EverFi Webinar: Exploring the intersection of diversity and ethics
Ethics and Language Diversity
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Transcript of Ethics and Language Diversity
Ethics in the UWC: linguistic diversity, “good writing,” graduate students, and your consulting
April 14, 2010UWC Staff TrainingDroz, Jung, Lee, Massengale, and Wulf
Ethical Guidelines: “What do I do?”
Ethics: how we decide what to do in difficult situations.
Interpersonal Ethics: deals with the relationships between people we work with
Writing Ethics: deals directly with students’ papers
Interpersonal Ethics
Consultant-Student
Consultant-Professor
Consultant-Consultant
Who decides what is acceptabble?
Censorship (Whose cultural standards apply?)
Plagiarism (Sharing or stealing? (Who owns ideas?)
Voice (Whose? What happens to identity?)
Language and Cultural Diversity
in the Writing Center
Writers’ Expectations
Established Voices & Identities• L2* writing instruction & L1 identity• Even in the USA, we have differences in
cultural identity and ways of expressing them.
*L1 is first language; L2 is second language
Writers’ Expectations
Cultural Conflicts• Interactional Style• Includes interpersonal space, how to ask
questions, what the tutor or student is supposed to do or not do, when to interrupt, who gets to talk most . . . All that and more▪ Consultants are authority figures; they should
answer questions, teach, and solve problems.
Writers’ AbilitiesDeaf or Blind Students• Resistance to “hearing” & “speaking”
metaphors - “audist” verbs like “I hear you” to mean “I
understand.”
• Extension to Blind Students -“visual” verbs like “I see what you mean”
Mobility Constraints
Learning Disabilities (learning styles)
Defining GrammarDescriptive Grammar Describes what speaker actually do Respect cultural, ethnic, racial, and sexual
diversity reflected in language use. Prescriptive Grammar The rules that tell writers (and speaker)
what they should do and should not do Standard English – “a dialect with army”
Does the writing center promote Standard English? Is that the writer’s decision?
Range of Grammar
“Good” for American Academics?
So-called“Good Writing”
Topic Sentences
AssumptionsFunctions• Provide transition• Suggest the organization of the
paragraph• Present a topic
Influences • Rhetorical purposes• Author’s preferences• Publication type
Cohesion/Coherence
Cohesion• Connected ideas• High-scoring essays• Low-scoring essays
Coherence• Resistance to prescriptive approaches to
writing• Interference of the mechanics
CAUTIONS about “Good Writing”
Avoid: Repeating maxims and platitudes about “good
writing” practices Imposing your personal interpretation of “good
writing” or your style on clients
Do: Respect the diverse effective choices clients make in
their writing Inform clients about their options Respect the teacher’s requirements for an assignment
Working with Graduate Students
[1] Elaborative: self-expression[2] Low self-efficacy: doubt in their abilities[3] No revision: resistance of revision[4] Intuitive: visualization of the scheme [5] Scientist: reliance on a well-formulated
plan for writing[6] Task-oriented: adherence to the rules
with little opportunity for self-expression[7] Sculptor: propensity to get it all out in a
rough draft, and then to go back and refine
An Inventory of Processes in Graduate Writing
5 Ways Clients Resist Advice
1. Cite Resource Difficulty
2. Assert Own Agenda
3. Invoke Authority
4. Act Irrational
5. Minimize Import of Advice