I believe as Tim A. was writing his post on Wednesday, I was coming up with the same idea in mine.
Wednesday, the 24th, was two full hours of, “Can you edit this?” “Can you take a look and let me know what needs to be fixed?” “I’m not sure what we should work on, specifically.”
Not that I mind helping students out with their work, I however mind the word edit. The word edit, as defined by dictionary.com is “to supervise or direct the preparation of (a newspaper, magazine, book, etc.); serve as editor of; direct the editorial policies of.” I am NOT an editor. I am a tutor. The word tutor from dictionary.com is “a person employed to instruct another in some branch or branches of learning.” I am here to teach you about yourself as a writer and to help you progress with the English language as well as progress your use of rhetoric. If I were an editor, and all of us at the Writing Center were editors, this would be called the Editing Center.
Is there or should there be a preface to a session? Some sort of message that comes with booking an appointment that says something along the lines of “In order for tutee and tutor to work together, please work alongside your tutor and engage with your text as clearly as possible” or “Please come to your tutoring session prepared and ready to specifically state your exact wants/needs from a session (i.e. editing is not a specific enough qualification for a session).”
Maybe I’m stressed out because school is getting busy, or maybe I’m onto something here. That is something I would like to discuss with all of you. What are your thoughts on this matter? What do you do when students have nothing more to say than “Can you edit this?” Do all students (whether they say it or not) want a free edit? Is it wrong of me to want more substance than the process of editing?
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I find that many of my tutees are writing down the word "editing" as what they would like to work on during our session. However, I have begun to teach them HOW to edit. Normally, I ask: "Is there anything in particular that you usually have trouble with?" So far, everyone has had an answer. From there, I will read through a couple of paragraphs and place a star by a couple of sentences where this is an issue, and we will go over them together. This way, I understand what exactly they don't understand. When I think they understand their problem areas a little better, I send them on their way to finish editing the rest.
ReplyDeleteFor those who do not try to understand, I tell them, "I will not do this for you." And I explain it to them anyways. I go through the same routine, but if they aren't connecting while editing those couple of sentences, I will send them away to come back when they will try.
I've actually had a couple of sessions very similar to both Tim's. I, too, feel very stressed with the tutee sits down and after I ask them what their goals are for the session they respond with "I just need someone to look it over and see if I have any mistakes." That is not our job. I wish we could add some sort of preface mentioning that we are not an editing center, but a center to help the progress of writing. I think I feel overwhelmed with this balance struggle because I'm not sure how to go about fixing this problem so that the solution remains permanent. Is there even a solution like that out there?
ReplyDeleteI had a student come in yesterday that did not come out and say the word "edit." In fact, she wanted more than an editor, she took it one step further. She told me that she needed to write a conclusion and then stared at my blankly. I helped her to outline a possible conclusion and asked her to write it for herself using my guidelines. We stopped talking for ten minutes and when I went back to her computer she was on the internet, and had not even began her conclusion. I was upset and felt used. I knew she wanted me to feed her the words and I refused to do so. My point is that I agree with Tim's idea that we should inform students exactly why we are here and what we do. We are not editors and most certianly not ghost writers.
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