Snakes or Failure...Neither please!

My two biggest fears are snakes and failure, and have been for a very long time haha. Certainly I have very different reactions when faced with the presence of either, but both surely do produce a real sense of anxiety. My fear of failure is something that I guess you can say I've "struggled" with for awhile now. It got to a point where it was negatively affecting my life in the middle years of high school. I was a top student and athlete in my school and had never really experienced a true sense of personal failure before, and so I became very anxious all the time. I feel like it was two-fold; to one regard I was afraid of what people's reaction to my own failure would be, while at the same time I was nervous as to what failure meant, it represented the unknown, something that I did not have much experience with. Eventually through my experiences and by talking with friends and family I was able to mitigate this fear to a degree, so that it helped me to stay motivated and work hard without the negative repercussions of constant anxiety and fear.

Just as I have experienced in my own life, an unchecked fear of failure can seriously impede a writer. Anxiety and a hesitancy to show passion in writing can be very easily recognized by any reader, and so in this way a writer's fear can be directly manifested in their writings. Even this is taking for granted that a writer was able to overcome such fear and write anything at all. It is unlikely that as consultants we will face such an enormous fear of failure in the contexts of writing, but even minor fears can have real negative effects. It is our job to put the writer at ease and make it known that it really is normal for such anxieties to exist.

Personal anecdotes and strategies seem to me, to be the most effective way in which to create this atmosphere of understanding and openness. After all, its not an act; each and everyone of us have struggled to write a paper at one point or another, many have probably feared to pursue a point in an argument that differs greatly from the professor's views. It is crucial to use our own experiences in order to assist the writers that we consult; these writers are our peers, if we don't understand what they are going through, then who will.

Consultant Shadowing (Day 4)

I got the opportunity, to once again, observe a consultation regarding an international student. This particular time the writer was an exchange student from Turkey, and had only been in the U.S. since the start of the semester. Having already received comments from her teacher on the assignment, the writing consultant was able to focus more on the broader ideas of style and sentence structure, rather than the idioms of individual grammar issues. It was interesting to see how the writer attempted to use turns of phrase that were uncommonly used in English, yet were not technically wrong. It was difficult for the consultant to explain these "unwritten rules" to the writer because many of them have no reasoning. This being said, she did a great job of showing the correct ways in which to express the writer's ideas in a more clear and concise manner. It was especially beneficial to observe another ESL consultation, because I feel like that is where I lack the most experience as of now. As a bit of a side not, I have been impressed with the level of writing that many of these students are able to produce in English. It is a remarkable skill to be fluent in multiple languages, and frankly a skill I am quite jealous of haha.

Rives' Videos...only 6 weeks late

So for some reason I decided to go back and re-watch one of Rives' videos back from our week-one folder. I can't say that I expected the mild obsession that over-took me though, without barely realizing it, I found myself watching every single one of the video's posted on blackboard, not to mention the rest of his season, "Ironic Iconic America" which I found online (and no Bar Refaeli was not the ONLY reason I watched lol). I was absolutely mesmerized by his ability to use the same words that you and I use everyday, to transcend the normal mode in which we speak and create such an entertaining art-form. In some of the videos I was more impressed by the ways in which he manipulated the words to rhyme and flow, whereas in other sketches I was more taken aback by his ability to formulate such a powerful message. In a way, Rives' videos have made me more excited about writing, in a way that I can't always say I am. Clearly the ways he uses language in his poetry jams and sketches are entirely different from how I formulate language in say a paper, but the 'art' of using rhetoric to convince or entertain still remains consistent. It is the ability to transform simple words into such a powerful and impressive presentation, an ability which Rives most certainly has, that makes language so interesting to me.

Consultant Shadowing (Day 3)

After I shadowed yesterday in the writing center, I could have sworn that the consultation I observed was staged; the consultant did everything we have been talking about recently, as if it had been choreographed lol. After a nice hello and a friendly introduction, the consultant (let's call her Mary) asked to see the assignment sheet so that they could work through it together. After reading it aloud she gave the writer a chance to explain what she felt the prompt was asking for, and then used her response as a starting ground for a conversation about the paper. Even as they worked through the essay piece by piece, Mary always managed to maintain a very conversation-like tone. This is something we talked a lot about earlier in the Semester, because it helps to foster open dialogue between the writer and the consultant. Mary also cited personal experiences of hers that related to the topics as they discussed them, this added to the atmosphere of open dialogue and also encouraged the writer that such mistakes and struggles were common, even for a writing consultant. Lastly, after answering all the writer's questions and easing her concerns, Mary told the writer that even though the center was booked for the next few days before the paper was due, that she would be happy to meet with her at the writer's convenience to go over the paper one final time. I found this very encouraging, that even during midterm week, she was willing to go out of her way to help the writer.

Writing Consultant = Facilitator

I have to say, Straub's article on the dynamics of the teacher-student relationship, is right on point with how I feel we must act as writing consultants. Given how 'personal' writing is, we must always be conscious of taking away ownership from the writer. While a consultation must be collaborative in the sense that it is an open conversation, and that both individuals must work together, the essay itself is not; a assignment must remain the work of the writer.

It is much easier to simply recognize this in theory, than it is to implement in a practical scenario. As subjective as writing is, it presents quite a challenge to resist the urge to interject based solely on the bias of your own style. David Fuller puts it well, "I let the student see the effect the text had on me and
make decisions based on that". That insight is what impacted me the most from the article, it incorporates many of the themes we have been discussing all year long. In this method, the consultant enables the writer to see how the piece is perceived by his/her audience. Learning to write based on the demands of your audience is crucial in producing effective writing. The quote is also a testament to the importance of letting the writer, understand the critique, make the decisions, and write the paper.

College Essay Consultation

Earlier today I finally had a chance to Skype with my sister, Melanie, and talk about her college essay for the first time. Like I anticipated, she was a little overwhelmed by the essay at first. For her it seemed so broad of a topic that it was difficult to narrow her thoughts down. She asked me what I thought the purpose of the essay was, and I said that it should speak of her personality and passions outside of the classroom. Her outstanding grades and participation in extracurricular activities are proof of how well she does academically; I urged her to see the essay as a chance to tell an admissions officer something about herself. As we talked about what topics she might like to include, or perhaps what stories or experiences she would like to share, I could see her beginning to feel excited rather than anxious. To be honest, I didn't need to do much in order for her to get organized and passionate. I really just played the role of a listener, someone she could bounce ideas off of and discuss with. I feel like I completed the primary goal of the consultation, which was to assist her in leaving the consultation passionate and eager to work, with ideas she can really develop into a successful essay.