing in the writing lab. Consultants usually don't have a clue how to set up a scientific essay. For instance, a biology 141 class has been bringing in some of the scientific essays for the writing consultants to review. Unfortunately enough for them, I do not understand how to properly set up scientific essays. I actually took a biology 141 my freshman year and had to drop out half way because of my lack of understanding! We have one writing consultant who is a biology major, and if she is in the writing center, I usually ask her to take the biology students if she is not busy. I tried to help the first biology student that I encountered. I found no mechanical or grammatical errors, and I could make no suggestions on the structural aspect. I asked the biology major writing consultant to review in and she found several structural mistakes that you would only find if you knew about biology and scientific essays. I encountered other biology 141 students while she was not there. Then, I simply reviewed what I could of the essay and then advised them to maybe step in to academic skills and get an opinion from a biology tutor.
I completely agree with Ortoleva's discussion of the view of the writing center. Consultants are told over and over again that we are a writer-based facility and our main goal is to produce better writers. However, the students come to the writing lab to get a better paper and expect text-based assistance. It's a tough battle. As a consultant, we are supposed to meet the requests of the client, and usually their requests are completely text-based. It is also easier to work with a student in the planning and organizing stages of their essays. The consultant can show the client how to get started and what aspects to include. This can benefit a writer greatly, and they can learn a lot. It is much harder to produce a better writer when a student comes in and says, "This paper is due today; I just want you to make sure there are no mistakes." I do not know how to really make a better writer from this situation (other than to tell them to not use the writing center this way).
I am still puzzled on the issue we discussed in class about the ESL student's graduate school admission essay. I don't know what is right. I know when I work with ESL students, it's so hard for me not to reword some of their phrases. I read them, and they make sense, but I just have a great desire to make them sound more "academic". I usually refrain from this, but then I feel like I did not do much as a consultant other than fix errors and explain why they are errors. However, I know that I did not put any words in their mouth and that their paper is all their own.

Is it Thanksgiving yet?

I have worked with two or three nontraditional students in the writing room, applying the rules of standard tutoring thus far during my sessions. I found this reading selection about nontraditional students to be very true from my experiences. I have had some nontraditional students who have nearly no confidence in their abilities as well as ones who were set in their ways and were perhaps over-confident. Tutoring these students has not been very different from traditional students. The only session where I truly noticed a difference is one where the student did not want to hear any of my suggestions. She was very confident in her writing structure and word flow. I only made a few suggestions such as how to better open the paper and how to make a more concise thesis statement. She informed me these were not issues she was worried about; she was only concerned with some grammar questions. I felt that she was a good writing student and had already felt she had good writing habits, which is not untrue. However, I believe that everyone has something to benefit from another person's perspective or opinion.
So, I'm going a bit off topic now. I finally had a session where I was FORCED to use non-directive tutoring. I had the "clueless" student, like from the roleplays we did in class. I had NOTHING to go off of. The student brought me two articles and an outline from an old assignment (which was different from his current one). He brought me no prompt, and claimed that he was not sure what his teacher wanted him to do. I made some suggestions about maybe he might be doing a comparative essay or something to that effect and he responded "I guess" to each of my suggestions. Everytime I asked him what he meant to write about he told me that he didn't know. I finally asked him what it was that he wanted me to do, which he also responded that he didn't know. By the end of the session, I made a little outline for him about how a comparative essay is set up. I also took some notes down about what he felt on the topic of the paper. Somehow, this seemed to appease him, and he thanked me and left. I did not have a clue about what else to do! If someone has a different idea on how I should have handled the situation, comments are welcome!

Discussion Questions!

As far as cultural preferences go, I suppose I would just prefer to work with someone who is tolerant. I intend to inform my ESL students of the expectations that professors have here and what would most likely please them. However, I want to avoid robbing students of their creativity by making them fit perfectly into the American writing category. They are not just Americans; they have other backgrounds and another culture. This culture cannot be ignored in their life; it will cause them to feel like part of their self is being restricted. Therefore, I feel like I should not restrict their writing from showing their cultural heritage. I would like my ESL students to also be tolerant of my suggestions and be interested in learning about American culture. If they can at least consider my suggestions and try to understand that I only mean to benefit them, we'll get along just fine.
So, here's a confession of a big mistake I made: I had an ESL student who had written a paper, and it was obvious that he had uses outside sources, and even told me so. However, I did not find a works cited page or any in-text citations. I barely mentioned this issue. I thought maybe he was going to work on it later. I simply said, as we were wrapping up the session, "It looks good! Just look at those issues we talked about and work on your works cited and you should be finished." I know I always save my works cited for last. However, I heard one of the ESL students mention in the video we watched in class that they did not have to worry about citations. Here, they are very, very important! After I heard this, I could have died! I wonder if he even knew that he needed to include citations! I will not be making that mistake again though.
I think the hardest thing I struggle with in ESL papers is the different structure. I am a slave to the standard structure of our papers, and straying from it just about drives me crazy. I find that ESL essays often have a quite different structure. Before we watched that video in class, I would often suggest outlining to help the student restructure the paper. I had one student who had some adversary to this, which I always try to welcome. I gave him my suggestions, but I told him in the end it is his call on whether or not he wanted to make the changes. He thanked me, but informed me this is how he wanted his paper to be structured. I understand his decision better after seeing that video.

Lack of Confidence in the Writing Room

Low confidence is a problem in the writing room in general, but it is extremely profound in ESL students. They seem both shy and ashamed of their writing abilities. This problem often keeps the students very quiet and reserved during tutoring sessions. The best way to encourage an open and comfortable session is to make a plan, as suggested in the article “Breaking Ice and Setting Goals” by Shanti Bruce. Each session needs set goals that a tutor plans to meet by the end of session. Students also need to feel comfortable. Things to make them feel comfortable can include talking to them about what they want to say, accomplish, or learn. These types of questions do not have straight-forward answers and are subjective. The student can feel like they are more open to express his or herself and can be more open to discussion, which will facilitate the whole session.
I find it interesting the ways that some ESL students word their expressions. They are not typical and not something that we often use in our culture. However, I have always been taught that clichés in writing were something you wanted to stay far away from. Therefore, shouldn’t we embrace this new and different way of expression? The article mentions that a girl says she “shrinks” when she finds out that one of her classmates will be her writing tutor. This phrase is not incorrect, and someone who hears it can understand well what she means. If this type of phrasing is found in her paper, shouldn’t we encourage it? Instead of saying, "We don't say things this way," shouldn't we say, "That's an interesting way to express your feelings"?

Writing Activities

I really like the writing activities that Dr. Hawkins introduced to the class. I completed the writing assignment where I analyzed the most important event in the session. I wrote about the event, describing it in detail. This exercise helped to transform my entire paper. I noticed how much more exciting and interesting the paper sounded if I used a narrative approach and described the events I witnessed during my tutor observation. My first draft included statements like, “The student found this information very difficult.” After I added descriptive writing, I had sentences such as, “The student looked from the floor to the computer screen before uttering ‘Um, I’m not sure’”. I think this type of writing makes the paper much more interesting to read because the reader can truly relate to these descriptions.
It is funny how we become so focused on improving other students’ papers that sometimes we forget how much we can improve our own. For instance, I knew when I wrote the first draft of this paper that I even became bored as I read over it. I more or less proofread my own paper, which is not as important as looking to improve or enhance it. I can look at someone else’s paper and give them ideas to enhance it or make it more interesting. I cannot believe when I had my own writing (which I was not satisfied with) I did not take the same steps that I take when I have clients. I hope I can (re)learn to remember to step back after I complete a writing assignment to see how it can be enhanced.