Have you ever used your own judgment to perform a job the best you can, and then have your actions put down by the person who should have given you explicit instruction on what to do in the first place? Now I’m sure this can happen to anyone, and it probably already has, especially if you have an English or ESL lab with a part-time faculty member. You may run into a scenario where you walk into a lab and the instructor really has no specific task for you, but to “float” around. And once you give your critique to the student, your methods are questioned or even neglected by the instructor, and the student is then left confused. So the question remains, what can we do to avoid confusion and animosity toward the instructors we have to work with for a whole 15 to 16 weeks? The answer to that is simply to take the time to establish an understanding relationship with the professors you work with.

            The first thing that needs to be done in order to establish this relationship would be to know the instructor you’re working with and contact him or her immediately. The MiraCosta home-page has a link to faculty directories where you can find you professor’s contact information and maybe even a link to their personal web site, which could give you clues as to what personality type you will be dealing with. However, the easiest way to get in touch with the instructor you’re assigned to is to ask Brandi or Denise. Once you have the information needed, proceed to contacting the instructor with a possible meeting time before the lab begins.

            After a meeting time is established, the next step is to prepare yourself for discussion. There’s nothing worse than setting up a meeting with no objective. Why set one up in the first place? Your objective is to reveal to the professor your abilities and expectations of the class, and at the same time learn about what the instructor wants and their expectations of you. Let him or her know the things you can and can’t do as a writing consultant such as teach, grade papers, etc. This is probably the most essential step in the process of building an understanding relationship with your instructor.

Lastly, don’t forget to keep in touch! Just because you and the instructor spoke once, does not mean you’ve established a firm relationship. Maintenance is the key here! Be sure to e-mail your instructor regularly with questions about upcoming events in the class or questions in general. Sometimes it’s helpful to set aside five to ten minutes after every class meeting to discuss any matters of concern. If a conflict does arise in the future with your instructor, you will already be familiar with how to approach confronting the situation.

            By following the above, you are ready to take on this lab assignment fearlessly and with confidence. The odds of having conflict with the instructor will be minimized and you may even find yourself being more involved with the students and instructor. Not only will you have come off as a professional, but you may have opened doors to other opportunities with other instructors.

 

- Drew M.

 

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Dealing with Difficult Assignments

 

 

Sooner or later all tutors confront an assignment that undermines their often fragile sense of competence. Suddenly the English language seems composed entirely of cave drawings.  Sentences connect, but without a familiar logic. However tightly we knit our brows, the goal of the prompt remains shrouded in fog.  More often than not we discover the assignment is longer than the paper it requires. In truth, we conclude, the whole thing would be more appropriate as a ink blot test.

 

 Here’s an actual case in point.  A nursing student, let’s call her Tammy, comes in bewildered. She presents this: “Analyze, using Post-Colonial theory, the differences in rationale, methodology and findings of the ethnographer and the documentarian studying the same village of …..” (omitted for discretion)  Include in your discussion an engaging thesis and textual supports to demonstrate what may account for these differences, making sure to focus on colonial identity, the concept of the other, and especially culturality.

 

 Of course, Tammy was taking the course as a general education requirement and had never heard of Post-Colonial theory as far as she could recall. Being a nursing student she naturally imagined it had something to do with complications after a colonoscopy.

 

 Nor did she understand the terms methodology, rationale, or ethnographer in the context of an English class), Thesis I could explain to her; textual I could explain, but as for “the other” and “culturality”, well, we found ourselves bonded like soldiers facing a desperate battle.

 

 What to do in such situations is a question every forthright writing consultant has to grapple with. Our reputation and the reputation of every tutor in every Writing Center everywhere hinges on our solutions.

 

 First of all, here’s what we can’t do.

 

 We are absolutely forbidden to speak to the instructor. This is prudent as it prevents the possibility of harsh interchanges or even libelous remarks.

 

 We are also absolutely forbidden to disparage the instructor to the student or under our breath (however tempting or justified it seems) because, realistically English instructors have earned the right to fashion their course prompts in any form they like, however obtuse.

 

 So then, what exactly can we do?

 

 There are various forms of intervention, such as psychotherapy, but since this was mainly a case of cumbersome jargon, we simply needed to define terms.

 

 Although many instructors bar its use, Wikipedia contains everything that exists in the known world, however arcane or insubstantial, making it a good place to begin. This was just where Tammy and I started, that is after I assured her that somewhere in this prompt there had to be something resembling an actual assignment, and that I was convinced she’d make an excellent nurse however this paper turned out.

 

 Defining the troublesome terms required two full sessions, including significant time spent sharing my working class translations of Wikipedia’s high brow take on literary theory and post modernist thinking.  We tutors are made for such labors, of course, and after a bit of simplifying, I had Tammy starting to understand the caustic effects of the colonizer on the soul and identity of the former colonial.

 

 Tammy and I felt ready for the next step. We were armed with a new sense of cultural literacy, but to what purpose? We had to decide what the instructor was actually asking for and to cast our new found knowledge into a suitable form.

 

 To do this Tammy and I discussed common models that she had already experienced in earlier composition classes.

 

 I asked if she thought her professor was assigning a:

 

 Narrative?

 

 No 

 

 Process paper?

 

 Don’t think so.

 

 Poetry explication?

 

 Un uh 

 

 Definition paper?

 

 Hmmm. Let me think a minute. Nope

 

 Ad Analysis?

 

 “Those were fun”

 

 Examples Paper

 

 No comment.

 

 Compare and Contrast

 

Bingo!           

 

Such epiphanies are what we tutors live for, and although they happen only rarely, they should be revisited over and over during our darker moments.

 Once we settled on the correct rhetorical approach, it was vital to start assembling ideas. This was best done with any of the conventional pre-writing activities listed in every English composition textbook published since the dawn of man.  In case you’ve forgotten, there’s mind mapping, listing, clustering, index cards, the infamous Venn diagram, free association, random guessing, and my favorite, the Socratic brainstorm.

 

 The Socratic brainstorm allows the tutor to ask pointed and directive questions that elicit sufficient information or ideas that ultimately generate a paper. Ideally, the tutor, like a skilled border collie, is able to nudge the student in the right direction, all roads leading from and back to the thesis. 

 

 Having been provoked into a probing analysis of two seemingly dissimilar works, Tammy now seemed able to create a rough draft focusing on why X and Y find Z so different using the rigors of a Post Colonial lens. 

 

 Tammy gave me an ironic smile and left, seeming to be pleased, but her expression could be interpreted in a hundred ways.

 

 I currently await her draft, but the days are quietly becoming weeks and still no word from Tammy.

 

 Ok, let’s review this Twelve Step strategy for dealing with difficult assignments:

 

1. Read the prompt
2. Read the prompt again trying to mask your displeasure
3. Drink at least 16 ounces of very strong coffee
4. Read the prompt once more time very fast skipping the knottier points
5. Convince the student not to drop the class
6. Realize you’ve used up only fifteen minutes of your appointment
7. Rap the knuckles of both hands on your cranium. Advise student to do the same.
8. Remind yourself you’re being paid to do something constructive
9. Define terms using Wikipedia or other forbidden website
10. Determine the appropriate form of discourse from established models
11. Conduct furious Socratic brainstorm

12. Send the student off with a spring in his or her step and an unwieldy sheaf of notes

 

 

- Andrew F.

 

 

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What I like most about Andrew's story here is that he illustrates what it's like when a consultant doesn't have all the answers. It's something we don't often talk about--not having the answers, needing time to think. I know sometimes it takes me as much as 10 minutes to get at what the student really wants. Sometimes I have to ask the same question more than once or repeat what the student has already said just to make sure I'm understanding the person clearly. This stuff isn't always easy! Some sessions go great... they're smooth, productive, positive experiences. Sometimes the student comes in so befuddled you don't know where to start, especially when you start becoming befuddled as well! I like to share my confusion and empathize with the student. I'm not sure that's always the best, most confidence-inspiring choice, but it suits my self-deprecating style.

 

 

What do you do when you get stuck?

 

- Brandi B.

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For me, getting stuck because I'm not sure what the instructor wants is more annoying than difficulties with the student, or their work, or my own private befuddlement.  It seems vaguely threatening, somehow, as if we were to displease a professor because we can't translate their jargon, they might come charging down into the Writing Center and give us hell.  That has never happened to me, by the way.  In fact, in eight years no professor has ever looked me up for any reason at all, except for one or two with whom I already had a working relationship.  Many, however, do readily respond to email communication, whether it is questions about their assignments or to provide info regarding our work with their students.  It's OK not to know, or to say "I don't know." But then some things can, and should be, found out; some things we probably don't need to know; and some things are ineffable.

Scott H.

 

 

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