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).