Posts Tagged ‘tutoring’

Canadian Content

Monday, July 5th, 2010

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Canadian Content (6th Edition), by Sarah Norton and Nell Waldman

I know, I know, not all of you are Canadian.  That’s alright; this isn’t a book about grammar rules, so you won’t get confused.

I’ve had this book for many years (I have the 4th edition, actually), and use it several times per week.  It’s a book full of examples of essays, e.g. persuasive essays, comparison essays, cause-and-effect essays.  Each chapter begins with an explanation of the type of essay, goes on to an annotated essay (”here’s the introduction”, “here’s the thesis”, “here’s the first supporting point”, “here are some good transition words”, etc), and ends with several really good sample essays of that particular genre.  Each of the sample essays comes with a glossary, some reading questions (structure and strategy, and content and purpose), and some suggestions for writing.

This would, obviously, be a good book to have hanging around a writing or tutoring centre, but my students also find it useful to read when they need an example.   What does the professor mean when he requests a Classification and Division essay?  Have a look at the book and you’ll get some ideas.

Now, those of you who live in warmer climes may not get much out of Paul Quarrington’s essay Home Ice - which can be found in the Process Analysis: Explaining “How” section - if you don’t have a lot of experience with backyard skating rinks; however, essays like George Carlin’s Baseball and Football (Comparison and Contrast: Explaining Similarities and Differences) and Stephen King’s Why We Crave Horror Movies (Cause and Effect: Explaining “Why”) will have general appeal.  Neil Bissoondath’s I’m Not Racist But… (Definition: Explaining “What”) will be - regretfully - relevant to everyone.

You should be able to find a copy in your library; if not, I easily found cheap second-hand copies online.

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Passive Ain’t Bad

Monday, June 7th, 2010

As an English tutor, I spend a great deal of time with people who don’t like English; the irony of this is not lost on me, so don’t worry about it.  :)  What I learn from my students is, mostly, perspective.

When you can’t get the right verb tense, that’s a major problem.  When you can’t keep i-before-e-except-after-c-and-several-other-seemingly-random-circumstances straight, that’s a minor problem.  When you use the passive voice, that’s not a problem.

They’re right.  It’s a new-ish “rule” in the schools: using the passive voice in a formal essay will lose you marks.

For those of you who are furrowing your brows, the passive voice is where the subject of the sentence has something done to it, rather than doing something.  For example:

  • The cake was made by me.  (passive)
  • I made the cake.  (active)

It seems simple, yes?  The active voice would be used when someone feels strongly about something, when the speaker would be loud and excited.  We tend to use the active voice for things like Teenagers break rules! or Penicillin saves lives! Now, people who are less-than-enthusiastic about teenagers or penicillin might say Rules are broken by teenagers, or Lives are saved by penicillin; neither voice will encourage nor discourage teenagers from breaking rules, or penicillin from saving lives.  It’s just a matter of how the author feels about that subject.

Children learn to use the passive and active voices naturally.  Listen to the next three-year-old that comes by, and you’ll hear an entirely active voice (”No, I don’t want that!”).  Listen to a 6-year-old trying to blame something on her little brother, and you’ll hear a lot of the passive voice (”The window got broken.  I think he was playing with a baseball.”)

You’ll find you naturally use the active and passive voices, too.  If you’re really interested in your subject - passionate about it, even - you’ll write in the active voice.  You’re determined to convince your reader to think the way you do, and so you slip into persuasive mode.

I think what the anti-passive rule is trying to do is to make the writer appear animated.  They’re docking marks from people who aren’t thrilled about their subject.  In this case, I can see their point.

What?

Yep.  If you’re gonna do something, you should do it well.  Admittedly, if you asked me to write about something scientific or mathematical, I’d have a hard time mustering the enthusiasm… but I’d try.  I wouldn’t write a paper about a new medical technique that might, possibly, one day, save a life or two; I’d write about a new medical technique that would save a life.  If you asked me to write a paper comparing Austen and the Bronte sisters, the Austen section would be written entirely in the passive voice, and the Brontes would be in the active (’cause the Brontes are awesome!)

So, no, passive voice isn’t bad.  In fact, it’s great.  When one is trying to explain something gently, softly, the passive voice is invaluable.  The trick lies in knowing when your reader needs to be lulled, and when the active voice needs to whack them into action.

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Verbing

Monday, February 1st, 2010

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I have an adult student who has come to me for tutoring.  Although his spoken English is excellent, his written English requires some work.  He came to Canada recently, and just signed himself up for some courses at the local college.  He’s taking, amongst other courses, Business Communication and Introduction to English Literature.

We had a writing problem this week.  The problem involved verbing.

I love messing around with language, tweaking it so it works the way I want it to.  In general conversation, creative writing, letter writing, I appreciate it when people take liberties with English (it’s not really as sacred as we make it out to be).  I may throw things at you for saying “doable”, but the girl who told me Hamlet was “all angsty” got bonus points because I saw her struggle to find the appropriate word.

Verbing, however, is like a virus.  It’s being taught - and encouraged - extensively in business writing courses.  It has spread to common conversation.  It’s even oozing its way into academia.

Don’t verb when you’re writing academic papers.  Do not reference or access or calendarize or suggestionize.  (N.B.  Don’t even utilize… unless you actually mean utilize.)

So, my student asks, why is it good in one English but not in the other? Huh.  I can’t answer that.  I am insufficiently educated in the evolution of Business English; I don’t know why a memo is improved by the addition of newly-created words.  I do know that formal and academic writers disapprove of it because it forces the reader to pause and consider the new word rather than continuing to read the information.

Here’s a short article giving some tips on business writing.  If you’ve included any of these ideas in your academic writing, remove them.  Should you be in a position where you must write for both worlds, ensure you are… bilingual and can use the appropriate language for each.

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Humans or Machines?

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Where I live, it’s the end of the semester; post-secondary schools have just finished and the high-schools are just beginning final exams.  Students are wired on caffeine, and going on little-to-no sleep.  Those in their last year of a programme are moved to livid tears by the thought of not getting at least 95%.

I get phone calls and e-mails: “Miss, I think I need you.”  Sometimes, my required response is obvious; this person cannot write a reasonable paper without supervision so, yes, they need me.  Sometimes, it’s a matter of just talking them over a rough spot.  A student may write a perfectly good paper but just needs to be reminded to check their verb tense or to remove contractions.  Many of my students are of this ilk.  All they need to do is run the paper through a grammar- or spell-checker, then go do something else for an hour so they can proofread the paper with fresh eyes.

The students who just have one or two problems - usually the same problem with each paper they write - are the ones who don’t really need me.  They can do with computer support or, perhaps, a study partner to proofread for them.

The other students… they need a tutor.  A computer programme may be able to help them with the punctuation or spelling, but it cannot help them with the actual writing.  There are problems with unsupported theses, repetition, disorganisation, rambling and irrelevant material; the list can go on and on.

Look at your own writing and decide what you need.  Have teachers and professors been scrawling “PLEASE SEE ME” on your papers all year?  In that case, you need a human tutor who can guide you through the writing process.  If your papers are returned looking very festive with all the red circles around the commas, you could run your paper through a computer programme (I, of course, recommend SentenceWorks) and see if you think that helps you fix the problems.

Your school will have some sort of tutoring or writing centre.  It may just be a couple of volunteers who hang around an office for a couple of hours each week, or perhaps it’s an on-line chat, or it may be a full-time tutoring centre.  Whatever it may be, if you feel you haven’t fulfilled the requirements of your assignment, please find a real, living-and-breathing person to help you do so.  Save the computer for the celebratory post-exam gaming sessions. :)

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Roget’s Thesaurus

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

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I’ve gone on about this before, but I was writing something a couple of weeks ago and realised exactly how fiercely I cling to this book while writing.  I did a few little experiments with my students, and have come to an absolute: one simply cannot write without a copy of Roget’s Thesaurus by one’s side.

Roget’s Thesaurus is not difficult to use.  Look  up the desired word at the back of the book (the back is arranged in alphabetical order, like a dictionary), and choose the appropriate meaning of the word.  You will be directed to the front of the book - by numbers - to a list of synonyms.

Roget’s is the best thesaurus, perhaps because it is the oldest.  Perhaps it is also better because it categorises the words by meaning, not just by synonyms.  For instance, Roget’s classification for the word letter comes under Correspondence (#592).  In The Mirriam-Webster Thesaurus, the synonyms for letter do not include the word correspondence, and vice versa.  As well, Mirriam-Webster’s definition of correspondence only refers to similarity, not written communication.  I have found all other thesauri to have similar problems.  They are not thorough, and they are not well-organised.

Now, Roget’s Thesaurus should - as should any thesaurus - come with a bright red warning on the cover: USE YOUR BRAIN.  One word cannot be haphazardly replaced by another.  Each word in the English language has a different meaning, even though some meanings may be similar.  For instance, if I said my student was upset by his low grade, you might feel sympathetic and give him a comforting pat on the back.  If I said my student was devastated by his low grade, you might feel the need to call in some professional support.  If you’re in doubt, double check the meaning of the word in a good dictionary.

What Roget’s can help you do is find the appropriate word to precisely express your meaning.   It will also, through consistent use, increase your vocabulary.  If you have a copy, I recommend taking it from your shelf and dusting it off.  If you don’t have a copy, hie yourself over to the nearest second-hand store and buy one.  Keep it close to you, and consult it whenever possible.

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Weird Red Editing Marks

Monday, October 12th, 2009

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When your (utterly brilliant) paper is handed back to you, are you filled will trepidation?  When you peek through your fingers to look at the paper, does it take you another half hour to understand what the professor or proofreader thought of it? Does it look like a bunch of aliens stepped in red ink and ran all over your essay?

The alien prints are called “editing marks”. While it may seem a little ironic that someone will write sp. in order to tell you to spell something out, editors have a reason for using these marks. Not only do the editors generally have hundreds of papers to mark but they also have limited space; full sentences crammed into the 2 ½ inches on either side of your paper would make it difficult to read.

It’s not all that difficult to understand editing marks. Some marks are pretty obvious; awk. means the sentence sounds awkward and should be re-written so it sounds a little more natural. Marks such as ¶ are a little more disconcerting: it’s a pilcrow and it means you need to start a new paragraph.

A simple search for “editing marks” should come up with a range of websites which will guide you, or the writing centre at your institution will have a print-out available. Barring that, this website has most of the marks you’re likely to see:

http://wadsworth.com/english_d/templates/student_resources/1413001890_burnett/UsageHandbook/edit_marks.htm

Code-breaking is a very useful skill….

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Study Groups

Monday, September 14th, 2009

This one is for the tutors.

Only 24 hours in the day and only 7 days in the week, and you’re expected to tutor how many people?! One purpose of this blog is to show Writing Centre personnel how to “do more with less”. The short answer: let them teach themselves (a.k.a. “study groups”).

For half of the working day, I’m a writer. I spend a lot of time with people who voluntarily eat, sleep and breathe the English language. These people are not learning how to write but they are constantly improving the process of writing. Writers pounce on each other, asking “Why?” Why use that word instead of this word? Why use a semi-colon instead of a period? Why put this paragraph before that paragraph? We stand in awe at a brilliant combination of words and then try to work the same magic with our own words. Reading each other’s work and asking questions is how we improve our own writing. These gatherings of writers are nothing more than… study groups.

For the other half of the working day, I’m an English tutor; it goes without saying that I rarely meet a student who enjoys English. Most of my students, like yours, are inclined to math or science or business, and about half of those utterly despise the process of writing.

My students do learn from me (they must, or I wouldn’t have been a tutor for so long) but I find they also learn very well from each other. I once had three engineering students who were all taking the same required English literature class. While all three were exceptional at maths and sciences, they were mediocre when it came to analysing literature and communicating their thoughts. Working with me on an individual basis, they each raised their marks by 5 or 10 marks but I wasn’t happy with this.

I brought the three of them together and just let them do their stuff. When Student A had a question, I let Student B and Student C try to answer it; one of them would usually have a response. Each student had a particular strength and was able to use that strength to help the other two. For instance, Student A was naturally good at seeing where there was likely to be a basis for classical allusions (although he didn’t have the background, so I would be the one to make reading suggestions), Student B found punctuation and sentence structure to be entirely rational, and Student C had an outstanding memory and could recall tidbits their teacher had given them. Eventually, the three of them were learning from each other, and I was left to step in only when they got completely stuck or to have a final look at something.

Classes have just started; this is the best time to help your students find other people who think and learn the way they do. Suggest they get three or four people in each study group, and that they try to discover each other’s forte (if you already know these students you can arrange the groups accordingly). If things work out, you can have a couple of groups working at once, while you go back and forth between them. While it doesn’t add any more hours to the day, it will make the mere 24 a little easier.

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Floating with Just a Piece of Driftwood

Monday, August 31st, 2009

When writing papers outside of the classroom, one is able to improve one’s writing through proofreading, use of spell-checkers, tutors, etc; one may have several people critique the paper; one may also take advantage of those “midnight flashes of brilliance”, where one wakes up in the middle of the night with the answer one has been searching for all day.

Writing in class, when one has limited time and no resources, it is a different matter. One of my students once compared the two situations to sailing on a cruise ship and floating mid-ocean with nothing but a bit of driftwood (the driftwood, I believe, being a metaphor for the few essay-writing skills she had learned that year, and was expected to remember under stress).

Planning can be part of your driftwood. Here is a general plan I suggest to my students:

  • Spend one or two minutes making a time schedule. For instance, if one has an hour to write a 5 paragraph essay, try scheduling 15 minutes to plan the thesis and supporting points, 7 minutes per paragraph, 10 minutes to proofread. If one has 5 classes for an assignment, use the first class to plan the assignment, three classes to write it, and the last class to proofread it.
  • Plan out what you will write. Start with the thesis and supporting points. Your introductory paragraph will set the tone for the whole paper, so plan that paragraph thoroughly. Be sure your body paragraphs support your thesis. Have a fair idea of what you would like to cover in the concluding paragraph.
  • After you’ve finished writing, proofread for content. Did you answer all the questions and support your thesis?  Have you chosen the best words to explain yourself?
  • Finally, proofread for grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitals, and all those little annoying things.

If you are particularly good at one aspect or another, schedule less time for that part and more time for the things you find more difficult. I, for instance, prefer to have a lot of time for proofreading, especially for content. This blog entry took me about 3 minutes to plan, 20 minutes to write, and 15 minutes to proofread.

If academic writing is not your forte, your work in class will obviously not be quite as good as a paper written with the help of all available resources; this does not mean in-class writing has to be a write-off.  :)  Build and maintain your driftwood collection; try to remember what you’ve learned while using your various resources. Keep a list of things you have learned, and review the list before embarking on any in-class writing assignments. For instance, if you have been using Sentenceworks, which cards have been popping up over and over? Has a professor made the same comment about semi-colons on several of your papers? Do you always confuse their, there and they’re?

Think of the resources as teachers, and use them to your advantage so you can float merrily across the ocean.

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Learning By Example

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Human beings learn best by example. We have the saying, “Do as I say, not as I do” because people tend to do what others do. If infants are not spoken to, they don’t learn to speak; if they don’t see people walking, they don’t learn to walk.

The same deal goes for learning to write. However, it is an all-too-frequent occasion when beginning writers are just told to write, without being given clear examples.

So, where can you find your own examples? NOT ON THE INTERNET!

Sorry, did it seem like I was yelling? I was. The internet is a wonderful thing, but is the bane of an English teacher’s existence… and, I assume, of every other formal educator’s existence. The internet is uncensored, unfiltered, uncontrolled: not what you want when it comes to formal education. Anyone can throw their D+ history essay up on the internet and claim they got an A++ on it. Even the websites where one pays for an essay can be feckless when it comes to assessing their submissions. Do not, even if you have paid several hundred dollars, consider anything from the internet necessarily to be a good example of formal writing.

Books are a good place to find examples for formal writing.  Books do not guarantee perfect writing, but anything in print has been proofread and edited, and conforms to some standard.  If the essay can be found in print, there is a good chance it has some merit.

Books which discuss the subject about which you are writing are the best place. If you are writing about Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, the best place to find essays about it is in the same book. (You know how the book is often twice as thick as it needs to be? The extra paper frequently has literary essays on the text.) World War II history books will have WWII history essays. Natural science books will have natural science essays.

If you are not looking for an essay on a specific subject, there are thousands of brilliant essayists all over the world. I was raised and educated in Canada, so have been grovelling at the feet of John Ralston Saul and Pierre Burton for some years. American essayists H. L. Menken, Henry David Thoreau, and Malcolm Gladwell are revered by almost all writers. Some famous British essayists are Virginia Woolf and the ever-popular Oscar Wilde.

Some magazines are fair examples of good writing, although the style may be considered a little informal for academic writing. The New Yorker has excellent essays (and you can reward your research efforts by reading some of the stories afterwards). Maclean’s is also good, particularly the pieces by Mark Steyn and Andrew Coyne. For those with a more worldly view, consider Ode. If you have questions about the writers of a particular magazine, ask your teacher, professor or librarian to give their opinion on the writing style.

If the reading becomes too much like work, find another writer or another subject, or a more comfortable chair in the library.  Enjoy the reading.  Compare the styles of different essayists.  The more examples you have to learn from, the better your writing will be.

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Supporting Your Thesis

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Prove it.

Isn’t that always the response to a statement?

Shakespeare is the best author ever.
Yeah, right. Prove it.

Academic writing exists only to prove it. Once a thesis (the declarative statement) is given, the paper you’re writing has only just begun. But… how do you prove it?

In English, we ask questions with 6 small words: who, what, when, where, why and how. That’s it; if you have answered all those words, you have proven it.

No, of course it’s not quite that simple. In academic writing, all 6 question words must be satisfactorily answered, but how and why carry more weight than the others.

Let’s look at tooth-brushing, for instance. If our thesis is, Tooth-brushing is good for your health, we need to prove it. Academic writing requires at least three supporting points, so let’s use these:

· Tooth-brushing removes plaque and prevents cavities
· Tooth-brushing freshens breath
· Tooth-brushing whitens teeth

For each of these three supporting points, we need to explain how and why, in detail. So, let’s ask ourselves, How and why does tooth-brushing remove plaque and prevent cavities?

How: the brush scrapes off the plaque, especially from nooks and crannies, and the toothpaste aids in the removal of plaque, food and other unwanted substances.
Why: plaque and rotting food contain bacteria which causes cavities. The cavities will weaken the teeth (which causes pain, which causes difficulties when eating, therefore affecting nutritional intake), and the bacteria may travel to different parts of the body and cause infections. Pain, lack of nutrition and infections all have a detrimental effect on the body; therefore tooth-brushing is good for your health.

Remember to answer all the hows and whys. The second supporting point, tooth-brushing freshens breath, has a couple of hows (removes rotting food and bacteria from the mouth, adds a minty scent from the toothpaste). The whys might refer to the social stigma of halitosis. The third supporting point, tooth-brushing whitens teeth, might also refer to social stigma. Therefore, tooth-brushing is good for psychological health because it helps avoid the negative social ramifications of imperfect oral hygiene.

Ensuring you have proven your thesis is equally important to proofreading for mistakes. You may have impeccable spelling and grammar, but you won’t convince your reader of your thesis if you don’t prove it.

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