What to do With a Good Paper?
Mark had an interesting question in his response. He asked what tutors should do when a student writer has a good paper that doesn’t need much revision. I had a similar situation a few weeks ago. An English 1010 student came in with a short paper about herself. It was clear, informative, and easy to understand. I couldn’t think of any noticeable changes that she needed to make and neither could she. Like Mark, I pointed out a place in the paper where she could expand the idea a little, but it wasn’t really necessary if she didn’t want to. Then I sent her on her way.
The session was probably less than fifteen minutes—which was good because other people were waiting—but I felt like it was too short and that I had failed to teach her anything about her paper or about writing in general. Now, I wonder if there was something more I could have said or done or taught to that student. She was required by her teacher to use the writing center and that’s what she did. But I don’t know if she will want to come back on her own. Any suggestions? How could I have had a more productive session with that student?
The session was probably less than fifteen minutes—which was good because other people were waiting—but I felt like it was too short and that I had failed to teach her anything about her paper or about writing in general. Now, I wonder if there was something more I could have said or done or taught to that student. She was required by her teacher to use the writing center and that’s what she did. But I don’t know if she will want to come back on her own. Any suggestions? How could I have had a more productive session with that student?
posted by Anonymous at 11:43 AM
1 Comments:
It is an interesting dilemma, Tyler. Just as I had replied to Mark's post about this sort of thing, I talked about how my situation was similiar as well. I think it was a key word the student said to me when I asked him if he was here for help on a paper. What he said was, "Nope. Just reassurance." Then I realized that every now and then we will indeed get papers that are so go that there's little or nothing we can do. We can reassure them however and tell them it is a solid paper. I'm afraid of over-analyzing the paper and contriving a reason that there's a problem. So yeah, definately worthwhile discussion there.
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