Response 4

As someone who will be tutoring students, in just a couple of weeks, I am curious as to what kind of papers I will have to read. Observing the tutors and the students in the writing center has been alot of fun, but I am curious as to what it will be like for me and how I will help the students. What I am trying to say, is that I am afraid of what to do, if I get handed a paper that is racist, homophobic or sexist. This is exactly what this week's reading is all about.

The author of this chapter of the book, describes how one day in the tutoring lab, a student shows up with a paper, in which he writes about how women should never be seen with a briefcase and how they should only be "barefoot and pregnant". Obviously, this is a very hateful paper, and the tutor really is unforsure with how to handle it. Of course the student has rights, but what will his professor and his peers think of him? This is something that I fear I might encounter, but who knows?

When it comes to writing something you are passionate about, you want to be sincere and honest, but I think you can do this without crossing the line. Crossing the line has been done quite a bit in writing, and in many ways I know why. Writing has always been the greatest way for me to vent whatever frustration that I am going through. Censorship has no place in anything that is written. However, as a writer, I have never wrote about hating somebody for something that they can never change. And this is the problem right here.

Not just in this article, but I am afraid that in real life as well, there are people who feel the need to hate somebody for being themselves. An individual cannot help the fact that they may be black, gay, or female. These are things they can never change. How can I tell a student that writing a paper like this is ok or will be accepted by which ever professor they hand it in to? This is a very complicated issue, and it is one that I hope I never face.

I am aware that as a tutor, I'm not supposed to take sides, which is fine by me. There really isn't a way that I feel like I could get through the situation. For example, what if a student comes in and hands me a paper that denies the holocaust. What am I supposed to say or do? Normally, after reading a chapter from this text, I feel inspired, but now I feel full of hopelessness, because I don't know what to do.

Reading Response 2

"The Stages Of The Tutorial", in my opinion, is by far the most important reading that I have read. When a student walks into the writing center, they expect to be helped and they will, but for the tutor, there are stages that they have to go through to do so.

In this section of the book, we learn about three different stages that the student and tutor go through during the time that they meet. These three stages are: The Pretextual Stage, The Textual Stage, and The Posttextual Stage. In the first stage, my job is to learn about the writer's background and to develop a relationship with them. What are their fears and concerns? Instead of making them dread the experience of working with a tutor, hopefully I will be very soft and warm and make them feel comfortable about opening up with me about their problem is. The second stage is working with them to overcome their weaknesses in writing, but also helping them to know their strengths and what they can develop more of in their writing. The third stage is really just letting them take over and see what they have learned and how they can use their new found knowledge on future work.

I have spent at least almost three weeks in the writing center. All I ever see in there is a "please fix it and give me an A" deal going on between the students and the tutors. I understand that the people who come to the writing center are in need of help, but I don't know if they are really getting any. Sure, they may leave with their papers fully corrected, but what about their next paper? Will they even come back to the writing center, or will they go on to make new mistakes?

I hope as a tutor to not only get to know the students and their problems in writing, but also to show them how I write and how I approach any kind of writing assignment that is given to me.

Reading Response #2

When a student needs help with their paper , the first place that they probably go, is the "Writing Center". Once the tutor and the student meet, is their really any relationship forming between them. What does the student really learn from the tutor if the only reason they're going is to just get the mess cleaned up, but not learn how they made the mess in the first place. Should a meeting between the two really be any different from a therapist and a client?

In the article, Freud in the Writing Center: The Psychoanalytics of Tutoring Well, by Christina Murphy, she explores the idea, that tutors should really act like like they are the student's therapist to truly understand how they form their own writing process. The students can't break down the walls that are prohibiting them from accelerating in writing, unless they understand what they're doing wrong. The tutor needs to be open to understanding how the students approaches their work and learn what they need to change mentally. In doing, so the student can begin to expand their horizons and start developing new ideas in creativity.

Usually, whenever I walk into the Writing Center, I see one or two people being helped. Sometimes, the person who is in need of getting their paper fixed, will leave immediatly after they see what's wrong with how they wrote the paper. In this case, it is nobody's fault; however, if I was the student in need of help, I would stay and see how I could work on becoming a better writer, but not everybody wants that. As somebody that will be a tutor this fall, I will try to do the best that I can and look beyond just what they did wrong with their paper, and see what they can do to change they way they look at their own writing.

In the article, "Whispers of Coming and Going: Lessons from Fannie, which is written by Anne DiPardo, Anne writes about how she helps a native American student break into her own mold of creative writing and undo the fear of what is holding her back. I think this article, really wasn't all that different from the one above. It is nice to read about somebody taking the time to understand the background of where a writer is coming from. It's like telling somebody who is standing on the edge of a building to try to jump and make it to the other one. It might be risky, but if they make it, it will be very rewarding to them. This is how I feel about writing. Writing its self can be very risky, and you always have to try new things to figure out what is right. To me, this is kind of like therapy, and I don't see that as a bad thing. I hope that whatever fears a person has about writing in the tutoring center, I hope I can somehow help them to overcome their fears and conquer them.