My Growth As A Writing Center Intern
This past semester has been my first time being a writing tutor. I have been a teacher's aid, and a camp counselor for little kids, but this has been my first experience as being a tutor for my peers. To document this, I compiled an essay about my experience, and how it connects to larger ideas that I have discovered through my English courses and readings. Revision is an important step in the writing process, so you will also be able to see the revisions I have made to each paper, providing you with an insight into my writing technique.
Below is draft #1...
This first draft was really just about getting my ideas down on paper. I struggled with the description of my chosen tutorial session. I feel like I wrote it in a dull way, when the experience was actually very informative and interesting. I was trying to make sure I got all of the good details in, but I think it compromised the flow a little bit. In my revision, I would like to revamp the description, play around with the structure, and add more in depth analysis in some places.
Draft #2
In this draft, I have completely redone the second and third paragraphs. Instead of just explaining what happened during the mock tutoring session physically, I wove in the bigger ideas that were posed in the session, so that the description of my internship experience progressed more through my thought process. This also helped elaborate on the significance of what was happening, and how it helped me. I also added in some more specifics in a few other places.
Throughout my experience as an intern this semester, I have been posed with a variety of different questions. The main one that stood out to me was: what is a writer? We know that a writer is obviously someone who writes, but it seemed to be more than that. If I would ask the students I was working with, a large majority would not consider themselves writers, even though they have a five page essay in front of them. So, I decided to do some research on this topic to find out how we define what a writer is, and to see if there was any way we can foster this in an educational setting.
Below is draft #1...
I am actually really proud of my research in this draft. I also like how the paper developed into new questions all on its own instead of just sticking to the idea behind what a writer is. That being said, in revision, I think this paper could use some more detail in places. I think there are some ideas that I mention abruptly that my claim could benefit from expanding on.
Draft #2
Since I was fairly happy with the way the first draft came out, for this second draft was mainly just fine-tuning what I already had. I elaborated more in the second paragraph so that the reader not only understands how identities are formed, but how it shapes us as humans and as writers. As I was re-reading, I also noticed that the original third paragraph would flow better in a different part of my essay, so I moved it to be the fifth paragraph. I also elaborated in this paragraph about a connection to the importance of writing tutors. I added more commentary and context in the Alder-Kassner paragraph and revamped my conclusion.