Writing Fellows Journal 3

David Colon

Writing Fellows

Professor Miller

9/21/18

As I was reading chapter 6, two aspects really stuck out to me: listening to the entirety of the student’s paper as well as taking notes on main points within the paper. Gillespie and Lerner state that “…it’s vital to listen to the whole paper and not jump into a section before you hear the entire thing” (73). When revising a paper with a student, I think it’s easy to stop them in their tracks when you hear something that doesn’t sound quite write or doesn’t fit within the paper. When this occurs, we can miss out on the main point of the paper as we are unable to realize that other sections of the paper need work and that the section we are attempting to revise, makes sense. Gillespie and Lerner demonstrate the flaws of not hearing a paper in its entirety, they show how two different tutors could have dramatically different results when both listening and not listening to an entire paper.

The second aspect that really stuck out to me was the idea of note taking as students read their papers aloud. Note taking allows the tutor to “…be able to refer to specific sections of the paper that need attention and to include your own reactions” (74). By taking notes, we can refer back to sections that we liked, that confused us, or that don’t fit. Note taking can simplify the tutoring process as we hone in and focus on specific sections of the paper. I found that note taking was analogous to a road map: our notes point toward both the main ideas and revisions within the paper.

Chapter 6 put things into perspective for me. I feel as if I have a greater understanding of knowing what to do in my future tutoring sessions; I’m more confident on what to do in a step-by-step process. First, I’ll have the student read their paper aloud and as they read, I’ll take notes on areas that I liked and areas that need work. I think it’s also important to ask the student “Now that you’ve read the paper, what do you want to do with it to revise?” (87). Not only will I have my personal ideas about how to help the revision process, but I’ll have the student’s input as well. I can use this listening-note taking process to place the student in the right direction by giving them the tools needed to revise their paper. I think chapter 6 did a really good summary of how to effectively tutor in a way where both the tutor and writer feel heard.