Praxis: A Writing Center Journal (20032011) Sections Focus Columns and Reviews Consulting Training News & Announcements
Home » Archives » Fall 2003 (Volume 1 Issue 1) - Who We Are / Writing Centers Feel the Crunch
Fall 2003 / Consultant Spotlight Fall 2003 / Consulting
Monica Jacobe, a graduate consultant at the American University Writing Center, takes center stage.
Archives
Name: Monica F. Jacobe
Browse past issues of Praxis
Age: 25 Writing center: American University Writing Center, Washington, D.C.
About Us About Us
Submissions Submit an article to Praxis
School enrollment: Medium, but I have no idea . . . 15,000? It is the biggest school I have ever attended! Year in school and area of study: Third-year MFA candidate, creative writing, prose. Number of years working in writing centers: About five. I began work as an undergraduate consultant in the Writing Center at Emory & Henry College in Virginia. Job title: We are consultants, not tutors, but always peers. Describe the work you do in the writing center. With this being my third year in AU’s Writing Center, I often work with some of the toughest clients, but my goal is always the same: help them learn to help themselves. Yes, I would love to give them the right answers, correct all the errors, and send them away smiling. However, the best job I can do for them is to listen, to learn from them, and help them learn through what we find during the session. Describe the training you’ve participated in. Dr. Janet Auten, our director, trains all our consultants when they first start. We observe sessions, have a session as a client, and meet to talk about what we do every day. Training continues, however, even when you have been doing this for years. With each new group of consultants and with each new challenge from a client, I learn. Practice as training works better for me than theoretical reading, which I have done plenty of; when I see it inside a session, I say to myself “Oh, so that’s how that works!” How do you normally start a consultation? I always try to smile through the beginning, and I often find myself lowering my voice and saying as little as possible. I like to ask a general question and get the student talking about the class, the subject, and the paper at hand. I like to know all of this before diving into the actual words. A lot of students come in saying “I have bad grammar. Fix it.” or “I can’t write.” I never believe those things, and if I listen beneath the basics, the real worries and the real work do come up. Nine times out of ten, the paper proves to me that listening like that can work. Describe your consulting style. I think you can tell: I am a listener. Standing