College Mentor Writing Consultation Part 2

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and the idea of sitting inside concerned me. Good thing it was possible to take the essays outside and enjoy the sun! First we were paired up with out writers. Last time I was a floater so I didn't have a writer, but this time Molly and I both shared a different writer. We began by going outside to read the papers. This gave us time to read the paper carefully without having to worry about the awkward silence that occurs when you are reading to yourself. Then we came back inside to retrieve our writers and then went back outside. First we asked the writer what her and her consultant worked on last time. She they they worked on organization. This is what we initially thought was worked on because the paper was very well organized. The one major problem the essay had was the lack of direct quotes. It was clear that the writer was not comfortable using them or had not used them in the past. She did a lot of paraphrasing the quotes. This is good sometimes, but she was asked to use direct ones as well. She was very willing to listen to what tips we had to incorporate them. We took her through how to pick out a good quote and how to introduce it and also how to add analysis following it. There were a few grammatical errors, but we were more focused on her ideas and making sure the main ideas of her essay were expressed. Then we went back inside and talked with the high school students about the difference between high school and college. I think the high school students really learned a lot through working with us. Also, the process of revising their paper multiple times is a very good experience to have. I never revised a paper more than once before coming to college and its exciting for them to have this experience in high school.