Projective Structuring: A tricky process

     In Sondra Perl’s “Understanding Composing”, she describes projective structure as “the ability to craft what one intends to say so that it is intelligible to others”.  This means that as the writer of the paper you have to project yourself into the role of the reader.  This process can be tricky because many writers tend to reduce projective structuring and concentrate more in rules and criteria for their finished paper.  They tend to block themselves from what they really think or feel about a certain topic and only what about what they “think’ the readers wants to read.  Many writers want to please their audience but they are restricted to please themselves by writing what they think and feel.  Questions begin to surface such as "Is what I'm writing correct?, Does it conform to the rules I've been taught?  This is where people can encounter a problem in projective structuring.  In order to avoid this problem, writers need to learn to how project themselves as readers.  This will also help the writer stay true to their beliefs and feelings. 

Tutorial 101: The DO’s and DON’T’’s

DO:

           

Please be early: Tutors should always be early to a tutoring session.  Being prompt will show the tutee that you are dedicated in helping them.

DON’T:

            Be Late: Being late will make you look unprofessional and the tutee will think you are not respecting their time at the Tutoring Center.

DO:

            Be Professional: Always show the tutee that you are available and ready to help them.  Be aware of your body language and how you present to your students’. 

DON’T:

            Be Unprofessional: Please be aware of your body language.  Don’t sit too far from your tutee, always sit side by them, this shows that you are engaged and ready to help.  Don’t use cell phones’, profanity and remember ALWAYS look available!!!

DO:

            Listen to the needs of your students’: Many times your students will come and not know what to do or where to begin.  It is your duty to guide them as much as possible and they will open up to you and tell you what they need.

DON’T:

            Be their therapist: Although you want to be friendly and nice, don’t chat of things other than the topic of the paper.  If they seem to have a problem, don’t try and help them by talking about, simply address them towards a school counselor or to a phone number that deals with their particular issue.  

Revision

My first semester at La Guardia Community College was very nerve wracking because I wanted to do well in all of my classes.  My courses were Statistics, Painting, Introduction to Language, Cultural Anthropology and Music for Children.  My first thoughts of my classes were ‘OMG I hope I get a good grade on Statistics and Painting’.  I was very worried for my painting class because I am not comfortable expressing myself.  Part of that feeling was because I lack creativity. I haven’t found a way to express myself fully and that is my biggest challenge. Yet there was a course that opened up my mind and eyes and discovered that it was what I was interested in. Introduction to Language was an eye-opener for me.  A lot of students like a class because of the professor or the type of classmates they get, but for me it was the contrary.  I really enjoyed learning about language and the science behind it.

 For hundreds of years humans have been able to communicate to one another through words and sounds.  I became engaged once the Professor started to lecture about being able to produce sounds and how we acquire language.  It instantly became my favorite class.  The Professor also helped because she was very careful in delivering the information step by step and making it entertaining to the students.  She would apply every-day word and new words that this generation would create and make us understand that, that is the process of language and that language is always evolving.  I remember the time where the Professor made us get into groups of three and had given us sound charts.  At that time we were learning about sounds and the different movements our tongues make when pronouncing it. The activity consisted of showing a classmate the symbol of the sound and he/she had to produce the sound and tell the other classmate which part of the mouth it touched. The class showed me how important language is and how important it is to study language and how to be able to use this knowledge and help people who have language disabilities.