An Effective Session

I feel like my last few posts have all been when I'm upset or pessimistic, so this time I'll mention a session that I had last week that was really good.

The student I worked with was writing a paper for her WRT 104 class (I think that's what it was). She had to describe an antique store that she went to and make it realistic to the reader, kind of like a portrait of a person would be. When she came in, she brought all of her notes from her trip to the store and a draft. Her draft wasn't long enough, so she wanted to add some length, but her main concern was that she wasn't capturing the right feel of the antique store--she wanted to add some more "creepy" feeling to her paper.

Needless to say, that was an awesome session. We spent forty minutes going through her paper, with me telling her every time her paper freaked me out like she was trying to do to her reader, and we made a list of several other items in the store that she could describe, like a portrait of a scared man looking out the window. Unlike many other students that I've worked with, she was really receptive to my comments and criticisms and actually had a pen out the whole time, writing down suggestions and brainstorming new paragraphs. It was a real treat for me not to spend the time fixing basic problems (she was a really good writer), but actually getting creative and helping her make a great paper. I'd love to find out what her professor thought.

I guess my point is that often, good stuff happens here, and this case reminded me that I'm not always a tutor, but most of the time I am a student too and I can learn from the people who come here. So this is a happy rant...