Getting to Know the Consultants

I knew our Writing Consultants before the summer began. I was in classes with some of them, knew others from professional organizations, and some I knew just from speaking in the hall or in another GTA’s office. But this summer, I’ve spent more time with them than I have before. For the most part, our conversations have been brief social interactions, but we do get professional as well. I think it is helpful to know the personality of the Writing Consultants when you plan to rely heavily on their input in your students’ writing development. We all know that some personalities just don’t work well together and I think it makes the relationship between Consultant and student that much better if I can recommend a specific consultant to a student based on the student’s personality.

With the first session of the summer semester nearly over, I can say in good faith that all of my students have found a consultant who best meshes with their own personality. Each of these students has learned that they can request an appointment with this tutor, even if it means that they have to wait until a later time to set their appointment. I know that this will mean that in the Fall semester they will have a better idea who they want to work with. So in the long run, it’s better for both the student and the consultant if I can give out good recommendations in the beginning.

Communicating (Professionally) with the Consultants

It goes without saying that Writing Consultants can only be as effective as you allow them to be. Our Writing Consultants work with students in all disciplines and with this comes the need for clarity on assignments. In the past, I have always told my students to take the Writing Assignment prompt with them so that the Consultant had an idea as to what the students were doing. But that is not really enough for the Consultant to work with.

This semester, I’ve spoken to the Consultants specifically about the assignments that my students have, I have forwarded them handouts I’ve provided the students and spent time speaking to them about questions they had with the assignments. I think that for this reason, the Consultants have a chance to give more concrete advice in their sessions. This is a key for a good writing consultation. If my students are getting advice that is too vague because the Consultant doesn’t know what’s going on in the class, then the students have a harder time applying the advice to their paper. So, if we can create a relationship where the students and the consultants know how to communicate about the specific things that I am looking for in an assignment, there will be much more improvement in the students work.

Availability and Access

One other thing that I’ve been working very hard to do this semester is make myself more available during my students’ writing consultations. This is somewhat simple for me since my office is literally next door to our Writing Center. With students setting up appointments during class, the Consultants know how to reach me for questions. But for students who do not have appointments during the class period, I encourage them to schedule their appointments during or close to my office hours or to let me know when they have an appointment. This allows me (for the most part) to make myself accessible to the student and consultant if they have questions.

Now, I am not saying that I’m hovering over the consultation. But knowing I am close enough to answer questions has led to several students coming into the office during a consultation to get clarity on a question. It has also led to several Consultants coming to make sure they are providing the most appropriate guidance on a sticky problem. I don’t discuss the consultation with either the student or the Consultant so that that relationship maintains the privelage that allows it to become a productive session. However, I have found that a student who is going the wrong way with an essay can be steeered back in the right direction in a consultation. I like to be nearby if I can help with this.

I have also given students permission to bring their Writing Consultant to their revision conferences. The revision portfolio is the most important part of First Year Composition and it stands to reason that if a student has worked consistently with the same Consultant for the duration of the drafts, they may want this Consultant to be present at the conference. While I have not had students take advantage of this yet, I have had several who made scrupulous notes in their conferences to take to their Consultant with their next appointment.

FInal Thoughts

I realize that the changes I have initiated over the past few weeks may not be the most feasible to every instructor and are much less feasible during the traditional academic year than in the summer. However, I plan to continue with as many of these changes as I can during the true academic year and see if I can continue to improve student writing as I have done this semester. The fact of the matter is that if only one of these changes becomes a full time part of my writing curriculum, it can make a change for the better. If I can get one more student to realize the value of the Writing Center before they leave First Year Composition, then I have one more student on the track to continual improvement in writing. All of my previous students who discovered the Writing Center in their early days of First Year Composition have continued to use the Consultation services throughout college. The key, though, is teaching the students how to put the Writing Center, the Consultants, and the consultation itself to good practice.

Then, just as class was about to start, another student took her cell phone out of class and a moment later, came back with phone in hand and announced

I have the Writing Center on the phone. Does anybody else need to make an appointment?

One of my other students then stood up, stepped outside and set up her own appointment. This is serious progress for my students. I always encourage my students to go to the Writing Center, but for some reason or another, I’ve never had this much success with one single class. So far, I’ve had all of my students schedule writing conferences at least twice this semester. I am even more impressed that I’m getting them to go frequently. I think the reason for this improvement is in the method I took to introducing them to the Writing Center.

Familiarity Aids in Willingness

I have always taken advantage of the Writing Center’s in-class features. In the past, I have always had them come to the class at the beginning of the semester and talk to my students about the benefits of working with a Writing Consultant on their papers. This will generally perk at least one or two of my average writers up and send them to set up an appointment. I’ve learned that if I can get them to set up the first appointment, it’s more likely that they are going to set up another appointment. The problem was getting more than just a few students to realize the potential for the Writing Center.

This semester, I was having a problem readjusting to teaching 2-hour summer blocks of classes and my first few days of lectures were going way too fast. So, on the second day of class–when I normally would have asked a consultant to come speak about the Writing Center–I took my small class to the Writing Center. It seems like this was a good icebreaker. I had the chance to leave them alone with the consultants for half an hour, they were able to see exactly where the Writing Center is, and they got free grammar handbooks out of the trip.

I think this worked as a great icebreaker for the students not only because they were able to find out where the Writing Center is, but they were also able to meet with not just one of the consultants, but meet all of the consultants that they could work with over the semester. Several of the students set up appointments before they left the Writing Center that day.

Adding Incentives

The familiarity was not the only thing that I did to get students to go to the Writing Center. I also gave them a semi-benefit for going. I’ve used this in the past, but it has only worked with one or two of my average students. What I did was tell them that if they would visit the Writing Center, they could have an extra 24 hours to turn their paper in. In the Fall and Spring semesters, I do the same thing. This time, it resulted in all of my students getting the extra time to turn in their paper. I don’t know how much this has to do with the amount of quick writing the students are doing during these short Summer semesters, but I do know that this is working well for the students. 

I give them this extra time to make it more worth their time to go to the Writing Center. If you think about it, if the paper is due on Tuesday and the student has the chance to make their Writing Center appointment for Monday, they may feel rushed to make the changes and still get the paper in on time. But giving them the extra 24 hours gives them the chance to work with the changes suggested by the Writing Consultant.

Changing up the Idea of the “In Class Workshop”

I think, though, that the biggest reason that the students have taken so well to the Writing Center this semester has to do with the final incentive I gave them. I always set up two days of in-class writing workshops over the course of a unit. This gives students a specific time to spend time working on their essays and gives them the chance to ask questions about their essays at a time when they can get answers before the flow of writing dissipates. In the past, I have requested a Writing Consultant to be present at the first of these workshops. This allows the students to learn what the Writing Consultant has to offer and has led a few other students to set up an appointment with the Writing Center.

I didn’t use this tactic this semester. Instead, I told my students that if they wanted to use part of their class time on these dates for an appointment with the Writing Center, they could do so. I put parameters on this idea, though. They had to attend class between 8am and 9am (our class runs 8-10am), but they could set up an appointment at either 9 or 9:30 and leave for their appointment about 15 minutes early. I also told them that they could only set up these appointments on days that are clearly indicated on the syllabus as In-class writing workshops. Writing Center appointments are not a reason to miss class on any other day of the semester.

My students took a great advantage of this throughout the semester. Just last week, my class was a virtual ghost town. Why? Well, I have 8 students this semester. Three of these students had appointments at 9am, three at 9:30 am, and the two that were diligently working in class after the other six had left both had appointments for later in the day. It has worked really well.

Final Thoughts

So now that I have all of my students frequenting the Writing Center, I see much better essays. I see my students asking more detailed questions about what I’m looking for in an essay. I am sure that some of this comes from the bright students I have, but I also know that it comes from the Q&A session they do with their Writing Consultants as they begin working on the essay.

I cannot say that all of the improvements I’ve seen among students attending the Writing Center frequently are due to the changes that I made in class. Another serious factor to improving student writing using the Writing Center is due to communication between myself and the Writing Center. But this post has gotten a bit lengthy, so I’ll continue in a separate post.