I went to the Writing Center for a second this week. It ended up being a much more positive experience than the first time, despite having the same tutor.
This time, a girl came in with a paper from her Criminal Justice class. Like the previous session, the tutor did not introduce himself, but did say "hi" and had a half smile on his face. He seemed to be in a much better mood than the last time we saw each other. Perhaps he was having a bad day before, perhaps he has a mood disorder. Who knows.
Anyway, he read over her paper, which the girl's professor had already graded and marked up. The tutor went on to explain the numerous grammatical errors and gave her concrete suggestions on how to improve them. (Simple things like possession and apostrophes, when and when not a word should be plural, run-on sentences, etc). It was marked improvement upon the previous session in which the most constructive criticism he had was that she needs to improve her grammar.
This session also lasted longer, probably because this paper needed major improvements. For example, her thesis, about crime in her neighborhood and how to improve the situation, while interesting, was not being proved throughout the paper. She was advocating for increased police presence in the neighborhood, but was not explaining how increased police presence would lead to a decrease in crime. Addtionally, there needed to be more focus on the topic as a whole. She seemed to really appreciate the feedback.
The session ended with him giving her his name, and telling her to come back with any other questions. The whole half hour was a complete 180 from last time.
Nice post.
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