Category: W.F Journals

My major is interdisciplinary-studies in the humanities. Although my major is really really small, I think that the writing fellows program works well alongside it. Since interdisciplinary-studies covers a wide-range of subjects, ranging from arts and history to political science, sociology, and English, I think that someone in my major could benefit by this program in a few ways. Typically, an interdisciplinary-studies major has a main focus, mine being writing and English, but the writing fellows program is built on universal ideas that can be applied to any major/specialization. An ISH major could not only enhance their own writing techniques, but they could also attain skills to tutor students within the humanities. ISH students would also come into the program with an outside knowledge of multiple subjects, which would help them adapt to new ideas quickly. I think there are a few things that ISH students should know before joining the program. The first thing is that, while this program requires a class component, it doesn’t necessarily feel like a class. It’s more of an experience that allows you to bond with other students and professors. The other major thing would be to know that you’ll try your best to help others, but you need to remember to take care of yourself and help yourself first.

There are a lot of things that I wish tutees would understand about the program. First and foremost, writing fellows are embedded into a single class, so the tutor is strictly there for those students and those students only. It’s a rare resource to have, especially since one of the only comparable roles would be a TA. Essentially, a writing fellow is an unbiased source of information regarding the course. I think that tutees also should know that, at least for first semester fellows, this program is a class for us as well. We may not know everything or be perfect at our jobs, but that’s only because we’re still learning. I also think it’s helpful for tutees to know that we’re students too. We don’t bite and we don’t report everything that they say to the professors of the course that we’re in. I think if they understood the role of a writing fellow more as a resource for them rather than an extension of the professor, they might be more receptive to sessions. I hope that tutees also know that the tutoring sessions are based solely upon them. I’ll rarely talk about anything that isn’t relevant to what the students bring to me. It’s their time to get specific questions answered or to seek guidance in a problem that’s been bugging them. Meeting with a writing fellow is also flexible enough that many of us can schedule multiple sessions or sessions in advance either in person or through zoom.

I’m grateful that I haven’t had a lot of issues during my sessions so far. I think the biggest one that I’ve been facing is mandatory attendance. A lot of students only came to my sessions because they were required to meet with me for a portion of their overall grade. While many of my students still cooperated during the sessions, a few of them made it clear that they didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to just let them off the hook, like the book says, so I tried making the best of these sessions. We talked about the project, and I tried asking a lot of questions, mostly about why they thought of writing about a certain major or if they had any past experience with subjects pertaining to the major. I felt like having a personal discussion with the students who were genuinely forced to attend at least got them thinking about what to write about for their paper and why. While I don’t necessarily agree with making tutoring sessions mandatory, for a freshman-centric class, a professor almost needs to in order to get students on the right track. I did find myself getting somewhat frustrated by this, but as the book says “Not everyone is meant to be helped”. Another problem I’ve faced is just having a few students either complain about their classes in general or other professors. I tried my best to stay professional while also validating their frustrations, but I don’t know if I helped these students in the best way. I tried to let them know that being frustrated with a class/professor was normal and that I would feel this way too sometimes, but I encouraged them to have a discussion with the professors about specific problems that they were facing. I feel like this is one of the only things you can really do in that situation. While I haven’t faced an issue involving students with learning disabilities, I found that the advice the book gave was very helpful. As the stigma surrounding learning disabilities and mental illnesses decreases, more students are getting diagnosed and receiving the help they need. Regardless, this means that tutors/writing fellows need to be prepared to help students in ways that can meet their specific needs.

This chapter focused on interdisciplinary writing tutoring. One of the things that stuck out to me during chapter 12 was the idea of being a “colearner” with a student. On one hand, I understand that being pushed into a role of a colearner can take up time dedicated to helping the student with their writing, however, I can also see this as an advantage. If a tutor asks relevant questions, it may help the student to understand their subject matter a little better. For the most part, I agreed that tutors don’t necessarily need to have a full understanding of a subject in order to help a student with their papers. You can help a writer with the flow of the paper, grammar, organization, or any other lower concerns. I also think that it’s our job as writing tutors to be able to direct a student to other sources of help. I feel that if a paper’s problem is too intertwined with the subject matter, then a writing session may not be helpful for the student, and I’d want to be able to let a student know that they may need to speak to their professor/specific tutor about their paper. Of course, as writing tutors, we need to try our best to help students, regardless of the paper’s subject matter/discipline. This chapter did make me think of the limits of a writing fellow and the situations in which we might have to lead to student to another source of help. Regarding the online section, I feel like our generation has had more experience editing/revising papers using technology. I actually really enjoy leaving comments on a digital copy of papers, not only because it is convenient, but because I feel this also helps students not feel as overwhelmed when it comes to revising their work. Once they finish with one aspect of their paper, they can “delete” the comment I left, and move to another one. However, I found that some of the advice the book gave was helpful. It’s easy to leave a lot of comments on a digital copy, so I liked how the book pointed out that leaving three good, detailed suggestions would be enough. Overall, I enjoyed this chapter and thought that there was a lot I took from it.

I was lucky enough to get paired with a faculty member that I’ve known for a few semesters. Though it can be nerve wracking, I think the most important thing to remember about working with a faculty member is that you’re essentially a team. As fellows, we’re in a unique position to not only be a support for the students in the classroom, but we can also help support our mentors as well. There’s always going to be good days and days that are hard and frustrating, and you can help your mentor by being accommodating and offering to help in different ways, either by being more of a presence in the class itself or by offering to take on more office hours. I think the biggest piece of advise to future fellows is to remember that your faculty mentors rely on you as much as you rely on them. This isn’t a regular professor/student relationship, which is really refreshing at times, but can be intimidating at first. Just remember that you can talk to your mentor and be honest with things that are/aren’t working. It’s also important to recognize that your mentors aren’t just working in one classroom, but multiple, so whatever you can do to help make their jobs easier can mean a lot. This includes being prepared for meetings, being engaged in the classroom, and setting an example for students. Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification about why a professor is assigning something or why they teach in a certain way, because the more you know and understand about a mentor, the more you can help your students when they want to know what their professor’s expectations are. Most importantly, I think my advice for future fellows is to not underestimate how much they can do for their mentors/students.

I haven’t had many sessions with students yet, so I’ll try to discuss some things I’ve noticed during classes. While I’m in class, students discuss the readings/journals they’ve done for homework. During this time, the professor asks many questions about the reading, along with some questions that were posed by the students themselves. It seems like one of their biggest reading strategies focuses on group discussions and questions. They’re still quiet in large-scale discussions, but I’ve noticed that when the students are broken into small groups, they do discuss the readings with great detail and add on to each others’ thoughts. I’m not quite sure about their individual strategies, but it seems like most of the students understand the readings. Personally, I tend to do what I call a “cold read” of a text first, and then, after a few hours (or maybe a day), I read the text over again. The second time I read a text, I annotate parts that, at a second glance, seem important or fundamental for the rest of the text. When it comes to reading and drafting, I don’t really have an answer for them. The only student I had that spoke to me in depth about their draft simply said that they had it in their head before they put it on paper. Most of the other students said that they were confident in their drafts, or hadn’t started them yet, so I haven’t had a student bring me any drafts. Reading and drafting, for me, really depends on the assignment. Typically, I go through the text I’d be writing about and annotate it, highlighting important things, making notes about whether I agree or disagree, and writing down questions I might have about the text. When I draft, I take the notes/annotations and put them into a bulleted list based on a paragraph structure. This is pretty much how I’ve always drafted my essays, and it really works for me. I’m interested in the summary strategy, so I might try that out if I ever get a chance to work on a longer essay with a student, especially if it’s an assignment based on a reading. I think summaries help a lot of students, myself included, especially if it’s a scientific essay or a really in-depth academic essay. I think the Behrens and Rosen break summary on page 108 would be a good place to start experimenting. I also would like to try the SQ3R method, though I feel like this method might take a little longer to put into practice and to get used to. I haven’t really experienced any of the examples on page 109, but I probably have acted in those manners in the past. I remember helping a friend with an essay and she was getting so frustrated with understanding the meaning of what she was supposed to write about that I just ended up telling her what to keep and what to take out. It’s definitely hard to avoid that sometimes, but I hope that some of the strategies I’ve learned helps me avoid those situations. This isn’t to say that I haven’t been able to help someone create their own meanings from texts or that I’ve tried a little too hard to push my interpretation on someone, but in my experience as a writing fellow so far, I haven’t had any moments like that.

I’ve just started my office hours for the GUST FSY glass that I’ve been assigned to help out with. When the day came around to have my very first session, I was really excited and nervous to help. I haven’t really tutored before, so I thought, and still think, that things will take some time and practice. When my student arrived, I asked how they were and what they wanted to talk about during our session. It quickly became clear that the student only came to my office hours because of the assignment requirements, and didn’t have anything to discuss. I tried as best as I could, but the entire time it really seemed like the student wasn’t too interested in anything I had to say. I can’t blame the student for coming because of the requirement, but it was honestly pretty disheartening to show up for my first tutoring session only to be faced with a problem like that. I’m a little scared that it might happen again, and it probably will, but I’m still going to try my best to help in whatever way that I can. I just hope that as the semester goes on, more of the students will understand that I’m there as a resource for them, instead of just an extension of the professor.

Chapter 6 of the Longman Guide discussed note-taking during a tutoring session. Personally, I struggle with keeping organized notes, especially when it comes to notes about a specific piece of writing. My notes tend to jump around a lot and the focus shifts from very minor things to major questions. Seeing examples of how a tutor should take notes during a session was really helpful for me. I appreciated how, at the very beginning of the chapter, the authors emphasized the importance of listening through the entire paper before bringing up topics to discuss. As tutors, we have to relinquish control over a topic and learn from the students before we can bring any meaningful review to the table. This makes it easier, I feel, to truly listen to a student’s paper before making any judgements. As I said earlier, the note taking examples were really helpful to see. I think I was really drawn to the note style of Sheri’s (page 77). It seems like a quick, yet efficient style of note taking without going too in depth on specific topics. Using + and – symbols to represent positives and critiques for an essay is also helpful and I think I’ll try incorporating this style into my note taking sessions. I also think that it is important to write down questions, especially if a student asks to keep the notes. I never really thought about giving physical notes to students, but I can understand how helpful it can be for students to keep notes. This also brings up the importance of being professional while writing your notes, so the student isn’t offended or embarrassed by anything that is written. I think I’ll create a note template to help me take notes during sessions and to help students understand how the notes are set up, what symbols mean what, etc. Overall, this chapter was short, yet helpful!

Overall, I think that this student’s essay is a strong start, despite needing revisions. The student uses relevant information to support his claims, such as anecdotal evidence or statistics from the US Department of Labor. It also seems as though the student is confident in what he wants to say within his essay. Most of his main points are clear, especially at the end where he reiterates his sentiments of believing in a partial switch to a Soylent diet. Overall, it’s a great start. I think sentence and paragraph structure are the biggest weaknesses within the essay. The student, as stated above, knows what he wants to say, yet I think that many of his paragraphs can be combined. The bulk of the essay feels as though he is restating information and his stance. A main example of this can be seen within the fourth and fifth paragraphs. These two paragraphs highlight the consequences of saving time by using Soylent. These points are repeated to the point where the student has one big block of text that can look intimidating to others reading the essay. Editing the sentence structure and combining the ideas within these paragraphs can help to make the essay more clear and concise. There are also moments where I feel that the student is being too “wordy”. One example is the third sentence in his introduction, “For example, some famous inventions of the past, such as electricity, cell phones, and the cotton gin, are an essential part of the world today”. I think a good way to approach changing sentence structure is to ask the student what the purpose of the sentence is. When we’ve identified the main purpose of the sentence, we can think of ways to make it more concise. Instead of saying, “for example”, the student might change it to “There are many essential inventions that we use in our world today, such as x, y, and z”. This way, the student still maintains his point while not losing his voice. Before moving into smaller revisions, I think I would ask about the assignment. Is it meant to be an opinion-based piece, or should he be focusing more on information? I think if it is an opinion-based piece, then I could ask the student to expand more on his personal experiences with food. It seems that this student just needs a little more focus on concision within his essay, and I think that this can be achieved by asking questions about the purpose of sentences and what the overall point is of each paragraph.

Prompt: Compare strategies in chapters 2&3 to your own strategies. Write 400-500 words (what strategies could you add? Under which situations have they been helpful? Which specific writing challenges do they address? What sticks out in these chapters? )

There were many helpful strategies in these chapters. My own strategies for editing/writing tend to rely heavily on re-reading and having others read my works. These strategies work well for me, mostly because I find that I’m very critical when in comes to my own writing, therefore I try to self-correct whenever I can. I really only have another person read my works/essays if they have prior knowledge of the subject that I’m writing about. This has been helpful for me in more STEM-related fields than anything, but in terms of creative writing, it doesn’t help as much. Lately, I’ve been trying new methods of writing/editing because I feel like I haven’t been improving in my own writing through these methods. One of the methods they discuss a lot in the chapters is to not edit while you write. I mentioned above that I tend to self-edit, but this definitely limits not only the variety of errors that are found. By self-editing and editing while I write, I’m not exactly improving myself or my skills. This chapter was incredibly helpful for me, as I do need to find new strategies for myself and to help others. One strategy I really like is the idea of reading aloud. I understand how this might be off-putting to a lot of people, but if you let them know that you aren’t actively listening for errors, I think it’s one of the strategies. As it says in the chapter, reading aloud can help a tutor ask questions of the writer that will help improve their writing, and it can help the writer self-identify errors. Since I’m currently doing a lot of creative writing, I’ve started to read some of my sentences out loud to myself and to others. I haven’t been doing this for long, but I’ve already seen improvement in my own writing. Reading aloud can, especially in a tutoring session, help minimize the later-order concerns (like grammar, word choice, etc.) so the tutor can help focus on higher-order concerns. Another strategy that I like using, especially for essays, is outlining. A lot of people I know struggle with outlines, but I’ve always found them to be a great way to organize my thoughts and evidence that I need to use to back up my claims. It does tend to be a go-to strategy for teachers and tutors, so I would like to look more into using visual representations to help students who might struggle with getting words down on paper. I’ve never personally used a visual method, but I can see how word bubbles or charts can help students find connections between their thoughts or claims for an essay. I think the biggest thing that stuck out in this chapter was the idea of not taking control away from the writer. Sometimes, I’ve found that I can be controlling when it comes to writing, especially when it comes to essays, but I liked how the book focused on asking the writers questions about their work. Instead of “rewording” a sentence that the writer has written, asking questions can help a writer identify their main point, and can then find a way to better express it within their writing.