Avoid being a "horrible red-pened douchebag" - MK

This week was a fairly productive one, my first shot at just a "practice" email consultation left me feeling pretty confident that I could continue doing any that I could get my hands on. It reminds me of the peer editing that we had in Kopplemann's class through both semesters I had wit him and I liked having the chance to really sit and reflect for a bit on a writer's work and concerns. Its a lot different then a face-to-face consultation but I like the differences, but still enjoy my one-on-one time. I found Joy's "mash-up" of our responses very useful, and she actually used more than entire paragraph from mine (am I allowed to disclose this information?!). This made me happy. :D I worried that going over the page limit and cramming as much information as I could for this one response would have negatively effect her decision to continue giving me these kinds of tasks later on in this semester or next, since it seems we don't get many email consults and the veterans already have a pretty strong grasp on them.

The readings were really great this week, Kudos Melissa for picking them! I really enjoyed the piece about Fannie the BW. It was long but it had all the right information in it to really feel like you experienced the consultations and frustrations of both the student and consultant. I didn't really like Morgan until the end, and when I read the same paragraph that you did in class (I have it underlined in my book) I realized that she was just doing the very best she could with very little training, support and determination and passion for her student. The learning disability presented in the other reading just blew my mind, again it makes me thankful that my brain works in a generally "normal" way. I do have a few difficulties absorbing and retrieving information if their not put into a fairly visual aspect, but nothing as severe as Barb's situation or Mike Tam's.

I also want to mention again that I've had NOTHING but good experiences with non-trad students, I don't ever feel like they're being condescending or judgmental towards little sophomore me with my piercings but still bubbly smile. I'm also glad that no one else in the Center seems to judge me for these small, aesthetic aspects of my entire person. It means a lot to me, its not that I'm insecure with the way I've made myself look, I'm just sick of being on the defensive for it. Generally I run into curiosity (especially now that I have my septum pierced) than harsh judgement, but I still hate having to give strangers an explanation. I don't really like strangers, ever, really. Except for the ones I get to work with and get to know, so they aren't "strangers" any longer.

My consultations this week went fairly and normally well. I had a lot of the communication 101 research papers and had different approaches to each one which made each session individualistic and interesting. Out of the four sessions I had this week that involved these papers there were two with positive experiences and one with a negative experience and another with a little bit of both. They were all at very different stages of the very recursive (see I remembered!) writing process. My negative experience had a hard time understanding why I wanted him to put in at least ONE TEENY TINY positive experience to try and balance his paper and make it seem a little bit more objective and not so slander-esque in nature. My positive experiences had nothing but good things to say about their groups, and one girl just needed me to have her formulate an actual "thesis". She had all her experiences and some research but no real direction. I got to do the whole, "tell me about it, write it down and contemplate it in the context of the entire essay" routine. It was fun and I think she really learned a good thing about writing one. Because her main concern was that her writing never seemed "focused" enough. And I got to show her how to get it to do that! :D

My last session this week was an international student who didn't opt to take the 121, 122, 123 classes to better help him with composition and writing. I asked him if he had taken these, he said "No." And he didn't seem very interested in my suggestions to do so. He can speak fairly well, and writes much better than he speaks, but as a Chinese exchange student he has some HOC concerns with structure, and formatting, as well as the typical issues with verb tenses and articles. I tried to touch on some stuff so he could go away with something other than me having him rewrite his thesis and APA citations, but he didn't seem very interested. I hate when they act like that. I just kept on going to what he wanted, but felt that he would benefit from a longer session or taking another composition class, but alas, as we discussed in class its not my PLACE let alone part of my job to have them realize what would ultimately be best for them.

ARGH! Haha, sometimes I wish I could just make them do as I say, but then I'd be a dictator, and no one likes a dictator. I have some notes on reader/writer assumption relationship, and also on our responses in sessions as well as email consults, and ho to make GENUINE responses that don't seem canned and unfriendly. I also liked April's idea of a compliment sandwich. which i use in person ALL the time when I want to criticize someone, but don't really want to make it totally obvious thats what I'm doing. I have a lot of notes, and I've already written a lot, and I don't want to take up too much of your time so I'll wrap it up. Aside from the entry I wrote last night, I just wanted to say that this is turning out to be a very worthwhile decision I made to give myself this opportunity. My semester would SUCK without the Center and all of the people in it.

:D

Again, Happy Halloween, have fun as Squirrelll! I'll be rocking the corpse bride look tomorrow.