August 2017
In my David Attenborough voice –
The indigenous population has returned from its great summer migration. They engage in their ritualistic greetings, such as “Bruh, really!” and “Girl, you wouldn’t even believe!”
And now my writing center feels like home.
7/10/2017
Good morning fabulous OWC coaches!
Well, the time is upon us when the OWC traffic will ramp up. Students are coming off of the holiday and hunkering down to finish their summer terms. While f2f traffic has been light, the OWC has been busier this year than normal (as you know!). Based on how our numbers have increased steadily over the past AY, I anticipate this summer’s rush may be brutal.
I’ll send papers to you as they come in, and I’ll watch your workload, so I don’t inundate you. Please do your best to adhere to our turnaround time. If you can’t, just let me know, and I’ll communicate that to students as I send them their confirmation notices. Oh, and of course, I’m adding our standard crunch time clause to the confirmation notices that due to increased usage, our turnaround time may be delayed.
Please let me know your schedules, so I can plan out how and when to send papers your way. I appreciate your willingness in the past to work beyond your hours, and I’m asking if you’d be willing to do it again. As always, keep track of your hours, and we will flex your overages when the demand decreases. I’m so grateful for you and how you have handled our crunch times in the past. You all are the best.
Per usual, if anything wonky happens or if any nastygrams come your way, let me know and forward all documentation to me. I’ll handle whatever comes up.
It’s an honor to work with the best OWC team on the planet. I’m awed by how such a small crew serves so many students so well.
Let me know what questions or concerns you have or how I can serve you better.
Warmly,
Laila
Higher Order Concerns
Lower Order Concerns
I pointed out some patterns of error, including punctuation and how to recognize a sentence and know when sentences begin and end. I sent the student home with a handout on sentence fragments and run-on sentences, but we spent the bulk of the time in the session on developing the main idea.
Student learning
The student learned that a first draft is a great start, not a final attempt, and to reread work with an eye for what readers will need to understand. Student gained confidence in writing ability.
Dr. Jones’ note to self: Glamorous my life is not. Satisfying it is, yes.
I have a character, Dr. Laila E. Jones, who runs a university writing center. In my head, her story unfolds through her writing – her emails, journal entries, Teams messages at work, text messages with loved ones, conference proposals, etc. I honestly have no idea where her story will take her or any of us, but I’m excited for her adventure to begin. Below is the first installment.
June 5, 2017
Dear Diary,
Well, that sounds ridiculous – like I’m an angsty preteen, oh, I’m sorry, TWEEN. I sound like an angsty tween. Why even do we use that word? What was wrong with preteen that tween came into existence? I mean preteens were functioning just fine as pseudo adolescents (like pseudopodia perhaps?), and then somebody (who was it I wonder?)
Alright I’m back. According to Wikipedia it was J.R.R Tolkien referring to hobbits in their twenties prior to their coming of age, so it’s a blend of teen and twenty which makes so much more sense now. Why do we even use it for angsty prepubescent children? And should I have written portmanteau? It’s the word that was in my head (probably because it was in the Wikipedia article, but I didn’t have to look it up, so I feel good about that), but it felt pompous and self serving. Can I be pompous and self serving in my own diary? Is this a diary or a journal? It’s a journal. I do NOT plan on doing this daily, despite the advice of my therapist.
So there. Journal reboot begun. And tween is a cool Tolkien word that I should figure out how to repurpose in society, so it’s less angsty. Like me. Ugh. I’m done.