Re: Expectations

[":)" <prvanhai@SVSU.edu>]

Jim,

No, I don't think you "should expect students who come to the writing
center to take writing as seriously as [you] do."  And I think your point
about being "a bit too zealous" is a good one.  I'm constantly haunted by
this when I think of the times that I visited the University's math lab
for help:  I didn't want to develop as a mathematician;  I just wanted to
get through my class.  However, just as we shouldn't expect those who come
to the Writing Center to be as serious about writing as we are, we also
shouldn't expect that they won't be!  What does this mean for the
"formulaic approaches to composition"?  I think it means that it isn't by
any means "wrong" to provide them.  But at the same time, we should do
it in a way that lets the student know that it isn't the "right" way to
write and is only one approach.  Then, the students who want to can use
it, but the students who don't want to don't feel like they have to.  And
most importantly, they have an awareness of writing in a larger context
regardless of whether or not they want to take it that far.  

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Pam VanHaitsma
Saginaw Valley State University
prvanhai@tardis.svsu.edu

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