So, this week, we’ll be taking a look at concerns, issues, and strategies that apply to working with students on their writing for different disciplines. As some of you have mentioned in your individual consultation reflections, it can be challenging to work with someone when you have no idea what’s expected for their class or field of study. That said — as our class discussions and the readings have addressed — the tutor is still an extremely valuable resource in these situations (really!). These articles help explain how you can approach these situations in ways that help both you and the student in the tutorial. For those of you who are considering how writing centers might enter more areas outside of academia in a more grounded fashion (business, economics, etc.), these might be especially relevant and helpful.
Additionally, I really encourage you to spend a good amount of time discussing and workshopping your Annotated Bibliography and Literature Review Projects. As a friendly reminder, you need to complete this project in order to pass the course. Now is the time to take advantage of the resources available to you (everything we’ve discussed in class and everything we’ve read) and work with one another to make it happen. This is especially the case, since it’s due at the beginning of next week. 😉
Here are the tasks for this first week group discussion (follow the links for a more detailed explanation):
1. Talk about the material (readings)
As I mentioned above, we’re turning our focus back to more practical approaches and strategies for writing center work, namely with regard to how to work with writing from disciplines with which you might not be familiar. I cannot tell you how many times tutors/consultants have expressed their concern with this aspect of writing center work. And, it’s understandable. I’ve totally been there and shared the same concerns. With that in mind, this week is geared to help address those questions and concepts in a direct way.
- In Johnson, Clark, & Burton’s ,“Finding Harmony in Disharmony: Engineering and English Students”, the authors offer an interesting perspective about the relationship between engineering students and writing centers. The present a research study comparing tutorials between engineering students and english students that I think will be illuminating in terms of you think about the work done in writing centers.
- In the chapter, “Helping Writers Across the Curriculum”, Ryan and Zimmerelli offer some really helpful and practical advice for how to help students from other disciplines, covering a wide variety of genres, ranging from lab reports and power points to resumes and application statements. This will probably be an extremely helpful source for you as writers, as well.
- In these 2 short chapters for “Tutoring in Unfamiliar Subjects”, the authors offer specific anecdotes to explain approaches to helping students with a piece of writing with which you are completely unfamiliar. While brief, these should give you a good sense of something like this might progress in a writing center (hint: it’s all about talking about it).
Possible Topics for Reading Discussion
- Have you had the same questions about how a writing center can be helpful for courses outside of the humanities? Do you think these articles help to address/answer those questions? Why/why not?
- What are your main takeaways from the readings? What do you see as a central underlying suggestion for when it comes to working with writing in other disciplines?
- How do you think these kinds of tutorials might differ from tutorials in which it is a piece of writing with which you are more familiar? That is, what similarities and differences exist?
- Have you had any experiences in your individual consultations (or elsewhere) that align with the concepts discussed in these readings? How so? Do these articles help you to understand that experience more?
- Do you think these readings are over-simplifying any aspect of the writing/tutoring process? If so, what and how?
2. Discuss/Workshop the Annotated Bibliography and Literature Review
I also want to make some space for you group to discuss the Annotated Bibliography and Literature Review this week. The deadline for this project is the beginning of next week (Week 8).
At this point, I recommend that you actually take a look at what one another have written so far, offer feedback, discuss, and help one another as much as possible. Really try to make the most of the opportunity for in-person interaction, for getting others’ advice, and to make this all as manageable as possible for you.
At this point, you all have been reading about, talking about, and actually helping others with their writing… so this is your chance to shine. 😉