Sunday, September 27, 2009

On Discourse

I posted this to my other blog by mistake. Ha ha! Silly tech nerd.

So. Flow charts.

Yeah.

..stuff.

My sessions vary, of course, but I find I have an outline I return to again and again.

1. HELLO, FRIEND! Introduce yourself, be friendly, be funny, all that good stuff. This is the easy part for me. (Because, you know, it's so complicated.) I focus on body language and appearing friendly, welcoming, but not creepy. It is a fine, fine line, my friends.

2. What're we looking at? I find I use this line every time without fail. I don't know why. Some sort of unfortunate tic, I guess. This is my way of taking command of the session and getting on track with the assignment without sounding like I'm reading from a script. (Too much.) After the student explains the situation, if I need more information, I ask.

3. Cool. So, do you wanna read it, or shall I? Initially, I was encouraging the student to read his paper, but I didn't think this through very well. After some gentle instruction, I stopped being a brat and modified my script to give the student the option. It works either way.

4. I'm just gonna stop you for a sec... Pen in hand, I oh-so sweetly draw the student's attention to the first real issue. We go through word choice, minor construction and grammar issues as they arise, and I've recently stopped marking after the first page or so, encouraging the student to do it instead. Claire's suggestion, of course.

5. That was really good! And here are several reasons why. Without being ingratiating or sounding fake, I try to point out the strong points of the student's writing, if just so he won't hate me later.

6. I think, though, that you could work on.. Major essay overhaul goes here. Big construction issues, conclusions, that sort of thing. Stuff that takes up the bulk of the session.

7. How do you feel about it? Another habit of mine. I like to give the student a chance to tell me how he feels about the assignment, rather than assuming I know better than he does. This is a good chance to check understanding, too.

8. Awesome. Well, good luck with it. Come back if you have any questions, okay? Giddyup, pardner.


So, now that that's out of the way. Bartholomae.

I was sort of disgruntled when I first read it. "An entire essay on the fact that students bs their way through college? Really?" But, I admit, after the class discussion, I got a lot more out of it. It's a subject that hits kind of close to home, you know? I don't know what I'm talking about half the time, and my professors know it, too. It's this delicate fabrication we both whole-heartedly embrace and never call attention to because, by god, that's not how academia works.

I'm great at faking it, though. My papers have always sounded more or less acceptable because I have a knack for picking up on the local jargon. This is great for getting stuff done, but I do worry about how soaking up the verbal stylings of others has effected the development of my own voice. When I'm alone with the information and something to say, I worry about who will really be speaking.

It's something to think about as I so merrily engage in my myriad of discourses. I hope actively considering it, even as I adhere to our unspoken social standings, will help foster my own personal development as a writer, a scholar and an independent thinker.


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