Why Can't It Be Both?

First off, I’m sorry I missed class last Friday. It sounds like I missed an interesting discussion. Second, as has been said before, this is a difficult question. I think the answer is both. When a student comes to us they expect us to make the paper better. That’s why they’re coming to the writing center. They want to be able to turn in a paper that will get them a good grade (whatever they consider to be good). But in the process of working with the student we should teach them specific skills that can help them as they write papers in the future. I have not sat down and tutored anyone in this specific venue as of yet, but I have had plenty of experience with people asking me for help on papers simply because I was an English major. This includes all of my family members. (I find this unfair because when I ask my accountant brother for help on taxes he tells me he’s not that kind of accountant. Why can I not be “that kind of English major?”) One of the main things I always stressed with them was that I would not write their paper for them, their paper must in their own voice and their own writing style, but I could teach them how to make it better. Usually these papers came in the form of email so I would send them back long suggestions and comments for sections of their papers. Of course they were looking for grammar help as well so I tried to fit that in, but what I wanted to do was teach them how to be better writers while still improving the current paper they had given me. I’m not sure how much it worked with some people, but I can say that with others I had success as I saw them try to use some of the writing techniques I suggested in earlier papers. In that way I think you can have success in both improving the writer and improving the writing.

Of course this works well with family members and friends because you can be pretty blunt at times and they still have to love you and will probably still use you for the same thing. But how do you handle it in a tutoring session with a total stranger? I think you can still approach the session with the idea that you can give the writer ideas that will strengthen their current paper, but can also carry over into their future writing. To the student who brings in a paper that is offensive I might say that they should re-look at some of their word choices and maybe find words that are more appropriate for a classroom or university setting. To the student who has a paper that does not make any sense I would try to pull out pieces that do make sense and then teach the student how to write their paper from those. I could then show the student how to use those ideas for their next paper so that their next paper won’t start off in such a jumbled mess.

Will my ideas always work in real life? No. Will there always be an exception to these rules? Of course. Can I give them a try and see if teaching a student certain writing techniques will improve their current and future papers? Sure. Why not? I’m still learning how to find the right way to work with different people, which is something I think we are all doing.