"CAESAR NON SUPRA GRAMMATICOS."

"Caesar is not above grammarians." ( Cassius Dio)

Honestly, I'm a little intimidated by the grammar editing portion of this job. That said, here's the why: I simply don't know it all. I know some things, I know enough to get by, but picking out minute grammatical errors in other people's papers isn't something that I've done before. I'm not too worried about it though, I think I just need to brush up a little bit.

Well...I thought that "grammar" was actually going to be my subject of fear, but appearently I'm not as worried about it as I thought I was. I still like the title though, and if anyone else is worried about grammar we can start a help group. Once we have the help group we could maybe...I don't know...kidnap some of those kids who were "more likely to spend the whole tutoring session on run-on sentances than global issues," and get them to instill us with some of their fervor. But I digress...

Anyway, I think that the "scariest" situation that I've run across so far was that student looking for help editing a professional resume. I have only written up my own resume maybe once or twice, the idea of messing with someone elses when it really matters didn't really sit well with me. Cover letters are another thing that I'm not really comfortable with yet, but those two shouldn't be too hard to master either... I hope... With time... Maybe.

Luckily I haven't had a student yet who was convinced that their paper was perfect, though I've kinda been in that situation myself with some of my personal writing, and if you haven't had alot of it, it really can be hard to accept criticism. So I do sympathize with those individuals. It's egocentric I know, but I still get a little bristled every now and again if I don't get the kind of positive feedback I want, so I can see where they're coming from.

Hmm, what else...All of my paragraphs are pretty much the same size...huh...that's funny...my thinking's a little choppy I guess...huh.....Anywho. I suppose my central fear is that I'm not going to be able to provide the student with what they need, or that I'm going to "fail" them in some way if I don't find every single comma splice in their final work. I'm worried that they're not going to get everything that they need from me, and I can't do that. I know what the major problems with most papers are going to be, and I can educate myself on those things that I don't feel so confident about. Maybe Bobby Sue (Bobby Sue is my phantom tutor for the purposes of this excercise,) is better at writing thesis statements than me. Okay. I'll do what I can.

I actually do feel a little relieved after writing this. I know that it's more than a little sketchy, but I do feel some comfort on these subjects after writing this. Huzzah. I'd feel like Dr. Phil, if Dr. Phil went into self-therapy..... I hope this is long enough.

Over and Out,
Andie Kunzler