Last week in English 1110.01, First Year English Composition, I had a paper due analyzing the primary source of my choice. I decided to go to the writing center in Smith Lab to help me with it and hopefully learn something. I wrote a rough draft and went through a couple rounds of editing before I went so that I did not have to waste time going over grammatical mistakes. Personally, I do have a stigma against seeking help. I think this comes from my engineering way of thinking: either it is good or it is not. Seeking help means to me that your work isn’t good and you’ve failed. Usually, I will only go to get help if I feel like I will not be able to figure it out on my own. Because of this and the fact that I have not really needed it, this was a new experience for me. I have only gone to seek help when I missed a significant amount of school. This was really only a couple of times and I just went to my dad for help with math. I knew coming into college that this would have to change and that I specifically needed help with writing. I do not think I was taught to write very well in high school. It was my plan to go and have the writing center help me on my first paper, so I did. They gave me a lot of great advice about how to strengthen my writing rather than just making corrections. This was exactly what I wanted and it was super helpful. When I went in I told them that and they did a really good job at gearing their critique. I think they helped me make a much better argument and hopefully helped me get a better grade. Most importantly, I feel better prepared for writing my best paper and what to think about in the writing process. I think the best advice I got was to really keep my thesis in mind when I write each supporting detail and argument. Going through my paper and doing this I think my argument became much more cohesive and convincing. For the most part, they helped me make these improvements by leading my to fixing it on my own by asking me questions. I think this is the best way to learn a skill meaningfully. I love that process which is why I think I would like to be a tutor. I have always thought that explaining something to people in a way that makes sense was a skill of mine. I think I got this skill from my parents; they are both teachers. If teachers were paid what they deserve, I would probably follow in their footsteps. I really like helping other people academically and I would love to make some money doing it. I want to get a math minor and I would love to tutor math or work as a teaching assistant.
