(DOWNLOAD) "Authority and Writing in the Discipline: An Anthropologist's Viewpoint (Tutor's Column) (Personal Account)" by Writing Lab Newsletter # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Authority and Writing in the Discipline: An Anthropologist's Viewpoint (Tutor's Column) (Personal Account)
- Author : Writing Lab Newsletter
- Release Date : January 01, 2009
- Genre: Education,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 60 KB
Description
As a graduate student tutor and Writing Center liaison to the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut, I assist students with their anthropology papers. The Department of Anthropology is small, but its classes serve as general education requirements for many undergraduates. While anthropology provides an understanding of human behavior, how humans interact with their environment and the influences of culture on the individual, tutoring student with anthropology papers provides me with an understanding of how various students approach their writing center sessions. While some students actively express authority over their papers during a session, other students misinterpret tutoring sessions as opportunities to be directed toward better papers instead of opportunities to work collaboratively with tutors. For example, during a session I asked a student writer to summarize Marni Finkelstein's ethnography about street kids in New York before we delved into his book review. He had some trouble articulating the author's main arguments. From my teaching experiences, I know most students eagerly describe the events and the colorful, foul-mouthed personalities within the book's covers because of the informants' young ages, the well- known location, and the vivid accounts of violence. Because I knew the book usually prompted class discussions, I started to wonder if he had read it carefully. As we looked at his paper, he asked me basic questions that the author had answered in the ethnography's introduction. The majority of his questions concerned the ethnography itself instead of his interpretation of it. He had also missed important details from other book chapters. It became clear that he was relying on me to supply missing information. I suggested that he reread and told him that if he could not convince me that he understood what he read, he would not be able to convince his professor. He replied with a sheepish smile, "Yeah, I should go back and read that last chapter." A great reason to seek a writing tutor who works in a specific discipline like anthropology is that the tutor has a familiarity with its theory, jargon, and relevant sources that other tutors might not. However, once some students know that I am familiar with the material to be analyzed, they might ask me more questions about the material than about their own paper, as did the student in my anecdote. I do not mind answering a few questions about the text, but problems with the student's analysis could be the result of not reading source material well or at all. The harm in students giving their authority to professors or tutors is that they "fail to develop the ability to write in the authoritative academic style that will give them recognition within the university system" (Palmeri 9). But can you blame students for not knowing the particulars of your discipline? No. For students who did not have anthropology classes in high school, the field is entirely new to them. Many students enroll in introductory anthropology classes not out of curiosity but to fulfill a requirement for graduation. Anthropologist Rebekah Nathan describes how some students find themselves in anthropology classes in her ethnography of American undergraduate culture, My Freshman Year: "[A] number of students enrolled in my basic cultural anthropology course who had no idea what anthropology was. My course was likely the last piece in their scheduling puzzle, and frankly, they didn't care what anthropology was" (116).
 "Authority and Writing in the Discipline: An Anthropologist's Viewpoint (Tutor's Column) (Personal Account)" by Writing Lab Newsletter # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free){kind=link}