Lie to Me and Writing Tutoring

LIE TO ME AND WRITING TUTORING

"You can observe a lot just by watching." -Yogi Berra In the opening scenes of Lie to Me, a fox television series, Dr Cal Lightman sits in an interrogation room in front of a muscular prisoner in an orange jumpsuit. The prisoner is a white supremacist who has placed a bomb in an African-American church, yet the prisoner isn't talking. Lightman begins thinking aloud, throwing out guesses about locations while a room full of law enforcement personnel watch through the glass . After the prisoner hears the name of one location, the corners of his lips twitch toward a smile for a fraction of a second, and Lightman dismisses that possibility, but the name of the next location makes the prisoner react differently. At the second name, the prisoner confidently states that going there would be a waste of time, slightly shrugging one shoulder while speaking. "That's the one," Lightman says, turning his head toward the FBI agents behind the one way glass. "That's where he hid the bomb." In this scene, Lightman (who is loosely based on Paul Ekman, a researcher in the field) asks a series of questions, using nonverbal communication to guide him. Much like a tutor, he sits down before a stranger and lets the stranger guide the interaction. He makes educated guesses based on his instincts, but he adjusts his instincts in light of what he sees in front of him. Watching a show like this one raises some real questions about tutoring. Are there universal nonverbal signals? Can tutors learn to read those signals? How much information should they have about nonverbal communication? In a field that celebrates diversity, it is One of the causes is the increasing consensus in nonverbal communication research, which has produced several significant findings. It found evidence supporting the universality of certain expressions (called emotion cues or affect displays). It has found a reliable way to determine a felt smile from a false one that holds true across cultures (wrinkling around the eyes). In education, nonverbal communication has been shown to have a significant impact on affective learning, student evaluations, and student motivation. This research has focused on immediacy, how educators can send effective nonverbal communication messages (Riggio citation). These findings are hopefully well known, but they raise a crucial question, "what messages are consultants receiving from students?" If there are universal nonverbal signals, what do consultants need to know about them? If there were a real life Dr. Lightman, what would he see on the faces of students? No matter the context, it is clear that writing center consultants cannot do their jobs without some degree of skill at nonverbal communication, but it might not be clear how reading the nonverbal signals of students can help consultants . According to the Bedford Guide, tutors switch between multiple roles during conferences, such as "the ally," "the coach," "the commentator," and "the counselor" (Ryan, 28-30). Given this goal, facial expressions, gestures, and tones of voice can provide some information about when to switch between them, particularly with the role of "the counselor." Cristina Murphy argues that helping students become better writers requires building relationships much like those between therapists and clients ("Freud in the Writing Center: The Psychodynamics of Tutoring Well"). Learning to read students' nonverbal communication offers the possibility of helping consultants build just such a relationship. This idea of reading students signals in the Writing Center has been raised before. In the Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors, Leah Ryan suggests watching videos of tutoring sessions or sitcoms with the sound off (Ryan 31). In an article titled "Using Videotape to Train Tutors," XXXXXX advocates using videotapes to assess, among other things, nonverbal communication in the tutoring session (citation needed). However, neither of these pieces advocates formal training in nonverbal signals. Instead they suggest that intuition and tutoring experience should be enough background to profit from some informal reflection. In a "contact zone," where students of diverse ability levels and backgrounds meet to learn collaboratively, I believe that this is probably not enough. Informal reflection and personal experience should be coupled with the findings of communication research in order to help tutors understand the signals that students are sending. Although providing consultants with a large list of student behaviors would be too much, it seems wise to touch on a few types of signals that are particularly relevant. One type of message that consultants should watch for is initial signs of emotion. In NVC research, these are called affect displays or emotion cues (Givens). These universal signs of emotion include signs of happiness, sadness, disgust, surprise, fear, and contempt and surprise. They are detailed by Paul Ekman in his work Emotions Revealed, and in David Givens' spectacular Nonverbal Dictionary. Since these displays of affect are rarely masked, they are relatively easy for a consultant to spot. If a student looks emotional, acknowledging that fact can open the door to greater rapport and a more productive session. The initial check of a student's nonverbal signals also serves a second function. It gives a student-centered baseline for interpreting later signals. Since everyone has a communication style, it is no surprise to say that each person also has a nonverbal communication style. Observing the student's nonverbal communication before the session begins provides an opportunity for alert tutors to spot the next important type of signal. After an initial check of the student's nonverbal signals, the next task for the consultant is to watch for affect displays that suddenly appear during a session. Frustration and anxiety are two signals that a particularly important. Since consultants do not know the ability level of students, we need to be sure to ask questions of an appropriate difficulty level, questions that challenge students without frustrating and demotivating them. This idea is based on Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal development. However, tutors sometimes ask questions that are beyond a student's ability to answer. A tutor might accidentally interrupt a student during a session or paraphrase a portion of text in a way the student finds objectionable. Since most students will not announce that they are getting frustrated, nonverbal signals are a crucial source of information. Two common facial signals of frustration are a sudden tensing of the lips or a sudden knitting together of the brow. Another one is a momentary increase in the intensity of eye contact, a quick glare. In addition to those facial signals, gestures that suddenly appear during a session are a third source of information for consultants. If a relatively stationary student suddenly begins finger tapping, head-scratching, nail biting or fidgiting with clothes at some point within a session, these actions, called adaptors, are signs of stress (Textbook, p247). Animals, as well as humans, display an increasing number of these movements in the presence of stressors. However, these gestures are less significant than the facial ones since they are indicators of stress, not a particular emotion. To some of you, these types of signals may have seemed obvious. The few examples I have given may seem to be common knowledge. One might object that consultant training should concern themselves with knowledge of the writing process and proper questioning techniques rather than blink rates and eyebrow movements. Indeed, they might also point out that the diversity in student populations makes applying universal interpretations an ethically hazardous goal, and they would be right to be concerned. However, if consultants already base decisions within tutoring sessions on nonverbal cues, how can we justify leaving them uninformed about the scientific consensus? A small section in a tutoring manual and a short discussion during tutor training could provide consultants with the opportunity to decide for themselves, as a part of reflective practice, how much they need to and ought to know about this issue. After all, it is probably true that many writing consultants (such as myself) applied for the position because they are good with writing, not because they are good with people. For those that object, on the other hand, that Cal Lightman is an unrealistic example to provide consultants, that it makes reading body language seem too effective, I offer them a story about a horse. In 1904, William Von Osten revealed to the world that he had spent the past two years teaching his horse to communicate. By tapping its hoof a correct number of times, the horse appeared to have mastered the rules of arithmatic, converting fractions to decimals, and how to read the time of day off of a standard clock face. The horse was even able to perform these feats when Mr Von Osten was not present. It took Oskar Pfungst, a Berlin psychologist, to realize the secret. The horse could only answer the questions when someone in the room knew the answer. Pfungst realized that "In the course of the long series of lessons in arithmetic, the horse must have learned to spot more and more accurately the tiny body movements with which the teacher unconsciously accompanied his own thinking. These movements the horse learned to utilize as cues....The horse's performance and the great accuracy it achieved in perceiving these tiniest of movements remain amazing." (In Katz, 1953, p.15) So, even though consultants will never become Dr. Lightman, with some background information and frequent practice, we might be able to be as clever as that horse. -------------------------------------- What to read facial expressions sudden increases or decreases in gestures tone of voice when reading from the text tone of voice when asking questions tone of voice when answering questions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Our goal as writing tutors): to make the people we work with better writers by facilitating changes in teh way in which they view and produce writing.

What Professors Want from A Paper- Podcast

What Professors Want from a Paper

First, I'll start with a word of warning. This podcast, like many of the others, is a generalization. That means it does not apply to every teacher. It does not apply to every discipline. The best place to learn what a professor wants is from that professor, either through an assignment sheet, through class discussions, or through meeting with that professor during his or her office hours. However, these options aren't always available. Some professors are more clear than others. Sometimes late at night it isn't possible to contact the professor. This podcast will contain some general pieces of advice about what a good paper is and what a good paper is not. You can find similar pieces of advice online from the Purdue writing lab, in handbooks like Diana Hacker, and in textbooks like And I'll provide you with a second word of warning. If you listen to this podcast, you will learn a little and forget it immediately. If you listen and take notes on this podcast, you will learn a little and remember it longer. If you listen, take notes, and review those notes during your next writing task, you will learn from this podcast. Did you understand those two warnings? Good. Now let's get down to business. Get out a piece of paper and a writing instrument. Now take two minutes to write down some of the things you think professors want from a paper. Pause this podcast and do that now. ..................................................................... Are you finished? Now the chances are that many of you have written down things like "good grammar," "proper spelling", and "the right number of pages." What I'm asking you to do is to listen to a few basic principles about good papers, and write whatever you couldn't think of the first time. These principles are things that can help you avoid making disasterous paper mistakes. The first thing to remember is PROFESSORS WANT YOU TO DO WHAT THEY ASKED YOU TO DO. Imagine that you have just come home one evening from a hard day at work. People complained to you about one thing or another all day, and as you walk up to your front door, as you reach into your pocket to grab your keys, all you can think about is having a good meal. You sit down in your favorite spot in front of the tv and relax. You order a large pizza from your favorite place, and before the next program begins on television, you hear the doorbell. You walk over to the door and open it. The pizza man stands there smiling and he hands you a plate of blueberry pancakes. Even if you like blueberry pancakes, even if they are particularly delicious, how do you think that will make you feel? After calling the pizza man, placing an order, and waiting 30 minutes in anticipation, you are going to be pretty ticked off. The pizza man will not get paid. Do you understand the point of that story? Your professors want students to follow directions. So do it. The assignment sheet is your best friend as a student. Reread the assignment sheet frequently, while you plan a paper, while you type the paper, and while you revise it. If there is no sheet, take extremely detailed notes on the professors instructions. As a basic principle, get it in writing and refer to that writing. Write that down. Get your instructions in writing and look at that writing. That's what you need to remember about this part. Get your instructions in writing and look at that writing. Write that down. The second thing to remember is PROFESSORS WANT TO BE CONVINCED BY WHAT YOU ARE SAYING. It is easy to tell me something. A student tells me that his dog ate his homework. The waitress tells me that Applebees has the best onion rings in the city. My Cincinnati Bell employee assures me that they have great coverage and rarely drop calls. But it is a much more difficult thing to convince me of something. In order to do that a student needs to do a few things. A student needs to have relevant evidence. A student needs to have credible evidence. A student needs to have enough evidence. What counts as relevant depends on the assignment, your thesis, and the subject. What counts as credible is standard. Expert opinion, statistics, and the results of experiments are almost always credible evidence. Quotations are credible, depending on the source of the quotation and the way it is used. What counts as enough evidence depends on the thesis. If someone argues that all men are crazy, it requires many pieces of evidence for support. If someone argues that all men are not crazy, it requires only one example of a sane man to prove that thesis. The third thing to remember is PROFESSORS WANT TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE DOING MORE THAN JUST REPEATING WHAT SOMEONE ELSE HAS ALREADY THOUGHT OR SAID Have you ever wondered why some professors give assignments that are.... well... unique? This principle explains it. Being able to look at a number of facts and put them together in a new way is one of the best signs a person has "mastered" a subject. It is also a very valuable and marketable skill to have. There is no shortcut method for generating good ideas, so I can't tell you a trick for that. What I can tell you is how to avoid one common mistake. Don't pick a very obvious or very common paper topic. Many students pick the first topic that comes to mind and they pick the same topics. Consider the audience. If a professor has read 30 papers about the same topic, only one paper will seem excellent. The rest will be compared to the best one. If you pick an unusual or unique topic, it is much more likely you will have something unique to say. Another common mistake is a balance issue. Some students believe that the best way to fill space in a paper is to put in more and more evidence. As a rule of thumb, I tell students to strive to keep a balance between showing us the dots and connecting them. Every piece of evidence requires some explanation, and important evidence requires much more than that. That is what to remember about the third section. Don't pick an obvious topic. And don't include too much evidence. Failing to remember these warnings sometimes leads to a paper full of words that seems empty of thought. That's it. There is no magic potion for writing a good paper, but there are some pieces of advice that can save you from writing a bad paper. Professors want a paper that does what they asked for. Professors want a paper that is believable. And Professors want a paper that is unique. To put in simply, "after reading your paper, a professor wants the main idea of the paper to seem both true and new." So read, reread, and re-reread the assignment sheet while you work. Make sure you have evidence that relates to your topic and is believable. Make sure you explain your evidence in enough detail. And try to pick a topic that is not a cliche, a topic that not many others are picking.

Why Key Words Will Open Doors for You-Podcast

Why Key Words Will Open Doors for You-Podcast

Ok. Imagine your favorite song. If that's tough for you, imagine a song that has recently been stuck in your head. Now ask yourself, what's the first thing you think of? If you're like me... If you're like most people, you thought of the part that they repeat, whether you focused on the beat, the riff, or the lyrics. In the music business, they call that part of the song the chorus. In this podcast, I am going to take a lesson from the music business. I'm going to explain how to use key words in order to keep your audience focused on your message and to keep yourself focused on that message. First, however, I need to provide you with some warning. This podcast is based on my experience as a student, a writer, a reader, and a teacher. I am going to offer you some advice, much like Tiger Woods might offer advice about hitting a golf ball. However, like hitting a golf ball, advice isn't much good without practice. Learning to apply my advice to specific writing situations will take work, just like learning from this podcast will. I can tell you what to do and why to do it, but learning how to do it means considering how to apply this advice to your situation. You are a specific student with a unique language background, writing for a specific professor in a specific discipline on a specific topic. Listening to this is an investment. Learning from this requires a larger investment. When you apply it, you will need to think about all the specifics of your own writing situation. For the next few minutes while listening, you will need a pen, some paper, and a place where you can be distraction free. [Pause] Writing has its origins in speech making. To understand this, lets imagine what it was like in the past. In 500bc, in order to make a complicated point, it was impossible to write it down and publish it in the newspaper. All writing was done by hand, on fragile paper, and trying to write a hundred identical letters to pass around would have been dreadful. So the intelligent guys in 500bc decided they needed to gather a large group of people together and speak to them all at once about the topic. It would save time, money, and a whole lot of ink stains on togas. But speaking presented a second problem. People tend to jump around to different topics while they talk without noticing. A conversation about Michael Jordan quickly changes into a comparison between Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. Or how about this example. When a couple has a fight, sometimes a fight over dirty dishes turns into a fight about sleeping too late, obnoxious friends, and watching too much sports. (I confess. I'm talking about myself here). When the couple fights, the phrase "dirty dishes" will stop appearing in the conversation rather quickly. When my girlfriend and I fight, after about the first minute, she will never bring up what started it again. She starts bringing up other things that the first thing reminds her of. I believe that my experience is typical. Topic jumping is common in conversation, but it makes it impossible to make any complicated point. This was a problem for our friends in togas, so they made an informal rule which is still followed. A speech should be about one thing. It can be a big, complicated thing, but it should be about one thing. So they invented a trick to keep themselves on topic. In English class, we call it a thesis, and they insisted that it be referred to at the beginning and the end of the speech. But that wasn't good enough. They found out that it was very hard to stay on topic for ten minutes if they only stated the topic in the first and last minute. So they came up with something called topic sentences. They insisted that every new point, every new section, begin with a statement of how that section relates to the main idea. And one crucial part of topic sentences is key words. (The other parts of topic sentences will be covered in later podcast.) Here is the part where you will want to get out the pen and write this down. Take, for example, the thesis that says, "Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." The key word for that thesis is greatness. A paper with that thesis should never stray from the topic of greatness for for long, and an easy way to make sure of that is to make sure the word greatness comes up in many of the topic sentences. Notice. I didn't say every single topic sentence. It is perfectly appropriate to have parts of your paper provide background information, but most of it should stay focused around a few key words. If your thesis doesn't seem to have key words, search the instructor's assignment sheet. Instructors try to let you know what they want as clearly as they can. They choose their words carefully, so using those key words are a great idea. So let's imagine that you have picked a key word from your thesis or the assignment sheet. You work hard for a couple of hours, and you write a paper about Frankenstein, but it is very late. You aren't sure if you stayed on topic. In 30 seconds, you can use the find function on microsoft word for the exact words of your thesis. An on topic paper will find the key words throughout the paper and in several topic sentences. To summarize my first point. You have only two things to remember. Use the key words from your thesis in most of your paragraphs. Particularly be sure to use them in topic sentences. This small effort is a way to be certain you don't drift off-topic. Going off topic means failing an assignment. That, by itself, should be motivation enough to think about key words while writing. But there is another advantage. Key words will keep your audience from forgetting your topic. Speakers aren't the only people that have trouble staying on a topic. Your audience will also have trouble staying on topic. Many of them will internally react to what you say. They may be confused, agree, disagree, or simply be reminded of something else. They may think of other people who have written on this topic, or they might start to wonder what they are going to have for dinner that night. This drifting is as natural and switching topics is, and when they bring their attention back to your paper, the key word acts like a memory aid. Seeing the word "greatness," brings the attention of the audience back to your thesis, and helps them easily recall what you have already said about greatness. Seeing the word "excellence" does not have the same effect on the audience. When the reader can recall your main idea consistently throughout a paper, it creates the impression that the writing was well planned, and that the writer carefully thought out what was being said. Have you got that? Using a single, simple trick while writing will keep your paper from going off topic and give the impression that you have carefully planned your paper in advance. The first benefit is that you wont go off topic and fail your paper. The second benefit is that is makes your audience more likely to trust what you have to say. So take out a paper you are writing. Look at the thesis statement. Underline what the key concepts are. Then make sure you use those keys. Those keys will open the door to your readers trust, and they will keep you from getting locked into a terrible predicament. Basics: Use key words from your thesis or the assignment sheet to stay on topic and to keep your audience focused.