5
“Establishing a purpose” decreased from 26% to 17% to 0%. “Developing or clarifying a thesis” likewise dropped from 52% to 40% to 7%, respectively. Finally, “Developing ideas/examples” also dropped from 95% to 69% to 48% in frequency. A second trend, by contrast, showed that the frequency of sentence-level writing tasks dramatically increased over the course of the same writing center visits. “Editing ideas/language” increased from 19% to 72% to 85%, while “Editing mechanics” increased from 5% to 60% to 81%, respectively.[1]
These findings suggest that working incrementally and in collaboration with a tutor can help you successfully solve your projects’ ideational and argumentative puzzles first. You can then focus on crafting the style and perfecting the technical aspects of the work. Over time, you will become your own best editor and coach. Even the most masterful of writers and speaker can benefit from regular collaboration with a tutor—perfection, after all, is always a moving target!
[1] Doug Enders. “The Idea Check: Changing ESL Students’ Use of the Writing Center.” Writing Lab Newsletter 37, no. 9–10 (June 5, 2013), 6. While the study focused mostly on students from diverse linguistic backgrounds, its conclusions apply to all students.
That makes sense now!