Staff Spotlight

               This is a new segment we are starting that will spotlight a different staff member each week. This will be very similar to the Writing Center’s COW (consultant of the week) which is presented at the staff meeting each Monday night, except instead of being selected by popular votes for something awesome you do this segment will focus on just how awesome you are all the time.

                Now for the moment you are probably waiting for me to get to…this week’s staff spotlight goes to Courtney Worthington! Courtney is a junior here at Coe College. But here is something you may not know about her: she has been here for only two years, last year not being one of them. She transferred closer to home last year before realizing that there really is “no place like Coe”. She is majoring in biology and in her mind has always been destined to study the sciences. “[She] always knew that [she] loved science and learning about the human body” and when she had the awesome opportunity to shadow in a Pathology lab in high school she just “knew [she] was going to be a lab kid”.

     Now for some fun facts about Courtney:

1. She seems to not get very much sleep which is not so uncommon for the average college student, but I still feel sorry for when she tells me she just got six hours of sleep in the past three days. 
2.  Her fondest memories in the Writing Center are the late nights spent studying in the Writing Center. Courtney, unlike me, can pull all-niters in the Writing Center and loves them so because she is never there alone. For all of you night owls out there…try getting some sleep over the holidays!
3. She is extremely proud of her brand new yellow pants. I have seen them myself and they are pretty awesome! So if you are on campus sometime soon and see some in the writing center wearing yellow pants, there is a good possibility you have just seen Courtney Worthington. If you do see her, make sure and congratulate her on her staff spotlight this week!

-Margaret Gruhler

Weekly Wisdom

                   “Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.” ― W.T. Purkiser

                  This time of year always gets me thinking about the people in my life. This year I have been particularly thankful and blessed that I have the mom that I do. Maybe this sounds very cliché, but my mom has gone through so much in her lifetime and until recent months I never understood the full scope of who she is. My mom is incredibly strong, incredibly selfless, incredibly loving, and incredibly funny. I love my mom more than anything on this earth and that is why I am blessed to have her in my life.

                  I have had these words running through my head, so this is why I love this quote so much. It really is not “what we say” but it is “how we use” our blessings. I can have these kind words of thanks running through my head, but I need to use these words. I need to tell my mom exactly what I have been thinking. This task may be easy for some, but I find it difficult coming from a family where communication is subpar. That is why, after reading this quote, I am going to make it my goal to tell my mom why I am thankful for her this week.

                  I have made my thanksgiving goal, what is yours? I urge every one of you to not just be thankful, but also give thanks. We all have someone in our lives who deserves to hear our thanks and if we only mention our thanks in our prayers or around the Thanksgiving dinner table it isn’t always enough. Giving thanks is often personal and needs to be shared in a personal way. I believe this “is the true measure of our thanksgiving”.

-Margaret Gruhler

San Diego IWCA Conference

A few weeks ago, three to be exact, thirty-nine Writing Center consultants began their journey across the country to San Diego California. “Why?” might you ask? Well, for the annual IWCA (International Writing Centers Association) conference of course. Despite what we all would have liked this trip to be—a time to relax on the beach, explore San Diego and get to know our fellow centaurs a little better, we also had an obligation to attend sessions held by other Writing Centers form across America. And yes, I said also because many of us did get to relax on the beach and explore San Diego.  From the outside, attending the conference may seem like a boring way to spend your day, but let me give you the inside scoop; four reasons it was the best decision to go to San Diego.

1. Being a consultant we found out rather quickly that the sessions were actually interesting, relevant, and great conversation starters. Hailley Fargo’s favorite part of the trip to San Diego was being able to “[have] deep, intellectual discussions about writing” and that even when the sessions were over “that didn’t mean our discussions had to end”.

2. I think everyone who attended the conference would agree with what Greg Ponder said; “that Coe’s [Writing Center] is fricken amazing”. Many of the sessions focused on issues that many Writing Centers were facing and ideas for possible solutions, and while I won’t go as far to say that our Writing Center is perfect, I will say that we definitely do not face the same or nearly as many problems as some. Thank you Dr. Bob for making our Writing Center so awesome!

3. I already mentioned how awesome we are, but I also have to mention how awesome everybody else thinks we are as well. Apparently, when you have 39 undergraduates representing a small college it is pretty impressive. Most Writing Centers, even large universities, have only faculty or graduate student consultants and maybe only twenty consultants. In case you haven’t heard, Coe currently has seventy-two consultants, all of which are undergraduates. We are all the envy among Writing Centers.

4. And of course I cannot leave out the most obvious reasons for traveling to San Diego of all places; we got to leave cold and cloudy Cedar Rapids, IA for cloudless, warm San Diego, CA. Despite how much I love the cold weather winter summons, I got used to being able to walk out of the hotel room in the morning only wearing shorts and a tank top.

That being said, now we are back to reality in bone-chilling Cedar Rapids with only the memories to share. If you are a current staff member who didn’t get to go to San Diego you should really try to go on the next trip wherever it may be because it will be worth it. If you are prospective Coe students interested in possibly working in the Writing Center some day you should know that you will struggle to find a Writing Center better than us. And if you are Coe Alums you should know that we still have fun like I am sure we did when you were here.

-Margaret Gruhler

Weekly Wisdom

“If you hear a voice within you saying, 'I am not a painter,' then, by all means, paint...and that voice will be silenced.” - Vincent van Gogh

                  This quote gave me a boost of confidence this week, so I thought I should share it with all of you. There are so many things that I want to do in life, but too many times I sell myself short by telling myself that it isn’t worth it or that I wouldn’t be good at it anyway—I would just be setting myself up for failure. While in fact after hearing this quote I realized that I am setting myself up for failure by talking myself out of things  I wish I could do. Just because I am not a good dancer doesn’t mean that I cannot go to Rug Cutters. I would not make as big a fool of myself as I lead myself to believe.

This is obviously a small decision that I only face issue with on Tuesday’s, but there will be larger, life-altering decisions that I do not want to fail at because of a simple mind game. If any of you play the same mind game, I don’t want you to fall short for the same reasons. We are all incredible human beings. I bet that each one of you has something you are holding back for some selfish reason or another. I only hope that van Gogh’s words will give you the boost you need to pursue your “something”. For me, I am going to start by finding a friend to go to Rug Cutters with, and then maybe I will work up the courage of confidence to get out of my mind for what really matters.

                                                                                                                                                        -Margaret Gruhler

Weekly Wisdom

“Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you.” - William Arthur Ward

I really like the honesty of William Ward’s words, but for this post I will focus on the latter words of encouragement. I would say that encouragement is needed most when lack of motivation is what you have most. This explains why it has been a while since the last Weekly Wisdom post—I simply have been at a loss for motivation as well as a lack of encouragement. However, this past week I attended the IWCA conference in San Diego, CA and got the little bit of encouragement I needed to write this post. It wasn’t anything that I heard in the sessions, it was what I saw. There were so many people from writing centers across the country and we were all there because we have a passion for writing. Everyone has their own stake in writing, and mine is all about the joy of sharing knowledge—appropriate since I am an education major—and helping others find their stake. This is why I found this quote so appropriate; encouragement is not always verbal which means that encouragement is not passive. You cannot simply wait for someone to offer of prophetic words, but you have to seek for what gives you the motivation. So, I charge you this week to find something in your life that encourages you: encourages you to get up in the morning; encourages you to do your homework; encourages you to speak to less familiar people; it can be almost anything. You just have to be actively seeking for the encouragement to aid your motivation. 

-Margaret Gruhler

On Socratic Conferences

On Socratic Conferences:

The questions we ask so that they may learn

“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.”

-Socrates

I could say a great many things about Socrates. However, I have a distinct feeling that many of those things would risk me getting fired, since I would feel obligated to curse occasionally in order to properly express my thoughts on the matter. I do have a respect for Socrates—especially after reading Plato’s account of his trial. I just recognize that, if asked to list a given number of Socrates’ personality traits, some variant of the word arrogance—or at the very least one with similar implications—would need to be included to properly characterize him.

But he was also brilliant. Not necessarily right, but brilliant nonetheless. According to him, he didn’t believe that to be true—even though one of his friends had gone to the Oracle at Delphi and been told that Socrates was the smartest man alive. Socrates then insisted on proving this by traveling around Athens and asking those who were revered as highly intelligent questions in order to prove that they knew something he did not. All he ended up finding was that he, at the very least, knew that he did not know anything.

And thus the Socratic Method was born.

Of course, the purpose is significantly different when the Socratic Method is applied to the Writing Center. The point is not to demonstrate to the writer that they are idiots. There are advantages to showing writers that their perceptions of their writing do not match their actual writing abilities, but there are more amiable ways to do that than making them look like idiots. Rather, the purpose of the Socratic Method is to force individuals to think critically about what they are writing by asking them questions about it. They will develop their ideas further, be challenged and asked to explain what they know, and in doing so will clarify for themselves the topic of discussion. And, for writers who are scared and frustrated by writing and intimidated by the blank screen in front of them, expressing their ideas verbally overcomes any issues they have in putting their ideas into writing. People tend to be far more accustomed to speaking than writing, and therefore they waste fewer mental processes in using that form of communication—though there are occasionally strange individuals like myself who go through points where they are better able to communicate ideas through writing than speech for the same reason.

The Socratic Method, as applicable to the Writing Center, does possess several other modifications from Socrates’ application. Most prominently, the Socratic Method does not require one to bear certain resemblances to the nether regions of donkeys in order to be utilized—or at least so I’m told. I cannot make definitive statements about that, as through my application of the Socratic Method I have been told by several individuals—by one in particular on multiple occasions—that I can be very frustrating at times because I keep asking questions they can’t answer. They then later insist that their paper improved and that, aggravating as I may have been during a conference, I helped them significantly. I hope that they were not trying to spare my feelings in that.

However, the Socratic Method is almost an inescapable part of being a consultant because it is devoted to asking questions. “Why” happens to be a good staple, but repeatedly asking that makes one sound like an inquisitive child, who very quickly becomes frustrating because they don’t grasp the concept that no one exactly knows why everything happens. It’s a good mental exercise of course, but eventually it just starts to make your brain hurt, and consultants need to avoid frightening off writers. Admittedly, the Socratic Method is not always the best at preventing writers from becoming frustrated. While it can help build confidence if the writers are able to answer the questions effectively and develop their ideas, enough questions which they cannot answer to their own satisfaction leads to aggravation. Thus, a large degree of its success relies on proper application.

The Socratic Method does, however, have numerous advantages. Foremost, it does not require knowledge of the subject matter in order to be effective. Knowledge of that subject matter is still advantageous, but that’s a topic for a different post. This does not mean that one can know nothing and still apply the Socratic Method. One simply needs to know how to ask the right questions and be able to follow the logical train of thought the writer possesses so that, through inquiry, the consultant can challenge the writer’s understanding of their subject matter and force them to defend and develop their own ideas. Thankfully, that is a very specific skillset that is easier to practice and apply than individual knowledge of the writer’s topic—especially since the writer is the one who needs to be the authority on the subject matter, not the consultant.

Yet, I would be doing a disservice if I did not point out the greatest flaw in this method of conferencing: in its pure form, one cannot make definitive statements about whether something is right, wrong, intelligent, stupid, or apply any other sort of value judgment directly to the process. There is something to be said for not making value judgments—the intention of the Writing Center is to have peers rather than authorities and above all it helps prevent consultants from making mistakes—and I know there are several notable members of our writing center who would insist that is a good thing. I am not one of them. Once again though, that is a topic for another time.

-Patrick Johnson

Weekly Wisdom

“To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” – Aristotle

As a musician, criticism is something I am bound to face, although it is something I still have not mastered accepting. You are constantly being criticized for the purpose of becoming a better musician. The criticism may be for the best, but it still hurt me every time. My tempo could be rushed, my sound shaky, no expression of dynamics, or playing the wring notes. These things were little in the big picture, but in my mind these issues were perceived as great imperfections. Although it was often hard, I just had to think of my mom’s reminder of the essence of what Aristotle said: that the criticism is meant to be constructive, that I should learn from it and not to be discouraged.

We all know that criticism is a good thing. However more times than not, at least for me, we try to avoid criticism at all cost. Deep down we know that better things can come from criticism, but in those moments we also want to appear strong and perfect. Self-consciousness is one thing that I have always struggled with in life, and maybe you have as well. Feeling that you need to live up to a certain image and that if someone gives you criticism you will be seen as less than you should. It is often form criticisms that insecurities develop.

 In part, that is why I chose this particular quote. We are all being criticized (by our test grades, paper comments, performances, interactions, etc.); the only thing different between individuals is how we take the criticism. You can choose to take it and change, take it and ignore, disregard anything was ever said, be hurt by it and change, be hurt by it and not change, and be hurt and be incredibly self-conscious about how that person views you. Obviously multiple of these solutions could result in the best decision for you, but my encouragement this week is to consider the outcome before you react. As a last note I will say that we all want to be someone (college isn’t for nothing) so we need to embrace the criticisms, great and small, head on. Speak up. React. Be something. 

-Margaret Gruhler

On Conferences

On Conferences

In search for a topic suitable for a Writing Center blog, it occurred to me that the main point of the Writing Center revolves around conferencing, and that would probably make a good topic for discourse. So: what is involved in a Writing Center conference?

In short: far, far too many things for me to detail here. I get the distinct feeling that it’s a bit of a copout to say that, but it’s true nonetheless. There really isn’t a specific conference style within the Writing Center. There is a certain style that is encouraged very heavily—mostly based around a Socratic methodology—but consultants are largely able to run a conference as they please.

There are, however, some notable exceptions to this; rules that all consultants must abide by while within a conference. Some of the key ones include:

·       Never write on the paper

o   The writing must remain the writer’s, not the consultant’s. Writing Centers exist to help people to improve and develop their ideas, not present or craft the ideas for them.

·       Do not assign a grade to the paper and avoid making quality assessments

o   It is important that the consultants not give the writers the wrong impression about a paper. Consultants are not the professors; they do not grade the papers. They just try and help the writer to improve them.

·       Do not criticize faculty

o   The Writing Center works to help supplement the education system organized by the professors. It is not the place of consultants to ruin the relationship between writers and faculty—it is their duty to try and ensure that the writers and faculty can work towards a common goal of learning.

·       We exist for writers, not papers

o   Sometimes, writers just want to work out the kinks in their paper and turn it in so they can get a decent grade. That’s fine. However, it is not what the Writing Center is meant for. The Writing Center is meant to improve the capabilities of the writers and get them invested in what they write. It doesn’t always happen—I doubt even half of my conferences had writers who deeply cared about the paper solely for the sake of the paper. However, it is a consultant’s job to try and help the writer get invested in what they write. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but the attempt is always made to get the writer to care about their work.

So, how do we conduct conferences? Glad you asked. I’ll have a detailing of my methodology next week.
-Patrick Johnson