Reflections on Sondra Perl's "Understanding Composing"

I found Sondra Perl's essay to be very helpful. As I was reading I found myself in agreement with so much of what she was saying and I recalled writing works of my own where I'd practiced the term used to describe the focus of writer's attention called "felt sense" practically every time. My own strategies for writings were brought to mind as I read along and she really pin-points so many of the writing process realities that take place while composing. It was interesting to see the ways you formulate your own writing structure actually written in words as she has. It really amazes how so many thought's can come into your mind while you're totally unconscious of it. The guidelines she creates are quite interesting and I think people should be open to trying a new approach to writing especially if their traditional way seems unsuccessful. It's very easy to become distracted while writing so, what she has written are great tools to becoming even greater writers.

Tutoring Do's and Don'ts

Don't!
-get personal, it's not a therapy session -brag about everything you know, the session is for the student in need of help -put down the student, they won't benefit and may not ever come back -fidget or be easily distracted -rush, the student deserves their full time in order to benefit from the session -be late! the tutor is supposed to be as helpful as possible -blame student, everyone learns at a different pace and it isn't helpful to blame the student for not being as fast as you might like -take too long to begin helping student


Do!
-be specific with student -allow student to speak about what they are looking to improve -focus on what they need -remain calm and try to be understanding -offer direction when student needs help -follow professor's instructions when trying to improve a paper

How I feel about becoming a tutor

The thought of becoming a tutor is exciting to me. I really love English and writing and I want to be able to get others to at least become more confident in their writing. I cannot say yet how productive I will be but I am hopeful that my passion for writing will speak for itself when the time comes and I'll be effective. Most importantly, I want the students I'll be tutoring to understand why certain issues in whatever they write need to be resolved. I hope I'm able to relay the information accurately so that they'll actually understand why what I point out needs attention and not make the same mistakes again. That is definitely my biggest aspiration and my biggest concern.

What I have learned about being a writing tutor & how I feel about becoming one

My experience yesterday in the writing center was as I expected. The tutor we observed noticed many grammatical errors in his students writing works and focused on fixing those problems. This kind of mixes me up, especially since I tend to focus on the grammar above all things, myself. We're told that the issue of grammar isn't supposed to be the main focus of the paper and I have to admit, I tend to disagree with that system so that will definitely be a challenge for me.
Time management is something I've learned. It's very important and yet quite challenging to provide each student a session that is benefiting to them in such a short amount of time. Each student is in need of special assistance and deserves their fair amount of time with the tutor so it is imperative that the tutor be mindful of that.

Why I said what to Sohyun and Eeping

When reading Sohyun's post about symbolism and tone in her poem, I thought her writing was great, didn't need that much help from me and enjoyed reading her essay. I let her know I thought she was on the right track and my HOC was about her details. I would have liked to have read a little more about why symbols in the poem were so significant.
Stephanie's essay was also good. I found in hers however, she gave the symbols and tone the same example and I didn't feel like she took the time to develop exactly what it was she thought set them apart and that the essay would have been more pronounced if she went further into it.