Last night I shadowed an ESL graduate student who brought in two papers, one smaller critical analysis and a larger, more in-depth 5 - 6 page paper. While her papers presented fewer formalistic issues than did most of the other papers presented in consultations I have shadowed in the past, I noticed a few important things I thought I might blog about. For one, she told us the class for which she brought in papers to be consulted is her second English class at the university level. Unsurprisingly, she struggles with some of the basics such as grammar. She actually asked us several questions about common grammatical issues. We gave her some general thoughts and pointed her to writers' web, which ensures she will get the best help possible when she has a questions.
The most surprising part of the consultation was when she told us she thought her essay had to be in 5 paragraph form. Apparently, her former instructor told her that was the way to go about writing. She then thought all essays had to be this way. I am sure her former professor had some motive to use this elementary form - perhaps to gauge his students' writing skills from the beginning or to allow students to begin writing in a highly-structured form. Nevertheless, I was intrigued by how one's definition of "what writing is" can shape one's arguments. Is the same true for thinking? Do we train ourselves to think in a specific way when thinking analytically or artistically or in whatever other way? If so, we may be constricting ourselves. The format of our arguments - whether they are written, spoken, presented digitally, etc - should not hinder us from thinking about the topic in a complete way due to our "product-based" mentality when considering academic work. With that said, I think we as writing consultants should be sure to encourage students to think about their topics in whatever way they feel suits them best, then later put their thoughts into the more constrictive containers assigned by their professors.
Michael-
ReplyDeleteI think that you bring up some really deep and crucial points ( as per usual).
I think that you are really right... i feel like sometimes when I know that I'm only going to have to look at a certain section of a book for the paper, I only focus on thinking through that section instead of the book as a whole or how that section fits in with the rest of the book. I think that this can go back to idea of grading that always seems to surface. Would we be able to think more indepth if we could use those thoughts in an innovative ways in our papers? Does the system prevent us from reaching our potential in both though and writing?
product based versus idea based writing is a major tension in our academic context. I remember an article on older students mentioned that "unconventional" students tended to have a more product based approach to writing. I wonder if different culture tend more towards product or idea? Would this be helpful to understand in the Writing Center?
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