Sigh. Not to be the stereotypical anti-tutor, but it seems like we've already had the same arguments about writers vs. texts, and I'm pretty sure the jury is still out on that one (is that a colloquialism?). Thats because there is no right judgement, only a right tutee and a right time, as Ortoleva states. I don't think he did an awful job of 'meditiating' on this movement from text to writer or vice versa, nor do I have any complaints about how he writes. I liked how he observed that when a tutor works with a student from a completely different discipline, they are almost forced to focus more on the writer, since they can't really understand the writing.
Personally, I've had an experience with sucha student; he was a biology major, and I'm..not. His paper was about some kind of germ that is found in the roots of some kind of species of goldenrod and radish. Totally bizzarre, and I only understood every other word int he paper. On top of all the confusion about WHAT the paper was about, the structure of the paper was different! Who knew the other departments wrote differently?? Apparently this paper was written in a 'lab' format, where only scientific material and fact could be presented. No opinion, no flowery words, no metaphor..what the heck? This wasn't writing! It was robotic regurgitation of boring ideas, right? Not so much. after 15 minutes of having the writer explain to me what it was we were doing, and how I could help him, I was ready to let him be the tutor. We finally came to an understandign, and the rest of the session went fairly smoothly. Turns out he really only needed emotional support. Anyways, we ended up focusing more on him and his interpretation and how he presented the facts rather than the paper itsself, and so that's how I had my first text-centered tutoring session.
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The anti-tutor rides again! I hope that doing the text analysis in class showed you that Ortoleva was trying to do more than rehash an old argument; he was trying (perhaps not successfully) to show us the need for a shift in writing center practice. Not to set myself up as Supreme Goddess of Tutor Training Classes, but I have tried very hard to present the idea of flexible, reflective practice in our class from day one. Many other writing centers don't take that approach: They preach "be writer-centered" so heavily that tutors are afraid to be text-centered, even when it might make sense. But beyond my own approach, I also think you have such a strong sense of what works for you and what doesn't that all of the theory we have read for class has been filtered through the "anti-tutor" screen - by which I mean, you already know how to pick and choose what makes sense to you and what doesn't, and instead of worrying about the "right" approach, you're focused on finding workable approaches. That kind of confidence is rare in new tutors - I certainly didn't have it - and I think that is at the heart of what makes you our wonderful, thought-provoking, fly-in-the-ointment anti-tutor. (Oh, and jury is still out is a colloquialism, yes.)
ReplyDeleteI have not yet had to eet with a client that was writing something as "major specific" as that. Hopefully, when the times arrives, I can remember this whole "lab format" approach.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I would expect (or at least hope) that most of these students who visit with a paper like this would realize that writing is the focus of our abilities.