For this post I want to share a challenging appointment with all of you on the blog. I had a girl come in for a half hour session last week. She was working on a paper for a humanities class, analyzing a painting and the artist. It was research-y but she had some of her own opinion in there as well. Before even saying hi to me she sat and started telling me all the things I needed to do for her/ to her paper. She proceeded to practically thrust a red pen into my and and scooted her paper in front of me; it was completely up side down to her. Well, I'm exaggerating a little but she did put a red pen in front of me. A red pen. And by pushing her paper away from herself, it seemed like she was just going to wait patiently while I edited and not engage with me in the slightest. I moved the her paper back towards the middle of us and told her she could mark up her paper while I read it allowed and we talked about it. I was glad that she communicated all of her concerns but I didn't like how she was trying to force me into using a directive approach. In my sessions, I like to focus on being a mere facilitator to help the tutee improve their writing themselves. I find that approach to be the most effective. She wasn't rude about it or anything like that; I think she just didn't understand and I think she had never been to the writing center and thus, shared that misconception that many people may have of us: that writing center tutors are editors for the the student body.
I felt like a managed to salvage the session when I gave her some ideas to lengthen the piece and improve her conclusion (both of which were some of her main concerns). Once she realized that I wanted to talk about everything she did engage with me, which allowed me to conduct the session in a non directive manner.
I'm wondering if anybody else has encountered a "red pen" case? And if so how did you handle yourself?
I have not encountered a technical "red-pen" case, but something close to it. A girl came in and had the same attitude of her paper like your tutee. So she showed me her paper and I asked her what her thesis was and she said she didn't really have one and asked me to write one for her! I was completely shocked that she wanted me to write her thesis for her, but I handled it by asking her a bunch of questions about her paper, to the point where she finally explained what it was about. At that point I told her that was her thesis and she seemed shocked afterwards, but once she wrote it down we both went over it, until she liked it. But I completely can relate, because at first I was looking around to see if there was anyone to save me, and then I realized I had to figure out a nice way to tell this girl that I am here to be a practiced audience, not to write her paper.
ReplyDeleteThe good thing is I have bad handwriting, so when I had a student push her paper towards me, I showed her pretty quickly that my notes weren't going to be as useful as her own. In terms of stubborn students, I had a few students come in expecting nothing more than a proofreader, but once I started reading the paper out loud and asking them questions about the paper, they realized that I was more concerned with their argument rather than their grammar and backed off a little.
ReplyDeleteI think the best way to deal with a stubborn student is just to stand your ground, but without being too direct about it. You have your own tutoring style, and once they realize that, then it's easier to create a discussion about their writing.
I haven't encountered an issue like this one but I think you handled it really well. Personally, I know I have an issue with showing what I'm really thinking on my face (let's just call it what it is: I have a tendency to make a stank face). Overall, I think I've done a good job with this but I think you handled the situation better than I ever would have.
ReplyDeleteI haven't come across a red-pen case, but I have had similar experiences with people who came off rude, I think, simply because they were ignorant to the whole idea of what the writing center is and how it works. We take offense because we're invested in the center and it's not cool when someone wants you to do their work for them, but I just try and remember how little I knew about the center previous to taking this class. What I sometimes judged as pushy or bossy in a tutee, I usually try to re-interpret as a combination of this ignorance and concern: concern for their work, concern about putting their trust in us, concern over their deadlines, etc. Once I remember that, I just keep changing my strategy until the person feels comfortable enough to engage.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had a specific red-pen case either but there has been one freshman paper I really struggled getting through because of all the spelling errors/typos/incorrect grammar and wrong citations, etc. It really was a mess! Of course I did not tell her this and just smiled and asked what her concerns were and where we should focus. It was a bit difficult in the same way yours was sort of because she seemed content with handing me the pen and waiting for me to fix it (hope I don't sound too mean!). It took a couple times of questioning her and giving her a few examples like "do you want to look at grammar? construction? citations?" before she settled on citations and research which I was happy to help with. Although it was a 30 min appointment and she still seemed a bit unsatisfied when she left, I offered to help her make another appointment but the paper was due that week and none of the times worked with her schedule. I suggested she try walking in but she just waved me off so I figured I'd just have to let her go. Moral of story for her: do not wait so long to do the papers! I am glad I could help her out with the citations and show her Purdue OWL at the very least.
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