To follow up on the vegetables. The piece by Thonus is, again, a valuable one. Here is data on what actually happens in a session vs. what students report happen. Those might overlap, but in research we can't confuse one for the other. We might have stories about how sessions go, what we talk about, how we talk about it, but without recordings and analysis, we're not really sure about it. Nor do we necessarily know what parts of the conversation most influence writers. What changes do they make to a paper? Why? One of the current advisors, Devoni, just wrote a piece for Writing Center Journal about how one student's paper changed over time given their sessions. She had the good fortune to be a writing fellow for the course and thus could see the various drafts of the essay. She worked from those to note the changes in wording and organization and then tried to tie those changes back to her conversation.
And I think all of us who value language will value Thonus's article. If we believe that every word matters in writing, then why not so in speech, too? Granted, there is the immediate context for speech, the ephemeral quality of our language (and still the ability to correct and revise on the spot), but we can say a lot with each word. Every word is loaded with baggage of some kind, connotations that will differ slightly for every listener. With the Thonus article, on pp. 183-184, I challenge you to read aloud each of her examples. How do they sound? How can they sound different depending on your tone? Think on how you might make suggestions to a writer. What sounds best?
And, I also wanted to comment on the evaluative language in sessions. Some of you mentioned that an advisor commented that an argument was "good," and even that word can be problematic. One suggestion I have is to phrase praise in terms of you as a reader: "Well, for me this argument made sense. As I read the prompt, it seems that your paper does indeed address the questions and criteria." That grounds the conversation in a reader-to-text relationship and does not commit us to some general evaluation of a text as good or solid or really neato. Make sense?
Yah, that does make sense. Solid facts ARE easier to support than verbal reports of how things went. However, I stand by my vegetables statement. You know they're good for you, but you don't necessarily want to have anything to do with them.
ReplyDeleteBut I really like peppers and onions and mushrooms and broccoli and squash (mmmm, butternut squash soup). I want to have those things.
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