One thing mentioned in chapter 13, is the situation in which a paper has already been marked up. This is a problem I have come across since the first essay and now on essay 2. Students generally sign up for meetings with me after their peer reviews, which means I am reading papers that have already been marked up. The problem is that sometimes, I don’t agree with feedback their peers have left, or see other glaring issues that the students didn’t recognize, and I am afraid of overwhelming the tutee with more comments and questions. The solution I came up with for essay 1 was making a copy of the student’s essay and then only inserting my own feedback, but of course more problems can arise with this. For one, the student now has two copies of two different sets of feedback which could be equally overwhelming. The second problem is sometimes I read essays a day or two before the meetings, and students will sometimes change things after I have already read the copy I made. In essay 2, I have decided not to make a copy and put my comments alongside the peer review. I will often reply to another’s feedback to either show my support or to let the tutee know that I don’t necessarily think they need to follow the advice given. At first it was difficult finding ways to kindly disagree, but I have gotten more comfortable with it as I read more essays. Instead of making multiple little suggestions or questions, I try to write a small paragraph for each of the essay’s. This way there is less to look at in a comment section and is hopefully less overwhelming. The second “what if” that resonated with me most was when a writer still has a far way to go. A few times this semester I have been emailed a paper, consisting entirely of bullet points, or in another few cases, the writing was off-topic, poorly organized, and had TONS of grammatical errors, or even difficult to make sense of. The first time this happened, I was immediately overwhelmed. I didn’t understand where I was supposed to start, or how I could effectively go over everything that needed to be fixed in one 20-minute session. Like the book suggests, I suggested that the students make another appointment with me to continue our work, but of course, none of them did. At that point, I had to remind myself that their work was not a reflection of me or my skills and I did what I could. This is something I have had to do over the semester, and it has taken a lot of weight off my shoulders.
Fortunately, I have not had to endure a lot of the common problems addressed in this chapter. The course that I have been part of is not writing heavy; each assignment only required to be 500 words. This is both beneficial as I do not have much to read, but it makes it harder when writers stick to this short word count. Often it is harder for writers to articulate their point in short writing and leaves me in the position to push them a little further. The biggest issue from my class is that many do not structure paragraphs in the traditional way and often omit structural elements that could make their pieces clearer. However, in SASC I have encountered a few writers that have their paper due at the end of the hour or at the end of the day. For these time crunch sessions, the book gives some really helpful advice. The biggest concern for papers due that day to help give guidance that makes the biggest impact like structural support, recurring grammatical or spelling errors, and narrative coherence. For my future of tutoring, I will definitely refer back to this chapter as a guide for these common and often complicated situations.
Right off the bat I could tell this chapter would be helpful as I seem to find myself in those what if situations more often than not. The first what if is what if you suspect the writer might have a learning disability. This is something I have seen a lot and I would almost go as far as to say that the majority of the people I’ve tutored at sasc have had learning disabilities, which can sometimes be challenging. The list of things the book names off is knowing what to ask, confidentially, dealing with differences, talking about new strategies, being positive and leaving extra time. The one that stuck out to me the strongest was the leaving extra time or in general just the pacing of the session. With certain students you just have to go a little slower and that’s ok. Another big one that stuck out to me was when you are dealing with a format that you are not familiar with. This is also something that happens to me sometimes so it was helpful to read about it, such as asking for lots of explanations and questions to the student so that you can try and help them in the best way possible. The what ifs in this chapter were all applicable and very interesting to read about.
3 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 9”
One thing mentioned in chapter 13, is the situation in which a paper has already been marked up. This is a problem I have come across since the first essay and now on essay 2. Students generally sign up for meetings with me after their peer reviews, which means I am reading papers that have already been marked up. The problem is that sometimes, I don’t agree with feedback their peers have left, or see other glaring issues that the students didn’t recognize, and I am afraid of overwhelming the tutee with more comments and questions. The solution I came up with for essay 1 was making a copy of the student’s essay and then only inserting my own feedback, but of course more problems can arise with this. For one, the student now has two copies of two different sets of feedback which could be equally overwhelming. The second problem is sometimes I read essays a day or two before the meetings, and students will sometimes change things after I have already read the copy I made. In essay 2, I have decided not to make a copy and put my comments alongside the peer review. I will often reply to another’s feedback to either show my support or to let the tutee know that I don’t necessarily think they need to follow the advice given. At first it was difficult finding ways to kindly disagree, but I have gotten more comfortable with it as I read more essays. Instead of making multiple little suggestions or questions, I try to write a small paragraph for each of the essay’s. This way there is less to look at in a comment section and is hopefully less overwhelming. The second “what if” that resonated with me most was when a writer still has a far way to go. A few times this semester I have been emailed a paper, consisting entirely of bullet points, or in another few cases, the writing was off-topic, poorly organized, and had TONS of grammatical errors, or even difficult to make sense of. The first time this happened, I was immediately overwhelmed. I didn’t understand where I was supposed to start, or how I could effectively go over everything that needed to be fixed in one 20-minute session. Like the book suggests, I suggested that the students make another appointment with me to continue our work, but of course, none of them did. At that point, I had to remind myself that their work was not a reflection of me or my skills and I did what I could. This is something I have had to do over the semester, and it has taken a lot of weight off my shoulders.
Fortunately, I have not had to endure a lot of the common problems addressed in this chapter. The course that I have been part of is not writing heavy; each assignment only required to be 500 words. This is both beneficial as I do not have much to read, but it makes it harder when writers stick to this short word count. Often it is harder for writers to articulate their point in short writing and leaves me in the position to push them a little further. The biggest issue from my class is that many do not structure paragraphs in the traditional way and often omit structural elements that could make their pieces clearer. However, in SASC I have encountered a few writers that have their paper due at the end of the hour or at the end of the day. For these time crunch sessions, the book gives some really helpful advice. The biggest concern for papers due that day to help give guidance that makes the biggest impact like structural support, recurring grammatical or spelling errors, and narrative coherence. For my future of tutoring, I will definitely refer back to this chapter as a guide for these common and often complicated situations.
Right off the bat I could tell this chapter would be helpful as I seem to find myself in those what if situations more often than not. The first what if is what if you suspect the writer might have a learning disability. This is something I have seen a lot and I would almost go as far as to say that the majority of the people I’ve tutored at sasc have had learning disabilities, which can sometimes be challenging. The list of things the book names off is knowing what to ask, confidentially, dealing with differences, talking about new strategies, being positive and leaving extra time. The one that stuck out to me the strongest was the leaving extra time or in general just the pacing of the session. With certain students you just have to go a little slower and that’s ok. Another big one that stuck out to me was when you are dealing with a format that you are not familiar with. This is also something that happens to me sometimes so it was helpful to read about it, such as asking for lots of explanations and questions to the student so that you can try and help them in the best way possible. The what ifs in this chapter were all applicable and very interesting to read about.