Ah, the quickies and the no shows...

Looking at my schedule this morning was a bit daunting: all six of my appointment slots were booked. However, I remained undaunted, as I knew there was a good chance not all of the students would actually show up, and that was, in fact, what transpired. Further, the first two appointments were very quick: the students only used a fraction of their allotted time, so I got good down time between appointments. One student didn't show--but his was a sort of provisional appointment in any event: I'd worked with him earlier in the week, and he said he might come back in. He didn't. Fair enough.

The only slight collision was with my last two appointments: the second-to-last student was late to start with and then wanted to look at his document on my computer. Some of my colleagues here allow that, but I don't, so he had to go print what he had. He seemed very slow to process things, though I think he's actually pretty intelligent; the wheels just move slowly. But he was in my cubicle five minutes longer than he should have been. I was concerned about the next student, but fortunately that student didn't seem to care.

In fact, that final student sort of didn't seem to care about the whole process, though I think that was a cover for some real discouragement. His essay got a D, which was clearly a serious ouch to him--but it was chaotic and disorganized, and he had missed a refinement on the assignment that stated a focus he was missing, at least in his introduction.

With both of those students--and with the other who used her entire appointment time--my work was the same: I talked with them about how to clarify their ideas, how to use evidence, and how to revise. The one who seemed slowest actually seemed to have the best grasp of what he needed to do, once I explained, but in his case and in the case of the young woman I helped, I was surprised by their professors' comments. In his case, the professor didn't point out that he didn't really have a thesis, which I thought was odd. In the case of the young woman I helped, her professor didn't point out the fact that the student's essay was essentially a pastiche of huge generalizations--and didn't even clarify which of two poems was being discussed in each paragraph. The feedback on the final student's essay was more precise; in fact, she provided a check-list (things like, "topic is clearly stated: yes, no," "includes at least three quotations from different sources: yes, no")--and, unfortunately, a lot of the "no" categories were checked.

I like it when I spend most of an appointment talking about ideas instead of hacking through GSP (grammar, spelling, punctuation). And I like it when I can talk about process: how to approach the tasks involved in getting from point A to point B in writing or, especially, revising. I also am glad to see that so many students are either being allowed or required to revise: that's one of the department's stated goals, and in the past it was more frequently honored in the breach, as the saying goes. I used to tell my students that revision was probably the most important thing I could teach them--it being part of understanding writing as a process--and I'm glad to see so many students having to grapple with that particular monster. Revising is hard. It can also be delicious, but it is anything but easy.

In any event, that's it for me for this week. My logging of appointments has been done, and now I can toddle off into the weekend. Very strange to be so close to the finish line here. It will be interesting to see if the sudden up-tick in number of appointments continues to occur. My hunch is it will--but so will the number of cancellations and no-shows.