Just a quick note here. Where I got back to the office, this email was waiting for me, from one of our professors--he had sent it out to his class and copied me in on it:
"To avoid losing points due to grammatical or stylistic errors in your weekly journals, group presentation, and final paper, please have your work proofread at the Writing Center before submitting it to me."
So, this is one idea of a writing center. Does it match with ours? Does it need to?
I advise some revisions to this e-mail.
ReplyDeleteHow about, "To avoid losing points on things you've been learning since grade school and should have a decent understanding on how to execute by now, refer to the vast amount of credible on-line or textual sources available at your every turn. If you are at all concerned with your writing progress, or the coherency, development, and overall scholarly quality of your writing, please make an appointment with the Writing Center. They also may be able to point out any last minute grammatical errors you missed along the way."
Just a few flaws I thought needed correction. Now that's an e-mail worth sending.
"Can't you just like.....edit my paper?"
ReplyDeleteThe above comment is my greatest concern. For no matter how the email is worded, students will continue to come into the writing center for the wrong reasons, or at least what we, as advisors, deem to be incorrect. This is to say that I think the way Sarvani suggested the email be revised is indeed worthy and concise, I fear that previous engagements students have had with the center or simply word of mouth may interfere with message the email intends to express. Also, i feel it is unfair to assume that everyone knows grammar well enough by now or possesses the internet savvy required to "fill in the gaps." After all, there were a number of people in class that struggled with the quizzes assigned to us at the beginning of the course.
Unless you were being sarcastic, in which case I laughed. :I I am not the best at sensing sarcasm in writing sometimes.
Additionally, i feel the professors mention of "stylistic errors" saves the email from being entirely off base. Also, I do not see anything wrong with the word "proofread" as it sounds nicer than "edit" which is done by peer editors, something that we have all agreed we are not.
At the same time I wonder what has given this professor this interpretation of the Writing Center. And more importantly, what can we do to change it? This brings me to consider that if we were to maybe change the opinions of the professors to one that better suits a more logical interpretation of the Writing Center, something I feel we have yet to define, Would that then encourage the same change in opinion within the students? After all, if the professors give the grades, and I have been at all correct in assuming that a great number of students are more concerned with grades than becoming better writers, would that not mean the students would then be compelled to view the center the same way their professors do? Within the best interest of the grade of course.
This message brought to you by a very tired Evan. If it did not make sense, that is most likely why... :(