I enjoy this work so much! Each day I meet new young people and learn something new about the world. I learn better ways to ask questions and add more types of questions to my repertoire so I can serve students in our short sessions.

Today I had two opportunities to offer the following advice to students in the summer Student Transition Program:

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/professors-guide/2010/08/17/top-10-secrets-of-college-success

     Connect with your professor (or TA). The single most underutilized resource at college is the office hour, now available in-person, by e-mail, or by Skype. You might not have realized it, but professors are required to be in their office two to four hours a week to meet with students and help them with the course. Your tests and papers will go better if you’ve had a chance to ask about things you’re confused about, and, with any luck, received some guidance from the professor about what your thesis sentence should be or what’s going to be on the test.

Since there are fewer students on campus now, there are more chances to catch professors in their offices. I encourage students to take graded assignments to their professors and ask how to do better. If you are lucky you will have instructors who write feedback on your assignment. This is a gift and a valuable tool.

One method I need to practice more, especially when I meet a student who is reluctant or experienced with expressing himself or what he needs, is to allow the silence and then ask ” What’s going on in your head now?”.  So far, no one has answered, “Nothing”. One of my weaknesses is that I tend to impatient with taciturn or less than forthcoming individuals. I want to fill the silence . My strategy is to allow the silence and then ask a simple question. Another method is to glance at the clock and say, “How can we best fill the last 12 minutes?”.

I have been teaching for many years, but I still get frustrated when not much interaction happens in tutoring session.

I worked with a student tonight who had received a low grade on his first analysis essay. His instructor commented that he had written a summary rather than an analysis. What he identified as his thesis statement was factual.

I explained that a summary is rewriting what the story is about, but putting it in your own words. An analysis is breaking down the reading into smaller parts and examining it.

This may seem obvious, but it is easy to write several pages of summary and think you have analyzed the topic in depth because it is all factual and fills the page requirement. Summary does not go beneath the surface; analysis does. Summary can be an analytical tool, when used to support a point within your analysis.

 Summary and analysis are not interchangeable.

The student had not yet grasped that when you write an analytical paper, you should not be describing an obvious concept. Analysis goes beyond description into examination and explanation. You must make sure your thesis goes beyond the obvious to help you cut down on summary. Ask yourself if someone could reasonably argue the opposite of your thesis. If so, then you probably have an analytical thesis statement.

Students are often unable to distinguish the difference between stating that something was persuasive and choosing specific examples from the source text to demonstrate how it was persuasive (in this case a scientific essay).

The culprit (again) is concrete thinking. Concrete thinkers have trouble seeing the point of analysis because they basically understand the content and wonder what else to do with it. Since there are no simple solutions to the problem of concrete thinking in college, we have to be content with providing many ways to help each student make connections to more complicated concepts. The truth is many intelligent and successful adults can be classified as concrete thinkers in many areas. Perhaps each one is an effective learner and processor of information in select domains.

I get frustrated when I work with a student who does not respond or responds minimally to any of my questions or suggestions. I realize there are a couple of things going on. He may not be accustomed to participating in a conversation with an adult, it might not fit with his learning style, or he may feel intimidated. I always write down my questions and suggestions for students to think about later. I say, “This IS a hard assignment” and “This kind of assignment takes a lot of work”.  I always invite them to come back to the writing center and see me again or see another tutor. I tell the student that a different tutor will have a different style. I remind myself that the student will process our session later and in his own time.

I ask, “What tips have you picked up during this session” and “What are your next steps?” as well as “Is there a question I can answer or a point I can clarify?”.

I have to remember that in a 30 minute session I will not necessarily see a light bulb come on. I have to hope that what we  have discussed echoes what he recently heard in class.

I also have to remember that the student may have been hoping to find an “easy way” to get the assignment done.

The following link has four college level analysis essays that could be used to demonstrate what an analysis essay looks like.

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~jewel001/CollegeWriting/WRITEREAD/Analysis/samples.htm

One or all of these might be useful to show a student how the essay is structured,  how it is different from a summary, and the ways to connect points made with the source text(s).

In consideration of cultural rhetorics, it is useful to consider how styles of argument varies among diverse countries and cultures.

A website associated with the University of Minnesota, Writing for College.org offers a chart to explain some differences.

Four Culturally Different Styles for Arguing

https://sites.vmi.edu/drakemp/2016/07/11/working-summer-project-sources-and-best-practices-for-helping-students-with-analysis-assignments/

In my work as a college writing instructor and writing center consultant, I often encounter students from regions of the Eastern hemisphere who write in the manner described above. My tendency is to correct them because I am not sure whether other instructors will find their approach acceptable for North American college writing. Otherwise, I would say that it works just fine. I counsel students to find out what works for each instructor, to avoid the one approach is correct type of thinking.

Another consideration is where the student is in cognitive development. The following excerpt from the same site referenced above highlights the view of some students that the contents of a reading selection is sufficient. What is there to discuss or analyze?

I recall a time near the end of high school when a friend decided that three of us were going to discuss one of the great works of Western culture, Plato’s first three Dialogues, over a meal on the town.  The three of us together had never gone to an expensive restaurant.  In fact, in our small-town decades ago, just the idea of three guys (instead of a guy and a girl) having dinner together in an expensive restaurant was pretty unusual.  So, we read our Dialogues.  And then, to avoid being seen by our friends, we went to dinner in small city fifty miles away.  No one knew us.  The guy who wanted to have the discussion, David, started talking and inviting our ideas.  Mike, the second guy, participated somewhat, and they talked back and forth for awhile.  But I didn’t say much because I thought the point of the Dialogues was pretty obvious: Socrates died for his ideals, and those who controlled his society were wrong to kill him.  Period.  When I said as much, David kind of shook his head and said, somewhat lamely, “But we’re supposed to discuss it.”  At the time I just didn’t get it, even though I had gone through some tremendous intellectual changes already in the previous three years–from fervent fundamentalist Christian to ardent Ayn Rand young Republican and agnostic, and then to existential leap-of-faith liberal and believer in “humanity.”  ( underline mine) https://sites.vmi.edu/drakemp/2016/07/11/working-summer-project-sources-and-best-practices-for-helping-students-with-analysis-assignments/

As students  move beyond concrete ways of thinking, they become able to tackle thinking and writing in more sophisticated ways. It is important to realize how foreign, difficult, and perhaps even silly this may seem for some. The instructor must provide endless bridges to assist students in developing thinking skills.

Here is a document compiled by Richard Jewell of Inver Hills Community College in Minnesota, which provide some views into college student writing development.

WriterStages-Bartholomae,Bloom,Carroll from Richard jewell

The page where I found it is https://sites.vmi.edu/drakemp/2016/07/11/working-summer-project-sources-and-best-practices-for-helping-students-with-analysis-assignments/