Essay On Writing Tutors

The real world’s standards are constantly evolving, growing ever more demanding on the public education system, yet despite this the primary indicator used for the success of the public education system is the high school graduation rate. The high school graduation rate is a deeply flawed statistic conceived many decades ago and hasn’t changed at all, failing to encompass better and broader definitions for public education system success. However, the focus on critical writing skills at New Dorp High School had the effect of dramatically increasing the school’s graduation rate from 63 percent before the “writing revolution” to 80 percent (Tyre). At face value the increase is a tremendous success, but just because a student can graduation high school does not mean they have the technical skills to prepare them for college or the workforce. A list of the fastest growing occupations in the United States provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics mostly includes jobs from the medical field or occupations that require

Besides the fact that the writing center is understaffed, there are some challenges faced every day by all writing centers, not just the writing center at NOVA Alexandria. Some of these challenges were mentioned in a paper by Rachel Cooke and Carol Blesdoe, “(1) guiding students through the sequence of the writing process; (2) assisting students who may be uncertain about assignment guidelines; (3) operating under time constraints; (4) empowering students to take charge of their learning; and (5)evaluation of sources for quality and preventing plagiarism.”

Wardle says that any new worker, who is becoming member of a discourse community, encounters issues with authority and identity concerning learning to write for the workplace. In order for the new worker to learn new written practices, they may be asked to “give up some measure of authority to which they believe they are entitled” (Wardle 4) Wardle means that whatever the workplace recognizes as effective or appropriate, although it may not be, has to be recognized by the new worker as such. Hence, the new worker is being asked to give up values of efficiency and ethics for the sake of fitting into their workplace. Wardle defines authority as “an intangible quality granted to persons through institutions, which renders their pronouncements

University Writing Center (UWC) and Academic Success Center (ASC) are two of the university facilities that help students enrich their academic experience. While UWC assists students in improving their written and oral communication skills through one to one consulting sessions, online resources, and workshops, ASC works to enhance students’ intellectual performance through academic coaching, supplemental instruction, drop-in tutoring sessions, and peer mentoring. Both of the organizations take a collaborative learning approach to encourage students to develop necessary study skills for academic success and increase student retention. ASC offers various student development programs; however, our focus for this proposal will be on drop-in tutoring services offered by ASC.

Adrienne Rich’s essay about “Teaching Language in Open Admissions” left me with much to ponder. I echo her sentiment about the “secret fantasy of many teachers: the ill-scrawled essay...which has the mark of genius” (Rich 14). I think all teachers have the innate desire to be able to say at some point, “Hey! I taught that student!” Rich explains that the SEEK program was for those students traditionally written off from college because of “the politics of their situation” (19). I’ve seen students in similar circumstances within my own teaching experiences. Rich mentions students with no nostalgia for high school or the experiences found there. As a high school teacher, it hurts my heart that there are so many students who do not have good experiences or memories of high school. Working in a non-traditional public high school gives me a different perspective on the traditional educational system. I have to agree with Rich, “that education has failed for too many students” (21). I was especially given pause by the thought that writing offers a type of freedom for students (Rich 23). I had never considered the freedom offered by writing expression.

One aspect that has been suggested and criticized all at once is the notion of having a purposefully diverse cast of writing center tutors. Bethany Davila, a graduate student and writing center tutor at DePaul University, claims, “When writing centers fail to acknowledge or question the power structure within which

Linguist James Paul Gee introduces the concept of literacy discourse by defining language as both what an individual says and how they present it. Literary language an important factor to maintaining academic discourse, because as Gee suggests this influences discourses being used correctly . Furthermore Gee suggests that in order to follow the intended guidelines correct discourse “must say or write the right thing in the right way while playing the right social role.” (pg.6) Indeed, within my academic experience using discourse here at Wayne State University, I agree with Gees definition of student’s adaptation of behavioral roles set by the institution. For example, students at Wayne State are expected to achieve a steady progression

In 2003, the National Commission on Writing in America’s Schools and Colleges published a report called The Neglected ‘’R’’: The Need for a Writing Revolution. This report argued that ‘’writing has been forgotten in American schools for the past 20 years and how now it must receive the attention it deserves’’. As the name of the report mentions, there are three Rs in education. This refers to the foundations of a basic skills-oriented education program in schools: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. According to the above mentioned report published in 2003, ‘’Writing, Education’s Second R, has become the neglected element of American school reform. The school improvement journey that began 20 years ago with the publication of A Nation at Risk

Cynthia Haven is the writer of an article called “The New Literacy: Stanford study finds richness and complexity in students' writing” that is a study based on the amount of writing college students do. She followed students at Stanford during their undergraduate years and the first year after that. She discovered that today’s students are writing more than any generation before it. Cynthia had the students she was studying submit all of the writing they did, academic or personal. She found that only 62 percent of the work submitted to her was for classes; the rest of the material was “Life writing”.

In Peg Tyre’s article, The Writing Evolution, he addresses how some students struggled with writing in schools and how more time needed to be spent on teaching the proper aspects of writing. In his article, Tyre mentions a specific high school that took large measures to figure out why their students were doing so poorly on english and writing exams. This particular high school, New Dorp, made a writing revolution in which they placed an intense focus across nearly every academic subject, teaching the skills that underlie good analytical writing (Tyre 4). They received extraordinary results. Pass rates for the English Regents, for example, bounced from 67 percent in June 2009 to 89 percent in 2011 (Tyre 4). The number of kids enrolling in a program that allowed them to take college-level classes shot up from 148 students in 2006 to 412 students in 2011 (Tyre 4).

The nature of writing has changed in the past century. While writing still remains a form of visual communication, much of this change has been a result of technological advancements such as, from pen to paper or from a typewriter to a networked computer. The changes and expansion in the ways we are able to write today have brought about changes in writing pedagogy as well. The teaching of writing has been part of formal schooling in the United States for over 200 years (Kean 7). One major pedagogic change in United States’ education has to do with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. These standards have led to a change in the instruction of writing in schools. This paper, will focus on instructional changes of writing over time and current expectations for writing abilities as whole.

Going into my first week of self-led tutoring sessions, I was extremely anxious due to the high expectations I placed on myself. I wanted to be able to every rule regarding grammar, confident as recognizing errors concerning a poorly organized essay or weak thesis. In addition to these expectations, I was also worried that I would come off as demeaning to the student or incapable of explain why the student made an error. I wanted to establish my authority, while also ensuring that all of my students felt like they learned something new or got clarity on something they were confused about. As a began tutoring, I realized that my demeanor in the writing sessions, should have been the least of my concerns. Most of my students, engaged in the writing session, felt free to ask questions, or even laughed in the session. I think that was in part to me not taking myself too seriously in the sessions. I naturally compliment my students, and leave most of my anxieties behind. I encourage my students to not be reserved or afraid to tell me if they are confused, by being as transparent as possible. This means that during several times in the session I will ask or say, “Did that make sense,” “You look a little confused. Let me explain that in another way,” or “I’m sorry if I confused you before.”

Seeking to obtain a cashier position with CVS pharmacy where I can apply my customer service skills.

Incompetence in literature is on the rise in today’s society. “Students in two- and four-year colleges have the greatest difficulty with quantitative literacy: approximately 30 percent of students in two-year institutions and nearly 20 percent of students in 4-year institutions have only basic quantitative literacy.” (cite) In “The Shadow Scholar”, Jonathan Barkat tells the story of Ed Dante, a ghost writer who is paid significantly well for writing numerous papers for higher education students. “The Shadow Scholar” not only illustrates the ghost writing community, but also exposes serious flaws in the educational system and shows just how far students are willing to go in the quest for academic perfection.

I believe that achieving success in teaching very different aspects of life may still combine similar processes. My life in high school was very similar to the lives of many other students in that it revolved around two things: sports and school. My sport of choice was tennis and my favorite academic area was English. Unexpectedly, I found many similarities led to a successful performance in both areas. My understanding of the need for a good program to follow and a lot of practice with it led to success in both tennis and my academic performance (especially English). Upon becoming a recognized player in my area, I decided to take the skill that I knew better than any other and utilize it as a