In the very first consultation I observed, Tiffany greeted the student by shaking his hand, and asking how to pronounce his very foreign name, which made all of us laugh. I thought that was a good way to establish a friendly connection from the beginning, and now that I’ve done my own consultations, I’ve already learned how much I value smiles and laughs during a consultation, especially at the beginning and end. Both Tiffany’s and the student’s body language were excellent the entire time; she leaned in towards the paper, on the front of her seat, never sitting back in an unengaged way.
At one point during the session, the student asked Tiffany how old she was. She was caught off guard, as was I, and he cut the silence by saying, “sorry… I just… I feel that with age, brings wisdom, so are you over 30?” to which Tiffany seemed a little more relaxed, and replied that she was 25. She brought attention back to the paper in a more blunt way: she simply said “okay, now coming back to the paper…” I guess I would’ve handled the situation in a similar way, but it was definitely something I didn’t expect, and I’m glad I didn’t have to contribute to that part of the consultation! And she somehow managed to give him enough examples about how to correct tense, grammar, and punctuation that he left about five minutes early, clearly eager to get back to writing. I thought it was a very successful consultation, despite the awkward age question.
Now, moving on from the prompts Melissa gave us: I had two consultations on Thursday, and I’m on the schedule for half an hour next week. I feel like this is such an important time in my “consulting life”- the beginning! I can never again have a first consultation. I wrote about my first one on Peer Centered, but there are a few things I observed that I want to include in my journal. First of all, I realized how much I value making a personal connection. I love sharing a laugh and a smile at the beginning- after all, laughing is good medicine for a potentially stressful environment. It makes everyone more comfortable. I also noticed, after thinking a lot about my consultations, that at the end of both of them I thanked them for coming in. I didn’t even realize I was doing this. It just came naturally to me. I am an inherently happy and optimistic person, and I can already see that coming through in my consulting. It seemed second nature to use what my English 102 professor called “compliment sandwiches”. While reading a paper, I said, “I really like this sentence”, or “this is a good way to do this”, and then sandwiched it with a suggestion for improvement. The last thing I ever want is to discourage someone from writing. I also said “this assignment has a lot of potential”, “this sounds like it’ll be fun”, and “this is I interesting” during my brainstorming consultation. I could tell the student wasn’t initially very excited to do the assignment, but after the session, she was!
(As a side note, I really liked seeing Melissa and Joy conducting consultations. I love that they did that. It gave me a good feeling. We’re all working together towards a common goal. And I am really impressed how well we all handled it when two of our veterans got sick!)
This consulting thing is amazing. I was so happy and felt so accomplished after I finally got to do it. I am totally hooked. It seems so perfect. I am a quiet person in groups, but one on one, magic happens. I love the dynamic that goes on between two people, and I feel like I can really get in there and help out in situations like our center provides. I’ve said it before, but I feel like I’ve found my home, or my “center”, on campus, and it means so much to me! I’m so glad I got this opportunity!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Ready to run
I am ready. I might not be great at it yet, but I think I am ready to have my own consultations. I have sat in on several, “creeped” in on several more, written pages and pages of notes, and spent hours analyzing and daydreaming about consultations. I have started pretending like I was the consultant during my sit ins, having conversations with the student in my head. I listen intently to what the student has to say, and then I contemplate what I would say in response. Sometimes that is different than what I observe the consultant doing, but effective nonetheless. Sometimes it is similar, which boosts my confidence.
Our reading for this week has corresponded more directly than any other previous week. As I listened to and sat in on consultations, the ideas and words of “Helping Writers throughout the Writing Process” from The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors and “Provocative Revision” by Toby Fulwiler were ringing through my head. I witnessed global and sentence level revision, addition, brainstorming, grammar lessons, and various writing processes. It almost seemed like the consultants I heard had memorized these pieces. But I doubt that. I think they probably got some ideas from these pieces, but honestly it seemed like what they were doing came naturally to them. They have done these consultations for hours and hours, and have learned to adapt to each student and consultation, so they can easily do whatever it is that the student needs. This is fascinating to me, and I already see myself working towards that. The wheels are spinning, and I am developing myself as a consultant. And the Writing Center “bug” is alive and well inside of me. It’s an exciting time, and next week when I go into the Center, I’m going to be hoping for a walk-in!
Last night in class, we talked about the readings, but in smaller groups instead of as an entire class. I thought that was really effective. I am a quiet person, (always have been), and it was much easier to share my ideas and make sure everyone else was heard when in smaller groups. I found myself taking on the role of comforter. Some of the people in my group were scared of certain things to come, like their first consultation and the consultation philosophy, and I surprised myself with the things that came out of my mouth. I mentioned that a few weeks ago, the things we are doing now seemed scary, and now they are not. I believe that will be the same case with all of the other things we are scared or worried about. I am much more ready than I thought I was. And I’m glad I was able to help ease the fears of my fellow consultants.
Another thing that struck me about class last night was something Melissa said at the end, about not letting ourselves become stale in our work at the Center. I liked the word she chose, because it gave me such a clear understanding of what she was trying to say. I also love the concept. In order to work in the Center, we have to be lifelong learners, constantly challenging what we think we know. That’s harder than other approaches, but by far the most interesting and rewarding, and I’m glad I’ve found an opportunity to do that.
This was by far the best week yet! And I have a feeling it will only get better once I get to do consultations. I figured I’d be ready before week seven, but this is week four and I’m already excited to dive in!
Our reading for this week has corresponded more directly than any other previous week. As I listened to and sat in on consultations, the ideas and words of “Helping Writers throughout the Writing Process” from The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors and “Provocative Revision” by Toby Fulwiler were ringing through my head. I witnessed global and sentence level revision, addition, brainstorming, grammar lessons, and various writing processes. It almost seemed like the consultants I heard had memorized these pieces. But I doubt that. I think they probably got some ideas from these pieces, but honestly it seemed like what they were doing came naturally to them. They have done these consultations for hours and hours, and have learned to adapt to each student and consultation, so they can easily do whatever it is that the student needs. This is fascinating to me, and I already see myself working towards that. The wheels are spinning, and I am developing myself as a consultant. And the Writing Center “bug” is alive and well inside of me. It’s an exciting time, and next week when I go into the Center, I’m going to be hoping for a walk-in!
Last night in class, we talked about the readings, but in smaller groups instead of as an entire class. I thought that was really effective. I am a quiet person, (always have been), and it was much easier to share my ideas and make sure everyone else was heard when in smaller groups. I found myself taking on the role of comforter. Some of the people in my group were scared of certain things to come, like their first consultation and the consultation philosophy, and I surprised myself with the things that came out of my mouth. I mentioned that a few weeks ago, the things we are doing now seemed scary, and now they are not. I believe that will be the same case with all of the other things we are scared or worried about. I am much more ready than I thought I was. And I’m glad I was able to help ease the fears of my fellow consultants.
Another thing that struck me about class last night was something Melissa said at the end, about not letting ourselves become stale in our work at the Center. I liked the word she chose, because it gave me such a clear understanding of what she was trying to say. I also love the concept. In order to work in the Center, we have to be lifelong learners, constantly challenging what we think we know. That’s harder than other approaches, but by far the most interesting and rewarding, and I’m glad I’ve found an opportunity to do that.
This was by far the best week yet! And I have a feeling it will only get better once I get to do consultations. I figured I’d be ready before week seven, but this is week four and I’m already excited to dive in!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Creeping and Sitting-In
I went through the process to become a consultant because I thought it sounded like something I could be good at and really enjoy doing. I had no idea there were so many factors that went into it- the theory AND practice of it. There is this entire community of writing center people that I am now a part of. It’s almost like a disease- once you catch the writing center bug, it’s extremely hard to get rid of, but it seems like most people don’t want to get rid of it anyway. After witnessing my first consultation, I think I’m starting to feel “sick”. I fell susceptible to the magic that goes on in a consultation, and now I am hooked, and excited to see more consultations. Even better, soon I will have my own!
The first consultation I witnessed was an hour long with Tiffany and an enthusiastic ESL student who had been into our center “millions of times”. I was excited to sit in on this particular consultation because working with ESL students is something I am particularly interested in. I sat quietly taking notes for the first half hour, observing body language, tone of voice, and various techniques Tiffany used. Then there was a part of the consultation when Tiffany was searching for another word that the student could use in place of “too”. I said, “Excessively?” Tiffany and the student agreed that that would work, and the student thanked me. I tried to contain my excitement. It’s funny that something so simple can not only help the student, but make me feel so important. I will probably always remember that moment, because it was the moment I really knew I was sold on this idea of helping people with their writing, and I had this overwhelming feeling that “I can do this!”
After the session, Tiffany and I talked about it for a few minutes. She pointed out a few things, one of them being the issue of writing the paper for the student. She said sometimes she just has to lay her pencil down, (a great technique), to prevent adding too much of her own opinion and words to the student’s work. She also mentioned that sometimes she will verbalize another way of writing a certain phrase or sentence, and the student will ask, “can you say that again?” and write it down. But Tiffany is very careful not to say anything that the student didn’t already create in his or her head- she repeats what the student says, and the student sometimes doesn’t even realize that the idea came from This made me think about the collaboration issues that we talk about so much in class. Professors and others in positions of authority have to place an enormous amount of trust in us, as consultants, to not overstep any boundaries when it comes to collaborating on a paper. It’s as simple as that, really. We are doing something very valuable in the Center- can you imagine trying to track the positive influence our center has had on every student and beyond over the past few decades? So we have to keep going, keep consulting, and continue with our “weak” collaboration. We are all so connected as a human race, constantly influencing each other in direct and indirect ways, so I agree that it’s practically impossible to write with absolutely no collaboration. If only everyone would open their minds to that concept, understanding that there are different types, and trusting us at the Center to not overstep the boundary.
One last thing: the consultant philosophy. This used to scare me a little. I used to think it would be difficult to come up with an elaborate, polished philosophy of what I was doing at the Center. After talking with Tiffany and several other consultants, I realized that, although they share a common goal, each of them has his or her own way of doing things, and it surprised me just how different their approaches can be. But it all works. So I’m not scared of this “consultant philosophy” concept anymore. Bring it on! I can’t wait to get started.
The first consultation I witnessed was an hour long with Tiffany and an enthusiastic ESL student who had been into our center “millions of times”. I was excited to sit in on this particular consultation because working with ESL students is something I am particularly interested in. I sat quietly taking notes for the first half hour, observing body language, tone of voice, and various techniques Tiffany used. Then there was a part of the consultation when Tiffany was searching for another word that the student could use in place of “too”. I said, “Excessively?” Tiffany and the student agreed that that would work, and the student thanked me. I tried to contain my excitement. It’s funny that something so simple can not only help the student, but make me feel so important. I will probably always remember that moment, because it was the moment I really knew I was sold on this idea of helping people with their writing, and I had this overwhelming feeling that “I can do this!”
After the session, Tiffany and I talked about it for a few minutes. She pointed out a few things, one of them being the issue of writing the paper for the student. She said sometimes she just has to lay her pencil down, (a great technique), to prevent adding too much of her own opinion and words to the student’s work. She also mentioned that sometimes she will verbalize another way of writing a certain phrase or sentence, and the student will ask, “can you say that again?” and write it down. But Tiffany is very careful not to say anything that the student didn’t already create in his or her head- she repeats what the student says, and the student sometimes doesn’t even realize that the idea came from This made me think about the collaboration issues that we talk about so much in class. Professors and others in positions of authority have to place an enormous amount of trust in us, as consultants, to not overstep any boundaries when it comes to collaborating on a paper. It’s as simple as that, really. We are doing something very valuable in the Center- can you imagine trying to track the positive influence our center has had on every student and beyond over the past few decades? So we have to keep going, keep consulting, and continue with our “weak” collaboration. We are all so connected as a human race, constantly influencing each other in direct and indirect ways, so I agree that it’s practically impossible to write with absolutely no collaboration. If only everyone would open their minds to that concept, understanding that there are different types, and trusting us at the Center to not overstep the boundary.
One last thing: the consultant philosophy. This used to scare me a little. I used to think it would be difficult to come up with an elaborate, polished philosophy of what I was doing at the Center. After talking with Tiffany and several other consultants, I realized that, although they share a common goal, each of them has his or her own way of doing things, and it surprised me just how different their approaches can be. But it all works. So I’m not scared of this “consultant philosophy” concept anymore. Bring it on! I can’t wait to get started.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
My first days in the Center
As my first hour interning in the Center approached, I was not nervous at all. I have contemplated and planned on being a part of the Center for about two years now, so it seems natural to finally become a part of it. I remember my first visit to the Center: I was required to go in to talk about an Environmental Health paper about controversial DDT usage. I had no idea what this so-called Writing Center was, only that I needed to emerge with proof of my visit after my consultation, in order to get full credit for my paper. Instead, I came away with much more than proof. I loved the idea of the Center, and the feeling of community inside. The employees there were friendly with me, and friendly with each other. Little did I know that I actually had a chance to become a permanent part of that community.
Now, two years later, I am a consultant at the Writing Center! No, I haven’t had consultations yet, (although I can’t wait to get started with them), but I have a name badge, and I’m starting to feel like I have finally found my home on campus. My first hour in the Center was on Tuesday, (September 1st). I walked in to see smiling and somewhat familiar faces, and got another short tour of the Center. I even had my own mailbox—now I am legit!
I am humored by my initial idea of what a writing center is as compared to what I now believe it to be. I have come a long way, (and keep in mind that I still have a long way to go, so bare with me as I try to define a center). Last week, we started diving into readings about what a center is. It is not necessarily a resource for those who take a very passive approach to their writing, (although I certainly hope I have a chance to inspire those “types” to be more engaged in their work). More specifically, a writing center is a place for any writer, of any skill level, to talk to people who know writing, who care about writing, and who know how to talk about writing, at any stage. I love the principle that a writing center is a place for anyone who writes. It’s very welcoming and the possibilities are endless, both for the writers themselves and the consultants that work with them.
As I sat at the desk, sorting through old files, erasing old names, and throwing out old information sheets, I overheard a little bit of a consultation. I only heard bits and pieces of it, but that was enough to excite me. The man who came in said he wanted “another set of eyes” to go over his short, one-page paper. You could tell he was eager to work on his writing, and he was very grateful, before and after the consultation. It’s people like that who I most look forward to working with. However, there is something appealing to me about the “crash and burn” consultations, the ones that are resistant or uninterested, because those ones have so much potential to change someone’s perspective, or better yet, inspire them to write as I have been inspired. I want to share my love for the written word, and help everyone see that they all have important things to say, and there are people who will listen!
Now, two years later, I am a consultant at the Writing Center! No, I haven’t had consultations yet, (although I can’t wait to get started with them), but I have a name badge, and I’m starting to feel like I have finally found my home on campus. My first hour in the Center was on Tuesday, (September 1st). I walked in to see smiling and somewhat familiar faces, and got another short tour of the Center. I even had my own mailbox—now I am legit!
I am humored by my initial idea of what a writing center is as compared to what I now believe it to be. I have come a long way, (and keep in mind that I still have a long way to go, so bare with me as I try to define a center). Last week, we started diving into readings about what a center is. It is not necessarily a resource for those who take a very passive approach to their writing, (although I certainly hope I have a chance to inspire those “types” to be more engaged in their work). More specifically, a writing center is a place for any writer, of any skill level, to talk to people who know writing, who care about writing, and who know how to talk about writing, at any stage. I love the principle that a writing center is a place for anyone who writes. It’s very welcoming and the possibilities are endless, both for the writers themselves and the consultants that work with them.
As I sat at the desk, sorting through old files, erasing old names, and throwing out old information sheets, I overheard a little bit of a consultation. I only heard bits and pieces of it, but that was enough to excite me. The man who came in said he wanted “another set of eyes” to go over his short, one-page paper. You could tell he was eager to work on his writing, and he was very grateful, before and after the consultation. It’s people like that who I most look forward to working with. However, there is something appealing to me about the “crash and burn” consultations, the ones that are resistant or uninterested, because those ones have so much potential to change someone’s perspective, or better yet, inspire them to write as I have been inspired. I want to share my love for the written word, and help everyone see that they all have important things to say, and there are people who will listen!
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