What I wished I had known

I think I have to agree with Kyle on this one. It isn't good to know everything ahead of time. Learning is worth the stress and pain. If I had known what my family would be going through this semester, I'm not sure I would have been so happy to live through it. I might not have signed up for classes, and then I would have missed being a tutor.

Planning ahead is really the only option. For example, I picked out my bibliographic essay topic and had gathered tons of source materials ahead of time. It saved my life: I was able to get the writing done despite serious family issues. Yes, the writing experience was still difficult, but the preparation made the experience worth it.

One thing that helped me in this, my first semester as a writing tutor, was being brave enough to ask questions. There was so much to learn in the Writing Center! If I had given in to fear and pride and kept my mouth shut, I would have found myself in a lot of trouble. I felt embarrassed, even stupid at times, but asking questions was the best way to learn about this job. It was worth it. Besides, there were plenty of other things to be embarrassed about; I did not need to invent new ones.

This class has been great fun. I have enjoyed the lively conversation and the changes to my perspective that have come from meeting with this group of people. I cannot imagine tutoring writers without the advice and instruction from Dr. Rogers and our wonderful Claire. Our reading assignments came at just the right times for the more challenging tutoring sessions. I use the suggestions from the authors whenever I teach, even with my little art students. (The highly emotional sessions happen more for me in the elementary setting than in the Writing Center.)

Thank you for an interesting, stress-filled, entertaining, challenging semester!

What's the point of wishing about the past?

Of course it would have been nice if i knew everything when i started tutoring. That would certainly alleviate a lot of stress in my life. It would, however, also have been very very boring. Learning is one of the most exciting parts about tutoring and going to school. Why would i want to rob future tutors and students of the most exciting part of their job/education?

Maybe some of you think I'm joking, but I really mean it. I started this semester with very little knowledge of not only tutoring, but writing in general. The process of learning may be stressful, painful, and, at times may seem completely irrelevant, but taking short cuts only leads to punctuated, perforated knowledge.

My one piece of advice for future students would be this: Plan ahead and DON'T LET IT GET TO YOU. Some of us have busy lives. So busy, in fact, that it seems ludicrous, ridiculous, absurd, and stupid. Between work(one job or three), relationships, any church responsibilities, and attending class lectures, who has time to write ten page papers? So what does one do? Resign oneself to the fact that life is absurd and focus on one thing at a time, that's what. To future students: enjoy the experience of learning; don't let deadlines and professors freak you out.

One may think: "That's all and well Mr. Kyle, but I am going to get A's in all of my classes this semester. I can't very well be so lax as you suggest." Did I ever say anything about being lax? Look back at the first part of my advice: plan ahead. Make sure you figure out what you need to do, and when you need to accomplish it. Organization will make life much much simpler. This is the key to a successful everything: work, school, what-have-you.

OK. I'm only at about 300 words. Sometimes I really wish i had more flowery speech. That's something to recommend future students develop: flowery writing (in other words, saying something that should only take five words in two or three sentences). I have been confounded so many times because i tend to write short and to-the-point paragraphs and sentences. I feel so put upon when required to take my 500 words and turn it into an 800 word essay. I have already made my point, what more is there to discuss? Assignments should be graded on content and coverage instead of length. In all fairness, professors do have to give students a general idea of what they want. But couldn't they explain what needs to be covered instead of stating how long a paper needs to be? This ties into teaching process and not product very nicely. How about we focus on content and fluency, not length and word count. Alright. I think I'm pretty much done ranting about that. Ooh, I'm at 486 words now! Huh. 486 is all one word. I was kind of hoping it would count as three. Oh well.