Every now and then when helping a tutee out with their work, I'll come across something that makes me cringe mentally. When I see something like "I believe" or "I feel" in their writing I have to stop myself from asking "Really?".
I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one who gets a tad annoyed by these kind of things every now and then, so I'm asking you to share what it is that bugs you when you are working with your tutee.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
We need a law
Can we just ban the proposed solutions to some problem or other that start with, "The government should do something about [fill in current topic here]"?
The freaking government? Really?
I recently read a paper on bad manners that called for the government to do something about it. I am NOT making this up.
Someone should pass a law prohibiting this line of thinking.
The freaking government? Really?
I recently read a paper on bad manners that called for the government to do something about it. I am NOT making this up.
Someone should pass a law prohibiting this line of thinking.
Google Earth/MapQuest tutoring
Do you ever find that your work with student writers devolves into line-by-line error-finding? Of course, we can always try to offset this with finding something positive to say ("What an interesting topic! However did you choose it?").
Do you have another way of working with student writers and student papers that works any better?
Here's one: sometimes I don't even READ the paper. This actually works great--I just skim far enough to find something that appears to be a thesis, and then predict aloud how the writer might have developed it. (I always ASK if this is, in fact, the point they intended to develop. Sometimes I'm wrong.) This is a conversational opener and is followed by a lot more of me asking questions like "Do you feel that you developed that point sufficiently, or do you think you could stand to brainstorm effects a little more?" I call it my Google Earth (or MapQuest) tutoring strategy: zoom out for a bird's eye view before trying to navigate the by-ways.
That fact the I don't immediately start reading the paper line-by-line seems to be kind of disconcerting to some students at first, but usually they do a quick recovery and buy in to my madness.
Do you have another way of working with student writers and student papers that works any better?
Here's one: sometimes I don't even READ the paper. This actually works great--I just skim far enough to find something that appears to be a thesis, and then predict aloud how the writer might have developed it. (I always ASK if this is, in fact, the point they intended to develop. Sometimes I'm wrong.) This is a conversational opener and is followed by a lot more of me asking questions like "Do you feel that you developed that point sufficiently, or do you think you could stand to brainstorm effects a little more?" I call it my Google Earth (or MapQuest) tutoring strategy: zoom out for a bird's eye view before trying to navigate the by-ways.
That fact the I don't immediately start reading the paper line-by-line seems to be kind of disconcerting to some students at first, but usually they do a quick recovery and buy in to my madness.
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