Ethics in the UWC: linguistic diversity, “good writing,” graduate students, and your consulting

April 14, 2010UWC Staff TrainingDroz, Jung, Lee, Massengale, and Wulf

Ethical Guidelines: “What do I do?”

Ethics: how we decide what to do in difficult situations.

Interpersonal Ethics: deals with the relationships between people we work with

Writing Ethics: deals directly with students’ papers

Interpersonal Ethics

Consultant-Student

Consultant-Professor

Consultant-Consultant

Who decides what is acceptabble?

Censorship (Whose cultural standards apply?)

Plagiarism (Sharing or stealing? (Who owns ideas?)

Voice (Whose? What happens to identity?)

Language and Cultural Diversity

in the Writing Center

Writers’ Expectations

Established Voices & Identities• L2* writing instruction & L1 identity• Even in the USA, we have differences in

cultural identity and ways of expressing them.

*L1 is first language; L2 is second language

Writers’ Expectations

Cultural Conflicts• Interactional Style• Includes interpersonal space, how to ask

questions, what the tutor or student is supposed to do or not do, when to interrupt, who gets to talk most . . . All that and more▪ Consultants are authority figures; they should

answer questions, teach, and solve problems.

Writers’ AbilitiesDeaf or Blind Students• Resistance to “hearing” & “speaking”

metaphors - “audist” verbs like “I hear you” to mean “I

understand.”

• Extension to Blind Students -“visual” verbs like “I see what you mean”

Mobility Constraints

Learning Disabilities (learning styles)

Defining GrammarDescriptive Grammar Describes what speaker actually do Respect cultural, ethnic, racial, and sexual

diversity reflected in language use. Prescriptive Grammar The rules that tell writers (and speaker)

what they should do and should not do Standard English – “a dialect with army”

Does the writing center promote Standard English? Is that the writer’s decision?

Range of Grammar

“Good” for American Academics?

So-called“Good Writing”

Topic Sentences

AssumptionsFunctions• Provide transition• Suggest the organization of the

paragraph• Present a topic

Influences • Rhetorical purposes• Author’s preferences• Publication type

Cohesion/Coherence

Cohesion• Connected ideas• High-scoring essays• Low-scoring essays

Coherence• Resistance to prescriptive approaches to

writing• Interference of the mechanics

CAUTIONS about “Good Writing”

Avoid: Repeating maxims and platitudes about “good

writing” practices Imposing your personal interpretation of “good

writing” or your style on clients

Do: Respect the diverse effective choices clients make in

their writing Inform clients about their options Respect the teacher’s requirements for an assignment

Working with Graduate Students

[1] Elaborative: self-expression[2] Low self-efficacy: doubt in their abilities[3] No revision: resistance of revision[4] Intuitive: visualization of the scheme [5] Scientist: reliance on a well-formulated

plan for writing[6] Task-oriented: adherence to the rules

with little opportunity for self-expression[7] Sculptor: propensity to get it all out in a

rough draft, and then to go back and refine

An Inventory of Processes in Graduate Writing

5 Ways Clients Resist Advice

1. Cite Resource Difficulty

2. Assert Own Agenda

3. Invoke Authority

4. Act Irrational

5. Minimize Import of Advice