In short order, I will soon find myself among the ranks of the University of Richmond Writing Consultants. This is a university experience, and therefore there are no boundaries or limits to what I can face during my time as a consultant. During the semester, we discussed the kinds of writers we can encounter as consultants, and these ranged anywhere from older students, to students whose primary language is not English, to students of disciplines that we are not familiar with. Perhaps the most interesting, yet probably the highest population who seek out consultation sessions, are first-year college students. They are usually the ones with the most apprehension towards college-level work, and are usually unsure as to what is expected of them as a writer at an institution of higher learning.
Earlier in the semester, I blogged about my perceptions of writing as a high school student (think the 5 paragraph essay) and how quickly those were shut down through my first few college writing assignments. Thus, as I writing consultant, it's important to be able to help a first-year student through this transformation. The question is, though, how exactly to we do that?
There was a study conducted by Velda McCune on the "Development of First-Year Students' Conceptions of Essay Writing." She investigated how first-year students perceptions of the process that goes into writing an essay and what a finished essay product should be like (the students involved were all first-year psychology students, but the concept can be applied to students of all disciplines). The method of assessment was through interviews, and students all gave different responses. Some faced trouble in focusing and putting effort into their writing; some even cited fear of negative feedback from professors and TA's.
As I'm only a sophomore and can clearly remember my days as a freshman and some of the challenges I faced. Some of them were:
1. What my professor truly wanted from me.
A lot of times it is difficult for first-year students to truly understand what a professor expects of them, especially coming from a high school system which is usually more straightforward.
2. How to fulfill the prompt but maintain my individuality.
In college, a lot of times writing is not very "creative," but tend to involve arguing a point. Sometimes students (largely first-years) feel inclined to argue a point that they feel their professor is in favor of.
3. How to properly organize a paper.
Organization seems to be the number one cry of anyone faced with a writing assignment...First-year college students are no different.
As I continue the process of completing my final project for the ENGL 383 class, I am able to use my experiences in the writing center and my own observations to develop more detailed answers to these questions.
Cited Works:
McCune, Velda. "Development of First-year Students' Conceptions of Essay Writing." Higher Education 47.3 (2004): 257-82. JSTOR. Web. 30 Nov. 2010.
I definitely related to what you said about creativity in this post. It can be very difficult to think of a topic that is individualized while still retaining all the necessary components of the assignment. I ran into that a lot my freshman year so I can understand why a lot of first years come to the writing center.
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