The one appointment I had on Friday was Heather, a sophomore. She had written a paper for a multicultural film class and asked me to look over her final draft. This was another case of a student who came in solely for the purpose of grammatical revision. The purpose of the paper was to relate an article to a film. I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to offer too much help without having seen the movie myself, but it turned out to be a successful tutoring session.

Her teacher had looked over the paper ahead of time so there weren't many structural issues. I did notice some weak sentences and grammatical issues. She was a good writer but I was surprised to find that she didn't know the difference between forms of "their", "they're" and "there." I circled them and pointed out why they were incorrect, without judgement.

Luckily, the paper revolved around themes of hypermasculinity in the media. This is a topic I am passionate about so I was able to help clarify some examples because I knew what points she was trying to make, and hopefully that made the essay stronger. For the short paper that it was (only 500 words,) I think the examples of hypermasculinity in the movie that she pointed out clearly supported her thesis.

One thing I got out of this appointment actually applied to my research paper topic. When I complimented her essay she discredited the compliment by telling me that writing is not her forte because she is a finance major. I feel like she didn't have to limit herself with that label, but rather she chose not to focus on improving her writing over time because she didn't think it would be relevant to her life later on, therefore not meeting her full potential. So even though there are certain stigmas associated with choice of major, gender is not the most influential factor in that choice. She disproved the hypothesis writing is a feminine-centric study.

Earlier in the week I was scheduled to have an hour-long appointment for 10:00, who cancelled. So I have yet to tutor for a full hour which I'm sure will pose different challenges than half-hour appointments.