Draft (blog 17)

Statement
To identify the factors, relating to authority, that gives students the confidence to take themselves seriously as writers?

Detailed statement of your research question
Is the tutor's authority established by the tutor's own confidence or because the student expects them to have all the answers?
-How is this confidence expressed by each?

In respect to the educational level of the student seeking advice, most students seeking help assume the tutor has most, if not all, of the answers.

List of the information you need to gather (or have gathered already)
What is most significant in authority and confidence is the language barrier. ESL students do not have a complete understanding of English and rely solely on the tutor's knowledge to help them create a better paper. They often say I don't understand the assignment, what does this mean (referring to something there professor said/wrote), in addition to not fully comprehending the tutor.

Communication is crucial to a progressive session. An example of clear communication was done by a tutor and a deaf student. What made communication effective was the tutor writing everything down that needed to be conveyed to the deaf student. Because of this form of communication there was no misinterpretation. The confidence of both tutor and student were high because every detail of the session was lucid and clear.


Initial findings:
• Does the tutor and student start off in the right direction?
• What was said by tutor—presents having control by asking how they
• Student’s response to tutor’s opening remarks—clear understanding of what the tutor is asking of them
• Level of education, gender, race/ethnicity of student—these are obvious observations
• How prepared is the student

Cues from both participants
• Cues from tutor when they know what to say—confident in their “demands”
• Cues from tutor when don’t know what to say—stuttering, apprehensive, uncertainty
• Cues from writer when they have ideas—repetitious head nodding, saying I understand, clear understanding of the assignment at hand
• Cues from writer when they are out of ideas—they say they don’t know or if they are in need of further explanation from their professor

The conversing between tutor and writer
• Writer reads their paper aloud (no draft = reading assignment aloud)
• Writer/Tutor have a balance between the amount of talking

Preliminary list of sources
The Role of Authority and the Authority of Roles in Peer Writing Tutorials.
http://library.kean.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url,cpid&custid=keaninf&db=eric&AN=EJ492619&site=ehost-live

Novice Tutors and Their ESL Tutees: Three Case Studies of Tutor Roles and Perceptions of Tutorial Success
http://library.kean.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url,cpid&custid=keaninf&db=eric&AN=EJ730651&site=ehost-live

Also, our textbook. Judith Powers essay on ESL students

Triangulation in the Writing Center: Tutor, Tutee, and Instructor's Percpetions of the Tutor's Role.
http://web.mit.edu/nlerner/Public/WCJ/ThonusTriangulation.pdf

Plan for gathering information
I think most of the research I have obtained thus far will contribute as the nucleus of my paper. It’s not so much “gathering information” for me now, but more of sifting through the information I have already. I have made numerous observations, though I am not saying I am done doing research, I’m continuing to research my topic and figure out the more significant pieces of the research I have so far. From there I will further observe those details in further sessions.