One of the changes that has affected the writing center this semester is that more professors are requiring their students come to the WC for specific assignments. This is great in many ways, as we get more sessions and get to hone our abilities. One negative aspect, however, is that some students come out of sheer requirement, with no desire to improve their writing or really participate in a conversation with us. I found this to be the case with at least three sessions. The students said "My paper is fine, I just need to be here" or "I just need the confirmation that I came." This made discussions quite difficult.

The hard part was that they were right. Their papers were nuanced and structurally sound, grammatically correct, and everything the teacher could want. What I am challenged to do in these situations, and maybe this is a good topic to discuss in staff meetings, is "What do you do when the paper is awesome?" Carrie wrote this on the board early last semester, and no one had an answer. It's hard to have one. Every session is different, and different sessions require different things. We need the mantra, though, that EVERY PAPER CAN BE BETTER. But how do we make it better?

One of the ways is to talk about opportunities. What opportunities does the writer have? Even if he or she has hit the page limit, maybe certain ideas need to be prioritized more, others re-shaped, some maybe removed. This is hard to do in 45 minutes, because they require tutors to REALLY think. But it can be done, and it does require some willingness from the tutee.

Another is to ask questions. Ask questions about everything. Get them to think differently about things in the paper, assumptions they have made, things they may have left out. Ask questions about structure, context, theme, etc. Asking questions is NEVER a bad thing.

This is a topic that I will have to explore more throughout the semester, because it doesn't have an easy answer, and the answer might very well be an always shifting thing. I will aim to pin it down somehow.