Sondra Pearl : "Understanding Composing"

I was asked, what is the most important idea Sondra Perl has contributed to in the field of theorizing the writing process? In reading, “Understanding Composing”, I came to the conclusion that the most important idea to Sondra Perl is “Felt Sense”. According to Perl, while writing it does not occur with words but with “feelings or non-verbalized perceptions…the move occurs inside the writer, to what is physically felt” (Perl 30-31).

The term felt sense comes from Eugene Gendlin who is a philosopher at the University of Chicago. As Gendlin describes it as, the soft underbelly of thought…a kind of bodily awareness that…can be used as a tool…a bodily awareness that…encompasses everything you feel and know about a given subject at a given time…It is felt in the body, yet it has meanings. It is body and mind before they split apart (Perl 31). Felt sense is inside the body and deals with feeling while writing and also feelings before you start writing. When we write, we must think about our feelings towards the topic we have chosen to write about. When thinking about our topic, we should think not only think about our ideas but also our own feelings and thoughts in order to write a well thought- out and processed paper. As the writer, you can’t write just on the topic alone, you must write what you feel.

Revised Myself as a student.

Myself As a Student

I attended both a Catholic middle and High School and was a sports player throughout my sixth through twelfth grade years. During my junior year in High school I received the best news I could have imagined. I received scholarships to play volleyball for Penn State University and Long Island University. At this point, I was always on-top of my grades and my main focus was to keep up my grades and play my hardest during games. My main focus was getting passing grades and aiming to get a scholarship. However, in High School teachers would always push the sports players to stay focused on their academics. One of my favorite teachers in high-school was my history teacher named Mr. Arbitello. Although he was my history teacher he was also the assistant athletic director and later became the head coach of the boys varsity basketball team. Mr. Arbitello would push me to do my best in not just his class but also in all my other classes. He saw potential in me not just on the volleyball court but also in the classroom.
 In October of 2006, she became our math teacher after my old math teacher left the school. However, I didn’t know that she was soon to be my coach. Mrs. Kull knew that my weakness was math and made it mandatory that I see a math tutor. I was told that in order to play I must see a tutor for math and keep all my grades between an A and B average. There were times I would say I hated having her as a teacher because she was always making sure I was getting good grades and the moment I slipped she would either make me take a day off from practice to get extra help or if I refused I would have to sit out a game. This pushed to eventually make sure I was getting excellent grades to accomplish my goal of getting a scholarship. This also pushed me to get help if I didn’t understand something that was being taught.
During the last volleyball game of my senior year, I was excited we were down by three and it was my turn to serve. I served the ball as hard and deep as I could. A player from the other team picked up the ball and it became a good rally as I went to dig the ball from the other team spiking it I tore my anterior cruciate ligament. I always say this is one of the worst things that have happened in my life. After this I felt as if my life and success as I knew it came crashing down. After this, It seemed like one prob. after another. The worst problem of all was that my scholarship to play for Penn State had been yanked. Due to the fact that I was injured and would have to miss out a whole season, the school could not offer me the sports scholarship. Penn State was my dream school. Throughout middle school and high-school, I would always refer to Penn State as my future school. During the summer of 2010, I became nervous and yet a bit anxious to enter college that fall. I wondered what my college experience would be like since LaGuardia Community College was not the college I was suppose to attend when I graduated high school. I wondered if I would have professors that would push me to make sure that I passed their class like I did throughout middle school and high-school.
In September of 2010, I went into my first semester with such a negative state of mind. I hated the idea of going to a two-year college because I felt that I would not learn as much as a four year and that my future volleyball career had been over. Going to a two year school such as LaGuardia Community College didn’t have teams. I knew that coming into LaGuardia I would not have that extra push behind me and teachers always making sure I was on-top of my academics. I didn’t like the fact that I had to take a remedial math class which didn’t give me any college credit. I didn’t like how I now had to pay for my own college expenses and how the school was so unorganized. However, after seeing a few people I had already new and meeting new people I began to think with a better attitude. I also spoke with a couple of my old teachers who really boosted my moral. I began thinking about pushing myself to get my degree and then attend a four year college. I am now in my last semester at LaGuardia and look forward to passing all my classes and get my degree in December.

Tutoring Do's n Don'ts

Tutoring Don'ts:
-Discuss personal matters.
-Check the time or your cellphone.
-Make corrections to the writing, without explaining them first.
-Use poor body language eg. yawning, rubbing your eyes, stretching.
-Waste time with pleasantries and catching up on what's new in the tutee's life.
-Confuse student with too many questions. Take it slow and focus on one issue at a time.

Tutoring Dos:
-Ask if there is anything specific the tutee is having trouble with.
-Let the student read their writing aloud to see if it sounds right to them.
-Go over the criteria for the assignment to make sure you focus on the task.
-Let the student explain in their own words what the main point or thesis of their piece is.
-Be patient and understand you may have to go over the same issue a few times before the student is comfortable with it.
-Ask open-ended questions, not just yes or no questions