Presentation/Proposal Title
Breaking Through to the English Department: Reducing Misperceptions Held by English Professors about Writing Lab Consultations
Type of Presentation/Proposal
Individual Presentation or Paper
Start Date
5-4-2019 9:45 AM
End Date
5-4-2019 10:45 AM
Keywords
collaboration, English professor, consultation focus, fix-it shop, misperceptions
Description
Our Writing Lab has made great progress in collaborating with various departments that are not usually considered writing intensive, viz. math, chemistry, and music. With these ventures the Lab has broken through barriers that often divide academic disciplines, but a recent disturbing incident has made the Writing Lab realize that breakthroughs are still needed with a very writing-intensive department: English. Many “misguided perceptions” about the role of a writing center are still held by faculty in that discipline.
Recently an English professor walked into the Lab, accosting a group of tutors. She asked to speak with Kara who had worked with a student in her composition course, “appalled” that a tutor could advise a freshman to focus on “word choice” in poetry analysis. That was, asserted the professor, much too complex of thesis for a freshman writer.
Although the method the professor chose to instruct tutors on their job was very unusual, her misguided thoughts on the Writing Lab’s purview were, unfortunately, not that unusual. UIndy Lab faculty can still remember when years ago one instructor insisted that tutors should only help writers insert in essays five periodic sentences. That instructor’s students insisted they not be advised on their thesis or organization. More recently, another English faculty member so frightened students about comma splices that they also declined advise on global issues.
Our presentation will undoubtedly prompt audience members to tell their own similar stories. But we also hope that a discussion will discover ways to remove such misperceptions.
Breaking Through to the English Department: Reducing Misperceptions Held by English Professors about Writing Lab Consultations
Alumni Boardroom
Our Writing Lab has made great progress in collaborating with various departments that are not usually considered writing intensive, viz. math, chemistry, and music. With these ventures the Lab has broken through barriers that often divide academic disciplines, but a recent disturbing incident has made the Writing Lab realize that breakthroughs are still needed with a very writing-intensive department: English. Many “misguided perceptions” about the role of a writing center are still held by faculty in that discipline.
Recently an English professor walked into the Lab, accosting a group of tutors. She asked to speak with Kara who had worked with a student in her composition course, “appalled” that a tutor could advise a freshman to focus on “word choice” in poetry analysis. That was, asserted the professor, much too complex of thesis for a freshman writer.
Although the method the professor chose to instruct tutors on their job was very unusual, her misguided thoughts on the Writing Lab’s purview were, unfortunately, not that unusual. UIndy Lab faculty can still remember when years ago one instructor insisted that tutors should only help writers insert in essays five periodic sentences. That instructor’s students insisted they not be advised on their thesis or organization. More recently, another English faculty member so frightened students about comma splices that they also declined advise on global issues.
Our presentation will undoubtedly prompt audience members to tell their own similar stories. But we also hope that a discussion will discover ways to remove such misperceptions.
