4th shadowing experience

It has been such a hectic time that I have had to delay writing my blog posts. Last week was my 4th shadowing experience. The assignment this time was a paper on feminism: how women eating habits perpetuate the in-built stereotypes of the ideal female body in our society. I was very excited to learn more about a new topic. Indeed, each shadowing experience I've had so far was unique. Each dealt with a new, particular issue and a different form of writing. The one thing that made this particular session special was that my consultant was very enthusiastic about the issue. Having studied it herself, she was very active in proposing changes and making suggestion. This time it wasn't mere general, structural advices that she gave, but concrete and specific examples from her personal knowledge. It seemed to have a positive effect on the student writer. Sometimes she marveled at how much my consultant knew. She left the session with many new ideas to revise her paper with.

I also think that if the consultant also possess knowledge on the topic, the session would become much more vivid. It would no longer be a writer-consultant dialogue, but a conversation, a discussion and exchange of knowledge on the topic, in addition to being a consulting session.

Living up to the image of a writing consultant

Whenever I tell someone that I am a writing consultant, they say "oh, so you must be a great writer then". It is a natural and very likely reaction. Even our Bedford guide states somewhere that student writing consultants represent the cream of writers in colleges. Such idea is further hammered into my head when Dr. Essid stated with undisguised enthusiasm and pride that our nationally recognized online writing resource was made by undergrad writing consultants, a feat that many graduate writing consultants from other schools could not have accomplished. Undoubtedly such idea and reaction instill great pride and motivation in us as aspiring consultants. However, it also raises a fear in me: Am I good enough for the task?

I hope that I am not alone in this experience. It is prestigious to be labeled as a good writer and having people come to you for help. Yet at the same time you are in constant danger of not living up to such expectation. Students think you have some superhuman powers of turning their trash papers into A papers, and your boss radiates a constant reminder: "You are one of the best, so I expect serious shit from you". Let not forget the fact that we are also students, meaning we have our own writing assignments. This gives rise to my question: Are we supposed to get the best grade possible in every writing assignment, just because we are writing consultants? Of course we have the right to say "no", for we above anyone else understand the arbitrary nature of college writing assignments and the different expectations of teachers. Yet to an outsider it looks like a lame excuse. "How can you correct my paper if you didn't get an A on yours?", they would say. Because of this my recent writing assignments are getting more serious, not because the work has increased, but because the emphasis I place on it now that I am a trainee. I hope to hear your opinion on this matter.

Third shadowing experience

Today was my third shadowing session. Unlike the usual schedule, I showed up at 10 instead of 11, for my consultant has told me that she had no appointment later on. I found her in the room doing some work. She didn't look as fresh as usual. The same could be said for me, or anyone else caught during this week of midterms and exams. We talked for a while while waiting for the writer to show up. Wanting to learn more about being a consultant, I asked mine what the most unpleasant things that could happen to you in this profession. To my relief, she said there wasn't many, but no-show was one of the annoying things that were happening right then. Or the students forgot to send us their draft, making the session unnecessary long. It was like "the students forget the fact that we are also students", she said. That got me thinking for a while. I used to regard this consulting job as a profession, something I could take pride in. Yet I forgot that I was also a student, and that it had to come first. Thus, consulting wasn't the only thing we did, nor was it the only thing we had to do. Thus, having a no-show was a serious waste of our time and resource. Seeing that the writer would not come, I then proposed to come back later at 11.

The consulting session at 11 went out smoothly, just like textbook. There wasn't much to say. A male student from a Sociology 101 class needed a read-through for his paper. My consultant praised his paper for the excellent ideas he had. The only issue was some restructuring. Toward the end, he seemed to be satisfied with the session. After a while, I wished her good luck with all the work and left myself.

Consulting as a profession: on dealing with our dual nature customers.

As student writing consultant, we find ourselves in a quite a bizarre situation. On one hand, we are serious workers in a highly intellectual profession. On the other hand, we are also students, working with other students from our school where almost everyone knows everyone. Our job demands professionalism, while our status as students somewhat undermine the authority over the subject that our "supposed" clients need our help with. Such role conflict rarely occurs, but I find it being a biting nuisance when it does.

One dinner, I was having meal with my freshman friends. One of them boasted on the compliments he just had on his latest draft. "I just spent 20 minutes bullshitting that paper up, and the writing fellow (the one assigned to his first-year seminar) wrote a whole bunch of good comments on it", he said, "that I had excellent idea, organization and such." His blatant disregard to his own writing really bugged me, but since I had a deep respect for our peer writing fellows, I had to bite back my tongue and assumed that my friend was a born writer with uncanny skills. It turned out as a shockingly and enraging contrary when a few days later, he asked me to look at another "bullshitted up" writing. It was closely identical to the stuff I normally threw in my garbage bin. "Was this the same kind that your writing fellow approved?", I asked. He replied with undisguised confidence: "Yes! It was so easy. Took me less than half an hour." At that time I thanked goodness it wasn't a real consulting session, meaning I was allowed to tell this to him, something I normally wouldn't: "Then I think it's perfect. There's nothing you need my help with."

I would go so far as to assume that my experience wasn't personal. My tutoring friend also told me about similar encounter, when the students coming in for the session were completely indifference about their work. That begs the question: "IF THEY DON'T CARE, WHY SHOULD WE?" Yet what angers me the most is that, why did the writing fellow commended that paper, when the writer himself thought it was worthless? Not only did it show that the writing fellow was incompetent, but it also brought about a bad reputation for the rest of us. Then again, we are all instructed to follow the ethics of the writing center, which is also that of American professionalism: be nice to your customers, no matter what. Yet to blindly interpret such guidelines as saying great things about their work even though they're crappy is a betrayal to the spirit of our noble profession. Are we supposed to make better writers by luring them into an illusion in which they're already good? My senior colleague that I'm shadowing said in such case it was necessary for us to speak our mind, albeit in a gentle manner, about what we really thought of the writers' work. Yet in so doing we run the risk of them going around saying that we are rude, uncooperative and cocky. It is a fine line we are walking.

I couldn't bear the thought of what I would do if someone brings me a crappy paper in a totally "give no shit" manner. What do you all think of this problem? What should we do about it? And how should we reinforce the working attitude of our writing fellows?