The number of hands pens should be in

Well, since we have about two and a half weeks left before the bibliographic essay is due and this is an open blog post, I think that I should gather my thoughts a little more for the essay. By the way, learning a little more about ways to research was very helpful.

I believe that it was Dr. Rogers who gave us this idea. I am interested in the question if tutors should be allowed to write on students’ papers. Although this can be helpful, it can also be harmful. If tutors are not allowed to make any markings on papers then I wonder if students would be a little more involved in the sessions. I wonder if it would change their ideas about coming to the Writing Center; maybe it would let them know that we are not just an editing service. Maybe it would help them to put more of their words and style instead of ours. Or perhaps doing this will cause students to walk away and feel empty handed because they may think that the tutor did not help them as much as they wanted to. I am sure positive comments on the paper also increase the likelihood of students coming back to the center. If these are taken out then perhaps students will not be a likely to remember what was working in their papers and they won’t repeat that style again.

I also tutor math at Central Middle School. If I show the students an example of how to complete a problem and then ask them to complete another example, then they are more likely to grasp the concept than if I just show them the example. Even if I do the problem on another sheet of paper at the same time they are doing the problem, then they’re still more likely to understand it. I think that it is the same with writing. If I only show the students how to fix an error in grammar, organization, or whatever the problem might be, then it is far more likely that they will not understand why I did that. With the guidance of my help, if they are forced to fix the problem themselves because I am not allowed to touch their paper, then possibly the correction to that problem will have a better chance at being engraved in their minds.

I also like Harris’ essay about engaging reluctant writers. I believe I mentioned this in an earlier post. She has so many subtopics that I can look into. I guess that it kind of connects to what I stated earlier about getting the students more involved in their own work. Harris mentions that some students believe that if they remain quiet then the tutor will do more work for them, which may be true in many cases. But if a pen was not allowed in the hand of a tutor then just maybe the student may pay a little more attention to his/her work.