It's my second trip to the writing center and this time I felt a lot easier. Meagan had been there since 10. She seemed to be fully booked. After a few greetings, she showed me the draft for today's assignment. It was a business letter of rejection. Fascinating, I thought. How many other kinds of exotic writing I would see in the next few weeks? But that wasn't all. Meagan mentioned the writer being an international student from China. Such was exactly what I had been looking forward to. One of my primary motivation for becoming writing consultant was to assist international, especially Asian students with their writings.
It didn't seem like an easy task, however. As we looked at the draft together, we detected many organizational, mechanical and grammatical errors. At some points Meagan was confused about what the writer meant. I insisted that international students had a much harder time than native speakers when it came to writing. A few minutes later the writer came. We exchanged introduction and started working. This time we sat on the big table together so I had a much closer look at the conversation. An important question Meagan asked was "What do you think you need help on?". For a writing session that lasted only a few dozens minutes, prioritizing became instrumental to success. To be honest, the writer's answer was typical, but it bugged me a little bit: "I need help on grammar, first. Then on organization." As good writers we knew through training and instincts that although good grammar was required, it was far from vital to a piece of writing. Mentally we, or at least I, always ranked organization and flow as the most, and grammar the least important elements. However, I had been through enough English learning experience to sympathize with the writer. Nevertheless, Meagan focused more on helping her restructure the sentences than actual grammar, for it was the necessary thing to do. Some sentences had to be completely rewritten. As of the style itself, the letter really didn't sound right at first. Because of the inherently hurtful nature of a rejection letter, the writer was torn between getting her point across and maintaining politeness. Suddenly I had a thought, and this time I decided to voice it. I suggested that she looked at the rejection letters that she received during her college application process. I had absolutely no intention of evoking bad memories, but let's face it, even the brightest students in the world would have received a rejection letter during that arbitrary process. Also it would turn the rejection letters into something useful. Who would have guessed. Megan approved my suggestion and the writer noted it down.
In the end, Meagan asked if the writer felt comfortable rewriting her work. In addition to a yes, she also said that she loved Meagan due to her honesty, something she felt lacking in other writing consultants. I guess I am indeed lucky. Meagan was indeed one of the most senior writing consultants we had. Shadowing her will definitely bestow upon me invaluable working experience.
Long- I think that you brought up a really important point on the difficulty that non-native speakers have with papers. I think that we are going to talk about this later on in the class, but it's really interesting to get a non-native speakers' perspective on the matter. I'm sure that as a writing consultant you will be a great addition and resourse to non-native writers who come in!
ReplyDeleteLong, what an interesting experience you had! Not only were you faced with a non-native English speaker but also a piece of writing that you would not normally come across. Do you think that Meagan made the right choice in overlooking the student's grammar? Did she just decide to correct the sentences that dealt with incongruity or incomprehensible sentences? I also found it interesting that you were bale to make a suggestion in the consultation and both the consultant and writer agreed with it. Glad to hear you had such a positive experience!
ReplyDeleteThanks Gyra and Emma! Personally I think that Meagan knew what she was doing and I trusted her decision. At any rate, the sentences were badly messed up that fixing it was like patching together a broken glass. In such situations I think rewriting will be a lot more intuitive. I think it's also one of the challenges we need to be aware of with international students. I've seen it for myself.
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