Let me start off by saying that it was both nerve wrecking and exciting! I was extremely nervous but as I was tutoring the student, the nerves started to disappear. I am so happy to have had my first experience in tutoring a student.
Impression:
My overall impression of the student's paper was that he had some sort of idea of his opinion on gentrification but he lacked structure and research and various arguments against gentrification. I was a little concerned on how I was going to help the student since he did not have much I could work with but I remembered that in our Tutoring Writing book they express the importance of conversation as one of the strategies if the student does not have a draft.
Suggestions:
I decided to use the technique of having a conversation although he had some kind of draft. I used that because his draft lacked a lot of stuff that was needed. So I asked him to first choose a side. If he was for or against gentrification. In the second paragraph he mentioned that he says that it is good and bad but due to the essay he needed to pick a side. He had a hard time choosing and so I suggested that maybe he would want to say that he was against the topic because most of his draft was focusing on the negatives of gentrification. I asked if he agreed or felt that he was more on the side of the negative effects than the positive effects of gentrification. He said that he leaned more towards the side of gentrification being a cancer.
I then took that conversation further and asked him why he felt that it was bad. He expressed his ideas and I jotted them down for him. I then asked if there was anything in the articles that he received from the professor that would back up his ideas. He was not too sure and I could not help out with that because he did not have the articles on him. I made the suggestion that if he wanted to, he could attempt to get and outside research source just to make his ideas more stronger.
We then proceeded to fix his essay outline (structure) since that was missing. I drew out an example outline for him just to give him an idea on how an essay should be structured. I then told him that he does not have to stick with what I have outlined and he could play around with it and decide what ideas are more important to discuss first or last. I then emphasized the importance of having the research to back up his ideas and he needs to cite where those sources came from. I noticed he had no thesis at all and so I explained to him that your thesis is an introduction to your claims (ideas). Like when we watch a movie we are always usually given a preview for that movie. Well in the introductory paragraph and your thesis the same concept applies. Your are giving the reader a sneak peek on what you are going to be discussing.
LOC's:
I asked if he knew MLA formatting and he said that the professor went over it but he didn't sound to sure. I quickly expressed to him the basic MLA format that essay needed to be in. He then asked a question about his first intro paragraph and see if there was anything wrong with his sentences. Talk about hitting a complete panic attack. LOC are my weakness and I honestly have no idea on how to explain why it should be like this or why things are like that. I was freaking out on the inside but remained calm on the outside. I read his paragraph and immediately realized that he had run-on sentences. I then asked him if he has ever read his paper out loud or if he has had someone else read it out loud for him. He answered no and I knew what suggestion to make. I told him in the future always read your paper aloud that way you can catch when you should probably put a period or a comma. I proceeded to read his first paragraph aloud to him and then asked him to tell me where he felt there should be a period or comma. He actually knew exactly where they should have been placed since I read it out loud to him. I then expressed to him that there maybe things that he could add or take out of the paragraph. He had too many unnecessary details that had nothing to do with the paragraph. So i made a suggestion and fixed the first two sentenced and asked if he thought that made the paragraph better or worse. He said it was better and I asked him to find maybe another sentence he could tweak. I told him that everything he writes has to be focused on the meat (idea) of the paragraph and the other sentences should be the fat (claim) of the paragraph.
Overall:
It was great practice and I can't wait to do it again. I believe I helped him out and I did encourage him and told him he had great ideas. After-all he was the one who came up with the ideas I just helped push him and organize it. Every student needs that encouragement! :-)
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