Tutor's Guide: "Talk to Me" by Muriel Harris

Main Points:

This article talks about the different types of unresponsive writers and how a coach can try and engage or make progress with each type. The reasons for a writer’s unresponsiveness informs the strategies suggested for coaches.

Some writers are forced to be there, and do not participate because they would rather be anywhere but a writing center. These students were probably forced into a session by an instructor and are there merely to comply with that requirement. When a coach encounters one of these types of writers, he/she should acknowledge the writer’s frustration with having to do something they don’t want to. After that, the coach should point out that while the writer is stuck there, the two of them might as well do something useful. If the writing coach cannot get through to the writer, it is sometimes better to just allow them to leave rather than wasting time. That strategy might make some instructors who don’t understand how writing centers operate might get angry at the center if that happens.

Sometimes the unresponsive writer might not see writing as important to their lives. These writers might have also been forced or compelled to visit the writing center by an instructor, or he/she may believe that a writing coach will just “fix” the paper. In this case the coach should try and explain to the writer how often she/he will use writing both in and out of school, and try and get the writer talking that way. If that doesn’t work, the coach should just try and make a small step forward somehow to help the writer.

Some writers might be worried about how their writing will be received by the coach. These writers’ unresponsiveness is due to anxiety. In a rare moment of therapy-type advice, Harris suggests that a coach listen to the writer’s anxieties about their paper, and then reassure the writer that he/she will not be ridiculed for the quality of his/her writing.

The writer might also be overburdened with other concerns, such as different assignments, family problems, work issues, ect. In this case, the student might not be responsive simply because he/her is too focused on concerns that they now see as more pressing. If this is the case, there are two options. The first option is that the coach can invite the writer to reschedule for a better time and the other is that the coach might listen for a little bit to the writer’s problems and then move on to the writing. The latter might lead to a trap where the writer turns the session into an opportunity to complain about their problems, so it is very important that the coach redirects the conversation back to writing.

Another reason that writers may become unresponsive is that they lack the language necessary to discuss their writing. When this happens, a writer may not be able to elaborate any more than saying something generic like “it doesn’t flow right.” If this is the case, the coach should ask the writer some guiding questions, making sure that the writer knows that these questions are good things to ask themselves if they are concerned about an aspect of their writing and are unable to identify it.

The only kind of unresponsive writer who is seriously malicious is the manipulative writer. These writers have learned that if they stay silent, they can get a teacher or tutor to answer their own questions and do all the work. When a writing coach is confronted with this kind of writer, he/she must completely refrain from answering any of their own questions and ask extremely open-ended questions in order to push the writer into participation.

What I got from it:

This article gave me many different strategies to use when confronted with an unresponsive writer, as well as an understanding of why some writers are unresponsive.

Questions:

How do I know the reason behind the unresponsiveness of a student, especially if that unresponsiveness is meant as a form of manipulation?

What a beginning coach would need:

This understanding of why a student might not be participating in the session is invaluable for beginning coaches, and the techniques provided can work very well if the coach is at a loss for a way to get the writer to talk, something that happens a lot to beginning coaches before they’ve figured out their own styles and techniques.

Best for:

I think that both beginner and experienced coaches would benefit from this chapter, as these techniques can be used as a starting point for new coaches dealing with unresponsive students, or to augment techniques already developed by more experienced coaches.

Tutor’s Guide 3: “A (Non)Meeting of the Minds” by Nicole Kraemer

Main Points:

Writers and coaches often have very different ideas about how a session should go, which leads to problems. Writers may believe that coaches are just there for quick proofreading, or may believe that coaches will not be able to help them due to level in school or major. Coaches may focus too much on the bad points, believing that that’s the best way to effect change. No matter what is wrong in these sessions, they always end with the writer unhappy.

What I Got:

I really, honestly didn’t get much out of this. If I wanted to know what a bad, hostile session was like, I’d just spend a session with one of the more aggravating people who come into this center. Nothing was explained and I have no clue what I was meant to take out of this that I didn’t already know.

Questions:

-How should Sally have worked with Portia? From what I see, the problem was entirely with Portia in this scenario and the article barely explains anything.

A Beginning Coach Should Know:

Since this doesn’t explain a single thing clearly, it’s probably not very useful to a beginning coach, as they will not have the experience with these kind of sessions to really be able to sit and analyze it.

Best For:

People who can understand it, which I can’t and I don’t think a beginning coach would either.

A Tutor’s Guide 2: “What Line? I Didn’t See Any Line” by Molly Wingate

Main Points:

There is an invisible line between productive, useful sessions and sessions where the writer gets nothing useful and ends up relying on or overpowered b y the coach. This article talks about two kinds of line crossing that might not seem as obvious as the ones that most tutors immediately recognize, brainstorming line crosses, and “over” sessions. In “brainstorming” sessions gone wrong, a coach gets too involved in helping a writer develop ideas, and ends up generating ideas along with the writer. This usurps ownership of the paper from the writer and takes away his/her control over the paper. There are also a number of “over” sessions that should be avoided, overempathizing, overwhelming, and taking over the session. When a coach overempathizes, he/she gets too caught up in the writer’s personal problems and does not keep the focus of the session on writing. Sometimes writers need to talk to someone, but a writing coach should be a sympathetic ear without getting too involved. When a coach overwhelms a writer, he/she points out ever mistake in the paper and leaves the writer feeling like his/her paper is useless. When a writer takes over a session or a writer’s work, they get too involved in the subject matter and focuses on product rather than process. When this happens, the coach becomes like a coauthor or editor, trying to wrest control from the writer rather than empowering the writer.

What I Got:

Coaches need to be constantly vigilant against crossing a line that is always different depending on the writer and the situation. In order to do this, a coach must be adept at reading body language, vocal tone, and other social cues in order to tell when the writer is starting to tune out of the session.

Questions:

I have problems reading body language and vocal tone, does that completely hinder my ability to keep from crossing the line while still pushing just enough for the session to be productive, or is it better just to stick to safe ground?

What about the writers who won’t talk at all? It’s hard not to cross the line with a writer like that or it’ll be an hour of awkward silence.

Beginning Coach Needs:

Sessions should always be about the writer and his/her ideas. If it is becoming about the coach, or the coach feels that the writer is starting to tune out or become overdependant, it’s time to reevaluate the way they are going about the session. To a beginning coach, that kind of flexibility may seem strange, and this article emphasizes flexibility heavily.

Best For:

This article was written especially with experienced coaches in mind, and so it assumes that coaches are already good at getting a feel for how a writing session is going. They don’t talk about the kinds of things that show that a session is starting to take a turn for the worse. This also only covers the more covert ways that a tutor can cross the line, rather than the obvious ones, like writing on a student’s paper.

A Tutor’s Guide 1: “Setting the Agenda for the Next Thirty Minutes” by William J. Macauley Jr.

Main Points:

Coaches and writers should plan out what they want to get out of the writing session, and where they want the session to go before they really get into the bulk of the work in the session. This should be done collaboratively, with the writer and the coach. Making a visual map of the session can be extremely helpful in many situations.

What I Got:

The map idea intrigues me because it seems like a good idea to work with quieter people as well as visual learners. The way that it works as a visual representation of what’s talked about in a session makes it extremely interesting to me. Also, if a writer feels shy or is just naturally quiet, being able to write it down might be easier than talking, especially for a first session with someone they haven’t worked with before.

Questions:

Ho How do I get students who come in just thinking that the writing center is a proofreading center to work with me on an agenda for the session?

- WWhat about students who legitimately cannot explain or talk about what they want to work on in a way that’s understandable?

- MMost of the students I see in this writing center tend to be what the author of this article refers to as “Tourists” rather than “Travelers,” is there any way I can get this technique to work in those situations?

What a Beginning Coach would Need:

The mapping technique seems like a good way to keep beginning coaches from falling into the trap where they fall back on grammar rather than focusing on higher order concerns. The collaborative nature of the mapping technique also might help a beginning coach to give the writer the control of the session, which can be difficult at times.

McAndrews and Reigstad Chapter 3: "What Tutoring Writing Isn't"

Main Points:

There are many things that writing tutors may appear to be that they are not. Writing tutors are not editors, cheerleaders, nitpickers, therapists or experts. A tutor is not like an editor because contrary to popular belief, the relationship between and editor and writer can often be adversarial, and editors at times take over control of the text from the writer. This is something that tutors should never do, and McAndrews and Reigstad make the argument that the writer/editor relationship should be seen as an “anti-model” for writing tutors.

A tutor is also not supposed to be a cheerleader, offering empty praise to a writer. This is not productive in the slightest, though legitimate praise is a good thing, just talking about good points will not help a writer improve, and praise should never be used to soften the blow, because most people will see right through you. On the other hand, a tutor should not immediately dig in and nitpick every little problem in the essay, as this can offend and demoralize a writer. The goal is to make the writer aware of their issues, help them develop strategies to work on those issues, and have them leave feeling like they’ve accomplished something. Neither cheerleading nor nitpicking will accomplish this.

Tutors also should not act as therapists to writers. Tutors do not have to, and shouldn’t, get involved in the writer’s problems that have nothing to do with writing. This is true even if the piece being worked on contains a lot of personal content. Tutors are not trained therapists and should not act like them.

Just like tutors aren’t experts in psychotherapy, they don’t have to be experts in anything. Tutors sometimes can be the most helpful when they don’t know the answers, because then they can direct the writer towards finding the answers for themselves.

There are also things that a tutor should never do, such as take control of the writer’s work. Just because a tutor feels that they could just fix the essay and make it better, they should resist that temptation. Writing sessions should be about the writer’s ideas and the tutor should just be there in order to help the writer question and expand their own ideas.

Tutoring is also ineffective after the fact, when the piece has been finished. Writers who bring in pieces that they are finished with (we saw that a lot here with the T2K students who brought their high school essays in last semester) are going to miss out on a lot of the helpful aspects of tutoring, having someone there to read a work in progress and act as a proxy audience to give the writer more awareness of what is confusing to others, or what might not be working. This is difficult with a piece that is already finished, because the writer doesn’t particularly need that awareness at that point.

What I got:

Tutors need to focus on the student, not get involved, and not introduce their own ideas into the writer’s work. Ideally, tutors should work as hands-off facilitators of the writer’s own ideas.

Questions:

How exactly does one help someone change the way that they look at writing and think about their own writing while being completely hands off?

I know the answer to the question up there is “talk,” but getting some writers to talk is like pulling teeth, and getting them to find their own mistakes, even with guiding questions, is even worse. How do I help writers like this while still staying hands off?

I occasionally get students that have a lot of the same problems I had at one point during my academic career (Test anxiety, time management problems, problems handling stress), can I address these and give the student tips/resources that I had to find on my own, or would that be too much like a therapist?

What a beginning coach would need:

This chapter gives a good understanding of things to avoid during a session, especially the concept of ownership and how to not usurp that ownership from the writer. The only problem is that this falls in the beginning of the book, before the new coach would even know what their job is.

Best For:

For once, I think that this chapter is fantastic for beginning tutors; my big issue is where it is in the book. I think a beginning coach should probably have an idea of what their job is before going in and telling them what their job isn’t.

Bedford Guide Chapter 2: "The Writing Process"

Main Points:

Writing is not linear; writers go through a process of writing that includes the steps listed in the Longman guide. The big difference between this text and Longman is the description of the revising process, which is split into two stages in the Bedford Guide, global revision and sentence-level revision. When a writer is doing global revisions, they are making major changes to the overall structure of the piece. This is where writers move paragraphs and cut out or expand parts of a draft in order to clarify points or alter the flow of the entire draft. Sentence level revision is when a writer makes changes in word choice and the structure of sentences in order to clarify that individual sentence or paragraph. Like Longman, the Bedford guide stresses that writing coaches must be able and prepared to assist writers no matter what stage of the writing process they are in at that moment. They must also be able to identify the stage that the writer is in so that they can be effective.

What I Got:

“Please edit my paper” may mean, “help me make global or sentence-level revisions” to a writer who does not have the vocabulary to talk about writing, which many writers coming into a center will not have.

Questions:

What are some ways of figuring out what stage the writer needs help in?

How do you direct a writer away from editing if they are trying to fix grammar and really need global revisions or more work drafting?

What a beginning coach needs:

The information in this is essentially the Cliffnotes version of the information in Chapter 2 of the Longman Guide. The exercises, however, seem to be useful for a beginning coach, especially the exercise that suggests that a beginning coach go to the writing center as a student writer and be on the other side of at least two sessions. This can give the new coach an idea of what it feels like and what may or may not work in certain situations.

Best For:

Like the last chapter of this guide, I don’t know if there’s a lot of information in this that a more experienced tutor would be interested in, because the subject is covered in a much more in-depth way in the Longman guide. The more practical approach of this book does, however, give a beginning tutor a better idea of the kinds of problems that occur with the different stages of the writing process.

Longman Guide Chapter 2: "The Writing Process"

Main Points:

Contrary to what was once believed, writing is not linear. Writing is made up of four stages, planning, drafting, revising and editing or proofreading. Planning is when the writer begins to gather information and generate ideas for their writing project. Drafting is when the writer begins to develop the intention behind their text and writes a draft. Revising is when the writer makes changes to the organization or structure of the text in order to clarify his/her points. Proofreading or editing is where the writer fixes the mechanics of the essay and focuses on grammar and spelling. These stages are recursive, meaning that writers do work in each phase multiple times while writing a piece and do not work in these stages all at once or in order.

Another point that is emphasized in the chapter is that writing tutors must develop an understanding of the writing process and what goes on in each stage. They must then be able to help writers in these different stages while not creating clones of themselves, as what has worked for them may not work for another student. The chapter also talks about the concept of ownership and states that students must develop a sense of their text belonging to them. This is hindered by the fact that they may not care about academic writing.

What I got:

The main thing that I pulled from this chapter is that writing is a way to learn. You don’t just learn to write when you’re writing, you learn to think about ideas and not simply memorize them to report back on a simple test. This makes writing part of the learning process rather than just an end. Another thing that I found interesting was the techniques listed to help people in the different stages of the writing process.

Questions:

How do I know when a technique will work for a specific student? What types of learners work with the different methods?

How do I recognize what stage of the writing process a student is in? Sometimes they come in with drafts but talk like they are still prewriting. Usually they want editing when it’s obvious they need some work revising or drafting, so how do I recognize these things and then bring them to the writer’s attention?

What a beginning tutor might need:

This chapter provides a beginning tutor with an understanding of the writing process and introduces the concept of ownership.

Good For:

This chapter provides a lot of information that is useful for a beginning tutor, but does not provide examples or ways to use different techniques. The history related to teaching composition may not interest those who are just starting to tutor, as we have mostly been taught using process-oriented methods, and probably won’t need to be convinced that it is the best way.