Since my elementary school days, my mother has been pushing me to get good grades. She would always say, "You don't want anything bad to pop up later on, do you Claudia?" Being the timid six year old that I was, I would nod and race off to do my homework at the kitchen table. As time went on, my mom continued to push me in academics. I could not tell you how many times I heard, "Do you want to get into a good college?" during my four years of high school.
Obviously, my hard work paid off. The University of Richmond is a wonderful institution that has opened so many doors for me. That, however, does not mean that my mother's nagging has stopped. "Do you want to get a good job?" is all I hear now, but based on where I am today, I know that she has my best interests in mind.
The thought of being a Writing Consultant is a bit terrifying. Because I have always been pushed to get the highest grades that I can, it scares me that advice that I give (or don't give) could affect someone else's grades. Here, papers are generally a large portion of your final grade and, as I have learned in the past, getting a C on a paper only makes you have to work harder to pull yourself into the A range.
It is an honor to even be considered to be a Writing Consultant at UR. The influence that you could potentially have on a peer's grade is frightening and exciting at the same time. I worry that I will skip over an entire plagiarized paragraph, which could cause my peer to have to face the Honor Council. I am afraid of not understanding the given assignment entirely, which could cause me to give awful advice. It scares me that my words could affect someone else's paper, final grade, job prospects, life.
I know I am being a bit dramatic, but that has always been the way I have thought about my own grades. I think that as I become more comfortable about what a Writing Consultant actually is (through my observations and practice), my fears will subside and I will be able to help my peers to the best of my ability.
I fear the pressure your generation faces, and not merely from parents. But then, as a first-generation student, I was able to please my folks by simply getting into any college.
ReplyDeleteThat may have set the bar too low for me. I don't know that I'd have taken a job like yours as seriously as you obviously do. That said, by the time you finish 383, you will have learned how not to make things worse for a writer; ironically, proofreading can often do precisely that.