Draft Research Essay

The blog homepage states methods "a section does not include findings, though it does explain your logic, and present your context. It should provide enough information so a reader could do what you did, and so s/he understands why you did your study the way you did it."

I'm not sure if I have provided enough information that explains my logic in why I chose to select particular methods. For the methods section, is my message clear in what I observed and how I interpreted my findings? Also, is this cohesive or just jargon.

Confidence, Control, and Perceptions within a Tutoring Session

introduction
From my collection of six tutoring sessions, four of them have been incorporated in this essay. Two, which present the most significance, are discussed in detail. Through my observations I noted the distinctions of students who were unsure how to complete an essay and other students who understood their assignment and knew what they wanted to work on in their paper. I focused on the intentions of both student and tutor and attributed the control of the session to whoever expressed more confidence. The factors contributing to my data collection were who spoke more and often, vocal characteristics, body movement, and comprehension of the English language.
The significance of my findings allows students to perceive writing centers as a welcoming place to attain informative writing techniques. I argue against the misconception that tutors are as educated and intimidating as teachers and that they represent the evaluative ambience of an educated person. It is true that tutors are required to have an extensive knowledge on writing and communication, but when a student seeks a tutor to help write an essay, it is the student’s job to be able to teach subject matter unfamiliar to the tutor. In retrospect, the student is giving more information than they actually receive.

review of the literature:
Charles Greenwood and his colleagues compared the effects of instructional arrangements that varied in: teacher versus peer mediators, methods used, levels of student academic responding generated, and content taught and tested in their article Teacher-Versus Peer-Mediated Instruction: An Ecobehavioral Analysis of Achievement Outcomes. This explains that these instructional arrangements (i.e., tasks, structure, tutor position and behavior) and students' levels of academic responding were measured by the amount of confidence when the student was both prepared and underprepared for their assignment. However they did not explore the tutor’s reaction and level of confidence throughout these observations. Writing Across the Curriculum: A Guide to Developing Programs is a collection of essays that defines terms, presents helpful suggestions, and provides models for conducting tutoring sessions. This article explains students' developing independence as writers but lacks in describing the role of a tutor and their own developing independence. My observations examined the ability of a tutor from a peer’s perspective. It also presents a relationship that permits honest dialogue and openness between the two individuals. Novice Tutors and Their ESL Tutees: Three Case Studies of Tutor Roles and Perceptions of Tutorial Success is study designed to investigate the negotiation between tutors and nonnative English speaking tutees in a particular setting. Lastly, Talking in the middle: Why Writers Need Writing Tutors focuses on the tutorial function of writing centers. It describes the uniqueness of the tutor/student relationship and claims that that relationship makes knowledge about writing possible in an institutionalized setting.

methods:
Throughout my observations of identifying the relationship between control/authority and confidence I collected data using several methods. These observations were collected from the beginning of October through the end of November 2009. I identified who initiates the control and if they retain it throughout the session. This was classified by whoever spoke lucid and with certainty. I also noted what it meant to have and lack control because non-verbal and verbal cues were given from the student and tutor when either participant knew what was being asked or when they were at a loss. These cues include the amount of body movement, eye contact, and the volume of the voices of both tutor and student. These methods correlate to the amount of confidence experienced by both people during the session.
My observations were equally distributed between each person in the session. When I observed both tutor and student I noted their physical characteristics, their proximity to each other, and how often each of them spoke—both when they were confident and when they were unsure of what they were saying. Observing how loud or quite both tutor and student were throughout the session varied depending on the level of confidence of each. I sought to determine that whoever expressed the most confidence, retains the control in the session; this was done by recording who talked more and if what was said was understood by the person receiving the comments.

A significant method was the recording of verbal and non-verbal cues from both participants. For example, when the tutor knew what to say they showed confidence that the student can accomplish what they asked the student to do, i.e. smiling, relaxed body posture, and gave clear directions. However, when the tutor didn’t know what to say they lacked assurance that their student comprehended their tutoring method. The tutor began stuttering, clear their throat more, and kept readjusting they way they sat. Also incorporated in my recordings were cues from the student when they had and were out of ideas for writing when they didn’t have a draft.

What I looked for during my observations is how the tutor reacted when the student set the agenda and when the student expected the tutor to do all the work. Taken into account was the student’s educational level and understanding of the English language. These sessions were conducted through one-on-one interactions.

Data analysis: There were four sessions I observed that proved to be the most significant. Two of which consisted of apprehensive ESL students, one named “Jasmine.” The other two presented students who knew how they wanted to revise a nearly completed essay. One of these confident students was named “Mary.”

When I observed if the tutor and Mary started off in the right direction, her confidence set the pace of the session. At the initial interaction, the control was attributed to whoever presented greater confidence, in this case Mary, a senior. When she brought in a finalized paper seeking advisement to fine-tune it, she set the agenda by stating what she had completed at the point and what she wanted to further develop. The findings in the session relate to the student’s confidence. My findings showed some parallels to Charles Greenwoods results in Teacher-Versus Peer-Mediated Instruction: An Ecobehavioral Analysis of Achievement Outcomes. “The results of this investigation confirmed with minor exception that peer tutoring, compared to instructional procedures typically developed by teachers, produced superior weekly achievement affects,” Greenwood, Teacher-Versus 536). Even though Mary was an older student and knew what she want to work on she still needed that extra help from a tutor because her professor was not completely clear on the requirements of the paper. With aid from the tutor she made it clear that she knew what she was talking about and how she wanted the tutor to proceed in helping her make a good paper better. In this case, the student was focused on making sure the paper was cohesive. Throughout the session, the paper was in front of both Mary and the tutor the entire time. While the tutor read it through Mary moved very little. She sat there intently and did not fidget nearly as much as students who had less confidence or ill-prepared.

For example, an ESL student who does not have a lucid comprehension of the English language, much in the same way Weigel and Nelson take into account numerous factors of the ESL student, I emphasize two relevant factors: the tutee’s oral proficiency and the tutor’s background and training. The student’s confidence might be undermined if they do not recognize the true role of the tutor.
“Tutors, because they function in a non-evaluative, supportive environment, offer writers the opportunity to write, think, and talk with someone who through this collaborative talk and questioning helps the writer use language to develop ideas, to test possibilities, to re-see and rethink in the light of feedback from the tutor,” (Harris Chap 10, Writing Center).
This is important because in order for a student to allow the tutor to help, the student cannot look at the tutor as a professor.
Since Jasmine had such a hard time understanding was the tutor was trying to tell her, her face turned red and she became warm as she took off her light jacket she was wearing. Also, Jasmine’s voice was barely audible when asking or answering a question. The tutor showed similar signs of discomfort because she was a tutor in training and could not use the methods that she learned in class. In the tutor’s case, she repeated questions to Jasmine that remained unanswered, took deep heavy breaths often, and paused to collect her thoughts when she was at a loss for what to say. Again, lower confidence affected the tutor’s voice as it remained monotone and littered with stuttering.

The volume of the student’s voice correlates with the amount of confidence they present. When a confident student speaks, they speak with a louder volume. It also determines the student’s comprehension of a question, confidence in their paper, and how well the tutor thinks they are guiding the student in the right direction. This confidence is reassuring to the tutor because they know, or at least appear to know what they are talking about. However, the tutor can easily recognize when the student is ill prepared for a session when the tutee speaks in an uncertain or attenuated voice. This may result from a lack of confidence in their paper or that they didn’t completely comprehend their teacher’s assignment. Muriel Harris investigated this dilemma in her essay, Why Writers Need Writing Tutors. “Students’ difficulties in understanding teacher comments are partly a difference in vocabulary, but there is also a problem of students’ perception of teacher intent behind the comments,” (Harris, Why 38). She continued, “They (students) skip down to the grade and wander into the writing center assuming that the teacher didn’t like their writing,” (Harris, Why 38). In my observations the students who were confident did not take into consideration their teacher’s opinion on how they write. Whether it was because they knew how to write or because they were upperclassmen and knew not to think that way, the more confident student knows what they want to do before entering the writing center. However, the underclassmen were the students that constantly put the blame on their professors for not explaining the assignment fully, and as a result, not allowing them to complete a well written paper.

Realizing this insecurity, the tutor assessed the situation to better understand why the student felt as unsure about the assignment as they did. The tutor presented having control when the student had a basic understanding of the assignment, hadn’t started working on their paper, and when the tutee is an ESL student. In the case of an ESL student the tutor must acknowledge the student’s comprehension of the English language.
“It follows from this problem of different languages that students often don’t understand their assignments…Misunderstanding the assignment happens with such astonishing regularity that we ought more properly to view it as part of the educational process—learning the language of academic communities, learning how to understand that language, and learning our to act on that understanding,” (Harris, Why 39).

The previously mentioned three factors give the tutor the ability to show authority because they were in complete control of the session. For example, in asking questions, understanding the student’s complications, and when helping an ESL student, the better comprehension of speaking and understanding the language. In the latter example, the tutor’s authority expands from them having the title of tutor to having more control over the language in general because there were native English speakers. The students reacted to this by adhering to any and all of the tutor’s comments and suggestions.
A combination of factors contributes to a successful tutoring session. (1) Even though it is the tutor’s job to guide them, students must come prepared to discuss their assignments fully and with the intent of expanding on the ideas they bring. (2) Tutors should recognize the level of education of their students, as to either intensity the session for senior who’s about to graduate or simplify the discussion or a nervous freshman. From my observations, the tutors seemed to have more confidence only when they were in control and the student was self-assured in their paper. However, when the students were apprehensive, their feelings were transferred to the tutor because the bulk of the work was landing on the tutor’s shoulders.

discussion

In the session with the ESL student, it was clear that Jasmine had difficulties understanding the language, so the tutor felt limited in terms of what could have been done to improve the paper. There was equal apprehension present in both subjects. An important case study conducted by Weigle and Nelson, exams the novice tutors identity crisis in a situation as confining as the one previously mentioned. In their case, “Its primary purpose is to provide a better understanding of how novice tutors construct/negotiate their identities as tutors in a specific setting,” (Weigle, Nelson. Novice Tutors 205). ESL students aside, the general consensus among students is that writing centers are frightening because asking for help can be daunting—especially for students whose first language is not English. Therefore, if writing centers were promoted more students could have a better understanding of what is expected of them during a session. This may result in students better preparing themselves for writing an essay and when they visit a writing center they won’t be as hesitant about asking for help.
The generalization made from these observations is that the more confident student is also the one that had better prepared him or herself. This confidence may come from being an upperclassmen or understanding their assignment, but it was clear that they knew what they wanted to do with their paper. It can be argued that if students better prepare themselves for writing an essay (doing the research, following class guidelines, attending class), then when they need help to make a good essay better, the hard work will already be done and the student will only need guidance from a tutor to write an “A” paper.
I was limited in the sense that the amount of observations I accumulated was not large enough. My studies are a mere sample of a much larger selection. What I concluded in both Jasmine’s and my other apprehensive student’s case does not necessarily speak for all students who feel uncomfortable working within the writing center. It could be true that a student who comes to the writing center prepared, might not be have the easiest of times conveying what the tutor asks of them once they leave the session. Also, some students could be nervous, especially freshman, when first arriving at the center. This could lead the tutor (and an observer) to think that the student is unsure as how to complete their assignment—when in actuality they know exactly what to work on but have a hard time expressing it.

conclusions
What I found was that students who were upperclassmen tended to be better prepared and understood the concept and purpose of a tutoring session. My observations made it clear that these students had been to writing center before and knew what was expected from both themselves and the tutor. The students who seemed more frazzled were underclassmen and were nervous either because they needed to rush to get the paper finished or because they didn’t speak English as their first language. In either case, the confidence and anxiety of the students was attributed only to how they acted during the session. Continued research of the students I observed might result in further information that was not accumulated during the sessions, i.e. the real reasons for a student’s nervousness/confidence, how a student interacts with another tutor, and also, research into how often certain students visit the writing center.