Journals – The Digital Connection

Journal 1: Chap 2,3

The authors of the textbook suggest several great methods of developing your writing process. A couple of them that really stuck with me was glossing, clustering and free writing. Glossing is something that I have never really thought about before reading this. However, I can definitely see how it can be helpful. Glossing is going back after writing a draft and summarizing each section in the margins. This helps the writer look at the organization of their paper. Clustering is also a method that I don’t really pay attention to all that much. It may be helpful to put together paragraphs after you’ve got your ideas brainstormed. I was first required to do free writing in an English college class. This stream of consciousness method is a great alternative to brainstorming because it just pulls everything out of your head at once and you will be that much closer to a draft if you write long enough.

I can think of a couple of additional methods of writing that I’ve used in the past that the authors don’t mention. One of them is spreading out all of the steps you’re going to take. This has always been really helpful to me since tackling a large writing project can be overwhelming and doesn’t allow me to give my best work. If you start the process early and give yourself time away from the work to come back refreshed, writing the paper will probably be a more pleasant experience. Lots of students, I feel, are turned off to writing because it’s stressful if you try to do it at midnight the night before it’s due.

Another method I have started using a lot more now that I’m in college writing essays is annotating the prompt and readings used. Annotating things allows you to return to something a few times and find the key points you need to focus on without reading the whole piece more than you need to. This has really helped me in English classes and with other research papers because that’s how I find quotes to include to back up my argument. Quotes are very powerful in convincing a reader that you’re coming from a logical standpoint. This suggestion I have also let you put question marks next to things you’re confused about with a prompt or reading. There you could know what to focus your questions to your professor or tutor on.

Something that really stuck with me from these first two chapters was the difference between editing and tutoring. Before this, I felt like there was a strong correlation between these two writing assistants. Editors are experts in the mechanics of writing itself while tutors are experts on methods of aiding the writing process. I will definitely have to remember that I’m not fixing these student’s texts, I am steering them in a forward direction and am showing them a variety of tools to help them help themselves to the finish line.

Journal 2: Sample Essay

I found some really strong points in this essay that I wanted to note. First off, their stance on how humans view human death is very clear and well thought out. The paragraphs, in general, are quite long, but the second half of paragraph two is nice. I can clearly see how you feel about the issue. Going into paragraph structure might be helpful for this student. Maybe they could list their topic sentence and then put sentences under it in a list that are the most important to back up the topic sentence. Reading the paragraph aloud might good for them to hear any parts that are confusing and don’t connect to the topic of the sentence. I might also remind them to see if all of their topic sentences connect back to their thesis. They did a good job of this in the third to last paragraph.

Journal 3: Chap 6

The biggest thing that really stood out to me in this chapter is definitely what they said about asking questions and taking notes. This chapter mentioned that the tutor doesn’t always have to be an expert on a topic. In other words, they don’t always have the answers, they just have to be able to ask the right questions to get to those answers. The students that reflected on the mock tutorial mentioned, “listening, being patient, and being able to ask good questions are more important than ‘having’ all the answers” (66). This really resonates with me since I am always afraid of seeming dumb to the students I work with. Today in my sessions with students, I made sure to get them to find the answers they were looking for by breaking everything down into parts that are more easily digested. You don’t need many as the text notes, just enough to allow you and the writer to dive into the task at hand. Since we are in the beginning stages of an essay with the class, I asked them how they are viewing the prompt in their own words. These open-ended questions allowed inspiration for me to ask to follow up questions and the meetings flowed really well. Always asking what they think the answer is instead of giving it to them was important for me to remember as well. The text says that one of the mock tutors, “let the writer come up with the answers” (65). The whole point of the tutor is to steer the person in the right direction, but do not pull them to the finish line. If they have the tools to get there, they will learn more and will keep those tools with them as they move to other classes where they need to write essays.

Journal 4: Mock Tutorial

I noticed a lot of positive things about the person playing the role of tutor. When she had the writer read his paper aloud, she listened intently and took detailed notes. To start off the conversation, the tutor mentioned what she liked about the paper first. This made it seem like the writer would be eased into the feedback and feel less attacked than if you just jumped right in with the critical feedback. Then, to talk about the rough parts, the tutor asked them which parts they’d like to work on. Or if the tutor wanted to focus in on something, she’d ask things like, “Does this quote fit precisely with your argument or are there parts you could leave out?” Questions were at the forefront of this interaction. This really showed that the tutor is not the teacher. A tutor is more like a police officer directing traffic. They are showing you in the right direction to find the right tools for you. They’re showing you the way, but you are ultimately the one to find the destination.

Journal 5: Fellow Led Discussion

Now that I have been through quite a few tutoring sessions with students, I have had a lot on my mind about how they’ve been going. My biggest fear when meeting with a new student has always been not being helpful for them. I don’t want to waste their time even though our meeting is required for this first paper they have. This feeling didn’t really cross my mind until recently since my first meetings were in the beginning stages of the essay writing process. There were many things to talk about. These topics could’ve ranged anywhere from understanding the prompt to formulating a thesis to setting up information into paragraphs. Now that we are ultimately at the revising stage where the students have already had peer review sessions, there isn’t much for me to say that hasn’t already been noted by their peers. So maybe it might be helpful for me to look back over the section of the book that talks about what to do when you can’t really think of what to say towards the end of the process.

Journal 6: Artifact 1

The Writing Fellows program has definitely helped me improve as a student as well as a person overall. I was really hesitant going into this at the beginning of the year since I am a pretty shy person. Because of my wariness around socialization, I was worried that the massive amounts of face-to-face interaction would trip me up. However, this program has definitely helped me step out of my comfort zone and has given me practice with my collaborative social skills. Working with a professor was a lot easier for me than I thought. It’s pretty cool to be on the other side and even the middleman between the student and the professor. Interacting with the professor is cool because I get an inside view of what they are looking for in an essay. Interacting with students is fun because I get to relate to them and help them improve their writing from my personal experience. I feel like kind of a mentor. These social skills will help me in the long run because jobs require you to often collaborate on projects. Being a writing fellow has also helped me improve my writing as well. Helping people learn how to set up an essay has helped with my essay writing as well. Diving back into the process has reminded me of how to approach an essay in ways that are easier for me.

Journal 7: Chapter 9

The first thing I really noticed about my tutee’s reading strategies is that most if not all of them have little of them. Some of them even questioned why I would have them read their essays aloud. However, after I kept trying this strategy with them, they understood how it helped. I feel like most of my tutees tend to just keep going with a reading and only as questions of classmates and professors if they are really not understanding it. Some don’t even get help at all and just go with what they think the reading is about. Another strategy I introduced to a lot of them is writing summaries. Because many of them were having trouble understanding the readings in relation to the prompt, I broke down the prompt before diving back into the readings. I had them first tell me what they thought the author was saying and then had them write it down. This really helps them pick out the concepts they need to write their strong essay. Then we discussed with one another in order to make complete sense of how the reader’s claims could fit easily into the prompt. I ‘m really interested to put the process of asking questions (SQ3R) into practice. In my sessions, I have dabbled in parts of this process, but it might be good to make sure all these steps are fulfilled. My tutee’s relationship between reading and drafting is often a complicated one. They often have trouble pulling the relevant information from a text in order to use for a concise argument of their own. I hope these strategies will be a huge help for them in the future. I have definitely experienced example two. Since I had read the same thing the tutees had, I had my own understanding of the text as well as what the professor explained to me. That’s difficult because I often just want to help them by telling my reading of the text, but that’s ultimately not my job. So I remind myself to lead, not show.

Journal 8: Chapter 12

I was surprised to see that this chapter was mainly focused around email tutoring sessions instead of Skype calls. This chapter highlighted both the pros and cons of online tutoring sessions. The biggest thing I can take from this chapter is that you need to establish the expectations before you even dive into reading their paper. I agree that people may expect an emailed session to be more like a peer review process. I’ve had a couple of students asking if they can just send their essays to me in order to get some feedback. However, this chapter helped me see a huge issue with that: the student may feel like they are getting a quick out of an interactive session and just gets things to fix. Another thing that the chapter mentioned that kind of goes along with this is that we need to make sure, “we involve writers in the revision process” (142). This opened my eyes to the fact that an online session needs to resemble an in-person one as much as possible so the writer gets the same quality assistance either way. We, as tutors, need to still ask our long list of questions to get the writer thinking about their process so they can make the decisions. I will bring both of these points to a possible emailed session in the future if it comes up so the tutee gets the same help they’d get in person.

Journal 9: Podcast

Journal 10: Chapter 13

One of my biggest problems at the moment is the range of positions students shows up to class in. When I’ve been in the class to help with group work Professor Frank set up to help lead them to work on papers. Most of the students I was working with hadn’t even done the readings so I felt like I had nothing to work with. Even in some sessions, students were trying to write an essay about readings they haven’t read/don’t understand. How do I work with this?

A strategy that I’ve been using in sessions that have been working well is reading their papers aloud. This helps both me and them catch problems more easily.

Journal 11: Dos and Don’ts

Do…

Ask lots of questions.
Adapt to each student’s needs.
Make sure the student knows your role as a tutor as it relates to an editor.

Don’t…

Forget to highlight something the student as done will in their paper.
Edit their paper like a peer reviewer.
Leave a session without asking the student to summarize what they will do next.

Journal 12: Tutee Advice

The first, and probably the most important thing for a student to know going into a session is what my job truly entails. I am not a second line of peer review for your paper. I am here to help you with understanding the process of writing and guide you into the direction of completing it. I’m not just editing your paper and passing it back to you.
Before you even start writing your paper, it’s important to formulate a thesis. This will make searching for evidence much easier and more clear. It will ultimately save you time and stress in the long run.
In order to maximize time, I would suggest coming to the session with a few things you know you need help with. It’s hard for me to figure out what you need help with on a paper unless you tell me.
Going off a previous point, it helps you get more assistance from me if you already have some ideas being formulated at the very least. This means doing the readings is a huge must. Teaching the main points of the reading is your professor’s job. If you have some ideas or even an outline/thesis ready for me to work with, it will make a session more useful.
Printing out what you have so far would be really helpful to me as a tutor because then I can point to specific places that need attention while you read your piece aloud for me.
Finally, please don’t feel nervous. I am your peer that’s here to help you, not judge your writing abilities.

Journal 13: Topic+Questions for Research

The topic I’m looking at for my final project is how this program provides us fellows with essential transferable skills for the workplace. These skills can range anywhere from effective communicative skills to online literacy. Some of my questions for research include:

Why do some students graduate college lacking some essential communicating skills like writing effectively and working in an equal professional context?
What are the most important basic skills most employers look for from a college graduate?
How can a close relationship with technology aid this learning?
Can tutoring via the internet more or less helpful for tutees.
How can Writing Fellows teach these skills as well as learn them?