Learning From Confusion: The Importance of Reflecting on Moments of Dissatisfaction in the Writing Center

My first session with an international student took place early in my first semester working for the Writing Center. It was one of the first clarifying and reflective moments I had as a writing consultant. I was able to clearly see the distinct barriers that fettered the student from thinking critically and engaging with their assigned text. The student came into the Writing Center as they were having trouble with writing a summary. I could tell simply by the student’s face that they felt embarrassed and ashamed; their body was hunched and I could barely see their face behind their long black hair.

The goal of the student’s assignment was to translate a wordy, scientific academic article into a paragraph summary. I informed the student about the “rules” of writing summaries and the steps they might take, the first being that they must read through the text and identify the important parts of the passage, and the second part being the written description. I asked the student to break down the text for me and then to explain to me in their own words what the text was about. The student was having difficulties. I assumed from the confusion on their face that they were having trouble deciphering the information in the text. I asked the student whether they understood the article and they nodded with a clear yes, although I wasn’t very convinced. Therefore, I tried a different approach. I turned over the article and had the student write on a pad of paper the main points of the text.

The student looked as though they were being confined. They had the urge to turn the paper over and peek at some of the words and phrases, and they copied some of the sentences onto the notepad between us. I noticed that the words were nearly identical to what was in the article, except the few words that were modified or tweaked to sound original. Furthermore, the student wasn’t convinced that they couldn’t just copy the ideas from the article directly into the summary.

This is a struggle many people have when writing summaries. My main strategy for helping students through this challenge is to have them read and annotate the article. Specifically, I suggest that the student make notes for understanding and ask questions and offer responses to the ideas of the text. This technique helps to point out what is interesting and what stands out, and makes it easier to really comprehend and interact with the text. Once a person is able to fully understand what they are reading, then the summary becomes easier.

This student, however, clearly had trouble deciphering the article and there was at least a language barrier between them, the text they were reading, and the professor’s assignment. When this type of situation occurs, simply annotating the text isn’t always helpful, especially for students who aren’t understanding the scope of the content. In that moment I felt helpless and distraught, as though I was doing something wrong. I felt that I wasn’t much help to the student. However, by encouraging the student to talk with their teacher regarding their confusion, I felt a small glimmer of hope in knowing that I provided them with a resource and supported their agency as a student.

After reflecting back on this experience, I learned that this type of barrier that students face could not be fixed solely in one conversation with a consultant. The Writing Center, however, can serve as a middle ground of familiarity for students, especially knowing that the peer consultants can relate to the student experience and help provide an empathetic system of support.

I felt like perhaps, I might’ve not helped the student as much as I would’ve liked but, I do know that collectively, through sharing our experiences, both good and bad we are able to build bridges for students and teachers, that will allow for easy and effective communication.

– Celestina Hendrickson –