11-30

Today's November 30th. AAAHHH! The goal obviously for Monday is to have at least 6 pages of the research paper done. As usual because it just doesn't work for me to try and work in a class where I can't spread out my notes everywhere and talk about my paper to myself I have to have smaller goals in class. I'd like to continue working on the body paragraphs that I began on Wednesday. If I can do 2/3 pages (AKA 1 topic- the social conventions, student process, and bringing together, each day I should be ready for the draft workshops next week). I also want to look at the sample papers posted.

11-28

In class today we did our free writing assignment and now we're writing again about our topic. I found that I was really more productive writing on paper than typing on the computer. For whatever reason it's easier for me to do my "pre writing" or rough drafts on note book paper as opposed to the computer. Unfortunately if I'm turning in any kind of documentation that would mean I'd have to transcribe the looseleaf to the computer. I had all kinds of issues sleeping and woke up early so during my sleep deprivation I went back and looked up different ways to approach my topic. In class today I went and made columns of all my articles that I will use in the body of my essay so that when I'm writing I'll have some sort of organization for my notes. After doing this I went back over my introduction to my paper.

explanation

If you're reading my blog you're probably confused why I have posted a possible conclusion to my paper today after posting a possible introduction Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I left my computer with my notes at home so I felt the best use of my time was to try and sum up what I had learned so far rather than to type a section and then try to fit in into the paper somewhere. Hopefully this is ok.

possible conclusion to paper

One of the topics that we discussed at the beginning of the course was collaborative learning, this requires a conversation, or sharing of knowledge between people. One of the benefits of a tutoring session in a writing center is that students are able to interact with a member of the academic discourse community in a one on one session. In classrooms students sometimes feel intimidated trying to adapt to the academic community. For students that take advantage of a writing center there is definitely potential for them to grow/develop. The focus of my paper however, has been on the strategies that writing center's staff members must use to create effective atmospheres for progress to take place. I've examined what might be called inner directed theory- the tutors focus on the process which takes place during the writing sessions. The positive aspects of this theory that I would like to incoporate into every writing center is the idea that a writer, as a person, has a unique style that they will carry with them. Focusing on the process in theory would also allow the tutor to discover a time during the process where the student was getting hung up, the tutor could devise strategies to help the student move past the sticking point in their process. If we acknowledge that students as individuals have qualities which make them unique we must also acknowledge that situations during writing. Different assignments have different requirements for students. The other school of thought believed it was better for writing centers to focus on the social construction around writing.

WHERE ARE YOU: This actually is a decent start to the conclusion. I'd like to finish moving through the positive feedback for social constructivism then just rehash my model quickly. In class next time it would probably make more sense to work on a few body paragraphs though.

possible introduction to paper

Typing in Microsoft Word just wasn't helping me to generate activities today. This is a possible introduction to my topic but by no means exactly what I will use.

For students who are struggling entering the academic discourse community writing centers are a place that students can go to work with tutors in a one on one situation. This type of interaction usually isn't available in the classroom. As in the classroom there are multiple perspectives on the best strategies to work with students. Some administrators believe that writing centers should focus on the process that students use while others believe that focusing on the social construction the writer is working with is most effective. Both of these approaches have aspects of them that seem worthy of exploring. I believe that a combination of both of these methods would be most helpful. My goal will be to highlight the benefits that each approach has. Ultimately I believe that writing centers should try to incoporate both of these approaches. Anne Mullin's article "Crossing Over Individuality and Social Constructivism" provided one model for this

Goals:

Get a few more paragraphs this weekend.

revision of annotated bibliography

three things I'd like to improve on for my final bibliography

1) I'd like to in the 1st paragraph of each entry to a better job focusing on the author's claim
2) two of my topics I wasn't sure how to cite papers presented at conferences- I will figure this out before the final copy is due.
3) I could come up with better headings for the different categories I've created.

a sample annotated bibliography

Law, Joe and Christina Murphy. “Formative Assessment and the Paradigms of Writing
Center Practice.” Clearing House 2 Dec. 1997. ERIC. Elmhurst College Library.,
Elmhurst. 05 Nov. 2007.

The authors of this article take a critical eye to the work that is taking place in writing centers today. In order to prove their point they examine the beliefs that writing centers seem to be founded on. A relatively brief history is given of how writing center process has shifted from post process theory to social constructionism. This seems to have taken place over a relatively short period of time, the article focuses on ideas which were expressed between 1967 and 1997.
Law and Murphy obviously had the goal that they wanted to see formative assessment and writing centers be evaluated together when they wrote this article, it's clear the history presented is arranged so that their goal will make sense. It's hard to believe that the background presented by these authors is all there is on the topic. They do cite names and present terms which are familiar to me from other research so I don't think they've simply made up a history about writing centers.
While this article has some flaws I think it fits the purpose I'm using for it. The article provides a background on the evolution of writing centers taking us reasonably close to present times. The article lays out which theorists fall into which side of the post process theory/social construction debate. The article provides a bibliography which will allow me to expand my source list.