March 11-15

        The first week back from Spring Break, I wasn't expecting any more appointments than usual, but to my pleasant surprise, two students came in for a walk-in session in the middle of the week. I'll focus my discussion on these two, emphasizing in no small way my relief and pleasure at being able to help student's better their writing ability. It does feel like it has been quite some time since I last evaluated any sessions of mine, but such is the Spring semester.
        The first session was simple: a student brought me their cover letter and wanted me to read and give my thoughts on how it sounded - were they answering the questions they were trying to, did it sound "good," and what advice could I offer. The session went fairly quickly, as I was happy to say then, and still am now, that their letter was structured well, adhered to proper grammar practices, and had no misspellings. The only suggestion I made to them was that they should provide a few examples of past work they have done, such as case studies or experiments that they said in the letter that they had conducted. However, aside from that, I was happy to tell them that they were all set.
        My next session, also a walk-in, had more than a simple two page cover letter; it was five pages of business etiquette, very simple grammar issues (but enough of them to the point that it was hampering legibility), and all in a subject that I am only adjacent to in my studies via my communications minor. That said, the student was incredibly receptive to any suggestions I made, and engaged directly with their paper when I would underline an area in the sentence to review. Despite the new length of our appointment, nearly 40 of the 45 minutes being spent on the paper itself, we only managed to cover up to the end of the first paragraph of the second page by the time my shift had ended. I had thought to focus on areas that the paper needed greater assistance in when I saw we were at 15 minutes remaining, but as I read on, I realized that to skip over anything would be a disservice. But the student assured me that they were going to edit their paper in the library, fix what we had covered, and then come right back to the writing center and continue with another writing consultant. These words put a smile on my face, and I was reminded, yet again, about how much I love working here as a writing consultant. 

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