Writing Center Shadow 3

Tonight I had my first real consultation in the Writing Center.  A student came to revise her paper and discuss the organization of her paper.  She was writing about the Universal Health Care system that has been proposed by the government for one of her Leadership classes.  Although the writing style was not something that she was particularly familiar with, she had great ideas about the topic.  The Writing Consultant  read through her paper and asked questions whenever anything was unclear.  As she continued on reading the paper, she would circle common mistakes that the writing made, such as usage of contractions in a formal paper and extensive use of rhetorical questions.  The Writing Consultant did a great job of explaining the changes she made.  I also felt a part of the conversation between the Consultant and the writer.  When the consultant questioned the tense of a verb, she asked for a third opinion from me.  I also facilitated ideas about other possible words or phrases to use to make the paper more clear to the reader.  After going through the paper to clarify ideas and make them more concise, the writer said that she felt she had one of the best writing consultations.  All the changes that were made were explained to her rather than having a bunch of circles and lines all over her paper and not knowing what they meant.  The consultant encouraged the writer to write down ideas as they were discussed.  It was interesting to see how the three of us could work together so that the writer's ideas were as clear and concise to her audience as they were to her.  I suggested a word at one point that captured the intent of the writer, then commented on how I can never seem to find the right vocabulary when I write my own papers.  The consultant laugh and said how it takes a village to write a paper.  I found this to be quite true in my experience.  When I write a paper, it always seems to make sense until I review it with another person.  Another thought that crossed my mind during this consultation is the variations in writing styles from person to person.  I know that I always try to make my papers are formal as possible and use as few colloquial words as possible.  That seems to be something that will trouble me as a Writing Consultant.  The writer today used the phrase "divvy up", which I personally would not use in a paper.  It is difficult to decided when word choice and sentence style cross the line of voice and personal style.  That will be one thing that I will learn to distinguish through enough consultations.