Stress and Students: When to tell a Joke

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.