Notes:
· ESL student
· Reviewing a highlighted, edited essay
· Source review
· APA problems with citations
· Using websites as an in-text citation
· Issues with professor edits, changing the POV from third to secondà confused the student
Major theme of this field report:
-Navigating the balance between a professor’s edits (and a peer tutor’s edits)
Preliminary Questions:
· Which teacher edits should a student implement? Which edits should be ignored?
· How do you deal with a professor who imposes their writing style in their edits of students’ work?
Synopsis:
This session seemed a bit chaotic, and I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. I believe the student arrived earlier than the appointment time, even though I was not considered late for the observation. From what I gathered, the ESL student received an edited essay from her professor with margin comments made in the Word document. The essay was in APA style. The student and tutor were reviewing each comment that was made by the professor, and going in depth about whether the edit should be implemented or ignored. This session proved to show me a different side of tutoring in which difficult professors (i.e. those that reword students’ entire sentences) can harm a student’s academic growth, rather than aid it. In this instance, the student was utterly confused about some of the changes suggested by the professor. An edit that boggled both the tutor and the student was an in-text citation. The professor had commented that the website (no author) in-text citation had to be changed to a different format, but didn’t specify what change should be made. The tutor consulted a grammar book that said the website title can be placed in the sentence, usually included as part of the sentence. The tutor then asked me for my opinion, since I am familiar with APA, however, I mentioned the fact that my biology professors disallow the use of website citations in my line of writing. Therefore, it has been years since I used a website as a source for my papers. Nonetheless, I made a comment that perhaps the tutee should copy the citation style directly from the grammar book they were using and then ask the professor for clarification. The rest of the session discussed other grammar errors the professor had highlighted, and these errors are not worth discussing in this field report.
Afterthoughts/connection to readings:
This session seemed a bit chaotic, and I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. I believe the student arrived earlier than the appointment time, even though I was not considered late for the observation. From what I gathered, the ESL student received an edited essay from her professor with margin comments made in the Word document. The essay was in APA style. The student and tutor were reviewing each comment that was made by the professor, and going in depth about whether the edit should be implemented or ignored. This session proved to show me a different side of tutoring in which difficult professors (i.e. those that reword students’ entire sentences) can harm a student’s academic growth, rather than aid it. In this instance, the student was utterly confused about some of the changes suggested by the professor. An edit that boggled both the tutor and the student was an in-text citation. The professor had commented that the website (no author) in-text citation had to be changed to a different format, but didn’t specify what change should be made. The tutor consulted a grammar book that said the website title can be placed in the sentence, usually included as part of the sentence. The tutor then asked me for my opinion, since I am familiar with APA, however, I mentioned the fact that my biology professors disallow the use of website citations in my line of writing. Therefore, it has been years since I used a website as a source for my papers. Nonetheless, I made a comment that perhaps the tutee should copy the citation style directly from the grammar book they were using and then ask the professor for clarification. The rest of the session discussed other grammar errors the professor had highlighted, and these errors are not worth discussing in this field report.
Afterthoughts/connection to readings:
This session reminded me of our readings, Chapter 2 and 7, in Researching the Writing Center. The tutor’s job is to develop a student’s writing skills, and this does not necessarily translate to a student getting a better grade. This student seemed adamant in sticking with the professor’s edits. The tutor seemed to support this notion of making sure that the edits followed exactly with the professor’s. I think writing tutors should have a different goal in mind. This means sticking with the student’s voice, so long as the student has a clear sentence structure, minimal to no errors in grammar, and each sentence aids in the main idea of the paper. This particular student seemed more concerned with appeasing the professor rather than developing life-long writing skills. The previous statement is to be taken lightly because it is really a hard reflection of my opinion of the session. I find that my opinion is grounded in the fact that the professor was rewording entire sentences in the student’s work that didn’t need to be changed or reworded. Certain edits that contained entire rewording of sentences was looked over by the tutor and me, and we both concluded that these particular professor edits were unnecessary (and quite frankly, an insult to the ESL student).
Unfortunately, I have no clear answers to my preliminary questions. However, I think that as a developing tutor who is actively engaged in English 250, I think that my belief concerning this topic lies in agreement with our readings. I don’t think a professor’s edits are the “gold standard.” The problem lies in the fact that too many students are eager to get a good grade in the present rather than develop their writing skills for the future. As a biology major, and one who has discussed questionable professor grading regarding lab reports I have written, I’ve concluded that I no longer take to heart the edits I receive on my lab reports. Most of these edits are relative and reflect the professor’s style of writing, and what they believe to be “correct.” The only edits I take seriously are edits regarding the main idea (coherence, paragraph order) and source credibility edits.
Possible Solutions:
- Minimize bias grading by having another student/professor hide the author’s names of submitted work
- Ask the professor to justify their edits
