In chapter 2, the authors focused primarily on the individual writing process, its indiosyncraticness, and how its purpose has shifted overtime to encourage students to have more flexibility, and most importantly, control, over their learning. While context of writing is everything, majority of essays do not have predetermined answers, and models for the writing process are used to help sketch ideas, not flesh them out entirely. The standard writing process is broken into 4 main components, planning, drafting, revising, and editing. Planning is the investigative work, using multiple strategies like clustering, freewriting, or structured/unstructured brainstorming, which I use the most, to create essay talking points. Drafting equates to discovering your true writing intention or shaping your argument into its “ideal”. In chapter 3, the authors discuss how tutoring fits into an individual’s writing process. Tutoring differs from editing, because while editing is the final step in the standard model, tutoring encourages development in all writing stages to, “produce better writers not better writing.” (pg 36). Tutoring also varies greatly from proofreading because proofreading exerts control, and the purpose of a tutor is to guide power in the writer by providing options/strategies and giving them flexibility to find their writing intentions.
The standard writing process explained in chapter 2 differs from my own only slightly. In my process, I tend to clump planning/drafting, and revising/editing together into two distinct actions. I don’t think I would encourage this to my peers, as it can become overwhelming. In my process, I try to unlock my writing intent before even starting to find evidence and supporting arguments, which I might suggest to my peers if they’re collecting a lot of evidence but having trouble piecing them together. By starting at the conclusion, it can become easier to see what pieces are needed to get me there.
What sticks with me most from chapter 3 is the quote, “Talking about writing is one of the most important things you will do as a tutor.” (pg 11). Collaborative talk is a crucial element to helping writers maintain their confidence in their writing, showing them that they have the answers within themselves already.
As for fears and anxieties about becoming a writing tutor, I think I am most afraid that students will not want to have the necessary conversations needed for their own improvement. I am worried that I will face an essay, as I did peer-reviewing my own freshman year, that is just overwhelmingly unorganized, and I won’t know where to begin.
In chapter 2 it talks about breaking down the writing process as a tutor. It starts by talking about older professors of writing and how it was a simpler process of breaking things into themes, quick edit and over than returning it with a grade. From this method, most students didn’t learn how to write in an effective manner. Fast forward and the writing process takes initiative. It is broken up into four parts, planning, drafting, revising and editing/proofreading. Within each of the four sections they are further broken down. Planning can be broken into clustering, free writing, conversation and brainstorming, all of which help a student begin the writing process. Then drafting, which is similar to planning but a little deeper as the writing begins the assignment a little more. Revising and proofreading also go kind of hand in as the final two steps. One thing that stuck out within the proofreading process was to read it back looking for certain things, one time look for grammar, next time look to shorten/lengthen sentences etc. My personal fears or anxieties surrounding tutoring are that my help will end up being wrong, they will get frustrated or even more confused with my help and that I won’t be able to answer their questions and they will become discouraged to come back. However in chapter 3 there are solutions to a lot of problems and it’s reassuring to know that in the end almost every issue can be solvable if the proper approach is taken.
I enjoyed these two chapters written by experienced authors who were able to put many of my strategies into words. My personal writing process involves a lot of planning before I start writing; I always start by picking the prompt apart, brainstorming what possible answers I could develop, and rereading a lot of course materials that are related to the prompt. I would add to Gillespie and Lerner’s list of planning strategies to reverse engineer the prompt, establishing what I think I want my conclusions or the outcome to be then backtracking to make a rough starting point. I believe my personal writing process is methodically chaotic. I start with a lot of questions, ideas, and themes; then I like to filter out what ideas will not work well and establish my structure. This will help me eliminate options that will not easily or effectively answer the prompt or support my visualized intentions. I think Gillespie and Lerner are able to easily explain my “sieving” process very well in their passages on revising and the strategies to “render” drafts.
In all writing there is a point where much of the fat of your writing needs to be reduced down to a more palatable essay. Often in academic writing, too much is rendered off and pieces can become dry and flavorless. I believe that many of the strategies and ideas that The Longman Guide puts forward are advantageous for all academic writers to help them maintain a balanced essay or writing piece. They build a repertoire of strategies that can allow writers like myself to try to expand our writing process. For example, I have never used clustering, but I would definitely recommend it as a strategy for a student who is lost on starting their brainstorming process. I might even try it myself. I am constantly adjusting my writing process for each type of assignment and also how my brain is feeling that day. I think that they encapsulate this well; there is no wrong writing process and there is a flexibility that writers need to be successful. Their different strategies (specifically in chapter 3) address how other writers, especially those seeking help, might have a hard time starting or organizing their ideas. I will definitely take a lot of their suggestions forward in tutoring, specifically when they talked about writers’ confidence and how it is easy to be discouraged by the daunting task of an assignment.
These chapters reminded me a lot of my high school English Composition teacher; he was one of the first teachers to genuinely voice his care about our learning and understanding opposed to grades and test scores. He believed that grades could only tell you so much and writing grading can be subjective. If you have a well-structured and supported essay that you understand, then you deserve to be proud of your own ideas and writing. He was a huge help with confidence and taking ownership of my writing. I wish to take these lessons with me into tutoring. I appreciated that the chapters addressed how we as tutors and writers are not editors. However, we should not teach others exactly how we write. As I stated earlier my process is constantly evolving so why would I impose the inner machinations on someone trying to find their own way of writing.
One strategy that I find to be particularly helpful when I am outlining my papers is to find quotes and other kinds of evidence that I think will help me argue my point. It helps provide structure for my papers and sometimes can give me a starting point off for ideas. Occasionally I will use a quote that stood out to me to generate a talking point. Having this as a step has been helpful for me in situations where I might be having some trouble with what I want to say in my body paragraph. Having the quotes right there in front of me is helpful because I am able to fill in the blanks. It’s also helpful to be able to analyze the quote and see what ideas come from that. This process helps me formulate my thoughts and really helps with the structure of my papers.
One thing I found in the chapters that I really think is important is just the idea of being friendly and open with the other person. That is really important to me because it would make me feel more comfortable in the situation and I think it helps make the process less formal and awkward. Establishing a relationship that puts both of us on an equal playing field is something I want to bring to my tutoring sessions. Another thing that stuck out to me while reading was the process of summarizing the body paragraphs after they are written and seeing if the summary and the actual writing match up. I think that’s something that I could use in my own writing and I think that it’s a good tool to use to make sure that you are portraying the ideas in the way you want them to. It is also very helpful for making sure that the paragraphs are clear and concise.
4 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 1”
In chapter 2, the authors focused primarily on the individual writing process, its indiosyncraticness, and how its purpose has shifted overtime to encourage students to have more flexibility, and most importantly, control, over their learning. While context of writing is everything, majority of essays do not have predetermined answers, and models for the writing process are used to help sketch ideas, not flesh them out entirely. The standard writing process is broken into 4 main components, planning, drafting, revising, and editing. Planning is the investigative work, using multiple strategies like clustering, freewriting, or structured/unstructured brainstorming, which I use the most, to create essay talking points. Drafting equates to discovering your true writing intention or shaping your argument into its “ideal”. In chapter 3, the authors discuss how tutoring fits into an individual’s writing process. Tutoring differs from editing, because while editing is the final step in the standard model, tutoring encourages development in all writing stages to, “produce better writers not better writing.” (pg 36). Tutoring also varies greatly from proofreading because proofreading exerts control, and the purpose of a tutor is to guide power in the writer by providing options/strategies and giving them flexibility to find their writing intentions.
The standard writing process explained in chapter 2 differs from my own only slightly. In my process, I tend to clump planning/drafting, and revising/editing together into two distinct actions. I don’t think I would encourage this to my peers, as it can become overwhelming. In my process, I try to unlock my writing intent before even starting to find evidence and supporting arguments, which I might suggest to my peers if they’re collecting a lot of evidence but having trouble piecing them together. By starting at the conclusion, it can become easier to see what pieces are needed to get me there.
What sticks with me most from chapter 3 is the quote, “Talking about writing is one of the most important things you will do as a tutor.” (pg 11). Collaborative talk is a crucial element to helping writers maintain their confidence in their writing, showing them that they have the answers within themselves already.
As for fears and anxieties about becoming a writing tutor, I think I am most afraid that students will not want to have the necessary conversations needed for their own improvement. I am worried that I will face an essay, as I did peer-reviewing my own freshman year, that is just overwhelmingly unorganized, and I won’t know where to begin.
In chapter 2 it talks about breaking down the writing process as a tutor. It starts by talking about older professors of writing and how it was a simpler process of breaking things into themes, quick edit and over than returning it with a grade. From this method, most students didn’t learn how to write in an effective manner. Fast forward and the writing process takes initiative. It is broken up into four parts, planning, drafting, revising and editing/proofreading. Within each of the four sections they are further broken down. Planning can be broken into clustering, free writing, conversation and brainstorming, all of which help a student begin the writing process. Then drafting, which is similar to planning but a little deeper as the writing begins the assignment a little more. Revising and proofreading also go kind of hand in as the final two steps. One thing that stuck out within the proofreading process was to read it back looking for certain things, one time look for grammar, next time look to shorten/lengthen sentences etc. My personal fears or anxieties surrounding tutoring are that my help will end up being wrong, they will get frustrated or even more confused with my help and that I won’t be able to answer their questions and they will become discouraged to come back. However in chapter 3 there are solutions to a lot of problems and it’s reassuring to know that in the end almost every issue can be solvable if the proper approach is taken.
I enjoyed these two chapters written by experienced authors who were able to put many of my strategies into words. My personal writing process involves a lot of planning before I start writing; I always start by picking the prompt apart, brainstorming what possible answers I could develop, and rereading a lot of course materials that are related to the prompt. I would add to Gillespie and Lerner’s list of planning strategies to reverse engineer the prompt, establishing what I think I want my conclusions or the outcome to be then backtracking to make a rough starting point. I believe my personal writing process is methodically chaotic. I start with a lot of questions, ideas, and themes; then I like to filter out what ideas will not work well and establish my structure. This will help me eliminate options that will not easily or effectively answer the prompt or support my visualized intentions. I think Gillespie and Lerner are able to easily explain my “sieving” process very well in their passages on revising and the strategies to “render” drafts.
In all writing there is a point where much of the fat of your writing needs to be reduced down to a more palatable essay. Often in academic writing, too much is rendered off and pieces can become dry and flavorless. I believe that many of the strategies and ideas that The Longman Guide puts forward are advantageous for all academic writers to help them maintain a balanced essay or writing piece. They build a repertoire of strategies that can allow writers like myself to try to expand our writing process. For example, I have never used clustering, but I would definitely recommend it as a strategy for a student who is lost on starting their brainstorming process. I might even try it myself. I am constantly adjusting my writing process for each type of assignment and also how my brain is feeling that day. I think that they encapsulate this well; there is no wrong writing process and there is a flexibility that writers need to be successful. Their different strategies (specifically in chapter 3) address how other writers, especially those seeking help, might have a hard time starting or organizing their ideas. I will definitely take a lot of their suggestions forward in tutoring, specifically when they talked about writers’ confidence and how it is easy to be discouraged by the daunting task of an assignment.
These chapters reminded me a lot of my high school English Composition teacher; he was one of the first teachers to genuinely voice his care about our learning and understanding opposed to grades and test scores. He believed that grades could only tell you so much and writing grading can be subjective. If you have a well-structured and supported essay that you understand, then you deserve to be proud of your own ideas and writing. He was a huge help with confidence and taking ownership of my writing. I wish to take these lessons with me into tutoring. I appreciated that the chapters addressed how we as tutors and writers are not editors. However, we should not teach others exactly how we write. As I stated earlier my process is constantly evolving so why would I impose the inner machinations on someone trying to find their own way of writing.
One strategy that I find to be particularly helpful when I am outlining my papers is to find quotes and other kinds of evidence that I think will help me argue my point. It helps provide structure for my papers and sometimes can give me a starting point off for ideas. Occasionally I will use a quote that stood out to me to generate a talking point. Having this as a step has been helpful for me in situations where I might be having some trouble with what I want to say in my body paragraph. Having the quotes right there in front of me is helpful because I am able to fill in the blanks. It’s also helpful to be able to analyze the quote and see what ideas come from that. This process helps me formulate my thoughts and really helps with the structure of my papers.
One thing I found in the chapters that I really think is important is just the idea of being friendly and open with the other person. That is really important to me because it would make me feel more comfortable in the situation and I think it helps make the process less formal and awkward. Establishing a relationship that puts both of us on an equal playing field is something I want to bring to my tutoring sessions. Another thing that stuck out to me while reading was the process of summarizing the body paragraphs after they are written and seeing if the summary and the actual writing match up. I think that’s something that I could use in my own writing and I think that it’s a good tool to use to make sure that you are portraying the ideas in the way you want them to. It is also very helpful for making sure that the paragraphs are clear and concise.