The Value of Feedback

I am not sure if teachers really understand the impact of their feedback.I think some professors assume, perhaps frustratedly, that after receiving a paper, the student flips hurriedly past all the red lines and circles and arrows . This hypothetical student fails to translate the odd littleabbreviations into understandable English, she does not even glance at an entire sentence. With little appreciation of the hours of work that the professor has taken to comment on her paper, this unappreciative, grade-driven student has eyes only for the small red letter on the last page. She throws the paper haphazardly in a folder, leaves the class, and never thinks about the subject again.

Okay, I must admit, I have been the hypothetical student, I have scanned for the grade, breathed a sigh of relief (or confusion), and stowed the paper away in my bag....but only in the classroom. Sometimes, I need to distance myself from the emotional response that only a grade can bestow on a serious student. When I have digested this arbitrary little indication of my worth as a student, I can go back and read the feedback fully.

I remember that in the Harvard writing video, a student remarked that professor feedback was so meaningful because you knew that for a few minutes, the professor was thinking about and interacting with your own ideas. Even if this professor had hundreds of students, for that one moment, your minds met. I absolutely love this idea. Even at a small school like Richmond, I know that when my professor reads my paper, they understand a little more about what I am thinking in a way that is impossible to understand when they see me in class. And by commenting about my ideas, criticizing or praising my thoughts, and telling me theirs in return, I know a little more about them.

I really cannot stress enough how much of an influence a professor's words on their writing can mean. I can remember the exact moment when I stood outside Ryland, fall of my freshman year, heart beating rapidly, reading the comments on an essay. On the page, a professor who I admired and feared equally had simply written, "brilliant commentary, analysis excellent." Knowing that the work and thought I had put into my writing was acknowledged by someone like this professor was an indescribable feeling. I was inspired to work harder.

However, as illustrated in the teacher's comment - "This is a redneck argument!" - condemned by Gorkemli, poor teacher feedback can also make an negative effect on a writer. A friend and new English major recently told me of a comment given on her final term paper for her first 300 level English class. The professor, who she liked and admired very much, had written at the end, "good ideas, but your writing style is just not sophisticated enough for a major." Certainly, this comment is not quite as blunt as Gorkemli's situation, but equally harmful toward the student. My friend told me all of this, not emotionally, but disturbingly resigned to her fate as a poor writer who just couldn't cut it. In her eyes, she couldn't improve; her inherent style was inadequate. The professor's criticism became a universal condemnation, something that no amount of reassurance from friends can make right. Any time she talks about writing a new essay, she quietly refers to this professor's comment as something she would have to compensate for, but couldn't alter.

In starting this blog post, I asked several students I was studying with if they remembered feedback from teachers on previous papers. Like my friend and I, all of them were able to tell me the exact wording of specific, influential comments - positive or negative - that they had written months and even years ago. Clearly, this is a valuable part of a college experience. We as tutors have the ability to harness the power of the teacher comment, to clarify, to emphasize, or to put into perspective.

consult, v.

After the readings we've had in the past couple of weeks, I have been thinking more about what it means to actually help a writer. My favorite definition of the verb consult, especially in regard to the Writing Center, is the following:

consult, v. To confer about, deliberate upon, debate, discuss, consider - OED

It's interesting the way words that may, at first glance, seem interchangeable have such different connotations. From the time I started university, I told my parents I wanted to be a writing tutor. Although I knew that at the Writing Center tutors were actually consultants, I thought that consultant was just a nicer, if a slightly more pretentious, title. Everyone knows what a tutor does, but who really understands what the work of a consultant entails? I certainly didn't, even in the weeks leading up to the beginning of this course.

I was always the student who thought editing papers was a rather enjoyable puzzle. I liked the act of carefully selecting and changing words, smoothing out punctuation, and assembling the phrases in a manner so sentences flowed gracefully into paragraphs, and paragraphs flowed into arguments. It was a game that I often played with my own papers, or the papers of my writing-apprehensive friends. I would offer, nonchalantly, to look over their papers, as if it was a service I was willing to provide simply because I was such an amazing friend. There was no such sacrifice.

But in these little acts of correction and advice - I cannot say they were really consultations - I was really only giving my opinion on what I would do to make the words written "sound better." I thought myself pretty skilled with that sort of assistance. Now I see that what I was doing was only surface level, like trying to drain a lake by taking handfuls of water. Scooping each handful of grammatical errors, of misplaced commas, of awkward phrases does not change the lake's depth, its underlying problems. It's a one-sided act which tires the tutor and overwhelms the tutee.

I guess it all comes down to the idea in North's work that we are trying to create a better writer, not a better paper. I'm still trying to grasp this idea, which may explain the reason why it seems to appear in so many of my blog post. I think it is a concept which works, if not better, than at least more smoothly, in theory than actual practice, especially since so many of my peers at the University are unaware of the true purpose of a writing center. When a student comes to the Writing Center wanting a better paper, it is can be difficult to avoid the temptation of an easy correction session. After all, to consult - to confer about, to deliberate upon, to debate, to discuss, to consider - takes time and conscious, active effort, both on the part of the consultant and the student. However, the tips given in the Bedford Guide about how to use tools both on paper and on word formatting are concrete methods that I can use to shape a consultation that is beneficial to the student and more rewarding for me. The more methods I discover for creating an appointment that is not a proof-reading session, but is an active, dynamic consultation, the more I can actually envision myself as a writing consultant.

Place of Discussion or Fix-it Shop?

Going into my appointment, I had extremely high hopes for the observation. I had been reading about the noble duty of writing centers for the past three weeks. I had begun to consider a writing consultant to be a sort of crusader furthering academic integrity and discussion on campus, as Wingate and North had suggested. Maybe my expectations were too high, my ideals too lofty, but in any case, today's appointment left me feeling extremely disillusioned and frustrated.

I entered the Writing Center, and the consultant on duty swiveled around on his chair from his computer, glanced at me and asked why I was there. I answered brightly that I was to observe his consultation. Looking fixedly at the screen in front of him, he replied that he had one appointment during this slot, and he went back to his email. This was the most interaction that I had with him in the next hour. As a potential consultant, I wanted to ask questions about what I was about to see in the appointment, where I should sit, or simply what he liked about being a consultant. But as I sat uncomfortably on the sofa, it was clear that he would rather pretend I wasn't there.

After what seemed like an hour, the student knocked on the door rather uncertainly. He explained to the consultant that he had brought his study abroad essay and prompt with him, and he wanted some feedback about its content. The consultant, turning back to the computer, asked what class the essay was for. It was as if he hadn't heard the student's explanation of the assignment at all. I think that right away this made for an unwelcoming environment for a student who may be initially apprehensive about having his work "criticized". When you take your paper to the Writing Center, you are automatically taking a risk about exposing your personal thoughts for censure. The consultant did not seem particularly encouraging or even interested in the student's work, and this made the student visibly uncomfortable. I watched the student, seated at the table, tapping his foot anxiously with his hands in his lap.

I hoped the appointment would get better. I expected the consultant to read through the student's paper, asking him questions about his meaning, providing insight into what would be best for a persuasive essay. But instead, he sat next to the student, simply editing the paper for grammatical correctness. He pointed out rules of grammar, of capitalization, and of verb tenses as he read through the paper. Most of the time was spent doing a lot of the "proofreading" that we discussed in class as not the main focus of the appointment. When the student asked how he could shorten his paper, the consultant replied shortly, "I'm trying to cut it down." I feel like that was the point at which the student lost control of his own paper, and visibly withdrew.

There was so little of the discussion that had been illustrated in the readings that I began to wonder if the consultant had taken the same course I had. I absolutely hate to criticize someone doing their job, and I must say that if the Writing Center was the "fix-it" shop referred to in the North article, than the consultant did a great job. He obviously had an excellent command of the English language and provided the student with good alterations to his work. He recommended ways that the student could change the content of the essay and suggested that he focus on specific reasons the student wanted to study abroad. All of this advice was completely valid and would probably make the student's essay better. However, the appointment was not a place of discussion, not a place of creating a better writer. It was a one-sided correction session.

I feel like the student, although he walked out with a proofread version of his essay, was cheated. No teacher forced him to come to the Writing Center, and the essay he brought with him was not even going to be graded. He simply wanted to create a persuasive essay that would best help him get into the program of his choosing. This individual was one of the "serious students" that would further academic culture on campus. Yet, as the appointment went on, the student seemed less and less comfortable asking questions. Clearly, he did not feel like he was the equal of the consultant. He was less likely to speak freely about why he chose to write something, and simply accept the consultant's corrections.

After 35 minutes of this, the student left, and the consultant returned to his computer, telling me the time he generally left for the day. In hindsight, I know that I should have probably been more assertive in trying to ask questions about the appointment that had just taken place, but I was simply too dumbstruck and uncomfortable with the situation. The consultant, his back turned to me and engrossed in whatever he was doing on his computer, was visibly closed off to me. Frankly, I was as intimidated as the student. I finished up my notes, thanked the consultant, who made eye contact with me for the first time in the hour, and left.

Overall, I don't think experience exemplifies the Writing Center and perhaps, it doesn't exemplify the consultant either. Everyone has bad days. But it made me think that even one bad appointment could change whether or not a student returns to the Writing Center again. If I was this student, with his study abroad essay, would I return? I'm not sure.