Thoughts on various topics in a writing lab

I am sitting in a small room (about eight by ten feet) in the corner of the library.

I am a mighty guru to whom a poor, struggling English student can come for advice.

If you read this blog and note how often I make typos, spelling and grammar errors you will see how ironic this situation is.

My English 101 professor recommended me to the peer services department for their peer tutoring program. Every day for about three hours I sit in this room and remind people to add commas, focus thesis statements, and avoid phrases like "that aint good". I was a bit nervous starting out but I"m beginning to like it. I've met some interesting people, read some really interesting papers and learned a lot about communication and the way I understand the English language.

The most common problems students come to us with have something to do with grammar. We get a lot of foreign students. We were told at training to ask leading questions and avoid giving someone the answer outright. This is very difficult when English is the student's second language. They come in with lots of sentences that are missing articles or have too many prepositions. Sometimes when I'm looking over them I realize that they way they have written a given sentence actually makes more sense by the standard rules of grammar, but it's still wrong. This is English. Sometimes there is no logic whatever behind the way it works so you just have to take my word for it. Why does it seem okay to begin a sentence with the word "However" but not the word "Yet"? They are both conjunctions, aren't they? There are a lot of grammar rules I know by gut and it's taken me a while to figure out how to tell a student what's wrong. I'm learning quite a bit about grammar while correcting other people's writing.
My favorite question so far came in my second week. It was a pretty slow day. I was doing my homework. This boy comes running in. He says "Are you an English tutor?" I'm sitting in a room that says "English Peer Tutoring" on the door. I'm wearing a name tag that says "Writing-Karen" on it (I love that name tag). They always ask, just in case I'm some kind of impostor.
Yes, I am a writing tutor.
"So, you are, like, an expert on English."
Well... I'm here to help.
"Can you look at JUST the FIRST line of this paper?"
Just the first line. Okay.

Dreams... dreams... dreams..., yes, it all starts with dreams.

I'm actually dieing to read the rest of the paper now but I look up and wait for his specific question.
"Do I need the comma at the end of the third 'dreams'?"
I don't think you need both the comma and the ellipses. Go with one or the other, but not both.
He looks very seriously and at his feet for a moment then nods grimly. "That's what you would recommend?"
Yes.
"Okay"
He leaves and I take a deep breath. About five minutes later he comes running back.
"Do I need the comma after 'yes'?"
Yes.

We are supposed to focus primarily on content in a paper. That is my favorite part. I love to see the person sitting across from me and take a little tour of the inside of their head via their writing. There was a very polite young man with a very soft voice who came in to have me read his paper on media bias. He was concerned that his own opinion came through too much thereby undermining the his goal of being unbiased while talking about how biased the new service is. I told him that some of his language was a little strong. He was considering taking out the word "bigots" in his description of Fox News. When we were done he shook my hand thanked me very prettily and walked out saying that he would visit again. I had to smile. He had a very foul phrase tattooed prominently on his neck. One has to wonder about things like that.
I have also read about oral traditions in South Korea, pop culture in a small town in rural China, the comparison between my home town and Tokyo, several papers of varrying quality on why I should vote for Obama (the best ones were by foreign students who cannot vote), and how to bake a three layer coconut frosted cake.

All the diversity that comes through my door, I have been doing some reflecting on the image I present to people by the way I dress and speak etc. Of course, we all make assumptions about a person based on their appearance etc. We try not to but it's only natural; our brains like to put things in groups and classify them. It has been interesting for me to learn bit by bit what sort of assumptions people make about me. Some of them are absolutely right on. Some are sadly mistaken. It's great fun.

I have noticed that people feel the need to apologize to me when they swear in my presence. While it is true that I don't swear (very often), I don't verbally object when other people do it. It bothers me but I actually make an effort not to let it show. After a longer acquaintance the foul language begins to creep in again without apology. I think it's funny that people can tell I don't like it so quickly after making my acquaintance.

I have also concluded that I give the impression of being somewhat stuck up, aloof and unreachable. I hope people are wrong about me in that way. It must be the curse of being an introvert. I wonder if reserve and shyness are often mistaken for snobbery. In my ceramics class this summer I was complimented on something I was making by a student who didn't usually sit near me. I was quite surprised and flattered because she was one of the better students and so I was slow to answer. I have an extraordinary lack of words when I am complimented. It takes a very long time for me to remember how to say "Thank you." My classmate didn't wait very long she muttered something in embarrassment and walked away. That confused me even more. I finally decided she must have thought I was so stuck up I couldn't receive compliments from people "below" me or something. She didn't talk to me and made painful efforts to stay out of my way for the rest of the quarter. What a mess!

I realize that I am an open book about somethings. Everyone can tell when I dislike the content of a conversation just by my face. I am correctly pegged as a conservative fairly quickly. I don't mind. I don't even mind being pegged as a very religious person. That is also true and I'm not ashamed of it. What bothers me is all the assumptions that come with those labels. People tend to think they have me summed up at that point. That's annoying. I was recently pegged as the "smart girl" in my math class. That was rather shocking. Not sure whether I should shatter that illusion or not.

I guess all this means that I need to work on being explicitly compassionate and interested in people. One more step in conquering my introverted, non confrontational nature. This is where the theater background really helps. The challenge is to be myself and not an artificial character learned in acting class. I have to put my real character a little closer to the surface. Not an easy task for someone as reserved as I am. At least not in person.