Vocabulary Issues

So far, helping students with the flow of their paper has not been problematic. If students tell me that their main concern about their assignment is that it flows well, I ask them if that means they want to focus on the development of their ideas, on the correlation between their thesis and the content of their paper, on the clarity of their writing, on transitions between paragraphs, or on grammar issues that slow the reader down. Usually one of these hits the mark and serves as the focus for the tutoring session. Although many tutees do not have the vocabulary to state what their primary concern is, they can recognize what it they are looking for when I ask them specific questions that relate to flow.

Occasionally, some students have said that they want help with all of the above and more. In these instances I explain that we should pick the most pressing issues and focus on a few of them. Many times they agree to this. For those students who want nearly everything looked at, the approach has been different from paper to paper. One ESL student had such a short paper that looking at many different aspects of flow was manageable. Another ESL student came in with such a long paper that she choose to focus on a couple aspects of flow during our session and come back to address the others.

Students seeking help with grammar have often been ESL or Developmental English students. ESL students have been a little easier to work with because you can give them a few more freebies. The only vocabulary issues I’ve had when working with them is that they use mismatching synonyms in their paper and use words that don’t quite make sense. For example, one student kept using the word electrification when he meant electricity. When you point out that they need a different form of the word they sometimes get confused and try to think of a whole new word. Such vocabulary issues can be expected in ESL writing and are not hard to fix.

Developmental English students who have grammar and vocabulary issues in their writing are a little harder to help than ESL students. One student I was tutoring wrote out a series in her paper about how she was going to manage her time more wisely by writing to-do list out each day, working on her homework more, and spending less time on unproductive tasks. Unfortunately, each verb was conjugated differently. When I tried to explain that she needed to use a consistent verb tense she looked at me with a blank stare. When I clarified that that meant the ending of the verb she started to understand a little more. Something I need to remember when working with Developmental English students is that they are not familiar with the same level of vocabulary as I am—even when it might appear to be basic terminology. Overall, these issues can be worked out with a little more explanation and time spent figuring out what the student needs during the session.

Flow Torments Me!

Without a doubt, the single most confusing and meaningless phrase I come across is “flow.” This is a word so devoid of meaning that I feel goose bumps even when I hear it in other settings (where it actually means something).

It is, of course, hard to blame the students. They have been conditioned—though I am not sure where or when—to speak in those terms. All they know is that if we tell them, “yes, it flows well,” then they have a good paper and a good chance to get a good grade. This is probably the most dangerous part of allowing “flow” into our vocabulary. It does nothing for a student to tell them that their paper “flows.” It may sound like a compliment, but it does not teach the student anything about writing. In fact, it is preventing them from learning how to even address their writing. I have tried to rid my vocabulary of “flow” in the Writing Center and to help students get rid of the Homer Simpson mentality.

Here is what I mean: Homer Simpsons once said, How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain - remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive? Students often fall into complacency. That is, they feel that because they have learned (somewhere) that a paper must “flow,” they can avoid learning more concrete ways of talking about and addressing their writing mistakes.

When students have asked me whether their paper flows, I have tried to respectfully and kindly move away from that kind of vocabulary. I will often tell them that “flow” is a pretty meaningless and vague concept, and that I would rather help them concentrate on more concrete concepts that will make them better writers. So I try to prod them for specifics. I will ask, for example, whether they are concerned about cohesion, or whether their topic sentences help their ideas transition clearly. That is often what they mean, and knowing how to talk about writing makes them better writers.

I have found OWLs especially lend themselves to questions about “flow” because students have to write even their questions about writing. They cannot talk things out until they find the right words like our face to face students can. I have paid special attention to these OWLs and tried really hard to insert more specific words and phrases into my response to their questions about “flow.” I really hope this is helping, and I hope to see more and most students who come in asking about transitions, theses, conclusions, and clarity rather than “flow.”

Feel the Flow

When a student asks me to check whether or not their paper "flows," I assume that they mean they want me to look at organization and transitions. I will confirm with them that they are looking for that, and ask follow-up questions if they are not. This helps me to get an idea of how to approach the session.

I have had a few tutees ask for specifics like punctuation or tell me that they tend to use too many commas, but many just say, "I'm supposed to have you look at my paper and sign something." I'd rather have something vague like "flow" than nothing at all.

Regardless of what the tutee asks for, if/when I see an opportunity to help them understand a concept that they are struggling with, or simply missing, in their paper I will point out what I have noticed and try to help them on that issue as well as what they came in for. The most common of these is thesis development. I have had quite a few tutees with some minor typos and punctuation corrections, but the thesis does not connect to the rest of the paper. Often the conclusion will lead to a good thesis. I share with them that I usually write my papers with a place-holder thesis, and when I'm done and re-read the whole paper I'll update my thesis to reflect the direction of the paper.

From my own experiences, I have found that the most difficult thing to address is ‘flow’. A situation that I found myself in two weeks ago concerned this exact subject. Explaining what “sentence fluidity and naturalness” means to an upset person can be quite a task, and it is my own personal opinion that such a task is wholly and completely impossible. Things like ‘flow’ can be very abstract and are virtually in the eye of the beholder. I dare you to try and define the word. It seems as if a good strategy to overcome this word would be to just have the tutee replace it with what they really mean. I would much rather hear “Can you check my paragraph transitions” than “Does this flow?”

This also ties back to our “Boundaries in Tutoring” discussion. Different languages may use different words to explain the same thing. A translation can easily be scrambled and uncomfortable to a native speaker. A tutee may say something that sounds odd or awry, and the tutor may not full grasp what the tutee is asking for. Then again, the tutee may say something that describes a difficult concept, but it is worded in an interesting and new manner that actually makes a lot of sense.

Words, Words, Words

We spent Monday talking about the vocabulary issues that might affect students interactions with you in the WC.* Which of those bits of language do you think is the most problematic? Is it more difficult to help a student with "flow" than it is to help a student with "grammar"? -- * WC=Writing Center, not Water Closet

Fun.

My experience in the writing center so far has been somewhat eye opening. I feel as though I am going through culture shock. What I mean by this is that I am surrounded and in contact with a very wide variety of people. All the different opinions and point of view are really quite surprising, and in a way, I feel like I have been opened up to a broader view of the world. This sounds very vague, but I intend for it to be, as the very things that I have learned in the past weeks are also.

Culture boundaries are by far the most interesting thing that I have observed. I find it amazing that where you are from can decide how you write. Perhaps the reason I find this so facinating is because I have always believed that writing is a universal ability, meaning that the only factor that would change your writing style is your personality. In a way, my assumptions are correct, but I realize that have I missed a fundemental aspect of perasonality: it can be affected by the culture that surrounds you. This new way of viewing how “foreign” people communicate has really cleared up a lot of confusion that I undergo in my other job. As a retail employee, I constantly have people trying to barter with me, and for the longest time, I had no idea why. Now that I understand that is considered rude not to barter in their culture, I feel as if I have been unessisarily rude to a small group of people. With this new knowledge, I can properly handle such situations in the future.

This is just a brief description of something that I have learned, but I think it would be excessive, and maybe a bit of a spoiler, if I were to state all of the things that a person can learn by spending 3 weeks in the writing center.