Sight Unseen: Working with Writing Center Clients through Asynchronous E-Mail Consultations

1. Sight Unseen:Working with Writing Center Clients through Asynchronous E-Mail Consultations Presented by Michael Frizell, Director Student Learning Services

2. 1st floor Meyer

3. Why Online Writing Centers? • Advances in technology • Electronic communication • Used widely for personal, professional, even academic reasons • Does not confine a writing center to its physical boundaries • Provide assistance to more students • Distance education, online students, satellite campuses, dual credit students • No hassle of scheduling appointments

4. How Do They Work? • Synchronous • Happens face to face • Immediate interaction between client and consultant • Chat

5. How do they work? (cont.) Asynchronous • Time displaced • Reaction between client and consultant • Email, digital drop boxes

6. How Does Ours Work? • Asynchronous, email • Only for certain students: • high school dual-credit students • online students • students at satellite campuses of MSU

7. How Does Ours Work? (cont.) • 1. Your first and last name. • 2. Your native language (if not English). • 3. Your Missouri State University affiliation (Name of HS, for example). • 4. Your academic status (e.g., dual credit high school student, freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, graduate student, staff, faculty). • 6. Specific concerns and/or questions you have about your text. The assignment parameters help, too! • 7. If your text is a paper for a course, please give the course number and section. • Student submits paper using valid university email. • Paper in WORD or other text file. • Answers specific questions:

8. All clear so far?

9. How Does Ours Work? (cont.) • Once a paper is submitted, consultants have two business days to respond • Make suggestions through Track Changes and Comments features in Microsoft Word • Personal email response • Post response emails

10. How Are Online Writing Consultations Different? Breuch and Racine noted that “the training used in face-to-face centers does not translate easily to online writing centers…e-mail interactions require new strategies” (p. 246).

11. How Are Online Writing Consultations Different? (cont.) • Face-to-face sessions rely on conversation, interaction, feedback • This doesn’t happen online • Communication breaks down

12. Strategies These Still Apply: • Be friendly • Be professional • Explain reasoning for suggestions • HOCS before LOCS • Avoid editing

13. Strategies (cont.) • Develop a strong awareness of your own tone • Avoid sarcasm • Avoid irony • Say things in a positive way

14. Example • “If you can avoid the use of you and use a noun like people or researchers instead, you will come across as more professional” • as opposed to • “Don’t use you or your in an academic paper”

15. Strategies (cont.) Develop an awareness of your own writing Being clear is essential! • “I’m not sure the verb view is conveying the meaning you are intending. Do you mean that Americans think about the extreme effects that science could have. If so, maybe a phrase like think about, worry about, or worry might be more appropriate.” • as opposed to • “awk,” “frag,” or “what?”

16. Strategies (cont.) Make the client aware of your tutoring process “One = one person, singular An individual= one person, singular He or she= one person, singular His or her= something that belongs tone person, singular Individuals= many individuals, plural They= many people, plural Their= something that belongs to many people, plural Always use pronouns that match in number to what they refer back to. You can either change the pronoun (he/she/his/her/they/their) or change the noun it refers back to make it match, but whatever you decide to change they must match in number. I will highlight further instances of this so that you can see them and correct them on your own.”

17. BUT THIS TAKES LONGER!Keep a file of pre-formed comments. •  Consultants may find that they repeat themselves often when responding to writers’ writing, especially when explaining grammar issues. • to save time, keep an electronic file with explanations for grammatical concepts so that you can copy and paste them as necessary. • Of course, check to make sure each explanation truly fits the situation in the writer’s writing; if it does not fit exactly, customize the response for that particular writer’s situation. • As long as the comment is helpful to the writer and is relevant to his or her writing, there is no reason why a consultant cannot use a file of pre-formed responses.

18. Talk to other writing consultants. •  Helpful strategy for online tutoring: Talk to each other! • Whether you aren’t sure if you understand something in a paper or if you are explaining your ideas well enough, sometimes a second opinion can be helpful. • Many of us ask other writing consultants questions during face-to-face sessions. Don’t feel as though you cannot do this when tutoring online.

19. Example

20. Personal Email Responses to Clients

21. Track changes document

22. Some observations… For the consultants… For the students… More student driven. Students practiced writing and vocabulary by exchanging emails. Encouraged early drafts. Breakthroughs happened IN WRITING! • Forced the consultant to consider answers carefully. • Works best with experienced consultants. For the School… Marketing!

23. Questions?

24. Contact Information • Michael Frizell, Director, Student Learning Services • Co-Director, Bear CLAW (Center for Learning and Writing) • michaelfrizell@missouristate.edu • Phone: 417-836-5006 • Office: Meyer Library 112 • Writing Center • First floor Meyer Library – The Bear Claw • Phone: 417-836-6398 • http://writingcenter.missouristate.edu • Supplemental Instruction • http://si.missouristate.edu