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.

Super Tutors!

I enjoyed the super tutor exercise we did in class. We got to express some creativity, which is always a wonderful release from everyday life. In my group, we chose the figure of Iron Man to represent our super tutor. We named it the Iron Maiden, a play on words based on how tutors are described as midwives in our book. Our super tutor had the power of patience, the ability to understand writing processes, a sense of humor, lots of writing strategies, strong writing skills, and knowledge of grammar rules. I believe that these are great powers for a tutor to have. Patience is necessary to effectively work with clients. Clients are often struggling to express themselves, and are frustrated. It would be that much more difficult if the consultant becomes impatient with the client. It is also very important to understand writing processes, so that the tutor may assist the client in the steps of writing such as planning, drafting, writing, etc. A sense of humor is also key because it removes humility from the client and gives the session a nice and comfortable tone. Writers are often sensitive about their work, and it is hard to sit down and be analyzed by a stranger for thirty minutes or more. Therefore, a joke here and there will lighten the mood and make the client feel much more at ease. Knowledge of many writing styles is very important because not everyone has the same way of composing a paper, and also sometimes different styles are needed for different assignments. A super tutor can master all of these styles and be able to help each student with each assignment. Strong writing skills are needed to be able to guide clients in their writing. Knowledge of grammar rules will keep papers mechanically correct.
This project made me think of what attributes would be needed to be a really good tutor. I hope I have the tools to be an effective and useful tutor… if not super! :)

Censorship vs. Free Speech

I found Sherwood’s “Censoring Students, Censoring Ourselves” to be interesting to read. I read scenarios about students who brought in offensive papers and became intrigued. This is because I would have no idea what to do if a student vehemently refused to remove such offensive writing. However, my opinion on the topic would be to make sure that clients are writing opinions that can be logically explained. The student described in the article who was writing about getting “turned off by a woman carrying a briefcase” is just a completely opinionated statement with no good, solid facts to back up his argument that woman do not belong in the workplace. Had his paper been focused on truly good reasons that women are needed in a different area, it may have been acceptable, even if others do not agree with it. For example, if he stated that women are more needed at home to raise their children and given statistics about behavioral patterns of children with at-home mothers compared to mothers who work, it removes a great deal of the offense to women. When he just claims that he hates women in the workplace, it just sounds ignorant and rude.
Consultants consistently tell their clients to back up their opinions with facts. They encourage critical thinking, asking questions like, “Why do you think that?” or “Why does that happen?” I believe that questions such as these should help to remove “hate speech” because it helps to remove the ignorance. If you ask the student who wrote the sexist paper why he did not think that women belonged in the workplace and all he could respond with is that it “turns him off”, he would (hopefully) realize that maybe this is not the approach he should take to the paper.
So far, I have never heard a session where the client wrote any offensive things in his/her paper. However, I’m very glad that I read this selection in our book because I have been wondering about how to handle a situation like that. It seems to be a difficult call to make to choose between the freedom of speech and censorship of rude writing. I believe whatever is written should be backed up with valid facts.

References:
Sherwood, Steve. "Censoring Students, Censoring Ourselves: Constraining Conversations in the Writing Center." The St. Martin's Sourcebook for Writing Tutors, 3rd ed. Ed. Christina Murphy and Steve Sherwood. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. 2008. 129-136.

Where is the interaction?

As I read this week’s assignment, a question stuck out to me from Murphy and Sherwood’s selection: “Are we acting as collaborators or as authority figures?” (10). I kept this question in mind as I observed in the writing room this week. I did not witness any collaborations, but several authority figure/student sessions. The tutors seem to treat the students as if there are their own students. I often hear tutors speaking to the clients not as peers but as students. They greet them professionally but saying, “Hello, what are you working on today?” The interpersonal interaction that Murphy and Sherwood insist is so important is almost completely ignored. The tutors have the students fill out the proper paperwork and then begin reading drafts of what the student is working on. They don’t ask what the student’s concerns are, about the class, or other creative thinking ideas. They just jump right in to proofreading the papers and providing tips on how to make the paper sound more “academic.” There is no personal conversation concerning interests, culture, or personal history. I do not hear students ask their tutors about questions they were too afraid to ask their instructors. Students just take the advice of their tutors and leave the room. I find this defines that tutors are very much authority figures and ignore the fact that they should be collaborating with the students.
The tutors also often do not take a minimalist role, mentioned by Sherwood and Murphy (17). This role suggests that tutors and students should be working together, even when it is time for the tutors to give them advice. Murphy and Sherwood suggest that the students should read out loud and the tutor should comment as they read, or make notes and comments after they are finished. No one has read aloud in the writing room that I have heard. The student hands over his/her draft to the tutor, the tutor reads. The tutor makes changes, discusses the changes, and hands the paper back. The student is no more confident in his/her writing abilities. There are no long-term effects. I would like to see our writing room transform into more than just a place for students to have their papers proofread.

References:
Murphy, Christina and Steve Sherwood. The St. Martin's Sourcebook for Writing Tutors. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 8-23.

Reading Response #1

After reading our selections from our textbook, I have found that a very important part of tutoring is the interpersonal relationship between the consultant and the client. Even if the consultant does not always have the answers, they can always provide a comfortable environment for the client to come with inquiry. The job of the consultant is to inspire the writer, not just provide answers. Communication is a very important part of the tutoring experience. This reading selection made me feel more comfortable about becoming a tutor. I fear that I will not be able to provide the proper answers that the clients seek, but as long as I provide inspiration, then I am doing the best job that I can.
Another selection explained the difficulty that an ESL student can have writing. It is important that the student does not feel as if they must give up his or her culture. The story of the girl from the Navajo culture was upset that she had to give up her culture and her language. Her tutor worked with her to inspire her own thoughts and ideas, which included parts of her culture. Therefore, she could write about her culture and her interests. The tutor did not tell her what to write. Instead, she asked the student about what was important to her, and encouraged her to write about it. I hope that I can also guide my clients in this way, encouraging them to find their topics and abilities instead of instructing them. It is important to inspire the students to write about their interests, regardless of their culture. The student cannot produce a strong paper if they are not interested in the subject.
As a whole, I learned about how important communication is in these tutoring sessions from our reading selections. Consultants may not always have the answers, but they do have the ability to provide assistance, comfort, and inspiration to the clients that come to them. Clients and consultants can form a comfortable bond, so the client can informally express what he/she is trying to communicate. From that point, the consultant may help them transform what he/she wants to say into the words, and collaboratively, create a well-written paper.

References:
Murphy, Christina and Steve Sherwood. The St. Martin's Sourcebook for Writing Tutors. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 7-8.
Murphy, Christina. "Freud in the Writing Center: The Psychoanalysis of Tutoring Well." In Murphy and Sherwood, 95-99.
DiPardo, Anne. "Whispers of Coming and Going: Lessons from Fannie." In Murphy and Sherwood, 100-116.