Writing Fellow Journal #7

David Colon

Writing Fellows

Professor Miller

10/12/18

My tutees’ reading strategies have all differed from person to person. Throughout my tutoring sessions, there were students who have understood the content and material within the assigned readings. These students were able to effectively quote and cite their readings in order to support their thesis in their essays. These students were able to take notes on the readings while also rereading certain phrases in order to make sure that the quote made sense. There were also students who have emailed me and not understood the readings at all. They had asked if I had taken a political science class in the past and if I knew anything at all about the meaning behind the assigned readings. I think that each writer has their own style of reading. During a session, the tutee and I really only read sentences out loud that didn’t make sense within the context of the essay. If a quote felt out of place, I would question the segment and then question why the tutee had placed it there. Together we would create co-meaning out of the quote.

There exists a strong relationship between reading and drafting throughout my tutees’ work. Those who follow reading strategies are often better readers and can articulate/support their thesis. When I notice that a tutee is frustrated and stops reading altogether, there usually exists confusion about the assignment, what the authors of specific articles meant, and about their thesis topic. That’s when I start noticing comments from tutees asking me content related questions and or what they should do for writing their assignment.

I feel like my reading strategies vastly differ on a day to day basis. If the reading is extremely difficult and or if it is an extremely long sentence, I usually reread, break the sentence down into parts, and or read the sentence out loud over and over until I can understand what the writer meant. If particular sentences don’t make sense, I try to read the entirety of the paragraph and pull meaning from that in order to gauge what the writer generally meant. If I still have no idea what the author is trying to say, I’ll research terms and information surrounding the author so that I can go back and reread/take notes on specific sections. From this, I can understand what the author is trying to say.

I think the only things that I have experienced from page 109 is co-creation of meaning. Throughout my sessions, I don’t like to tell my tutees the meaning behind the article, largely because I’m not usually an expert on the subject. I like to talk through things with my tutees and in many circumstances, Professor Courtney has described to them the meaning behind certain quotes and ideas within the article.