SoCal Writing Centers Association 6th Annual Tutor Conference
Moorpark College
Conference Program
9:00 am Continental Breakfast
10:00 am Session 1
1A Helping Students with Career Documents
Presenters: Hilary Tone, Amy Lam, Esther Shyu
1B High School Essay Conventions: Friend or Foe?
Presenters: Simon Shogry, Ilan Wurman
1C Marketing and Defining the WC
Presenters: Andrew Beshai, Dan Hogan
1D Making the Most of the In-Class Experience
Presenters: Brett Griffith, Sean Colletti, Daniel Hendricks
11:00 am Session 2
2A String Theory & Iambic Pentameter: The Bridge from Writing Center to Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)
Presenters: Adrian Sampson, Mark Cyffka, Alex Randall, Autumn Petros-Good, Alicia Schep
2B Navigating the Role of the Tutor
In-Class Writing Support
Presenters: Charles Eastman, Martina Miles, Sarah Miranda, Melissa Samarin, Mary Helen Truglia
Handling Different Techniques: What to do when you do, and don’t, know the professor’s expectations
Presenter: Paige Hanley
2C New Media in the Writing Center
Presenters: Bri Lafond, Alexandra Bashkirova, Michael Rollins, Heather Seals, Megan Siana
2D Responding as a Reader to Writing
Presenters: Jacqueline Spencer, Derek Mobraaten, Courtney Kilian
12:00 Lunch
Keynote Speaker: Jocelyn Graf
Intersections: East Meets West in the Writing Center
1:00 pm Session 3
3A Bridging the Gap: Foreign Language Tutoring
Presenters: Sara Roberson, Jennifer Ambrose, David Martinez, Alex Caldwell
3B That's Not Fair: Political Disagreement at the Writing Center
Presenters: Andrew Bluebond, Kyle Ragins, Helen Pollock
3C Bridging Creative and Expository Writing
Presenters: Maggie Cecil, Logan Clark, Chloe delosReyes, Mandy Taylor, Nick Macias-Williams, Deanna Hernandez, Erica Macias
ABSTRACTS
Session 1 10:00 a.m.
1A Helping Students with Career Documents
Hilary Tone (USC), Amy Lam (California Institute of Technology), Esther Shyu (California Institute of Technology)
Although they aren't covered in your typical English class, cover letters, personal statements, résumés, and curriculum vitae (CV) determine both your clients' futures and your own. The first part of this session will cover the essentials of putting together such documents, including basic formatting tips, content, and style. We will address commonly asked questions such as what the difference is between a résumé and CV, what exactly readers are looking for, what makes some personal statements more effective than others, and how to tailor these documents to different audiences.
The second part of this presentation will focus on how to guide students through the writing process necessary to compose effective career documents and personal statements. This session aims to provide successful strategies for working with students, many of whom find themselves overwhelmed by this stressful task. After learning about the common obstacles students encounter in this writing process and discussing a few samples, participants will be equipped to help their students (and themselves!) prepare effective career documents and powerful and concise personal statements.
1B High School Essay Conventions: Friend or Foe?
Simon Shogry and Ilan Wurman (Claremont McKenna College)
Beginning college writers often struggle with how to present their ideas in a clear, straightforward manner. In our view, high school conventions such as the “five paragraph” essay are sometimes to blame because they focus too much on structure and not enough on substance. Yet they also contain a grain of truth, so we will present some strategies for helping tutees grasp the concept of good organization and structure. Our comments will address topic sentences, outlines, and thesis statements. A particular strategy we will develop is one of verbal outlining with a tutee: when a tutor has only half an hour to work with a student on his/her paper, little is more awkward than reading his paper for ten minutes while (s)he waits in silence. Reading the whole paper also makes it easier for less important elements in the paper to distract the tutor, who often feels the need to stop and comment about them. Verbal outlining will allow the tutor to “get the whole picture,” maximize his time with the student, and increase tutor-tutee interaction in the session. And best of all, it requires very little reading on the part of the tutor.
1C Marketing and Defining the WC
Andrew Beshai, Dan Hogan (Fullerton College)
This promotional film was created to dispel common misconceptions of the Fullerton College Writing Center and spread awareness to the campus about the services and location of the WC. The film is basically a set of interviews conducted on campus that range from students to tutors. The initial idea was to distribute the film to all English classes thereby marketing the WC. This presentation will discuss ideas of outreach and spreading awareness to the campus community. Discussion will center on different methods of outreach as well as the depiction of the WC in those various methods.
1D Making the Most of the In-Class Experience
Brett Griffith, Sean Colletti, Daniel Hendricks (CSU, Channel Islands)
What ways do faculty utilize writing center tutors in the classroom? How do writing tutors prefer to be utilized? What do students think? The CSUCI University Writing Center examines five uses of the writing center tutor in writing composition classrooms. Our study queries students, writing tutors and faculty for input with respect to utilization preference and which use they feel contributes most to learning. Our research builds upon existing feedback compiled over the past few years and newly developed interviews or questionnaires.
Session 2 11:00 a.m.
2A String Theory and Iambic Pentameter: The Bridge from the Writing Center to WAC
Adrian Sampson, Mark Cyffka, Alex Randall, Autumn Petros-Good, Alicia Schep (Harvey Mudd College)
Students in the sciences or humanities can often be fearful of writing in the opposite domain. The same is sometimes true for tutors -- we often assume that tutoring science writing must be very different from tutoring in the humanities. This need not be true: many of the skills we use while tutoring in one discipline apply directly to tutoring the other. For instance, the distinction between evidence and analysis recurs in many writing disciplines and formats. Reexamining the components of the writing process can reveal surprising parallels across disparate writing communities. Studying these similarities may help Writing Centers better address sessions on topics unfamiliar to the tutor or even to the writer.
2B Navigating the Role of the Tutor –no abstracts provided
2C New Media in the Writing Center
Bri Lafond, Alexandra Bashkirova, Michael Rollins, Heather Seals, Megan Siana (Riverside Community College City Campus)
Over time, tutors develop set ways to address particular problems, but sometimes an established technique for teaching a concept just won't reach one student or another. This presentation will focus on reaching students with different learning styles (e.g. visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) through the use of new media. This presentation will consist of brief demonstrations of lessons in various media styles, including: Internet resources, PowerPoint presentations, Grammar podcasts, whiteboard use, and at-the-desk activities. Discussion and small group activities will follow.
Keynote Speaker, Jocelyn Graf (Science Writing Consultant, University of South Korea)
Intersections with and divergences from East Asia in the writing center
Japan and Korea are commonly described as two of the most homogeneous countries in the world. According to this narrative, ethnicity, language, and culture intersect to form a majority that has only recently confronted an influx of immigration and challenges to traditional Confucian power relationships. Jocelyn Graf will open a discussion on both where this story rings true and who it fails to encompass, and then address this question: How do East Asian educational traditions, racial identity, language and literacy shape writing and the client-tutor relationship, both in Japan and Korea, and in Southern California?
Session 3 1:00 p.m.
3A Bridging the Gap: Foreign Language Tutoring
Jennifer Ambrose and David Martinez (Claremont McKenna College)
The first speaker will discuss tutoring students who speak English as a second language. The issues that arise in tutoring sessions with ESL students may differ from those in sessions with native English speakers. The speaker will address common issues and how to handle them effectively in the ESL setting.
The second speaker will discuss tutoring English speakers in foreign language writing. Writing centers must have an individualized approach so that they remain as relevant to lower-level students as to advanced linguistic/literature students. The speaker will propose concrete steps for writing centers to take in order to establish/maintain such relevance.
3B That's Not Fair: Political Disagreement at the Writing Center
Andrew Bluebond, Kyle Ragins, Helen Pollock (Claremont McKenna College)
It is no secret that we do our best tutoring when we are calm and collected, but that can be a challenge when we presented with the work of students that does nothing short of make our blood boil. No matter how much we disagree with the arguments presented, our obligation to the student requires us to give them fair and constructive feedback. In this session, we will discuss the best practices to for tutoring those students whose work we find politically objectionable.
3C Bridging Creative and Expository Writing –no abstracts provided