Jeremiah's discussion about fixing prose errors jump-started my thinking wheels today:
Since I began tutoring in the WCenter last spring, I've been asked a countless number of times whether or not creative writing projects are appropriate texts to bring to tutors on the 4th floor. For a while, I didn't know how to answer: I knew a few of tutors that had felt blindsided by a student with a prose poem or piece of short fiction and didn't want to encourage this uncomfortable situation - and, in turn, didn't encourage the creative writer.
Tutors can rightly feel a little off-kilter when a tutee comes in with a creative text; we each have a genre of two that makes us feel less-than-at-ease when it hits the tutoring table. I imagine a piece of fiction feels for some the same way I feel when a graduate Chemical Engineering student comes into a session with a lab report and tons of detailed diagrams. This uneasiness or unfamiliarity with creative texts/sessions is justified even more by the wide range of genres classified under "creative writing:" From poetry, to prose poetry, to fiction, to creative non-fiction, to song lyrics, to vignettes, to novel chapters, to short stories, to the Avaunt Gard I won't even attempt to classify -- who can keep up with it all?
The fact of the matter is no one is expected to know it all, but just as we proudly possess a working understanding of MLA, APA and Chicago style or have a general sense for what a lab report is 'supposed' to look like, we as tutors may want to expand a bit more and gather a general, working knowledge of the popular creative writing genres. I know this may seem daunting - it certainly does to me, but I feel we owe it to this wide base of URI writers to give it a shot. To visually imagine this shift into CW, envision a ven-diagram with circles representing each of the types of writing we tutor frequently (WRT1-- papers, business writing texts, communications and psych papers, nursing reports). Now picture another circle entering the over-lapping mix - one representative of just yet another realm of writing we'll have basic understanding of (CW). This circle may, say, be faded in color to represent that we don't encounter it as frequently as we do other types of texts - but nevertheless it has a place in the diagram.
Furthermore, I know many of the tutors in the center this semester are personally interested in creative writing, so I feel this may be the URIWCenter's kairotic moment to broaden our joint, WCenter horizon. Of course, partaking in the any of the creative writing discourse communities personally and tutoring a writer from one - even if you're completely familiar with it - are definitely two different things. Sure, an understanding of poetry is definitely going to help a tutor out during a session with a poet - but writing/reading poetry and tutoring a poet are separate endeavors, just as writing an essay and tutoring a student about writing an essay are not identical situations. Like with any writing, the creative writer's process may differ from yours, his or her personal belief about the art may be diametrically opposed to your own, etc. In short: Tutoring creative writing will definitely be eased/facilitated by one's prior knowledge of the subject, but either way we're definitely going to need some outside advice to really get into this successfully.
It is here that things get tricky. I've been researching for a better part of this afternoon and can report with confidence (and disappointment) that there is little scholarship regarding creative writing and writing centers. I did discover that many centers that frequently tutoring writing have a separate Creative Writing Center - schools including Middlebury and Umass conduct business in this manner. I personally do not favor this approach; I like the idea of a WCenter that tackles it all - to the best of their ability. I believe this atmosphere creates a great cohesion - a center that is working to work together with others to discover the answers that do not come easily to them. I also discovered some minimal scholarship, including a powerpoint presentation regarding the topic from Purdue and a large case study documenting tutors' feelings regarding creative writing entitled Tutor Attitudes Towards Tutoring Creative Writing in Writing Centers. Neither of the texts answer all of my questions about tutoring creative writing, nor do they raise any other particularly exciting ones. Nevertheless, they are worth a glance. (Note: The second article is super-tutor based in its findings, fyi.)
I will keep researching this topic in the future. I'm curious how you guys feel about getting a little cozier and intimate with creative writing - please comment and let me know! I know there are plenty of URI creative writers who would be thrilled to know they have a place to get some advice on their work.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Personally, I love when someone comes in with something creative and I do wish that it would happen more often. Since I started last fall, I've had one person come with an actual creative piece, though I did talk with a couple people about bringing their personal writing in and I try to mention it when I do class visits.
ReplyDeleteWhile cw definitely does present a new set of genres for us to think about, preparing for creative writers doesn't necessarily have to be a stressful situation. Back in my days as an undergrad, I was a writing major and a whole chunk of my courses were creative writing, but I never saw a difference in the way that say my Creative Writing and my Expository Writing courses approached workshop. Perhaps this is one reason why I feel that all writing is in a way creative. We may have a prompt or a specific format in which to mold our essays, but the ways in which we approach any rhetorical situation is innately creative.
Maybe instead of focusing so much on scholarship from a tutor/WC perspective, what we need to do as a community to prepare for creative writers would to just be familiar with what is out there, what is going on. I know that we had some copies of the Independent Scribe floating around the center, we could start by reading some selections in our downtime. Does anyone know of some interesting blogs or websites where people are posting their creative work? The only place jumping to me this morning is the NCTE's National Gallery of Writing, which features a little bit of just about everything from academic to everyday to creative works. I really feel like we can build our confidence in working with creative writers through exposure, by reading creative pieces that we may not have otherwise come into contact with combined with Kate's idea of some genre talking as well.
Nikki, love your ideas. To tag onto what you said about familiarizing ourselves with cw: I remember during Orientation a number of tutors mentioned that they write creatively in their spare time. Perhaps our own cw writers would be willing to share their work and discuss what they think is going on in the URI cw community, as well as what they might look for as far as coming to the WC for assistance (ex: "my enjambment needs cleaning," etc).
ReplyDeleteI'm more thinking scholarship for my 383 project purposes (considering seeing this idea through and crafting it for the purposes of the final), but I agree that for our practical purposes, exposure is a tip-top idea.
Also: If tutors are interested in furthering their exposure to some of URI writer's cw, everyone and anyone is welcome to attend I-Scribe meetings, Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-6PM. We conduct anonymous review of submissions, and see a nice variety of verse and prose from day to day. Please let me know if anyone is interested, and I'll gladly provide the details.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of what Nikki said about all writing being creative. At the same time, I can't help but think I would be nervous if a student came into the writing center asking me to "tutor" them with their poetry. I don't write poetry, and so I don't think I could help them in any way other than giving them my opinion and being another set of eyes. Creative writing in also very personal. It can be difficult to tutor someone about something so personal. Furthermore, much of what makes tutoring work is following a prompt or following guidelines. There are few guidelines in creative writing--so what makes one person able to tutor another?
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do like the idea of becoming more familiar with creative writing. By reading more creative writing I would be a lot more comfortable talking about it with a student.
This conversation reminds me a bit of what students have to say about being made to engage in peer review. They say that they can't help their peers because they are non-experts. I remind them that they are being asked to respond as real readers and not as writing experts. We can serve creative writers by serving as interested readers, by telling them what we like or don't like, or by telling them where we are confused even if we are not poetry experts.
ReplyDeleteI think we should organize a reading (and open it, open mic style, to anyone who wants to share any writing for about 3 minutes) and see how this changes the WCenter.
As a creative writer, I would love for some students to come into the writing center with pages and pages of poetry... But I see how this could be uncomfortable for tutors who are more interested in other forms of writing. I agree with the above comments, though, that one need not be an expert to offer valuable feedback.
ReplyDeleteI think that creative writers tend not to bring their work into the writing center for a couple of reasons... One is that, in all the creative writing classes I've taken, there is less emphasis on a grade for a particular piece of work (say, one poem) than there is in other classes, where one paper is important because it turns out to be a major percentage of the semester's grade. In creative writing classes, generally a piece is brought into class to be workshopped, then the professor gives feedback, and a letter grade is not given to the piece until it appears in a final portfolio, at which time all the writing has probably been workshopped and revised several times.
So where in the midst of all this would the student bring his or her creative work into the writing center for help? The first thing I think is that they would most likely be looking for help with a final portfolio. At this point, however, when the pieces of writing in the portfolio have already been workshopped and critiqued by many classmates and the professor, the student might not want to add yet another opinion (the tutor's) to the mix.
I don't really have a conclusion here, just some ideas and observations, but I would really like to find a way to bring more creative writers into the writing center.