Coffee, coffee, coffee, theater.

After a long week of chaos, sororities, and absurd amounts of homework, I could not have been more thrilled to show up to class Thursday afternoon to find out we would be doing improv and theater games. I had more cups of coffee that day than hours of sleep Wednesday night, so I was in the perfect slap-happy mindset for some ridiculousness. There's something about theater games that is so comforting to me. I was fortunate enough to have a really strong theater department at my high school; I took theater classes as art credits every single year. Maybe it's the familiarity of theater that makes it so comfortable, or maybe it's the idea of being able to do whatever the hell you want without judgment. Either way, I was happy to reminisce and release some of the tension from the week.

The connection between improv and the writing center is not difficult to see. No two improv scenes are the same, just as no two writing center sessions are the same. In each situation, we feed off of the person we are with. If the writer shows up unwilling to work with the advisor and make changes to a paper, nothing will be accomplished.  If an actor is close-minded, the scene will go nowhere. The actors both have to be fully open to ideas and willing to go with any situation presented, just as the writing consultant must be ready for any type of paper and any stage of the writing process.

The most beneficial result of improvisation, however, is the way it eliminates any restraints or fears in candid conversation. Given the quick, unexpected nature of improv work, the actors must be able to think fast and respond naturally. There is no time for an actor to over think a line and fully analyze the direction of a scene. A writing consultant faces a similar challenge. In a writing center session, the consultant has no time to formulate a perfect response.
The advisor must present their thoughts on the paper right there and then. There is no time to step back and read the paper over again. There is just barely enough time to create a constructive criticism that will not offend the writer. At the same time, we cannot allow the fear of offending the writer keep us from saying what needs to be said.

Improv also speeds up the relationship process. We must get rid of all boundaries of what is considered awkward, and dive-in unknowingly, working with a scene partner as if we’ve known them our whole lives. Similarly, we must be open to have an honest conversation with a complete stranger during an advising session. In the process, there is no avoiding forming a small connection with someone. Through class on Friday, I was able to practice my improv skills while getting to know my future fellow consultants a bit better :).

Goal. Purpose. Happiness.

Hello to all my 242 blog-stalkers. My apologies for the lack of blogging I have done this week. As you may have noticed during our discussion at the end of class today, I have been really frustrated with this blogging assignment and the “Better Essay”. Today, however, I had a revelation. A vague and somewhat limited prompt does not mean that our creativity has to be equally limited. I was stressing because, to be honest, these readings don’t inspire me to write. While the theories and concepts are interesting, I really don’t have much to say.  I can’t write a blog twice a week strictly about what I think a writing center advisor should be. I was scared because I didn’t see the full potential of this assignment.

I’m one of those people who has never been forced to write about something that I didn’t find super interesting. Even in my 101 class, we were given a bajillion prompts and I seriously fell in love with every one of my papers for that class. I wrote about hazing a Witt, the literary cannon/book banning, the power of photography, and racism in the movie Aladdin. I loved it.

So I have decided that for each of these blogs, I’m probably going to moderately discuss the essay we have to read or the discussions we have in class, but I’ll always be connecting it to something else that I think is really interesting. English 242 is one of five classes I’m taking right now, and I can see a way to relate these essays and concepts to each of those other classes. I will challenge myself to do so.

Currently I’m crazy interested and/or possibly obsessed with the discussions we’ve been having in my Philosophical Perspectives of Education class. The similarities between that class and 242 are awesome. Basically every philosophy of education we discuss can be scaled down and applied to the writing center.

One of our biggest discussions so far was how each person’s big picture life goal affects the way they view schooling. When students have life goals such as having lots of money, having a good job, or being successful, they tend to fail to see the purpose in going to school. Yes, going to school leads to a diploma, which leads to college, which leads to a degree and a potential “good job”, but that’s not the only way to make lots of money and be successful. Dr. Monke told us the story of this guy who was sick of the education system, so he dropped out of school, took a little bit of money he inherited, moved to a foreign country (I think in South America), and created a business. Well guess what. He became a millionaire. True story.

Or there’s the other route of becoming a drug dealer. Success, money, and a “good job”? Goal: achieved.

Kids these days often fail to see the purpose of school. So often when they ask why they’re in school, we answer “so you can get a good job”. While school may lead to a good job, there’s a lot of different ways to get a “good job”. There’s also the additional problem that once someone achieves a “good job”, they often don’t know what their next goal should be; what’s the purpose of their life after the “good job”?

 Our further discussion led us to examine other purposes of life and purposes of education. We came to a purpose everyone agreed on: happiness. We were talking about how we are happy to learn when the material can be somehow related to our lives. Happiness is a goal we can strive for our whole lives, and schooling can fit into that picture.

The concept of thinking “big picture” to have more meaningful experiences can be applied to the Writing Center. In finding a purpose to come to the Writing Center, I can only hope that students are thinking “big picture”. Those who arrive at the Writing Center hoping to learn, expand the way they view an assignment, and become better writers gain much more than the student who go to the Center to have their paper simply “edited” or “fixed”.

I feel much better about these blogs now.

I can do this.

-Sarah

A Response to "The Idea of a Writing Center"

First, I would like to note I have never blogged before. Are there rules to blogging? Must we be grammatically correct as if this is an official assignment? From what I understand, we were supposed to read the first essay, blog, and then read the second essay. That's what I'm doing.

Overall, I was not highly impressed with "The Idea of a Writing Center". I find North's subject matter and opinions interesting, but I struggled to read the whole piece. I got bored. North's initial energy, however,  was fantastic. He was obviously very passionate (and angry) about the idea of writing centers, but after the first few pages the energy seemed to decrease. Perhaps if the intial anger was toned down, the rest of the essay could have the same level of energy and feel more cohesive.

This is a random response: I hate North's excessive use of long dashes. It started to get really distracting and made some of the paragraphs feel choppy. I found myself counting dashes.

Okay, now that I have all of those complaints out of my system, I should probably respond to the content.

I totally agree with Norths argument. Contrary to the ideas of many students and teachers, the writing center should not be a "fix-it" shop. While it is important for students to understand grammar and punctuation, grammar and punctuation alone don't make a good paper. In the grand scheme of writing, a missed comma is not the bigest deal. North writes (and rephrases/repeats serveral times)  that the writing center's job "is to produce better writers, not better writing" (50). This is such a great concept. It's sad to think that most writers fail to see this big picture. Instead of looking at just the logistics of a specific paper, we must focus on the writer as a whole.

Additionally, I liked how North talked about how we must adapt to each writer. We should adjust to whatever stage of writing their in, as well as whatever problems they may have.  In the end, however, we still should look for an improvement in the writer, not just the writing."Tutors...must measure their sucess not in terms of the constantly changin model they create, but in terms of changes in the writer" (51).

North's essay finished strong as he connected back to the misunderstanding of what it means to be a writing center. Although it is disappointing teachers and students don't understand the puporse of the writing center, it is even worse to hear writing centers all over the country only serve as "fix-it shops".

While Wittenberg's writing center may be misunderstood, I'm still glad our writing center serves as more than a "fix-it" shop.