Liam's English Blog

October 22 - 26       This week was busier than prior weeks have been by a rather large margin, which was honestly quite refreshing. My two sessions on Monday, however, were perhaps the most significant. The first of the two sessions turned out to be a dual session in which two students came in with the same assignment, and so I decided to consolidate the two of them into one session to save on time, as I knew I had a 2:00 appointment just after them. The material we covered was actually quite simple, as they just needed help with clarifying the order of their citations along with some specifics to MLA citations. One example was a question on how to cite a chapter in a book or even a photograph. What I found enjoyable about this session was how it progressed. Both students were incredibly talkative and cooperative with me, and I found the whole experience quite enjoyable as I would help one of them with a citation and as they were working on that or looking something u...

October 19        This week was a different story from the usual, as it was just a half week due to Fall break. The fact that this half week also comes just after most midterms have completed leaves little in the way of reason for students to seek a consultant's assistance. As such, I did not receive any appointments on the one day, Friday, that I worked - and thus have little to mention in regards of what I learned or experienced this week.        All that said, however, I did notice three students who were here for observations of a writing consultant - fulfilling a requirement for an English class I believe. Their presence got me thinking about the mentees that I have still yet to see for a big research project in ENGL 339WI - a prerequisite for becoming a writing consultant. I recall having some excitement to fulfill this role, but it may seem that whatever mentees I was supposed to be advising had quite the opposite opinion, or at the ve...

October 8-12        Slow week in the writing center this week, however I did have a tutee on Friday that brought up an incredibly pertinent question that I had not considered to be a problem here at CNU. The student was a Freshman enrolled in English 123, the basic starting class, but was having trouble with her professor. She couldn't seem to write a thesis that her professor was willing to deem "acceptable." The real issue arises when I looked at her past theses and heard her explain her class situation to me: I agreed with her and honestly had trouble understanding why her professor was teaching the way they were.         This brings to light my weekly question: what to do when our understanding of how to help someone be a better writer directly conflicts with what a professor is telling them to do? This came primarily in the form of how the student's professor was telling her to write a thesis. It was too rigid and uncompromising, forcing...

October 1-5       This week in the writing center was relatively slow. I only saw one student in six hours of working. As a direct result, I had quite a bit of time to think about our prior meeting last Sunday and the concerns that it raised. However, before discussing any of these, I want to discuss the short meeting (for it only lasted about 20 of the allotted 45 minutes) that I had with a student on Monday. It was near the end of my shift, and the student came in with a graded paper full of professor comments, as well as a revised paper for our (the student and I) review.        I immediately noticed the professor as one I had taken in the past, and when the student began detailing the professor's hard stance on things like "be verbs" and "passive voice" and "cliches," I understood completely. Having some experience with these kind of nitpicking habits, I gave what I considered to be good advice when revising several areas of her paper - sugges...