Category: One -to-One

Ego Problems in Writing Support

gfreestoneLeave a comment

The ego is sometimes used to mean a kind of self-agrandizing principle of the psyche. Ego-centric can also mean that we focus on ourselves at the expense of others; this is a related but not identical meaning to the first sense. These differing meanings are related insofar as they both entail some psychic action by which we seek to prop up ourselves as individuals, one by self-promotion, one by self-interest. Both generally are related to a degree of insecurity in the individual in question. All people are different and have different histories; the ego level is contingent up various factors related to these differences.

A one-to-one support session is necessarily a meeting of egos. There is an imbalanced power relation between the student and the support worker. This is not an ego-trip itself, but a position of necessity. The student wants help with their writing and the writing support worker theoretically has the skills/knowledge to help them. This means it is not only a position of necessity but a position of responsibility, that is, the writing support worker is responsible for the student. Interestingly this means the power relation is more complicated than it first appears, for from this perspective the student is actually in control. They place the burden of their writing problems upon the support worker, whom they expect, to a greater or lesser extent, to solve them.

The initial manifestation of the support worker in this relation will be varied, but we all can be seduced by the desire to please, to be liked. Much more important than being liked though, is needing the student to trust us; this means we need to have (some) confidence in ourselves. If we project confidence, the student will trust us —unless we screw up so much that it’s painfully laid out for them to see. There is a difficult borderline (depending on our ego-structures) between the successful projection of confidence with the aim of inspiring trust and the confidence which inspires ‘being-liked’. We’re not supposed to care about ‘being-liked’ but because of the borderline, it can sometimes be hard to not do so.

I have often found myself lost in the early stages of a consult. Worried I won’t know where to go with it. Listening to the student, scanning the work. Looking to convey a mixture of honesty, but not so much honesty to give away the rising sense of ‘what to do with this?’ whilst also bringing the aforementioned confidence. I referred before to periods of quiet reading in the session that help let the problems in the work show themselves. These periods enable me to find a space in which any desire to be ‘liked’ can largely be eradicated as I get deeper into the work. Slowly seeing the problems emerge from the reading and talking about what they are trying to say, brings has a satisfaction that is not egoistic but only has its own satisfaction, like finding the solution of a puzzle on one’s own.

However this is not the end of the struggle. If the problems are successfully identified and a path forwards (that is not too disheartening) is found, then the student will often be very pleased. This pleasedness is then projected onto the the support worker in the form ‘being-liked’. Which is worse now, as it is not artifical (in the sense of inspired by the projection of confidence) but a genuine pleasure that their writing problems (for now) are resolved. It is course hard not to take some excess of pleasure in the pleasedness of the student, however it is to be avoided as much as possible.

The reason for this is that the classical issue of hubris is a very real one. If we allow the either spoken, or unspoken praise of the student to go in, then we may generate an attitude that will serve us very badly on another occasion. The projection of confidence, secure in the knowledge this is a contrivance is one thing, but the real thing is perilous. The tempered projection of confidence, should always contain the possibility of admitting to not know the way forward —a piece of writing for another time- whereas when hubris crashes into such difficulties the result will be an embarrassing mess, leaving the student lacking faith in the service and the support worker with another level of ego crisis to resolve.

Signposting dyslexic students to Wellbeing

Daren MansfieldLeave a comment

Reflective insights from a three-point map

Over the years I have frequently encountered undiagnosed dyslexia during 1-1s. Lately I have been reflecting on my own responses when a piece of writing exhibits traits of dyslexia, breaking them down into three parts. Not that I am an expert. These are purely general observations gleaned through years of experience. A feeling or perception, in other words. In a meeting with a student common dyslexia characteristics may become known from the first or second paragraph. Little signs that might explain the student’s difficulty with writing an assignment, indicating that further exploration is needed and the three-point map is carefully unfurled.

These three steps that I recognise as my approach to signposting students to Wellbeing and advise them about obtaining a screening for dyslexia are a regular reminder that although I am not an expert, or sufficiently qualified to diagnose dyslexia, there are brilliant services available to students at the University helping them to progress in their studies through correct diagnosis. If they are diagnosed with dyslexia, students may receive funding for an accessible laptop or obtain software like Dragon Naturally Speaking.

1st step: Initial signs

When I first met dyslexic students, I was looking for such tell-tale signs as misplaced word order or spelling, but I am increasingly aware that these are not the most common traits. Nowadays, tell-tale signs are more likely to include spending ages on an assignment, difficulty with translating their ideas onto paper, disorganised structure, confusion around capitalisation, and muddled syntax.

These broad observations lead to a short series of leading questions, which might illuminate the path ahead.

2nd step: Leading questions

The second stage in the process of considering signposting a student with potential dyslexia to Student Wellbeing might involve the following:

Q. ‘So, how long did you spend writing this 2000-word essay?’

A. ‘It took me all night to write two paragraphs’ or ‘I spent all day in the Library and produced nothing’.

Q. ‘Have you struggled with writing?’ (i.e. an open-ended question.

A. ‘Yes, when I was at school…’

Then we may comfortably enter into a discussion about screening: ‘have you ever thought you may be dyslexic?’

I would then point out where Student Wellbeing is located on the Brayford campus and their drop-in times.

As I indicated earlier in one of my blog posts, establishing the therapeutic relationship is essential in sensitively handling this discussion and attuned to whatever the student is saying through employing active listening skills (not interrupting, listening not responding, withholding judgement, and so forth). Otherwise, such a discussion might upset the student and discourage them from seeking further help.

3rd step: Learning strategies and signposting

Following on from this stage, we might discuss blue-sky thinking, problem solving, mind maps….getting the student to think visually; exploring ideas, not sentences.  LinkedIn has recently championed Dyslexia Thinking as a skill, not as an impediment.

Writing sentences can be a great inhibitor for a dyslexic student. Hurdles in word form. Breaking a sentence up into constituent parts drawn from ideas or images from a mind map is a great way of formulating a sentence. Bullet points can also kick-start an essay; an easy way to get started without worrying about the mental block of paragraphs. Think of small starts, but with big ideas.

It is often a relief for the student to realise that there is an issue where their struggles at school and college could be explained. Such a moment can be life-changing. Dyslexia is often hereditary. One of the student’s parents might be dyslexic. It may be common knowledge that they struggled in school and experience the same issues as their children, but it can be largely unspoken in family circles. Understood, but not officially diagnosed. As society moves on from the notion that dyslexia is an obstacle – as LinkedIn has recently done – students can feel confident at achieving academic success, and look forward to a brighter future.

Helping Students by Looking for the Animating Principle in Their Work

gfreestoneLeave a comment

After looking at many pieces of student’s work in a one-to-one setting, I’ve come to identify a kind of process of how my ability to help appears to work. What follows are some kind of reflective notes on this process. As my reflection proceeds I make recourse to a concept I am calling the ‘animating principle’ of the writing to try to describe what’s going on.

When working with a student the very first thing is to put the student at ease with a friendly introduction. Next I need to find out what they need help with. They may have quite a specific kind of issue, for instance they want to know how to be more critical in their writing, or it may be something more general like how to write more academically.

Knowing my own mind and abilities, I am aware it’s very important that the whole situation be relaxed. If tension exists in the system, this will impair my ability to read their work/understand their issue and hence to give any useful advice. Also since I now likely have to digest the issue, either from reading their work/brief/learning outcomes, I always feel I have to spell out that I’m now going to do some reading and thinking but that they shouldn’t worry about the silence. This is all about removing tension. I think it’s important to spell this out as, whilst it might seem obvious, if I don’t say it they may feel uncomfortable or even keep interjecting and neither of these are desireable —though interjecting might be later on.

For me, this initial reading may not be massively in depth. I am trying to keep my focus on reading carefully, whilst also taking note of how long the text is and also trying to bear in mind the issue they’ve asked me about. This can get more complicated because I may notice other problems with the writing. If these are outside the remit of the query, then there is something of an ethical dilemma. On the one hand I do not wish to gloss over aspects of the writing that need looking at, but on the other the session is finite, so if I begin to spread out into too many issues I may a) overwhelm the student with information and b) not cover the issue they came for in a satisfactory manner. The resolution of this may be to recommend another session or to check in with them as to what stage they are at in the writing —the student may be aware of some things and expect to pick them up themselves later on. Some form of acknowledging these issues is required though.

After this initial reading I may have a general sense of major issues and may be able to offer advice about the work. I am always aware (or rather I should be aware) that at this stage the student’s work will likely not have disclosed itself properly to me. So at this point I will relay my thoughts so far back to the student and talk to them variously about it. This will usually give me a deeper connection to what they want and let me see if I am working in the right area.

I will then make a second reading of the work. By now the work and the learning outcomes have seeped into me at a deeper level and I am able to see the work clearer. The areas of the work start to become clearer, the structural problems, the lacks of criticality. This stage will involve less intense silence, but there may well be some. Again if I am thinking for a moment I will let the student know, so they understand I am not just sat in silence.

It is around the stage of this second reading/talking that I find the truly fascinating part of the process occurs. What roughly tends to happen is that, if I have remained relaxed and open, absorbed the work/inquiry and applied thought to the issue (asking myself, what is needed here? what nudge does the work need to cohere?) the general solution/advice will disclose itself by a some means I do not pretend to understand. There is a moment when something clicks and then I have the strong sensation that the way forward is clear. From this opening, I will feel a sense of where the essential problems are in the work, and begin to work out advice on how they might solve them.

This does not mean I will not offer nuts and bolts writing advice. As stated, there is always a question about where do you should focus. However if we are trying to work on issues such as structure, criticality, analysis or flow, then though the individual problems may look extremely various, it is often the same fundamental issue that drives them. This is what I have elsewhere referred to as the lack of an animating principle in the writing.

The repeated readings and questions then, are probes that try to find the animating principle (or lack of one) in the writing. This is a kind of holistic approach, as the aspects we are taught about academic writing come much more naturally if the writing has an animating principle. Criticality for instance arises by itself if we are truly interested in the topic; our interest will make us question the veracity of statements in our desire for understanding. Likewise our logical coherence will flow, because we have a tale we are trying to tell and our rhetorical powers of persuasion (if appropriate) will also be improved because we are invested in the movement of the writing.

It is true that the animating principle is easier to track and utilise when the writing has hit a certain level. However at all levels there is still the question/title that has been set by the tutor. Engaged thinking about this question can help bring out an interesting perspective in a question that might appear quite uninspiring. Yes of course, there can be many issues that might need fixing at the level of grammar and spelling, but improving these details after engagement has been achieved (or even suffering them to some extent to work on over time) will still yield a better piece of work than simply mopping up the periphery.