In Chapter 3 (Non)Meeting of the
Minds A study in Frustration, in “A tutor’s Guild Helping writers one to one by
Ben Rafoth, he give a situation of a frustrated student who has writing center
staff experience (they worked at a WC), and a Writing Center staff member who
likes to establish a connection with the writers who come in. The student just
(it seems to me), wanted validation that their paper is good with a few tips on
how to clean it up. The WC staff member was trying to have a little fun with
the student and challenge the way they looked at their paper. Although both
parties could have handled the situation better, the WC staff seeing that the
writer was not in a “joking” mood and trying to be a little more supportive of
what the writer has accomplished, and the writer, being more open with not having
all the right things in the proper place or open to a little more criticism. I
feel like this does a good job of showing both sides of the writing process, as
in being able to pick put what’s wrong with ones paper and know what is good
versus what the teacher actually wants done and going about to accomplish it.
Working at the Writing Center has helped me find the smaller thing wrong with
my writing, but as a student and having outside opinions/criticisms is just as
important, but being open to them is the key factor in accepting and learning
how to overall improve one’s writing.
I think
this is important to WC staff members because when it comes down to finals week
and people tend procrastinate, we need to see and understand that patience is
one of the more important parts of our job (hammer that nail to death), but
also taking your job seriously but having a good time while doing it is just as
important. Learning how to distinguish the appropriate times to do this can
help move the session forward smoothly, while allowing learning to take place
and establishing a lasting experience for the student.
