Some Things to Think About as a
Writing Fellow
by Danielle
- Every writer is different: I think it is generally helpful to make sure that you
approach each paper as if it were similar to others, but at the same time vastly
different. This may help with some of my thoughts below.
- While meeting a student, remember to give positive feedback before negative.
Additionally, if there are serious "issues" with the paper, try and go through
the paper step by step, this way you avoid overwhelming the student, and accidentally
"turning them off" from their writing.
- After looking at a paper, sometimes it is helpful to think about "the big
picture." Meaning, look for what the student's major problem is, be it organization,
content, quality of analysis, and/or replete grammatical areas. In doing this, rather than
spending a meeting going over the "nitty gritty," you can talk to the student
about general techniques for organization, analysis, etc.
- Give the student options: ask her how SHE wants to look at her paper. Students may
appreciate all of your work, but may not want you to go over all of your comments with
them. On the other hand, some students want to sit there while you "review"
every single line. When one generally approaches a student and asks them how they want you
to go over a paper, the general response is, "uhhhh, I don’t know,
whatever." If this happens, I recommend asking when the paper is due, and then
listing the different options you can think of (i.e. "Well we could really take it
apart, or I could talk to you about…" or, "we could just talk about some
general thoughts I had about your writing, which may help you with this paper and others
that you may write").
- Have FUN! I firmly believe that going to a Writing Fellow is not a scary thing, but not
everyone does. Remember to laugh, joke, and yes, even smile when meeting with a student.