And The Show Goes On

I am wondering if anyone will continue to use their blog even after this class is over. I think it will be a cool way to interact if we still continue to use our blogs. Interesting questions that arise throughout our writing consultant careers can still be posted; and I think that as we mature as writers and gain experience over time, it will be cool to sort of reflect on our own posts and see the progression of our peers. I am hoping to make a few posts every now and then and I hope everyone else does the same. Many great ideas and questions have appeared on these blogs so I hope no one deletes theirs. In fact, for all we know, other students who may be researching ideas for their Writing Consultant courses may stumble upon one of our blogs and use it as a resource.

Last Class

Wow so even though we already had our last class, this will be the final meeting of the coolest class I've had: T-Dols 383 Eng Comp. Throughout the semester we have shared more than just ideas about the writing process. We have made friends and grown to learn more about each other. While I am excited to eat and discuss today, it's a bitter sweet ending. So I am wishing everyone good luck in their writing futures and in their consulting.

Peace.Love.and Writing

Everybody’s Doing It: Athletes

This whole athletes and writing has really sparked my interest. For starters I do understand that some athletes would not be able to get into certain school if it were not for playing a sport, on the other hand there are plenty of athletes who can get in on their own merit, and still others who are walk-ons who got in on their own merit and through their athletic ability, made the varsity team. I myself am an athlete and while I don’t really take too much offense to the whole “dumb-jock” comment that I have heard before it does make me stop and think. When people make those comments I doubt it’s because they have seen the athlete’s writing. Some people are just not good writers or they do not enjoy it so they do not over exert themselves. I agree with Allie on the idea that high school did not prepare them well enough in regards to writing.

The flip side of my argument is that I shadow in study hall with athletes and I have seen an array of writing. Some of it makes me scratch my head and wonder how some kids even passed English, let alone write an essay well enough to be admitted into Richmond (because athletes still have to apply to the school as well, they just don’t get in). Flip the script and I have seen some amazing writers in study hall as well, and even met a few who plan on pursuing a major in English (like me). The field hockey team (chyea!) alone will be the proud boaster of three writing consultants come next semester (when I become official) and I know of other athletes as well who work in the writing center.

I think some athletes don’t receive the credit they deserve. And while I am not saying they should receive special treatment in any way, I do believe sometimes they get ragged on for no reason. Honestly, we are just trying to get a quality education while playing our passion.

There’s Something About Procrastinating…

thank you for this inspired post Long...


There’s just something about procrastinating that is absolutely thrilling. More than half the population suffers from it and almost all college kids do as well, and yet it still plagues the world. To be honest I am somewhat of a procrastinator, although I have been known to turn in an assignment a day early. Ha! No but really when two days or even the day before the paper is due comes and all I have is 200 out of 2000 words, a part of me is excited for the challenge. I mean it’s a pretty big risk to be honest. Seeing whether or not you will finish on time, whether the paper will be good or not, even wondering minutes after you submit it the grade you will receive. I don’t know how many times I have compared procrastinated essay grades with friends while we sit there trying to see who procrastinated more, but who received the better grade. Sure the sugar high gets you geared up and the crash and coffee hangover the next day sucks, but who doesn’t bask in that feeling of accomplishment after. I personally feel proud of myself when I have defied my teacher with his, “You can’t do this the night before” speech…try me sucka. Procrastination will at some point or another lead to my downfall but for now I’m riding this bull and it hasn’t thrown me off yet so I’m going to keep on riding it!

Final College Consultation

It has been a while since I have consulted with my high school student about her college essay. Since we last met she had finished writing her college essay. There was tremendous improvement from the first meeting until now. She had finished writing her list of significant moments in her life and had composed an essay on the effect it had on her. In the beginning, her main concern was the leniency she was given. Normally she would have composed her essay in a more formulaic way, avoiding first person and adhering to the strict prompt of her teacher. However, after our first meeting I encouraged her to step out of her comfort zone in order not to stifle her essay. Well, it worked and she wrote a killer essay. She sent it to me so that I could give it a looker over for her. She wanted to make sure she didn’t get too crazy with her new found writing freedom. After reading over her paper I was pretty impressed with it and her minor issues. Her biggest problem wasn’t even structural or organizational; she had a few too many commas in some areas and a couple misspelled words. I applauded her writing and told her that if she wanted she could also have her English teacher read over it as well (I am more than confident in my skills and teaching, but a more experienced individual such as her English teacher and a second eye might be beneficial). Overall, she fully embraced my advice, and when she fused the advice with her own ideas she was able to produce a brilliant essay. I hope she gets in…fingers crossed ;)

Persnickety

As writing consultants I know that we are supposed to help our clients improve their writing. My question is: What is considered going too far? And Are we too adamant? I say this because I was looking over a friend’s paper today and some of the ideas I proposed seemed foreign to this individual. One such example was when a sentence read something like this: In both books, a child is helpless and they are left to survive on their own.” To the naked eye this may seem fine and heck, to the average American it may even sound fine, but it’s not. Proper English teaches us that a subject such as “a child” must be accompanied by the following: his or her instead of their. I noted this mentally but never really addressed this issue to my friend after reading her paper. I do this same mistake in my writing and I have yet to be corrected by a professor. I wonder however if I should have said something. It later occurred to me what if the professor were an English professor who was extremely anal about such grammar rules. On the other hand, what if the professor saw and had said nothing. I know that writing consultants are not the grammar police and should not look for every single grammatical error in the paper, but at the same time if we see a blatant error that the writer mistook, should we not help them by showing them the errors of their ways? I am a little conflicted and I want to know if I should speak up next time, or if I am being too anal.

Neeeeervous

As the end of the course draws to a close and the second semester looms in front of me, I am beginning to realize I will soon be a writing consultant. Writers will look to me for help and while I am more than confident in my abilities; nevertheless I am apprehensive about certain things. During my last consultation I was presented, for the first time, with APA format. I have never had to write a paper in that format so far, so when my tutor pointed out the writer may want to check the citations I was taken aback. What if I had been consulting and missed this error? What if the writer did not check it either and decided to submit the paper without checking if the citations were correct? This may seem minute to some and maybe I am paranoid, but if you cite a source wrong that could essentially be seen as plagiarism. Maybe I am just overwhelmed by the upcoming week of finals but I a would be lying if I said I was not a little nervous to be one on one with the writers. Either way I am more than excited.

You Can Pick Your Nose but You Can’t Pick A Classic

Ever wonder who picks all those so called "classics" which we are forced to read, love, and cherish? All throughout my academic career there have always been those novels, poems,etc which were considered classics, and that I should have some genuine appreciation for them. Well, I want to know which person or committee has the sole power to dictate what I ought to read and enjoy. Now don't get me wrong there are indeed some things which I consider classics and do truly enjoy, but I would love to know who has that lovely job??

Computer Consultation

This time around consulting was definitely different. My consultant and I received a paper via e-mail and since the writer had such time constraints, she asked my tutor to just look over it for her. Consulting can sometimes be challenging, but doing it without the writer makes it particularly difficult. Certain things that can be said easily now have to be hand written or typed. My tutor warned me that I should never make corrections on their paper; instead she told me if she wants them to note something, then she will type it next to the sentence with her comments and then highlight everything. Still even writing down specific details and notes is not the same as a face to face consultation. You are not able to read aloud to the reader; therefore they cannot hear for themselves how it sounds, nor can they see reader’s reaction to what was read. Still, the essence of consulting was maintained. She wrote comments to the reader about developing their argument and explaining vague areas. It was a little frustrating trying to decipher what we thought the writer meant in certain areas because she was absent, but we noted it in the end comments. Overall this new experience was a nice change in pace and I know it definitely prepared me for when someone wants me to look over their paper.

What’s Happening to Our Writing?

As the world evolves new things emerge and older ones begin to fade. This is true for cell phones (touch screen in, flip phones out), computers (fewer desktops, more laptops), and this is not solely isolated to technology. As we have been realizing and seeing first hand, writing as well is going through a similar transition. It seems to me that writing is becoming less beautiful. Now just wait before you bite my head off and read my reason why. I don’t mean beautiful as in people nowadays don’t know how to write and every piece of writing is so poorly written that its atrocious, but in high school and even my freshman year Eng 299 class some of the readings were simply captivating. I would read sentences and become awestruck that such a beautiful sentence could be constructed from such simple words. On the other hand, (what people consider)“big” words would be used but only a few, but they would produce such a pithy sentence full of so much meaning in such a terse manner. So I ask you, how do you feel about writing compared to the past? And I guess I should define the past as 19th century and years past. I understand that encompasses a larger time frame compared to now but just go with it.

First, I understand in centuries past and even years past there were not computers, video games, social networking sites, or even the internet to consume people’s time. Everything was old fashioned. Social networking required going to a party, or a luncheon, any place where you had to have face-to-face interactions with others. Times were much simpler and so people had more time to devote to other things and they weren’t preoccupied with knowing everything that happened every second of every minute of every hour.

Second, let’s go back to time like the 1700’s or even the 1800’s, 1900’s or early 20th century. Most people probably spent more time reading and writing as leisure (I wasn’t there but I will assume). The more time they spent engaging in these activities the more they learned and better they got at reading and writing. Now don’t get me wrong I know different societies praised different things (Greeks and Romans praised rhetoric and frequently engaged in it), but it was commendable to be a master of words and such.

I am beginning to lose my train of thought and I hope I have not contradicted myself but I was just wondering if this thought ever crossed the minds of others.