9/9 Response

Prior Knowledge- The reading on Transfer really struck a chord with me.  I could see myself in each student mentioned. During class discussion, my group was challenged with defining prior knowledge in relation to the rest of the Transfer essay.  I think Prior Knowledge is actually a really helpful term to keep in mind when tutoring other students.  As an RWC tutor, I'm going to meet with students with wildly varying levels of prior knowledge.  Because of this, these same students will also have wildly varying levels of absence [of prior knowledge].  This is where I come in.  It will be my job to use terms and hints that fit the level of prior knowledge of the student.  I can't whip out all the fancy terms I've been learning in this class if the student with whom I'm working doesn't yet understand the difference between summarizing and synthesizing.  As a tutor, I've got to take these fancy terms and make them accessible to each student with whom I work.  If the student happens to know these crazy terms already, then I've still got to make sure the student is willing to adapt and learn from whatever I might suggest.  One of the examples in the Transfer essay highlighted a student who had a relatively stellar writing background.  Unfortunately because of this, the student was unwillingly to adapt and grow to fit the college sphere of writing.  As a tutor, I will need to congratulate this student on what he/she already knows and how it is working for him/ her while also ensuring that he/she is open to constructive criticism.
Exigence- As defined by Bitzer, this is the problem that must be addressed by discourse.  On a smaller scale, this could simply be the prompt brought into the RWC by a student.  Sometimes students deliver  creatively articulated response but still somehow end up with a poor grade to show for it.  In my experience, this generally occurs when the student misunderstands the prompt.  As a writer, this is exasperating.  You just pumped out an 8 page paper, but received a less than average grade simply because you did not aptly address the topic assigned by the instructor.  As a tutor, I hope to guide the student through the prompt, stopping to make sure that the student understands each point of the prompt.  When the student is further along in his/her essay, I hope to keep them on track by continuously referring back to the prompt.  It is easy as a writer to stray off topic.  I think the "backwards outline" method highlighted in class could easily help with this problem.  This technique shows the writer what he/she is truly writing.  Hopefully what is emphasized is what the writer wished to convey.
Social activity-  Gee and Bruffee emphasized writing as a "social activity."  This is critical to the RWC.  The tutor cannot simply tell the writer what to write.  The tutor cannot tell the writer everything he/she must do.  Simply put, the RWC is not a one-way street.  The writer and the tutor must discuss ideas.  At times the writer needs to talk.  At other times the writer needs to listen.  These same rules also apply to the tutor.  Through discussion, writing becomes a social activity.
Reflection-  As discussed by Yancey, reflection is a means for writers to learn from their writing, "to help students learn about writing as they learn to write (Yancey 20)."  Reflection closely mirrors the work done at the RWC.  Students come in with their writing, and tutors force them to analyze their work.  With the help of the tutors, students learn what is working in their writing and why it works.  Conversely, these students learn what isn't working and why it isn't.  While the tutors help in finding these writing successes and writing failures, it is ultimately up to the student to learn from them.  Again, the RWC is a two-way street.  The tutor can only help the student so much.  The student must be willing to reflect, analyze, and repair his/her writing.
Expression- In the Transfer essay, every student defined writing as a form of expression.  Furthermore, the study showed that how students defined writing outside of the classroom influenced how they wrote inside  the classroom.  An easy question I could ask as a tutor is, "Do you think writing and expression are related. If so, how?" Another being, "how do you used writing to express yourself?"  If students have a form of writing that they enjoy because it allows them to express themselves, I can then encourage them to incorporate that style into the seemingly rigid college essay.  Each student's writing style is different, as it should be.  Instructors don't want to read the same essay 50 times.  Allowing students to incorporate their individual modes of expression breeds creative and unique essays.