Blog # 15:

As I was observing on Wednesday, I was surprised to see how anxious students are when they are in a hurry to get their paper done especially when the paper is due like the next day or later on in the evening. I have had the chance to observe Danny and I feel that she has done an amazing job by being able to talk in two languages back and forth. However, I noticed that the role of a writing center tutor changes when an international students comes in for help with writing. Many ESL students who come into the writing center come from different backgrounds. For example, I have had the opportunity to tutor two students and they both had high expectations of the tutor because the tutor was a native speaker of the English language. Although I am a speaker of the native language I still have trouble comprehending the English language. The first student who had came in was very excited as she came in because she was eagered to get started on her paper. However, I found it easy to work with the individual in the beginning because she had an assignment sheet. The assignment sheet looked liked it was clear and that she understood what was going on. So after the student took out the sheet she had showed me her paper. Since she had showed me her paper I asked her could she read it to me and she was willing to read the paper to me which was a good thing. She read the paper aloud and she was not able to hear what was wrong in the paper. So I tried to go sentence by sentence so the student could get a better understanding and that method worked for her. I felt that she was in a panic to understand everything becasue the paper was due the next day.
The second student that I have observed was also a native speaker. He came in and he was excited about coming in as well but at the same time the expression on his face was that he was worried about making his paper so perfect. He was trying to squeeze everything in at one time. He also need help with grammar. The words was in the wrong order of the sentence. Since the student was very soft spoken I tried repeating what he was saying. As I was repeating what he was saying he was nodding in argreement. The one thing that I was upset about was that he did not have an assignment sheet so he had to rely off of his memory. I understand students who come into the writing center needs help but sometimes students question the tutor a lot by saying "Is this the right way to say it". Since he kept asking this question I have asked him was there a specfic kind of resume that he had to write. Both of the students felt comfortable in the writing center in the sense that they both nodded a lot. I think maybe if the assignment was not due the next day that they might not have been in a rush.