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Interview with Ms. Mary Beth Simmons, M.F.A., Director of the Villanova University
Writing Center. F@N. Can you explain, what is the Writing
Center? Ms. Mary Beth Simmons. The Writing Center
is a place for students to get help with any writing project. Students can
bring an outline, rough draft, an assignment or even just their ideas to meet
with a trained tutor. The tutors will work with students at their own pace. F@N. You've worked as the director of the
Writing Center for a few years now. What are some of your impressions? Ms. Mary Beth Simmons. I have been very
pleased with the heavy emphasis on writing that I see here at Villanova. Many
of our courses have rigorous writing assignments. The writing is demanding and
it should be. No matter what discipline a student is in, he or she is going to need
to be able to write effectively, so this is something really important for us
to stress. F@N. So how is the class of 2011 doing on
writing? How are their skills? MBS. For the most part they are good. I
see evidence of a lot of solid, traditional high-school training. Many of our
students have mastered the basics and it shows in their writing. They've got
the foundation in place already, and now they are ready to expand and add new
skills. Making the transition from high school to college writing is very
difficult for some. F@N. What are their biggest problems? MBS. I would say that the biggest problem
they have is a kind of perfectionism. They are good students and they have high
standards for themselves. That is a fine thing but it can hang them up in a few
ways. For some students, there is so much anxiety about writing that they have a
hard time getting started. They sit there staring at a computer screen until
the deadline comes up and then just write something to get the paper done.
Another symptom of perfectionism is that many of our students don't enjoy
revising their paper. Once they have a draft they think, "OK, that's done,
on to the next project." They just hate to mess up that clean sheet with
editorial marks. Actually our computers and printers can create a problem. The
papers look so polished when they come off the printer that sometimes students
get the illusion that this is a finished product. What we know, however, is
that a good paper should go through a number of drafts, and to write well
students need to F@N. If I went to the Writing Center, what
would I see? MBS. You'll see a big room, with both
work tables and lounge areas. You'd see lots of student peer tutors working
with individual students on writing projects. There are also 7 new computers
where students can F@N. How do you train the peer tutors to deal
with the problems of perfectionism that you mentioned earlier? MBS. For a student who has trouble
getting started, we work a lot on prewriting. We have a few different
approaches, depending on the student. In some cases we work with the students
on writing outlines, and that can often jump-start the student to writing a
paper. Some students, however, don't respond well to outlines so we work with
them on what we call clustering. The student starts with an idea, then we help
them brainstorm other ideas that might be related, exploring connections with
where that idea might go. Another very successful technique is "free
writing." We'll ask a student to sit down with a piece of paper or at a
terminal and write for ten minutes without editing, just to get their thoughts
out on paper. Sometimes students don't do this on their own because they think
it is a waste of time, but it is a really good way to get started. Often they
are surprised by how much of the paper is already in place. F@N. Suppose a student brings in a draft of the
paper. What are some of the ways the tutors are trained to help? MBS. The first thing is that both the
tutor and the student read the paper together, so both are actively visiting
the paper and they both have the same frame of reference. Then we take the
student through four steps, looking at the assignment, the thesis, the
organization and development, and finally at the mechanics. F@N. Lets talk about each one. You mentioned
looking at the assignment. What comes up there? MBS. Often enough the student will read
the assignment and write a draft of the paper, without rechecking to see if the
paper really addresses the assigned topic. By the time the student has written
the paper, the student may have lost sight of what the professor was actually
asking for. Going over it with a tutor is a really helpful F@N. We've heard a lot about "the
thesis-driven essay," and you mentioned that looking at the thesis was the
second step. Tell us more about that. MBS. Rather than asking what the thesis
is, we have the tutor pick out what he or she thinks the thesis is. If the
thesis is strong, the reader should have no trouble picking it out. We also
check to see if the thesis is thought-provoking, and we try to steer students
away from a more generic thesis. At the high school level, a good thesis can sometimes
be a summary. This won't cut it in college, and it is a big jump for first year
students. F@N. What about organization and development?
How does that play out? MBS. The tutors try to check whether the
logic of the paper supports the topic. We check to see if the paper goes from
easier requirements to more difficult ones, and we look at the transitions and
the use of evidence. One of the things we try to help students understand is
that learning to be a good writer is a life-long process. Last week, one of our
professors came into the Writing Center for help. He had sent an article to a
journal and gotten some suggested changes from the editors; he wanted a writing
center tutor to help him revise his article. (I put him with one of our most
experienced tutors and they worked very well together). I really appreciated
his visit because it helps make our point that good writers are always working
on developing their writing, F@N. What about mechanics and proofreading? MBS. We do go over the spelling and
punctuation, but we try to put it in context. For some of our students, being a
good writer means being able to spell and punctuate. They think, "If you
can help me fix my commas I will have a good paper." We'll help them with
mechanics, but we'll also help them understand that there is much more to it
than submitting a paper with no grammatical errors. As Stephen North has written,
our task is to produce a better writer, not a better text. F@N. How are the students doing with their
citations? MBS. Many students struggle with
citations. Overall, students need to pay more attention to details. They should
ask their professor specific questions about what is expected. Depending on the
teacher, students F@N. Do many students take advantage of the
Writing Center? MBS. Absolutely!!! We see about 4,500
visits per academic year. We've been extremely busy lately given that students
are in around mid-terms. Students should call ahead to make an appointment
because the schedule fills up quickly. F@N. Wow! So you must have a large number of
student tutors? MBS. We have 40 undergraduate tutors and
15 graduate student tutors. They've been well trained and are really helpful! F@N. What can parents do to help? MBS. Parents can encourage students to
come to the writing center. The best thing is for a student to call us at
610-519-4604 to make an appointment, but we'll also try to help students who
just drop in. Parents can help with student perfectionism, by reinforcing the
message that learning to write is a life long process. I would also encourage parents
to read some of their students' written work, if the students are comfortable
sharing it. If the student says he or she did a good job on a paper, the parent
might ask the student to send it as an e-mail F@N. What about becoming a writing center
tutor? Is that something members of the class of 2011 should think about? MBS. Absolutely. Nothing helps a student
improve writing more than helping others to write. Students who are interested
take a training course during their sophomore year and then become writing
center tutors. They are paid for their work, so it is a great way to combine learning
and earning. It isn't too early to start thinking about it, so a student who is
interested should contact me for more information, either by calling at
610-519-5358, by email: marybeth.simmons@villanova.edu,
or by stopping by the center to make an appointment. Our hours are: Sunday:
3:30-7:30 , Monday - Thursday 11:30-7:30 and Friday 11:30-3:30. |