As
a writing tutor, it is not uncommon for a student comes into the writing center
clutching his freshly graded first draft.
Students across a variety of disciplines have been there: a first draft
or lab report is handed back and you immediately flip to the final page to see
your grade, desperately ignoring all the red ink in between. After all,
the grade's the most important piece of information at this point, right?
Not
if you're looking to become a better writer. As Texas Lutheran is a
liberal arts university, we can see this even in our Institutional Goals for
Graduates. In the TLU Student
Handbook, these goals are divided into aspects of “Knowing”, “Doing”, and
“Becoming”. One part of the
“Doing” aspect of these goals is that “TLU graduates should be able to write
clearly and coherently, read with comprehension, speak effectively, and listen
with care and openness.” (Handbook, 3) Keeping this in mind, it becomes clear
that instead of ignoring the commentary that a professor gives on a paper, it's
better to treat that information as pure gold. Despite a grade that may
seem to indicate the contrary, your professors and your university as a whole want
you to do well and believe that part of that entails becoming a better writer. As writing tutors, part of our job is
helping make this happen.
In
“Learning to Read with the Eyes of a Writer”, Kristin M. Gehsmann of St.
Michael’s College provides some helpful approaches that can be used to help
students learn how to approach their own papers with the eyes of a writer and
to eventually become more adept and being their own editor. Often students will come in with a
first draft, a lower grade than expected, and a lot of red ink. Now, how
can you teach your student how to use this information?
Gehsmann’s
method involves sharing strong and weak versions of a paper with students and
then teaching them to look for what makes a paper strong and how to improve
upon weaknesses.
Starting
with a strong paper, students are asked to read through and notice what the
writer did to make the essay effective. Is there a clear statement of
purpose or thesis statement? Can the organization and structure of the
paper be easily followed? Do the author's sentences and paragraphs work
together to enhance the overall organization?
After
this, share a version of the same paper that is lacking in these
characteristics. Students are asked to look for things that the writer did
well and things that could be improved upon. Once this is done, it's time
for the student to become the editor. Ask the student to provide feedback
for the essay's author, including both points of strength and weakness and any
areas upon which they can improve.
Now
that the student has an idea of some of the differences between a strong and
weak paper, the tutor can help the student apply the same techniques used on
the sample paper to their own paper.
Have the student read their own paper just as they read through the
others. Afterwards, try having
them create a list of five strengths or challenges that they can see in their
paper.
At
this point the tutor can help the student take their list of strengths and
weaknesses and use it to develop an action plan for making edits to their
paper. This is also a good time to look at the commentary of the
professor. What recommendations
has he or she made and how can those be put into effect? Remember to start with bigger concerns
and work down to smaller ones and communicate why this is important to
students. Have the student look at
the differences between the strong and weak papers and see how those
differences align with their own paper. If the student notices that their
overall organizational structure more closely resembles that of the weaker
paper, ask them what differences there are in the stronger paper. Simple
things like developing a stronger statement of purpose, thesis statement, and
creating an outline can be a great place to start.
You’re
there in the writing center, student in front of you. The stress of a lower-than-expected grade is looming above
his or her head, keeping them from focusing on how they can improve their
paper. While it may be tempting to
just give them a list of things that they need to change, it’s better to take
this as an opportunity to help the student learn how to become a better
writer. Rather than just trying to
tell them what changes they need to make, the method outlined above can help students
learn how to find those changes themselves and make them a more empowered and
capable writer.
Works
Cited
Gehrsmann,
Kristin M. "Learning To Read With The Eyes Of A Writer." Teaching
Professor 25.1 (2011): 1-3. Academic Search Complete.
Texas Lutheran University Student Handbook:
2012-2013. Seguin, TX: Texas Lutheran University, 2012.
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