Blue Jeans-Good or Bad?

Last week, in class, our assignment was to read a student's paper online, and treat it as if we were in a tutoring session. Beforehand, I didn't know what to think about online-tutoring, but after I worked on the paper, I decided that online-tutoring is not for me.

The paper I read, as I remember correctly, was about blue jeans. Well, what about blue jeans? I kept saying that to myself, the entire time I read the paper. Blue jeans were in some form or another, disastrous to our society. He went on to write about how shoppers should just go "second-hand shopping", whatever that means, but for what reason?

The author behind the paper desperately wanted to provide an argument against a certain kind of blue jean company, but they never said. At the end of this paper, I was left with way too many questions. Why are blue jeans hazardous? What negative effect do they have on society? There was kind of an introduction, but it went nowhere. A thesis statement was nowhere to be found. A title for the essay was also missing. As usual, a majority of commas that should have been used in the paper were missing as well.

At the end, where I wrote my opinion of the paper, I wrote that after you are done writing a paper, always read it aloud at least five times. In the writing lab, whenever I read a student's paper aloud, sometimes, they will stop me, because they feel embarrassed by what they wrote. This usually happens, within maybe three or four sentences into the paper. When we read our papers aloud, we not only find mistakes, but we also find places in our paper where we should have incorporated an idea that might have been left out.

I wanted to actually learn more about this person's problem with blue jeans, but they wouldn't let me, and they stopped themselves from persuading the readers into staying away from buying blue jeans.

I struggled with helping this person with their mistakes online. It's just so different for me. My mind went blank. Anytime, that I am online, and I speak to a person through aim or a message board, I never fully get to say what I intend to say, because our communication is so limited. I would recommend any student(if they can) to always make an appointment with a tutor at the writing center, and not online. I realize that we all don't have the same opportunities, and from what I read from the chapter in our textbooks on online-tutoring, there are some people, who can only communicate with tutors over the internet. I also understand that there are probably hundreds of tutors out there who enjoy working with students online.

Usually, at the very end of a session with a students, I will give them a piece of paper with my times in the lab that I am most present, and also my email. I give them my email, because they might go home, and perhaps need help with other papers. As long as the student recieved the help they needed and learned something new, where does it really matter where we tutor them?

Online Tutoring

In "The Anxities of Distance: Online Tutors Reflect", we get to read about the experiences of tutors who have helped students and the pros and cons of online tutoring. The thing that I liked about this chapter, was the fact that we get to view the sessions between the students and the tutors.

I think that from reading this chapter, I would have to say that online tutoring, is a big no-no. I like the idea of sitting face-to-face with a student and explaining to them what they want to know or learn. I beleive that when a we participate in online tutoring, we become lazy and rely on what we read over the screen over a computer, but not on somebodys paper. I'm sure most tutors do not think that there is a difference, but I do beleive that there is. I am not trying to say that we cannot help an individual with certain problems that they have in their writing, but the dialogue that we use over the net, lets face it, is very limited. Anytime that we talk to someone during instant message or a chat room, we never get to say everything that we entirely intend to. This is a problem with tutoring online; I feel it's impossible to get all of our ideas across the screen. However, when the tutors respond to people's questions and concerns over their papers, they do effectively help, but I still feel that alot is missing.

The way we talk to a student has such a tremendous impact on how they learn what we are teaching them. Online the student doesn't hear our voice, but they see our words. I am curious to try online tutoring; however, I feel like I would not be as helpful as I would in a face-to-face encounter with a client.

Learning Disabilities and the Writing Center

For several years now, I have often wondered about how students with learning disabilites study and learn in high school and college. As a tutor, I think that it would be an honor to help somebody who has any kind of disability that they are struggling with. I have always been curious to learn about their viewpoint in terms of learning. In "Learning Disabilites and the Writing Center", Julie Neff takes us through personal experiences with students with learning disabilites and offers some suggestions to tutors on how we can effectively help them out.

Neff takes us through the personal story of Barb and problems that she encounters in everyday life. In one instance, Barb is asked by her mother to put a roast in the oven at 350 degrees. Barb agrees, and does so;however, she unfortunately forgets to take the plastic covering off of the roast when she lays in the oven. Barb isn't blind or anything, but she makes it very clear to her mother, that she just didn't see the plastic covering.

I think that this situation displays the power and need for understanding the communication of language and how important it is in our daily lives. Had Barb's mother had told her beforehand, that the roast was covered in plastic, then she would have never made the mistake, but she did. When it comes to communicating with people around us who have a disibilty of some kind, whether we're at work, school, church, or home, we have to understand that we always have to depend on the usage of information through words, and not images.

One of the great aspects of this article, is that Neff has faith that students with disabilities can somehow find a certain way to learn efficiently through writing. Neff believes that freewriting for most disability students, can be a very difficult task. Conversation instead, can take the place of freewriting. I think that this should by applied in any meeting between a tutor and a student.

Another problem with students who have a learning problem, is the people around them, usually have a very negative attitude about the way they function in learning. This kind of thinking to me is very sad. I think that they should be able to learn in an atmosphere with individuals who at least try to promote a positive attitude, but I'm sure their are those who do not. We as tutors should help them to find an area where they can find ideas in writing that can help them became more aware of extending their writing techniques.