In retrospect ...
What I really wish I had known is that my kids were going to get sick the day before the bib essay was due, so I could have left myself a little more time to revise ... ah, well. As Robert Burns wrote, "The best laid schemes o' moms with kids ..." No, I don't think that's quite the way he said it, but that's probably because he never was a mom with kids. Ummm, let's move on.
So, this semester (for me) has been more about what I'm glad I learned than what I wish I'd known -- the learning process itself has been just as useful as the things I've learned. Like Tamar said, it's been incredibly useful for me to eavesdrop on other tutors' sessions, picking up styles, techniques, and really great questions to ask. Having tutored before as an undergraduate, I felt fairly comfortable jumping into tutoring sessions, but my perspective was so much different this time around. I appreciate how much I've learned about APA style -- at the beginning of the semester, I wanted to pass the APA papers off to someone else, but now I feel like I have a fairly good command of APA (as long as I've got a pamphlet or handbook in front of me!). I have also worked up more courage to deal with "global" issues (not warming--though I recycle). It's always easy to deal with sentence-level issues--punctuation, comma splices, and the like--since that's what students expect to deal with when they come in. But it's only been the past month or so that I've really learned to ask the right questions to help students work on organization, transitions, thesis, and complexity of arguments. And, surprise surprise, those are the papers that I've really had the most fun with--the ones where you engage the students in a meaningful conversation about their paper, and they actually appreciate the help.
So, I guess those are all the things I wish I'd known...except I don't, because the process of discovery has been what has kept me motivated and excited about tutoring this semester.
(One more thing--a little side note to Michelle. Don't be afraid of sharing your nerdy nerdy stories here...you've got to know you're in excellent company among writing tutors. For example, when I was thirteen I thought I would die happy if I could just read Lord of the Rings over and over again for the rest of my life. Then, of course, I read Jane Eyre and thought I would die happy if I could marry Mr. Rochester. Now I'm thirty-two, married to a fellow English major, and working on lining my basement walls with bookshelves --and terrified that there still won't be enough room for all the books. Aaarrggghhh!)
So, this semester (for me) has been more about what I'm glad I learned than what I wish I'd known -- the learning process itself has been just as useful as the things I've learned. Like Tamar said, it's been incredibly useful for me to eavesdrop on other tutors' sessions, picking up styles, techniques, and really great questions to ask. Having tutored before as an undergraduate, I felt fairly comfortable jumping into tutoring sessions, but my perspective was so much different this time around. I appreciate how much I've learned about APA style -- at the beginning of the semester, I wanted to pass the APA papers off to someone else, but now I feel like I have a fairly good command of APA (as long as I've got a pamphlet or handbook in front of me!). I have also worked up more courage to deal with "global" issues (not warming--though I recycle). It's always easy to deal with sentence-level issues--punctuation, comma splices, and the like--since that's what students expect to deal with when they come in. But it's only been the past month or so that I've really learned to ask the right questions to help students work on organization, transitions, thesis, and complexity of arguments. And, surprise surprise, those are the papers that I've really had the most fun with--the ones where you engage the students in a meaningful conversation about their paper, and they actually appreciate the help.
So, I guess those are all the things I wish I'd known...except I don't, because the process of discovery has been what has kept me motivated and excited about tutoring this semester.
(One more thing--a little side note to Michelle. Don't be afraid of sharing your nerdy nerdy stories here...you've got to know you're in excellent company among writing tutors. For example, when I was thirteen I thought I would die happy if I could just read Lord of the Rings over and over again for the rest of my life. Then, of course, I read Jane Eyre and thought I would die happy if I could marry Mr. Rochester. Now I'm thirty-two, married to a fellow English major, and working on lining my basement walls with bookshelves --and terrified that there still won't be enough room for all the books. Aaarrggghhh!)
posted by Em at 5:14 PM
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