Trial Run

My first attempt at being a writing tutor was probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. I had it in my mind that I would have the opportunity to shadow a session or two before I was thrown to the wolves, in a sense. However, that just wasn’t in the cards. My first day on the job, I was given two ESL students who had small assignments due the next morning. I tried to remember every little tip that Dr. Rogers, Claire and the other leaders at the training session had taught us over the last two and a half weeks; and yet, I still felt like there were some things that I was neglecting. I asked them their names, where they were from, how school was going and any other little chit-chat I could think of as I got them logged into the computer, hoping that they weren’t aware of my nervousness of the situation. I quickly discovered how difficult it truly is to know something and try to explain it to somebody else in a way that they could easily understand. As I quickly scanned their papers, first at the introduction and then to the conclusion, I realized that they seemed to grasp the concepts of what a good introduction and conclusion were supposed to be. It also seemed to me that they understood the concept of a well defined paragraph and I did my best to let them know that I had noticed those things and that they had done them well.
However, some of the simple grammatical and punctuation rules that I have been taking for granted for years were throwing them off and I couldn’t for the life of me explain to them why it was wrong and try to teach them how to do it correctly. My thoughts returned to that little game we played in our training session called, “deep but not profound” and how very frustrated I got when I couldn’t figure out how the game was supposed to be played. I tried very hard to help them see their mistake and help them to learn without actually giving them the answer. I soon found out how very easy that is to say and yet how very hard that is to do.
The most common mistake that I’ve seen so far was the use of the semicolon. Both students that I worked with had used the semicolon exhaustively. Sometimes, their use of the semicolon was correct and sometimes, it was wrong. After talking with Chris Bentley, one of our seasoned veterans, I realized that ESL students love to use the punctuation marks that they have just studied in class. So, I wondered if that was why I was seeing so many semicolons throughout their work. I noticed that I had forgotten to keep the paper and the pen in their hands, though. I had automatically taken control of the session and while I think I helped the students learn about grammatical rules and I helped them improve their papers, I had accidentally stepped over “the line”. I knew from the beginning that I was going to struggle with that and I had proven myself to be correct. I am going to have to make a mental “check list” and put that at the top of my list. I think that this area will only get better for me as I do it more. As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect”.