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.