I am currently sitting in the Writing Center, waiting. There are no students here for us to talk to or shadow, but even worse, there are no writing consultants. At first, we thought perhaps we were in the wrong place. We rechecked the signs and looked online to find that we are, in fact, waiting in the correct spot. I phoned a friend who knows the young man I am supposed to be shadowing. After receiving his number, I promptly made a phone call (unanswered) and sent a text (still unanswered). This is when our frustration grew.
Emma, who is also waiting at the writing center with me, and I began talking about why might this be happening. Perhaps, she said, maybe no one came, and our consultants left with them. This is a bit strange, because I was just in the library and there are hoards of people feverishly preparing documents for classes this week (likely due by tomorrow at 9 AM). Is our school really that lazy? I for one do not think it is purely the product of laziness. At dinner today, I asked a table of my closest Richmond friends where the Writing Center is. I was pretty sure it was the third or fourth floor of Weinstein. . . but why look it up to verify when I have such knowledgeable friends? I shouldn't have bothered asking. Not one person at the table even knew WHERE to go to get help. This is an institutional problem. As Emma and I discussed, publicizing and advertising need to be amended. The best option we thought of was having a classroom-based consultant for as many freshman seminars as possible. In the meantime, I'll sit here in the writing center thinking of ways to maximize my limited Sunday night time until a student walks in.
Michael, you pose a lot of interesting questions, but the one that stuck out to me the most was, "Is our school really that lazy?" My answer is that it's a possibility. I would be very interested in talking to the person who runs the writing center to figure out how many people willingly come into the center seeking help rather than being forced by a professor. If the majority are being told to go, what does that say about the rest of our campus? Are people settling for mediocrity or are they all just good writers? It's definitely something worth looking into.
ReplyDeleteOH WAIT--thought I saw someone heading for the Writing Center but they went into the Speech Center. Maybe we should go shadow them...
Emma, I think you raise a great question here. Students at U of R may tend to be a bit lazy, at least when it comes to the writing process. I think it would also be interesting to consider why this might be. Are professors here valuing quantity over quality at times? Is our environment geared towards producing the best work we can under pressure, at the last minute? I think, at times, we learn to be more proficient at working under stress than we learn to be better versed in whatever subject we are writing about. This is all very interesting to think about, especially while were students on this campus!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it's laziness or merely insufficient publicity and knowledge in general on the writing center. I was just talking with a friend who was having problems with coming up with a good thesis for her paper, and when I suggested going to the writing center she said "I don't need help with grammar, and it would be cheating for them to give me a thesis". The fact that she had no idea about collaboration which is really the goal of the writing center shocked me. How can we change this?
ReplyDeleteRachel, I think you bring up a great point about the writing center. I think at it's core, the problem is that people do not understand the full purpose or function of the writing center. I think one way to fix this problem is to advertise in more places - and to take a very critical look at these advertisements. Also, of course, students could get hands-on experience with FYS consultants.
ReplyDelete