I found the piece Helping Students Write Literary Analyses
very insightful. I was required in high school to write one literary analysis a
month my senior year and the practice really helped me understand the skill. In
fact, I vaguely remember being stumped a few times on how to approach an
analysis, but towards the end of the year I believe that I had perfected the
skill.
However, I think that I am not like most students in this
regard. Dr. Essid has mentioned that in his 216 class, students struggle with close
readings and understanding motifs and themes in close readings, the heart of an
analysis. In my experience, practice and continuing to grow and understanding
what one is doing wrong when writing an analysis is how one perfects the art of
a proper literary analysis.
But where does that leave a writing consultant? Especially
one that has a first time literary analysis writer? Well, I believe that
Yothers means well, but his ideas of how consultations should be handled are
flawed. Yothers outlines exactly how these consultations should happen and what
each consultant should do for each individual case, but I think the most
important part of a writing consultant is treating each case individually.
Grouping students by how they seem or what their needs are by a formula of
ideas really limits what the consultant can accomplish as a mentor for students
in writing. However, the ideas that Yothers has for these students in these
specific cases, while not universally applicable, can help a writing consultant
with a few tough students and give the consultant a idea of where they can
start.
The one other issue that I felt with Yothers was that he put
too much emphasis on the importance of having graduate students be the writing
consultants. I understand how he feels about having someone that is older and
has more ethos to say that this is how things should be done and students would
be more receptive to their advice. But I believe that students would actually
be more open to meeting with a fellow undergraduate because they have more
automatically in common. Graduate students are more intimidating to
undergraduates and graduate students may not be as attentive to undergraduates.
I believe that even the idea that you could run into your consultant at a football
game or the dining hall immediately adds a greater connection than someone who
is four years older who may have had a completely different college experience
and a completely different set of expectations. Yes, graduate students do have
more experience in academic writing, so I believe that graduate students should
be available to undergraduates (especially for seniors working on theses) but
first year students should have an older upperclassman undergraduate who still
has experience in writing, but also can mentor the student through the rest of
their undergraduate experience.
If Richmond had graduate students, I am guessing that faculty would prefer them to most undergraduates, and this stems from the grad student's focus on work. They don't spend time in Greek life or extra-curriculars as much as do even our most engaged undergrads. One does not have time in grad school; it is rather monastic.
ReplyDeleteThat is, however, hypothetical and even at universities with graduate programs, Writing Centers employ undergraduates. These students must labor hard with peers who cannot distinguish analysis from summary or who think that the Humanities are a waste of time. If nothing else, we must help them with developing ideas worth presenting and supporting. Too many of my 216 students lost as much as 20% of their Project 2 grades from simply telling me things I already know about the book or failing to connect their promising ideas.
That is where Yothers' advice might help us. The problem is common, especially among first-and-second-year students.