Ideally, the kind of consultant I would like to be is what one of my professors might call a “try-hard.” It would be great to be able to foresee what each professor was looking for in a student’s paper and then help a student reach that goal, but I know that such a thing is an impossible task. While working as an editor this past summer, I found that sometimes I was entirely too nit-picky with grammar and sentence structure, and it just left me burnt out with bland sentences, but by the end of the summer I had learned to balance the author’s voice and maintain appropriate sentence structure and coherency.

After graduating from Furman, I’ve already decided that I want to teach English in a foreign country for at least a year, and working in the writing lab will at least give me a taste of what I may encounter in the future. Jennifer Ritter, in her chapter on ESL tutoring in A Tutor’s Guide, writes that it is important for a tutor (or consultant) to treat ESL students differently than ordinary clients because of the obvious difference in language experience. Ritter states that it is best for a tutor to “negotiate the agenda” with ESL writers, rather than trying to fix every single grammatical mistake outright (105). For example, Ritter references consultations with one of her students in which she stresses the problem areas so that the student notices the problem and the two of them can work on it together. This prevents embarrassment for the student, who is not as knowledgeable about English grammar rules as the tutor (105-106). One ESL consultation that I had allowed for me to work this in practice: I was reading aloud the essay of a Chinese exchange student, and when I came across an error in the grammar, I would slow down my speech before reading the word. After we had fixed the error, I explained to him the English grammar rule for the mistake and he would look through the rest of his work for repeats of the same error.

I think that it is very important to be mindful that a client may be embarrassed about having their writing corrected (regardless of their experience with English), even if they come to the writing lab of their own free will. It is the consultant’s responsibility (that is, my responsibility) to be sure that a writer is not made to feel inferior at any level. I believe that many students come into the writing lab with the impression that consultants may laugh at their writing. North writes that many professors have a similar mindset, where a writing center is a place to send students to “fix” their writing problems. The growth mindset quiz marks this mindset as “fixed,” and shows that this mindset stunts growth, which is an unfortunate viewpoint for professors to take with their students.

As for students who are native speakers of English, my job is more complex, and I want to challenge them with more complicated topics in their work- perhaps topics or questions that they have not yet explored. As a philosophy major, I have dealt with many complex theoretical questions that can arise in any field- things like, “How might A, B, C influence the meaning of X, Y, Z?” North states that it is important for writers (in a perfect world) to have their own auditor, someone “who would not only listen but draw them out, ask them questions they would not think to ask themselves” (439-40). If the experience I have gained in my major can “draw out” a writer, then I am happy to help.

One thing I noticed while taking the mindset test was the sheer repetition of it- and I’m not sure if this was designed to confuse the test-taker. The minute changes in language were subtle enough to make me stumble a few times and have to pause and read a question a few times- likely something I will have to do as a consultant while working with clients on their papers. While working on consultations, I noticed that many students grow nervous when you paused with their work, so I usually tell them that I have not necessarily found an error, but I am rereading for understanding. As I mentioned earlier, many students are very nervous when they come into the lab and are anticipating hearing a lot of corrections from those of us working here.

While I was working with consultants as a client, I found that I got the most out of my time by being receptive to the ideas of the consultant and articulating as many of my ideas as I could. At the same time, often it was too hard to describe what I was thinking when I wrote a particular sentence, or why I chose a particular word in a section of the paper. As a consultant, I need to remember that putting clients on the spot can help push them, but it can also be counter-productive if they are not going to say anything. I found that if I could not explain the idea of one sentence, I could explain my ideas in the previous sentences, and then that would lead me to what I wanted to say in the remaining sentences.

Working as a consultant, above all, I will have to learn to adjust my behavior and questions according to the client because, as North states, the goal of a writing center is not to create better pieces of writing, but better writers.