Entries for September 2007
Moving into the New Millennium
Contributed by Jessica Oslund on 24 September 2007 at 19:07Last year we started offering online tutoring service, a little something we like to call the “e-Crew.” One manifestation of this endeavor is our AIM screenname, SAGESWritingCrew (we do a digital dropbox too, but that’s for the next post). We’re online Sunday-Thursday from 9-11pm. This has been a very interesting experience, tutoring with emoticons.
Sometimes it can be difficult; it can be hard to take the holistic approach in such an out-of-context way. Take this convo for example (copy-pasted from my archives):
Student: can i just copy and paste a sentence
SAGESWritingCrew: sure
Student: and u can tell me if u like it or not
SAGESWritingCrew: yep
Student: Mr. Walter contends that the debasement of sports began at the top. The owners, not true sports fans, started sports on the slippery slope of commercialization.
SAGESWritingCrew: well i can't just tell you if I like it or not, because it makes absolutely no sense pulled out of context. what are you trying to communicate in the sentence? can you say it in another way so it makes more sense to me?
Student: alright
Student: umm Walter wrote an article basically ripping sports saying that most athletes and owners were too concerned with money to make the game accessible to the fans
Student: so i am basically defending the athletes
Student: does that help at all?
SAGESWritingCrew: totally
SAGESWritingCrew: what about the sentence makes you want to ask me?
SAGESWritingCrew: (i'm asking to get an idea of what you think about it)
Student: im not sure about the whole slippery slope thing
Student: it sounds a bit too colloquial to me
Student: maybe too cliche as well
SAGESWritingCrew: that makes a lot of sense...
SAGESWritingCrew: i think you might be right about that. can you think of another way to say it?
First of all, this is obviously very casual (notice my lack of capitalization). But this is a good example of what we do, and how it’s much harder in IM format. I don’t want to write your paper for you. And I definitely don’t want to leave a paper trail.
I do want to understand what about your sentence is driving you crazy, and how to help you fix it. Sometimes that means I have to ask a lot of questions to get on the same page, but ultimately it’s good for all involved.
I’ve discovered that this an especially useful service when you’ve locked yourself in KSL to write that paper you’ve been putting off and is probably due tomorrow, but there’s no one around to ask. Staring at a sentence for too long can cause hallucinations. That’s where we come in. Quick question, need help brainstorming, hate your thesis? Add us to your buddylist. We can help.