One on One with Second Language Writers: A Guide for Writing Tutors, Teachers, and Consultants

8. Strategic One on One

Strategic One on One When Ming came to you and handed you her paper, your biggest concern was probably, “What can I say or do in 15, 20, or even 30 minutes that will help her with this paper?” The overall goal of this book has been to introduce a body of knowledge about second language writers, their writing, and their readers that will help you come up with the particular answers that you need for working with Ming and students like her. Thus, we have seen how it helps to understand Ming as a person and as a language learner influenced by her previous schooling and her social circumstances . We have seen that before we can work on a paper, we must understand what the paper is expected to accomplish, both from the standpoint of the teacher who assigned it and the readers for whom it is intended. We also have to understand how language coalesces into written text and then the varying conventions for presenting that text. Beyond the particular answers, however, we also need strategies for presenting them to Ming. We need to realize that our opportunity to work with Ming is in fact a unique educational setting—a one-on-one interaction—and that teaching and learning in this setting is different from what happens in classrooms and through textbooks. In contrast to these more predictable educational settings, oneon -one interactions are not scripted. We enter them without a set of learning objectives articulated with course goals or even a lesson plan for how to structure the interaction. Students also are likely to see them from a very utilitarian perspective; they simply want to improve their papers so that they can get a better grade on them. They do not see the interaction in the context of an overall course or as an opportunity to improve their literacy skills. Because of this, neither they nor we generally consider our 133 . strategies for maximizing the effectiveness of one-on-one interactions and for using them to influence more than just an immediate paper. But we should think of them as more than a chance to fix something. As a way of concluding our search for answers to give Ming, Chapter 8 introduces seven strategies for using one-on-one interactions to promote sustainable learning and make our 15 minutes matter in the long-term. 1. Identify the priorities, and let the rest slide. Many of us are perfectionists when it comes to writing. We cannot see a missing comma or a misspelled word or a popular saying that is not quite right. We fret when students use in-text citations only for direct quotations or when they explain in detail a concept that we think a six-year-old would know. And we feel like we are doing a disservice to students if we do not mention these things. As has been noted several times, however, if we address every issue in a paper we risk overwhelming students. They may react by changing only the surface errors because those are easiest; they may also feel that all is hopeless and change nothing. The advice instead has been to prioritize, to decide in the context of this assignment with this learner, what will have the greatest impact on the paper’s effectiveness . Not only will this approach have a better chance of suggesting to learners steps that they can actually implement, it also teaches them about a good writing process. It shows that revision is a multi-stage process, that we should work on the 134 One on One with Second Language Writers Tutoring / Teaching Tip The priority list will be different for each writer and each piece of writing. In general, however, start with issues related to the purpose of the writing and the student’s understanding of his or her audience . These issues motivate discussions about organization and flow. Next, look for issues that make it difficult to understand meaning at a particular point in the text. Finally, work on issues that may annoy you or affect your overall impressions but that do not prevent you from understanding the student’s intentions. clarity of our position and the strategies for supporting and developing it first and then examine issues of syntax and punctuation. If time permits, you may want to suggest that once they address the priority issues, they should come back...