My Students (Part 1)

Trying to profile the students I work with is going to be tough since MSU's writing center draws such a diverse clientele. But I'll do my best.

1. ESL (L2) Writers:
Generally speaking:
Non-native speakers probably make up the biggest chunk of the student- writers I work with in a given day. These are writers who are often looking for help with the fluency of their ideas and the "correctness" of their writing. Working with ESL writers presents a different set of challenges to me, the consultant. I have to often resist the urge to impart my own vocabulary or my own syntax into a work. It's often the knee-jerk reaction to correct anything that doesn't "sound" right. But I've found it very helpful to keep in mind the purpose of writing: to communicate ideas.

Technologically speaking:
One thing that I've noticed about working with ESL students is their use of technology in the writing process. With highly synchronized right-hand clicks and hot keys, these writers coordinate the use of dictionaries, thesauruses and encyclopedias while writing. This complex process forces the writer to constantly switch between their L1 and their L2, making for a pretty impressive process, especially when, most of the time, this process is successful in creating lucid prose. Knowing how ESL students use these tools has helped me diagnostically, especially in terms of finding the source of awkward wording and the like. It's also helped me develop a key strategy in dealing with murky writing: I often ask writers to, without looking at their paper, say what they're saying in their paper as though they're telling their best friend. Sometimes without the highly choreographed process of check-rechecking-implementing, ESL writers create more genuine writing (just a theory).

I also get the sense that ESL writers are very adept at peer reviewing and coordinating this exercise digitally. Many of the writers I work with have mentors or more experienced friends with whom they share their work.

2. First Year Writing Students
Generally speaking:
I also spend a lot of time working with First Year Writing students who are trying to adapt to a different learning environment. This experience definitely presents unique learning situations. Often times I work with writers who simply aren't sure if what they're doing is correct, if it meets the assignment's requirements, etc. Here, I often feel as much like a counselor as I do a teacher of writing. Of course, depending on their previous experiences writing (from high school or elsewhere), these students have different comfort levels, which means that I have to approach each session as a fresh slate and allow the writer to show me the way.

Technologically speaking:
Many instructors make it a point to build multimodality into their assignments, so I've had the luxury to work with FYW students on a number of different types of writing. Most notably, many students are asked to remix their previous writing assignment by presenting in a new form. Often times this means creating a video. For this reason, I've given workshops on iMovie/Windows Movie Maker. This experience has afforded me the opportunity to talk about writing across mediums and across genres. I've also worked with FYW students who are developing infographics and powerpoint presentations. In all cases, it's the Writing Center's philosophy to keep rhetoric at the heart of what we do, leading to questions like: well, who's your audience? what is your desired effect?

3. Everyone Else
Generally Speaking:
The rest of the writers I work with make up a pretty diverse group: MA students, Ph.D. students working on various stages of their dissertation, science students, humanities students, social scientists, and on and on.

Technologically Speaking:
Almost all of the students I work with come to the session with their laptop and/or a smartphone of some form. Some prefer to work with a digital version of their paper, while others prefer to look at a "hard copy." I'd say it's about a 50/50 split with younger students favoring hard copies (this is totally unscientific).

I will say this: many of the students I work with have a slight distrust for the internet when it comes to resolving some issues. For instance: they'll ask me questions which I genuinely don't know and they'll be shocked when I suggest that we "Google" it.

I think this points to a couple of things: 1. Students are very weary about the credibility of web sources 2. Students need an index of web resources they can trust.

One of the most valuable classes I took as an undergraduate was a Freshman Seminar that I took as a senior -- don't judge, I needed a one credit class and didn't feel like lifting weights at 8:00 am on Friday mornings -- and it was called Information Power Unleashed, which was taught by a reference librarian. We learned how to leverage tools like Google and Wikipedia for academic ends. This experience has been invaluable as a WC consultant because a large part of my job is helping writers find the information they need. I can't help but think this will be a major part of my career as a teacher, too.

In the same vein: because I work with writers from such diverse disciplines, I often read papers that are steeped in disciplinary language and stylistics. I often use the internet to search terms or to look at sample papers in that field, which I find helps me in helping the writer.

In sum

Everyday is a unique day at the writing center because of how varied our clientele tends to be. This requires me to be versatile and to let the writer lead the session by telling me what they need.