Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Brooks Reaction
After reading Brooks' "Minimalist Tutoring" I came to realize how closely Brooks' ideas mirror North's ideas. The main idea that both writers emphasize is that the main goal of the tutor shouldn't be to improve any specific text, but instead to improve the writer. This is something that, I believe, is a key idea when being in a tutoring environment. However some of the points Brooks raises in his article don't seem like are necessarily true in the way he presents them. For example, Brooks talks about even though a tutor could help a student raise a draft to A that doesn't necessarily mean that the tutor is doing a good job because the tutor just improved paper instead of the writer. I think given the right circumstances, the student can keep in mind the improvements made by the tutor and reuse them later in different papers. In fact, I think this is a perfect example of practice something the tutor pointed out to the student. And, in Brooks' article he explains how important the idea of practicing is to a student trying to learn to write.
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I agree with you Peter. When I first read Brooks I felt he was being a little unrealistic but I do think he raises some really good points about helping the writer instead of a specific text like you mentioned. The exercise yesterday pointed out that it is important and possible to focus on the writer and not just what they have written. This especially became clear when the writing was not marked up with spelling and grammar mistakes. North and Brooks ideals about the writing center would make it such a useful outlet for writers.
ReplyDeleteI wrote something very similar to this. It seems like North and Brooks think that correcting text is the end of the world. When someone gives me a suggestion, I don't just blindly add it to my paper, I retain it, so I agree with you on that as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that helping a grade, in many circumstances, does help the writer. I think a good tutor can engage their tutee so that they are actively correcting together. This way, the writer understands the corrections which got their paper the A they wanted.
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