Re: Ethics of Helping with Student Papers (summary-long)

[Romay Jean Sitze <rositze -at- NMSU -dot- EDU>]

On Tue, 2 Jan 1996, Ellen Fenwick wrote:

> Students for whom English is a second language quite often need more help.
>  However, one university writing center director I spoke with said that
> they do not treat ESL students any differently than other students, they
> just end up spending more time with them.

This is true of my experience as a tutor in a university writing center.
Our purpose was primarily to help the ESL students to learn more about
writing in English.  We did NOT rewrite their papers for them, but took
the time to help them see what needed to be done to phrase things more
accurately. I have worked with students from Asia, Mexico, Honduras,
Greece, and so on.  Their problems varied widely, but in most cases they
were dedicated students who really tried to remember what we showed
them.  I saw real progress in many of those I had to opportunity to work
with over the course of the term. What is important to remember is that
most of these students had NO problem with the content--only the language
for expressing their ideas.

        RoMay Sitze,  rositze -at- nmsu -dot- edu