“If Professor Stephen Hawking rolled into your campus writing center asking for feedback on his latest manuscript, what would you do?” Interesting question. If Prof. Stephen Hawking did actually roll into my campus writing center, I’m positive that providing him with feedback would be the least of my concerns. I’d be more interested in asking him questions and tapping into his understanding of the world we live in. I’m sure it would be a bad ass conversation. However, if an individual (not considered to be a world known genius) were to enter the writing center in possession of a “non-normative” body, mental state, or social consideration--I admit I would be stuck. To avoid this in an Ideal Writing Center, it would be essential that all tutors were well informed of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act--which states that students who qualify under these acts have a legal right to accommodations necessary for them to attend school and complete assignments.
The discussion gains complexity when I apply it to the composition of the student body on my campus. Primarily made up of working class minorities--it’s not so much that the students possess “non-normative” bodies, but engage in a different form of dialogue than that associated with a “professional” environment. Being a working class minority myself, I’m fully aware of the vernacular spoken within my community and am capable of engaging in conversations permitting discourse such as, “You feel me?”, “Know what I’m sayin’?”, “I aint feelin this shit my nigga.”, “Real talk.” etc. However, when assisting a student on a research paper, it’s quite frustrating communicating with them on a “real” level, when they are forced to conform their language to suite the meets of their professor and the institution. I can sense the resistance when a student types out a paper--as if every word in every sentence kills a piece of their identity. It feels as if I’ve been diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder when I code switch from “Standard English” to “African American Vernacular”. I attempt to code mesh by intertwining language associated with both vernaculars--and it does seem to help a bit. Through my dialogue, I attempt to show the students that it is possible to adapt to one's surroundings without losing sense of identity--without being “fake”, but I’m not sure if it helps any honestly.
I’m not sure how an Ideal Writing Center would accommodate scenarios such as these. I wonder if it’s even possible. How can you can assist a person in adapting to “normative” language, when the “normative” language forces a person to let go of who they are?
