....from the editor....

The lead article this month isintended to provide us with resources andinformation about working withjournalism students in the writing lab. It isalso intended as a stimulus to ourcolleagues in other departments, for weneed to hear from them as well- especiallyas writing labs expand into in-creasedresponsibilties for writing-across-the-curriculum efforts.

If you'd like to coax a similar articlefrom faculty members in otherdepartments, try sending them a copy ofthis one, on journalism students in thewriting lab, as a model for what theymight offer us.

And if your mailing label indicatesthat your subscription is about to expire,you might want to send your businessoffice a reminder that prepayment isneeded for the newsletter because-lacking both personnel and funds-we donot send invoices. Let's not lose touch!

-Muriel Harris, editor

Equipping YourWriting Center

to Assist JournalisticWriters

Writing centers increasinglyassist students with an array of genres.Besides tutoring composition andliterature students, they aid those inbiology, nursing, engineering, philoso-phy, and countless other areas inproducing the discourse of their fields. Butone group may still receive little attention:journalism students. At many schools,composition and journalistic writinginstruction are separated. Journalismstudents assume writing centers handleonly essay and grammatical instruction.Further, tutors may not be familiar withjournalistic goals and genres.

As a former writingcenter tutor and current professor ofjournalism, I am convinced that writingcenters can benefit journalism students,especially if writing centers are aware ofjournalism students' special needs. Inaddition, writing centers can assist stu-dents who have little journalistic trainingbut who produce news-

letters, brochures, and news releases for cam-pusorganizations. But to help both groups, writing centerdirectors first need awareness of journalistic goals.This essay describes these students' needs and offersways to meet them. I begin by detailing similarities anddifferences in research papers and news stories,suggesting ways in which tutorial assistance for thesetwo genres should be similar and yet distinct. I thendescribe services well-informed, nonjournalist tutorscan offer as well as more extensive services possible ifjournalistically trained tutors are on staff.

Research Papers and News Stories

The distinctive needs of journalism studentsderive from the nature of news report-ing, so it isuseful to consider ways in which research papers andnews stories are similar and distinct. From aKinneavian perspective, both may be viewed as formsof "reference" discourse (Kinneavy; Chap. 3). Allreference discourse genres purport to represent someaspect of reality; however, the research paper's andthe news story's purposes for offering representationsof reality are different. The research paper supports aclaim. That is, a research paper is an effective textonly to the extent that it offers a thesis and suppliessup-port for it.

In contrast, news stories represent reality tocreate awareness of the latest events. As such, theyhave less of an obligation to offer thorough evidencefor each claim but more of a mandate to be novel,interesting, and accessible. Being sensitive to therelated but differing goals of these two types ofreference or informative discourse allows journalistictutors to view the challenges faced by beginningjournalists as similar to and yet distinct from thosefaced by research paper authors. Specifically, bothgenres require skill in research, organization,accuracy, and style, but the types of challenges posedby each will differ.

•Research challenges. Because research papersmust supply evidence for claims, the authormust locate prestigious print sources- scholarlyarticles, respected news magazines- in thelibrary. In contrast, since news stories mustpresent the latest information likely to interest amass audience, news reporters depend heavilyon oral sources. Young journalists need help inplanning story coverage, that is, in

thinking about, e.g., the upcoming city councilmeeting, key issues, and why these issues areimportant to local people. They also need helpwith identifying sources to interview.

*Organization challenges. The organization of theresearch paper is determined by its need tosupport its thesis. Nearly all novice writersstruggle to discover their thesis and the lines ofargument support-ing it. Somewhat similarly,young journalists struggle to find the "lead" fortheir stories-the most important or surprisinginformation. Because news stories are designedto attiact attention, they follow an organizationalpattern known as the inverted pyramid. In it,main information is presented first, followed byelaboration and further detail, arranged in most-toleast-important order. Paragraphs are brief,often one sentence, to enhance "skimmability "

*Accuracy and completeness challenges. Researchpaper authors must have names, dates, andcitations correct. News story authors must alsobe careful with facts, especially names: if JamesB. Carol was convicted of child molesting and astudent reporter writes that it was James B.Carol, prominent local attorney, the

student may be sued for libel. Further, just asresearch papers can inadvertently present one-sided, one-source accounts of events, so canpoor news stories. Novice journalists often needanother reader's eyes to see if their stories aresufficiently thorough and balanced,

*Stylistic challenges. Research paper authorsstruggle to incorporate the arguments of othersinto a language of their own. Novice newsreporters work at this as well, in addition tomaking their language simple yet attention-getting. Further, since news stories need to bewritten for "skimmability" and impact, novicejournalists need sessions on conciseness.

In sum, novice journalists need special help,but the challenges they face are somewhat similar tothose of research paper authors. So, tutors who arewell informed about community issues and good withhelping students with re-search pagers also should beuseful to journal-ism students.

Tutoring by Thoughtful News Readers

Well-informed, nonjournalist tutors canassist journalism students with aspects of reportorialstrategy, interviewing, organization, accuracy,completeness, and style.

•Reportorial strategy. Even good writersstruggle over what information to collectabout an event. I recently assigned students tocover columnist Ellen Goodman when shespoke at Purdue. In class. we discussed hercolumns and information from CurrentBiography. Still some students had fewquestions to guide their note-taking at herlecture. Such students would be helped bytutors' questions reminding them of theirreaders' curiosity about Goodman. Campusnewspaper readers might want to know if thelecture was interesting or funny, and whetherGoodman resembles her newspaper photos.They might be curious about the turnout,wondering whether more females than maleswere in the audience.

*Interviewing. Novice journalists need helpwith identifying expert sources and withgenerating lines of questioning for interviews.Writing center tutors could suggest possiblecontacts for a story on

the local landfill controversy or experts onMiddle East affairs. Tutors also could role-playinterviewees so that novice journalists maypractice their interviewing skills. Good tips oninterviewing are available in Biagi; Killenbergand Anderson; and Stewart and Cash.

*Organization. Nearly all reportersstruggle to find the leads for their stories; tutorscould minimize this struggle In several ways.First, involving young re-porters in "what's new?" conversations can help them pull away from amass of notes and seize upon a lead. Like this:

"So, what happened at the meeting?"

"A hundred things; I've got twenty pages ofnotes from people upset about the proposedpark."

"Hmm.. So is that what you'll writeabout?"

"Well, the park issue was the big controversy,but actually the decision to buy insurance onthe landfill may wind up costing people realmoney."

"Maybe that's what you should say."

Benefitting from this conversation, thereporter writes the following lead: "Ten citizensspoke against the proposed park at the WestLafayette City Council meeting Monday, whilean ordinance to spend $40,000 annually onlandfill insurance passed without comment."Excellent advice on this coaching technique ispresented in Clark's book and pamphlet.

Next, novice reporters must organize the restof their story. Presumably, they are guided bythe principle *most to least important," but inpractice this rule is quite vague. For specific aid,tutors and tutees can analyze several newsstories on a similar topic and Identify typicalInformation patterns. (The writing center shouldhave stacks of local and campus newspapersready for such work.) Analyses will reveal thatnews stories often present the "big idea" inparagraph one, a more detailed version of thesame idea in paragraph two, and a quotesupporting this idea in paragraph three. Another

technique is to ask students to reorganizescrambled stories or fact lists, putting them ininverted pyramid order. Introductoryjournalism texts and workbooks are filled withscrambled stories and fact sheets. Popular onesare Brooks et al.; Fedler; and Mencher.

*Accuracy and completeness. Tutors can assistjournalism students by asking questions aboutaccuracy. Just noting that a name is spelled twoways in the same story is embarrassing butuseful. To facilitate fact-checking, writingcenters should contain (a) local and campustelephone books, (b) the local city directory,which lists all residents, whether they havetelephones or not, (c) a directory of city andcounty officials (often available from theLeague of Women Voters), (d) local maps, (e) acurrent almanac, (f) an encyclopedia, and (g)Webster's New World Dictionary, which the U.S. press has adopted as its guide to spellings.

Story completeness is another issuenonjournalist tutors can address. Recently atour university a water pipe broke and floodedthe computer center. The local newspapercovered this event but gave only the briefestdescription of how it occurred. Many campuscommunity members wanted more than just thetraditional "5 w's" (what happened? to whom?when? where? why or how?). Their questions:Are my computer files damaged? How long willit be before I can resume normal use ofcomputer center services? Reporters could haveaddressed these questions if thoughtful editorshad spotted these informational holes. Knowl-edgeable tutors can act as editors should.

*Style. Tutors are often experts on reducingwordiness. Be somewhat cautious, though,about having tutors without journalistic trainingoffer help beyond reducing wordiness.Journalists must abide by Associated Press stylewhich' mandates procedures for abbreviation,capitalization, punctuation, and numeral use.Some of these rules differ from those found incomposition handbooks (e.g., journalists putbook titles in quotation marks and omit thecomma before "and" for items in a series).Further, rather

than varying their attributional verbs, journalistspurposely repeat words such as "said," instead ofsubstituting "claims" or "feels." These termsimply a more overt authorial point-of-view thanjournalistic conventions allow. A tutor whounknowingly edited a journalism student's storycould cause more harm than good in thisdomain. Writing centers may want to solve thispotential problem by acquiring tutors withexpertise in journalism. These and other moreelaborate ways of offering special help tojournalism students are discussed next.

Tutoring by Experts and Other,More Extensive Help

Offering journalism experts as tutors.Individuals with expertise in journalistic

writing may be interested in working as tutors. Thecollege newspaper adviser can recommend potentialcandidates who write well and work effectively withother students. Tutors may even be available amongprofessionals in your community: university newsservice editors as well as local newspaper, television,and radio news reporters all command news writingskills.

Topics for handouts on journalistic writing.Writing centers employing those with

journalistic training can develop files of hand-outson difficult aspects of journalism. Here are severalgood topics:

*First interviews. Many students are unnerved by theprospect of interviewing busy campus and communityleaders. A handout on first interviews can alleviatesome fears. It should cover asking per-mission for theinterview, identifying oneself as a reporter, deciding -whether to use a tape recorder, understanding types ofinterview questions, sequencing questions, and askingpermission to telephone if necessary following theinterview. On interviewing see Biagi; Killenberg andAnderson; and Stewart and Cash, as well as the relevantchapters on interviewing in Brooks et al.; Fedler, andMencher.

*Notetaking. Besides overcoming the logisticalproblems of taking notes while standing up,being in a hurry, or talking on the the phone,novice journalists have difficulty producingaccurate, clear notes

during interviews and organizing them forquick retrieval when writing. Biagi de-scribesclever solutions to these problems.

*Leads. Sometimes even top reporters cannotfind the right lead; novice reporters struggleeven more. A good handout on lead writingwould Illustrate overly long leads (often thosecontaining all five w's in paragraph one),overly short ones (those written in headlinesrather than full sentences), leads that fail toemphasize surprising aspects of a story, andleads that are clear but wordy. (TheAssociated Press strives for 18- to 20-wordfirst paragraphs.) On lead writing, see theappropriate chapters in Fedler; Mencher; andMacDougall and Reid.

*Feature stories. Features are viewed as "soft"news because they are less timely and lessevent-oriented than "hard" news stories.Features focus on issues, topics, personalities,trends, or human-interest anecdotes and striveto facilitate under-standing or amuse rather thanenhance event awareness. The challenge towriting good features and magazine articles liesfirst with finding good topics. Consequently, ahandout on feature writing should discuss waysof generating topics for features (e.g., seeRowan), and explain the major types of featuressuch as profiles, trend stories, coping with dailylife, how-to's, and amusing anecdotes. A secondchallenge in feature writing lies in selecting aneffective organizational pattern since featurescan use many types of organization. Goodsources on features are Rivers and Work; andRuehlmann.

•Extra curricular journaisttic writing: news-letters, brochures, news releases. As an adviserto student organizations, I have seen studentswho "hate writing" eagerly volunteer to serveas newsletter editors. A good handout onnewsletters would help these novice editors byfocusing on newsletter goals. Newsletters may(a) inform members of services and upcomingevents, (b) announce an organization'saccomplishments and create enthusiasm for itsgoals, or (c) analyze events in depth. Means forattaining these goals include interpretivearticles, calendars,

news briefs, reviews, and employee recognitioncolumns. On newsletters see the two books byParker; as well as Bivins; Lattimore and Terry;and Newsom and Carrell.

Similarly, a good handout on brochures wouldremind writers that brochures inform an alreadytargeted audience. Copy should chiefly informabout services or upcoming events rather thanentertain. Brochures are covered in the sourceslisted for newsletters.

News releases are written as news stories bypublic relations officers and mass mailed to thenews media. They are viewed as bids for freeadvertising by reporters and often pitched in thecircular file. Items most likely to be publishedare those containing genuine news of massinterest or compelling human drama. A hospital's purchase of state-of-the-art equipment is lesslikely to warrant publication than the story of alocal individual whose life was saved by theequipment's use. On news releases see therelevant chapters in Brooks et al.; Fedler; andNewsom and Carrell.

Materials for your journalism resource center.A good journalism resource center would help

students and faculty examine and produce outstanding,in-depth news coverage. The resource center alsomight help instructors experiment with newapproaches to journalism pedagogy. Here are somematerials the center could offer students andinstructors:

•Excellent examples of journalistic writing rSee Fry: also Scanlan; and Murray. Subscribeto Columbia Journal-ism Review, The Quaand Washington Journalism Review.

*Books on public chairs and in-depthreporting: See Hage; Hamilton; Izard;Kessler and Duncan; MacDougall and Reid;Mencher; Ullmann and Honeyman; and Wardand Hansen.

*Guides to Associated Press style: Get thedefinitive source, French et al., and a goodinstructional guide to AP style such as Prejeanand Danielson.

*Reviews of journalistic and compositionsoftware: Write Professor Gale Wiley,director of the Clearinghouse for Computer-based Education in Journalism and MassCommunication, Department of Journalism.University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712.

*Journalism pedagogy: Subscribe toJournalism Educate.

Conclusion

Writing centers are meccas for writers ofall sorts. If your institution already has extensivefacilities for journalistic writing instruction, thereis no need to duplicate them in the writing center.But the odds are good that many students- aspiringjournalists and newly elected newsletter editors-would greatly appreciate writing center assistance.And so would their teachers and readers.

Katherine E. RowanPurdue University WestLafayette. Indiana

Works Cited

Biagi, Shirley. Interviews that Work: A PracticalGuide for Journalists. Belmont, CA:Wadsworth, 1986.

Minns, Thomas. Handbook for Public RelationsWriting. Chicago: National TextbookCompany, 1988 [Comes with Workbook,Instructor's Manual'.

Brooks, Brian S., George Kennedy, Daryl RMoen, and Don Ranly, News Reportingand Writing. 3rd ed. NY: St. Martin's,1988. [Comes with Workbook,Instructor's Manual'.

Clark, Roy Peter. Free to Write: A JournalistTeaches Young Writers. Portsmouth,NH: Heineman, 1987.

- .Where is Your Next Great Writer ComingFrom? St. Petersburg, FL: PoynterInstitute for Media Studies, 1988 [Toorder this free pamphlet, write theInstitute at 801 Third St. S., St. Peters-burg, FL 33701].

Fedler, Fred. Reporting for the Print Media. 4th

ed. NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,1989. [Exercises. answer keys in text].

French, Christopher W., Eileen A. Powell, andHoward Agione, eds. The AssociatedPress Stylebook and Libel Manual. NY:The Associated Press, 1984. [To order,write: Stylebook, AP News features, 50Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.Request a spiral-bound copy".

Fly, Don, ed. Best Writing of 1989 [annualvolume]. St. Petersburg, FL: PoynterInstitute of Media Studies, 1989. [Toorder, see the Clark address above.]

Hoge, George S., Everette E. Dennis, ArnoldH. Ismach, and Stephen Hartgen. NewStrategies for Public Affairs Reporting.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall,1983.

Hamilton, John M. Main Street America andThe Third World. Cabin John, MD:Seven Locks Press, 1986 .

Izard, Ralph. Reporting the Citizen's News. NY: Holt,Rinehart and Winston, 1982.

Kessler, Lauren. and Duncan Donald, Uncovering theNews: A Journalist's Search for Information. Belmont,CA: Wadsworth, 1987.

Killenberg, George M., and Rob Anderson.Before the Story: Interviewing andCommunication Skills for Journalists.NY: St. Martin's, 1989.

Kinneavy, James, L. A Theory of Discourse.NY: W. W. Norton, 1971.

Lattimore, Dan, and Art Tern,. Desktop Pub-lishing: Study Guide. Englewood, CO:Morton 1993.

MacDougall, Curtis D., and Robert D. Reid.Interpretative Reporting. 9th ed. NY:Macmillan, 1987.

Mencher, Melvin. News Reporting andWriting. 5th ed. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C.Brown, 1990 [Comes with Workbook,Instructor's Manual].

Boston Globe. Chester. Cr: The GlobePequot Press, 1983.

Newsom, Doug, and Bob J. Carrell. Public RelationsWriting: Form and Style. 2nd ed. Belmont,CA: Wadsworth, 1986.

Newsom, Doug. and James A. Wollert. MediaWriting: Preparing Information for theMass Media. 2nd ed. Belmont, CA:Wadsworth, 1988 (Comes with Work-book,Instructor's Manual].

Parker, Roger C. Looking Good in Print: A Guideto Basic Design for Desktop Publishing.Chapel Hill, NC: Ventana Press, 1988.

Parker, Roger C. Newsletters from the Desktop.Chapel Hill, NC: Ventana Press, 1990.

Prejean, Blanche, and Wayne Danielson.Programmed News Style. EnglewoodCliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1988.

Rivers, William L., and Alison R. Work. FreeLance and Std' Writer. Belmont, CA:Wadsworth, 1986.

Rowan, Katherine E. " 'No Ideas' Students LearnWays to Find Stories, Research Them."Journalism Educator 42 (1988): 38-40.

Ruehlmann, William. Stalking the Feature Story. NY: Random House, 1977.

Scanlan, Christopher. How I Wrote the Story.Providence, RI: The Providence Journal,1983.

Stewart, Charles J., and William B. Cash, Jr.Interviewing: Principles and Practice. 4thed. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown, 1988.

Ullmann, John, and Steve Honeyman, eds., TheReporter's Handbook. NY: St. Martin's, 1983.

Ward, Jean, and Kathleen A. Hansen. SearchStrategies in Mass Communication. NY:Longman, 1987.

Closed Mouth, OpenEars: Listening in

the Tutorial

Although writing center research indicatesthat the listening role is a vital one, many tutors spendmore time talking to their students than listening tothem. Tutors often underestimate the Importance oflistening in the collaborative learning situation of thetutorial and thus under-utilize the listening role. Fortheir students' sake, many tutors should practiceclosing their mouths and opening their ears.

Tutors who talk more than they should do sofor two main reasons: 1) they feel their purpose is toteach; to them, teaching means presentinginformation to a captive audience-the student; or 2)like other people in helping positions, tutors want tosolve problems for their students and, therefore, feelthey should be giving advice. However, manystudents learn least through information presentedorally and best through doing (Rogers 162). The tutor's goal should be to work collaboratively withstudents, not to lecture at them.

The sympathetic, "helper" tutor needs torealize that students need someone to listen to them farmore than they need advice about how to solve theirwriting problems. Listening helps students learnbecause it encourages students to take some of theresponsibility for solving their own problems; thus theylearn by doing. Sometimes the results of listening arealmost magical: often all a tutor has to do is listen, andthe student works through the problem for herself (Burley-Allen 1). Tutors need to realize that rather than"doing nothing" when they are listening, listening is avaluable service they perform.

Listening in the writing center is some-whatdifferent than listening in a counseling situation. Firstof all, tutors deal less with personal issues than docounselors although tutors do, at times, need to listento personal problems. Besides listening to studentstalk about their feelings, however, they listen tostudents' ideas for a paper- and they also need to listento the words that students have written on their papers.

When a student comes to the center,

especially for the first time, the tutor needs to makehim feel comfortable by creating a friendly, non-threatening atmosphere. Casual comments, perhapsabout something happening on campus, and friendlyquestions, for example, about what classes thestudent is taking, help students feel that the tutor isinterested in them, especially when the tutor listenscarefully to what students say in response.

Sometimes students are upset when theycome to the writing center and need to talk about theiranger over a grade or their frustration about theirwriting before they can begin working. Often theyfeel stupid because they have been asked by a teacherto work in the center. The tutor must try to understandthe student's feelings and listen without makingjudgments. This kind of empathic listening does notmean that the tutor attempts to solve the student'spsychological problems, but only that he cares aboutthe whole student, not just about the writingproblems. Being listened to in this way is therapeutic;it increases students' self-esteem and gives themconfidence in their ability to solve their own problems(Taylor 1). As a sympathetic ear, the tutor helpsstudents develop positive attitudes toward themselvesand toward writing (Arkin 5).

However, not all students are able to talkabout their feelings immediately. Tutors should payattention not only to what a student says but also totone of voice, eye contact, and posture. If a student'swords say one thing but non-verbal language saysanother, a tutor may want to encourage her to talkabout the problem. An alert tutor who listens tofeelings revealed non-verbally can respond appropri-ately to these feelings even if the student does notexpress them in words. Some students will want towait until they know a tutor well before statingnegative feelings. The trust necessary for that kind ofsharing often grows from genuine. non judgmentallistening- from keeping ears, eyes, mind, and heartopen- and the mouth closed.

Another way to make students aware thattutors care is for the tutor and student to collaborateon setting up goals for tutorial sessions. Even if theteacher has asked the student to work on certainthings, the tutor needs to make sure the student agreeswith the teacher's assessment of the problem. Thetutor also should find out if the student has any

other writing concerns or problems and reassure himthat those concerns will be ad-dressed. The only wayto do this is to ask and listen carefully to the answer.Listening to the student talk about her writingdifficulties conveys the message that the work in thewriting center is a team effort and demonstratesrespect for the student's needs. Listen-ing to thestudent while actively working on a problem alsoshows the student that tutoring is a collaborativeeffort. When tutors close their mouths and listen, theyencourage the kind of talk that helps students learn.Although some-times tutors need to present a conceptor convey information to a student, for example whenexplaining grammar rules, they must remember to findways for the student to use the concept presented. Forexample, a tutor can ask a student to complete apunctuation exercise and then explain the rule foreach comma used. Verbalizing punctuation rules helpsstudents learn them and also tells the listening tutorwhich rules need more practice.

Another way tutors use listening as acollaborative learning tool is when students talk aboutideas for papers. Oral pre-writing with an activelylistening tutor is effective for many students. Whenstudents are encouraged to tack about their ideas,those ideas often begin to come more easily andcompletely. Pre-writing talk helps students organizeand develop ideas because the tutorial is a safe situ-ation for experimenting. Many students need to talkthrough their ideas before they can successfully writethem down.

Another use of the listening role occurs whenthe tutor alts as audience for the student's paper. Byreacting as a reader, a tutor can help the studentdiscover what works and what doesn't. Peter Elbowsuggests telling the writer everything that happenedas the tutor listened to his paper (87). This kind ofreaction gives students an idea of audience and readerneeds. Another possible reaction is to play dumb--expressing confusion about sections of a paper inorder to demonstrate to the student that the languageor organization needs to be clearer. For example, if astudent has a problem with dangling modifiers inwhich the subject is missing, a tutor can saysomething "1'm really confused here. This sentencemakes it sound like the stoplight is crossing the street.Is that what you mean?

Paraphrasing or summarizing the paper

(cont. on page 14)

Tutors' Column

Ours Is to Wonder Why

One of the duties of writing tutors in theStudent Learning Center at the University ofCalifornia-Berkeley is keeping a journal of tutoringexperiences. The following journal entry was writtenafter a particularly productive session with one of mytutees. I have appended a discussion of what I see asthe

or implications of this session.

Today Blair decided that the matter mostrequiring our attention was the upcoming in-classmidterm exam. She said that the topic involvedselections from the class reader and that her instructorhad suggested that the students concentrate on one ofthree essays. Blair had made her choice and had begunto outline her thoughts about the essay. From thisbasis, we embarked on a forty-five minute question-and-answer session, sharpening Blair's focus on themajor points of the article. Every time she brought upa new aspect of it, I asked questions and challengedher statements, narrowing the terms of herdescription, until she suddenly lit up and quicklyscrawled some new insight. A particularly difficultmoment came in differentiating between the first andsecond points of the essay. Through this constantclarification and distillation of ideas, I think Blairmade an important step toward questioning her ownwriting; questioning, I believe, is something that shewill be able to take away from our tutoring experienceand use throughout her academic writing career.

The essay was a discussion of the language ofadvertising, and the author first stated that adlanguage needs to be "edited and purposeful"; next heclaimed that ad language has to be "rich and arresting." We covered the reasons behind the first statement:ads have a limited time/space and have a definitepurpose (to glowingly describe a product in that shorttime/space) and are therefore constrained to

short, punchy messages. On to the second point....

M'self: "So, what's the second point?"

Blair: "That ads need to be 'rich andarresting' to be effective."

M'self "Okay, what does that mean?"

Blair: "Well, they only have a limited time tosell something, so they have to grabyour attention and make an impact."

M'self "All right. How is that different fromwhat you said about 'edited andpurposeful"?"

Blair. "Ummmm....uhhhh....well....they sortof mean the same thing, I guess-.Idon't know."

M'self: "So O'Neill says the same thingtwice."

Blair: "Sort of."

M'self "Paid by the word, was he?"

Blair: "No....there must be somethingdifferent."

M'self: "What makes something 'rich andarresting"? What does 'rich andarresting' mean that 'edited andpurposeful' doesn't?"

Blair: "Well, it's not about time."

M'self: "No, I guess not." (It was time for anew approach.) "Let's assume thatthe advertiser has me right where hewants me. I'm going to sit here andread this entire ad. Time and space

are no longer problems. What will 'rich and arresting' language do forthe advertiser in this case?"

"It will make you buy," Blair ventured,apparently wondering whether I was really sodense as to not realize this point on my own.

M'self: AH -HA!"

Blair "WHAT?!!? You scared me!" M'self: "There! You just said it!"

Blair: "What!? All I said was that 'rich andarresting' would make you want tobuy the product!"

M'self: "So isn't that the point of thissection?"

Blair: "Uh, of course. I just said it was. 'Richand arresting language persuadespeople to buy the product,' Let mewrite it down before we go on to thethird point."

Ruthless clarification led to Blair seeing thedifference between two points, and to her-betterunderstanding of an essay which I have never read.Later in the session. during the discussion of one ofthe other points in the essay, Blair informed me thatthe "simple" language of ads was a bad .Although I could certainly understand why shewould take exception to the mindless language ofads, that sort of intuitive agreement will not sufficefor academic writing. She needed to be better able todefend her assertion. Before I could say a word, nay,before my lips could form a sound, she blurted out "WHY!" I leapt nearly out of my chair. "Why did youdo that?" I meekly queried. "I wanted to say it beforeyou did," she smugly answered, "And I did." Part oftutoring is to make yourself obsolete; I think today Isaw an important step toward my own antiquation.

In the weeks since that session, Blair hascontinued to progress. I met with Maureen. Blair'sinstructor, after that midterm was graded; sheindicated that Blair's major problem seemed to be asort of incoherence in her writing. Her papers lackedan underlying

order; there seemed to be no cogent, logicalargument. Blair and I have attacked that problem, andthe questioning continues to clarify her work. Nowwhen Blair brings in a rough draft of a paper, sheanticipates the questions that I will ask, and thechallenges I might make. Most importantly, she clearsup her basic logical errors before she ever gets to me.An exercise which really seemed to bring home theimportance of self-questioning was the creation of apersuasive speech a couple of weeks ago. Byimagining a hostile audience, Blair was able toproject a challenging voice against her own work.Her speech was convincing because, as she laterexplained to me, she kept in mind what a hostileaudience would be thinking after she made eachpoint. And aren't all academic audiences hostile?

Tutoring involves asking many, manyquestions. Some of them are aimed at grammaticaldifficulties or sentence construction problems, someat more global organizational troubles. The mostimportant questions we can ask, however, are thosequestions which the students can learn to ask ofthemselves. We can give advice, we can challengestatements, we can cheer success; but if we don't giveour students the tools to survive the years of writingwhich face them (without someone beside them toadvise, challenge, and cheer), can we say that we'vereally done anything at all?

Asking the questions that inspire self-questioning may seem like the perfect solution toevery tutoring problem; how, then, does one do it?Here's the really challenging part of the whole idea; Idon't think that there exists a single plan of actionwhich will lead to it. Mostly, it seems to be a naturalresult of the interaction between tutor and tutee. WhenBlair belted out "WHY!" I was really unaware that themonosyllabic query was such a large part of mytutoring vocabulary; apparently I had asked it enoughthat Blair realized the question's importance toacademic writing. If she could rob her audience of theopportunity to ask "why?", her logic would be a greatdeal more sound. That is precisely what she has goneon to do. Having finished a rough draft of anotherassignment she prepared to read it to me. She prefacedher oration with "I think it's pretty good. Aftereverything I wrote I asked 'why?' I don't think thereare any questions now."

I could go for the storybook ending here, buttutoring isn't like that. Of course there were questionsleft to be asked. But they were new, more complexquestions; we left behind the simple "why?" in favorof questions about transitions, and rhetorical values,and even style. One question will never solve allwriting difficulties. But if the student asks the ques-tion of herself, she is well on the way to developingwriting strategies which she can rely on after thetutorials have ended.

Matthew J. LiveseyPeer TutorUniversity of California-

Berkeley

(This essay will also appear in Martha Maxwell'sWhen Tutor Meets Student: Expertences inCollaborative Learning. Kensington, MD: MMAssoc., 1990.)

ECWCA NEWS

The East Central Writing CentersAssociation announces the establishment of ECWCANEWS, an annual newsletter which members willreceive each spring. The NEWS is not a publicationthat will solicit or publish articles. Rather. its purposeis to inform members of news of the organization:information on the annual conference, proceedingsof the ECWCA board, openings on the board,professional news on members (e.g. members'publications, promotions, changes of jobs; tutorsgetting jobs or being accepted to graduate schools:job announcements), center news, and the like. If youhave any news that you would like to share with themembership, please send it by Dec. 1 to Peter Carino,Dept. of English, Indiana St. University, Terre Haute,IN 47809.

Prewriting Options: Moving Beyond the Word Processor

Those of us with computers in our writingcenters often acknowledge that they are simply a tooland that any real improvement in students' writingattitudes or abilities is the result of their willingness towork at writing and the instructor's or tutor's ability toguide them through effective writing processes. In aprevious Micro Style column, I suggested severalways that students can use a word processor as asimple prewriting tool, but as writing teachers, we arealways looking for better ways to motivate students.Those of us attracted to computers can't resist movingbeyond word processing to commercially avail-ableprewriting programs that might further encourage ourstudents. At the very least, these programs reinforcethe idea that there is more than one way to generateideas for a paper, and, at best, they provide studentswith additional, often unique, motivation to write.

Of the many programs that we at theUniversity of Texas at El Paso have previewed, thefollowing software seems to be the best match for ourtheory of the ideal computer-supported writingcurriculum- one that introduces computers as a toolto support a writing community, encouraging studentsto prewrite as part of a comprehensive, recursiveprocess that also includes drafting, revising, editing,and publishing.

In our Academic Development Centercomputer writing lab, we use Writer's Helper,Stage II (Conduit) and a prewriting program,ACAPAK , written by one of our instructorsspecifically for our developmental writers. In bothof these programs, students are guided throughprewriting activities that help them

select a topic, generate ideas, and organize thesethoughts. In Writer's Helper, Stage IL for instance,they choose from a selection of menu options such asbrainstorm, question, or list to help them find a topic.Once they have chosen a topic, they select menuoptions that help them analyze their audience,compare their ideas, and make connections amongthese ideas. To organize their thoughts. they selectfrom such options as setting goals, outlining, ordebating both sides of the issue. (Writer's Helper alsoincludes revision activities- but that's a topic for afuture column.)

ACAPAK, our locally written prewritingprogram, provides students with specific prompts thathelp them generate ideas for the assignments given inour developmental writing classes. They may selectmenu options that provide definitions of key essayterms, such as thesis, paragraph, and supportingdetails. Moreover, they may select a model essay foreach writing assignment.

In our Liberal Arts Computer Lab where wework with more advanced writers, we useMindwriter (Daedalus). Mindwriter, which has avocabulary level better suited to juniors, seniors, andgraduate students, provides heuristics that helpstudents generate ideas for both informative andpersuasive papers. They select an invention heuristicsuch as Aristotle's Topoi or Burke's Pentad and thenrespond to a series of questions or prompts toformulate ideas. Once they have completed theprompts, they save their work, retrieve it with a wordprocessor, and begin drafting.

We have also recently previewed and are

now planning to add SEEN (Conduit) to our LiberalArts Computer Lab. This critical read-ing tutorialtakes students step by step through a literary orartistic analysis. They select from such menu optionsas plot or character analysis and, following theprompts. critically analyze literary or artistic works.SEEN also includes an on-line bulletin board forstudents to post their responses where other studentsin the class can review and respond to them.

Whether you preview some of theseprograms or select others that better match yourcenter's needs, I would encourage you to considerthe following guidelines that we use when selectinginstructional software. Select programs that:

*are written by educators who them-selves teach composition.You know, then, that the instructionalmethods are sound, authored by people whoknow composition research and who teach incomputer-supported writing labs themselves.

*work with commonly used word proc-essing software.Students should not have to abandon theirfavorite word processor to use one that comeswith the prewriting program. Writers usuallyprefer, instead, to generate ideas in aprewriting program and retrieve those ideas intheir favorite word processor to begin drafting.

*offer choices.Students should be able to select one or moreways to begin writing, reinforcing the conceptthat each writer has a unique process and thatthere are many ways to select, generate, andorganize ideas for a topic. Instructors, too,should be able to modify the software so thatthe prompts fit their particular writing centeror classroom situation.

*are inexpensive.Most writing center directors can't affordthousands of dollars for a single softwarepurchase. The software pro-grams that wehave selected are each less than $500 for alab of thirty net-worked computers and areeven less expensive for a few individualcomputers.

*motivate students to write, write, write, withclear-on screen instructions and easilyaccessed menus.

Although it is not easy to find software thatmeets these criteria, we believe that pre-writingsoftware works best when it is flexible, is applicableto many writing situations, and promotes criticalinquiry and writing processes rather than prescriptivepractice. We have found that such carefully selectedprewriting software improves students' attitudesbecause they willingly use the computer to improvetheir writing abilities.

References

ACAPAK. [computer program.] El Paso, TX: AcademicDevelopment Center.

MINDWRITER. [computer program.] Austin, TX:The Daedalus Group. Inc.

SEEN. [computer program.] Iowa City, IACONDUIT.

WRlTER'S HELPER, STAGE IL [computerprogram.] Iowa City, IA: CONDUIT.

Closed Mouth(cont. from page 8)

is another way for students to discover if they weresuccessful in conveying the intended meaning (Taylor2). When paraphrasing or summarizing, the tutor tellsthe student, in his own words, what the paper says.Tutors can also tell students exactly what caused aparticular reaction.

These responses- reacting, paraphrasing,playing dumb, and giving reasons for a reaction- areall forms of feedback which tell the student that thetutor is listening. Listening requires more than closingone's mouth; it is not an easy, passive process and is oflittle value unless demonstrated. Feedback providesstudents the assurance that they are being heard andhelps them determine the effectiveness of theirwords- both written and oral.

Besides helping students realize how effectivetheir papers are, summary comments are also usefulwhen listening directly to students-when they areexpressing feelings or exploring ideas. Summarizingwhat a student has said demonstrates that the tutor islisten-ing and helps the student assess the effective-ness of his message. For example, when listening to astudent explore ideas for a paper, a tutor might say "Ihear you saying that first you are going to write aboutthe reasons for your decision to change your major,and then you are going to write about the effects ofthat decision." If the summary is correct, the studentcan agree; if not or if the student decides that is notwhat she wants to say, she can revise the message,

Reaction comments, too, can be used whenlistening to students as well as to papers. For example,if the tutor is confused about what a student isintending to write about, she might say, "1 amconfused about what you are saying you want to focuson in this paper." Reaction comments also tell thestudent if they are communicating effectively or not.

Reflection comments are more often usedwhen students are talking about feelings than whenthey are exploring ideas for papers. Reflection mirrorsor restates what a student has said or seems to befeeling. For example, when a student expressesdiscouragement about an assignment, a tutor mightsay, "You are finding it hard to get started on thispaper."

Reflecting a student's feelings is a very effective wayfor the tutor to demonstrate listening and encouragethe student to continue talking.

However, sometimes a tutor wants to providefeedback and encourage the student to continuewithout the longer interruption in the flow of talknecessary with summary, reaction, or reflectioncomments, for example, when a student is exploringan idea for a paper. Other verbal responses, such as "Mmhuh" at appropriate times, also demonstratelistening and encourage students to continue talking,as do "leading" responses such as 'Tell me more" and"Go on" (Taylor 3). Leading responses get the studentstarted and place the responsibility on her for keepingthe conference going (Taylor 2).

Another way to demonstrate listening andencourage communication is with questions thatdemonstrate listening by expanding and developingwhat the student has said. For example, if a student isexplaining why she put a comma in a certain place,the tutor can say something like `That's right. Younow seem to feel sure about commas afterintroductory clauses. Now can you tell me why youused a comma before this 'and'?" If the student isexploring ideas for a paper on drug abuse, the tutormight say, "You have lots of good personalexperiences to put in this paper. What other kinds ofevidence might also be effective to make your point?"

Although sometimes tutors will plan questionsahead of time or as a session proceeds, they also needto be flexible and adjust questions according to thestudent's answers. "Canned questions"-those that aretoo general or have little connection with what thestudent has been saying- quickly demonstrate that thetutor is not really listening. In addition, tutors find thatopen-ended questions, requiring more than a "yes" or"no," are useful because the student must do morethinking and communicating. Meyer and Smith pointout that the question "Are you sure?" should beavoided as it sounds condescending (36).

Silence is also a good way to get students toplay a more active role in the tutorial (Arkin andSholer 96). Often tutors are tempted to open theirmouths when silence becomes uncomfortable;however, silence is an ally to communication. Meyerand Smith emphasize that pacing questions slowly isimportant as is modulating the tone of voice so

that questions do not sound "inquisitional or hostile" (32). Increasing the time allowed for students toanswer questions has been found to increase thenumber and length of responses (Rowe 87).

Tutors also demonstrate listening throughnon-verbal behaviors that demonstrate listening suchas looking directly at the student, leaning slightlyforward, nodding, and smiling (Burley-Allen 115).Leaning back, falling to make eye contact, doodling,drumming with the fingers. fiddling with objects onthe desk. and crossing the arms are signals to thestudent that the tutor's attention is else-where (Argyle60). If the tutor is genuinely listening, non-verballistening behaviors usually come naturally. However,tutors may have developed habits, such as doodling,that convey a different message to students. Usuallythe message from non-verbal behaviors is picked upunconsciously, but such behaviors do influencecommunication (Argyle 62).

Most tutors sincerely want to help. and whenthey learn about the importance of listening incollaborative learning, they are willing to, more often,close their mouths and open their ears. Listening,however, is not easy, it requires intense concentration,which is not always simple to achieve in the busy, dis-tracting atmosphere of a writing center. Tutors owe itto their students to screen out distractions andinterruptions as much as possible. When interruptionsdo occur, tutors can help students by remembering-jotting them down if necessary- the last few words thestudent said. When the interruption ceases, the tutorcan then say, for example, something like "You weretelling me about your feeling that this paragraph is alittle choppy." This response shows that the tutor hasbeen listening, feels the student's words are importantenough to remember, and pulls the student back to thetask at hand.

Distractions can also come from within: whentutors are tired. harried, or worried, they must makespecial efforts to listen. Paying particular attention totheir own non-verbal behavior at such times is a bighelp. Making a special effort to look directly at thestudent, nod, smile, and so on, helps focus attentionon what the student is saying.

Experienced tutors usually keep their earsopen more than their mouths. They have

learned that listening- not just in spurts or just to thewords- is an integral part of an effective tutorial. Andmost experienced tutors have learned feedbacktechniques that encourage students to communicate.Listening is one powerful way to do what all goodhelpers must do eventually-become obsolete (Harris28),

Karen MorrisSt. Cloud State University St.Cloud, MN

Works Cited

Argyle, Michael. "Social Skills Theory." In Childrenas Teachers: Theory and Research onTutoring. Vernon L. Allen, Ed. New York:Academic Press, 1976. 57-71.

Arkin, Marian. The Writing Tutor. New York:Longman, Inc., 1982.

Arkin, Marian and Barbara Sholer. The Tutor Book,New York: Longman, Inc., 1982.

Burley-Allen. Madelyn. Listening: The Forgot-tenSkill. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1982.

Elbow, Peter. Writing Without Teachers. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1973.

Harris, Muriel. Teaching One-to-One: The WritingConference. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1986.

Meyer, Emily and Louise Z. Smith. The PracticalTatar. New York: Oxford University Press,1987.

Rogers. Carl. Freedom to Learn. Columbus, OH:Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co., 1969.

Rowe, Mary Budd. "Wait-Time and Rewards asInstructional Variables: Their Influence onLanguage, Logic, and Fate Control: Part One-Wait Time." Journal of Research in ScienceTeaching 11.2 (1974): 81-94.

Taylor, David. "Listening in the Tutorial."Writing Lab Newsletter 12.7 (March1988): 1-3.