Apprenticeship Session 6: 4/7/08

Today a student came in with a paper for an English class. I felt like it was one of the best sessions with a writing fellow that I have witnessed.

Unlike many of the students who come in, this one had clearly used the writing center’s resources before and knew exactly what writing fellows could help him on. Unlike some I have seen, he didn’t seem surprised that grammatical issues were touched on only briefly, but immediately began to explain his problems with the paper. The tutor, after listening, came to the conclusion with the student that he was having difficulty formulating a thesis. He had his evidence and his support in the paper, but he wasn’t quite sure what he was arguing.

At this point, the tutor put the paper aside and asked the student a little about what they were learning in class. He explained about the book, and about some of the discussions that they had been having in class about it. He then talked about the points that he was making in the paper, and why he was making them; why he felt they were important, for example. Throughout this discussion, the tutor made notes about what he was hearing until he had compiled a list of topics that he felt were important to the student’s paper. Then, together, they were able to work out exactly what his argument would be, given the information already in his paper.

It was a very interesting process to watch, because I have often had the same problem in writing myself. A strategy I have used when I’m not sure what my thesis is is just to start writing my “body” paragraphs, laying out the information. When I’ve done that I can usually figure out the angle I want to argue, but what happens when you can’t figure it out even then? I think that this strategy, of helping the student to talk and explain and come to a conclusion, is very useful and not something that I would have thought of. I suppose that a tutor can sometimes act as a sounding board as well as a helper.