Tutoring the Academic Essay in the Disciplines: Can We Be Generalists? PWR 195/295 Writing Tutor Training Course

Week 5: Tutoring the Academic Essay in the Disciplines: Can We Be Generalists? Discourse Community Analysis Interviews Takeover Protocol Terrific Tutoring Tips What do we offer specialist writers as generalist tutors? (Quick) review of scholarship Mock Tutoring Takeaways

Multimodal Strategies of Invention and Arrangement For next week Multimodal Strategies of Invention and Arrangement Jackie Grutch McKinney, “New Media Matters: Tutoring in the Late Age of Print” Due: Notes on reading. Reflection on observations/takeovers. . . . from PWR 195/295 blog

Questions to ask in interviews for DCA How did you learn to write in your discipline? How important is writing in the discipline? What elements of writing does the discipline most value? What do you think are the important elements of writing in the discipline that students need to learn? What are good ways to teach students to learn how to write in the discipline? What do those new to the discipline most struggle with in their writing? What advice would you give them? What are the key writing genres in the discipline? What are some samples of writing in the discipline that effectively convey the discipline’s values?

Terrific Tutoring Tips Take-over protocol Clarifying questions What do they do while we read? Mid-session – meta moment – how is the session going?

What do we offer specialist writers as generalist tutors? Reflection on observations Review of scholarship Mock tutoring Reflection in big group: what strategies worked best with specialist writing?

Specialist Tutoring PROS     more knowledgeable about disciplinary conventions -- e.g., peer tutors are often trained to tutor writing in specific courses; they become partners with faculty in initiating writers into the disciplines     writers learn to think about writing as a product of a discourse community more able than non-specialist tutors to engage higher-order issues CONS     tutor may think of writing as a product to be fixed rather than as a process     tutor may function more as a teacher and become directive, rather than tutoring as a peer/collaborator

Generalist Tutoring PROS links writing with learning not to be confused with a TA or grader -- divorces evaluation from the writing process models the value of collaboration in both writing and learning provides new perspectives for thinking about writing facilitates learning to write (in the disciplines) CONS more likely to stick with surface-level writing issues when confronted with specialist writing may “dangerously mislead,” in the words of one of my sources

Transdisciplinary Writing Features well-reasoned arguments supported by peer reviewed sources critical thinking and problem solving creation of new knowledge/ addressing gap in literature logical organization formal language grammatical correctness Dan Melzer, “Training Tutors to Work with Assignments across the Curriculum,” Workshop at Northern California Writing Centers Association, March 2015 (citing Carter 2007; Sullivan and Tinberg 2006; Swales 1990; Thaiss and Zawacki 2006; Waldo 2003).

Disciplinary Writing Features specific genres organizational pattern (e.g. title, abstract of the text, key vocabulary, and subheadings) argument or logic expectations conventions of evidence (e.g. charts, graphs, quotations of experts, facts, statistics, examples, anecdotes, etc.) stylistic or grammatical structures (voice [passive v. active], tense, and modality [degree of certainty]) linguistic features (register and technical words)

Working with Genre Walker Savini Tutors tell clients what conventions to use and create a space to critique and discuss conventions Tutors need to understand that genres are localized and different professors have different expectations Tutors learn about different disciplines and pass knowledge along Tutor acknowledges own familiarity with genre Tutor assesses student’s own genre awareness in five domains (discourse community, writing process, rhetorical-, genre-,and subject matter knowledge) Tutor and student work with a model Tutors guide students toward independent knowledge of discourse community

Mock Tutoring 25 mins each – All-group discussion Use the anatomy of a tutoring session Respond to your peer’s writing goals All-group discussion What tutoring strategies most effectively helped you address specialist writing?

A Discourse Community … has a broadly agreed set of public goals has mechanisms for intercommunication among its members uses its participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback uses and possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims has acquired specific lexis has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and expertise

John Bean’s hierarchy of questions Does the draft follow the assignment? Does the draft address a problem or question and does it have a thesis? What is the overall quality of the writer’s ideas and argument? Is the draft effectively organized? Then, finally, does the writer need to work on grammar, punctuation, or spelling? -Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom

Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing Curiosity: the desire to know more about the world. Openness: the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world. Engagement: a sense of investment and involvement in learning. Creativity: the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas. Persistence: the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects. Responsibility: the ability to take ownership of one’s actions and understand the consequences of those actions for oneself and others. Flexibility: the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands. Metacognition: the ability to reflect on one’s own thinking as well as on the individual and cultural processes used to structure knowledge.

What does this mean for writing instruction? Current traditional rhetoric Focuses on text (product) and formal dimensions of grammatical correctness. Tutors correct. Expressivism (Peter Elbow, Donald Murray, Ken Macrorie) Writing as means of self discovery – goal is to develop an “authentic voice” Tutors help writers understand their process; tutors ask question to get the student to discover and think about ideas. Social constructionism (Kenneth Bruffee, Patricia Bizzell) Focuses on sociocultural and historical settings in which writers develop their understanding of language and knowledge. Tutor is one of a number of peers contributing to the writer’s development.