Emotion doesn't exist..

Speaking of emotional sessions, I just had to tutor Turabian. I've done several papers in Turabian before, but this was a rough and tumble run-in that shattered my confidence in the citations and probably turned me into a liar. I told the poor history student where and when I was unsure of my answers, but the citation manual, google, and our combined knowledge proved inadequate in the face of some of his citations. It was not necessarily emotional for him, but I did have a couple of guilt spasms when he asked me questions. When he walked in he asked "does anyone know Turabian?" I thought I did. Apparently I don't.

Other than the religious diatribe paper I had last year, I have never had a paper offend me. Even then it was more incredulity then offense, though I did feel like I should be offended for all those non-mormons who pray.

I have had a few stressed out students, but I've found that a few sympathetic noises, a smile, and a stubborn unwillingness to focus on anything but the paper can subdue most emotional outbursts. I've never been threatened. I've never been stalked. I've never had anyone cry, or even be overly stressed. Maybe the writers just walk in, see me sitting at the table and decide I am not the best source for sympathy about how busy they are and how much they have to do. That's right. I probably browbeat all the emotional students out there into bottling up until they get a compassionate tutor.