In the Writing Center, Tuesday Afternoon

It is so quiet in the Writing Center right now it's hard to believe that in a week or so it will begin to get crazy, crowded, chaotic. In my hour here so far, I saw one student. I admire this student for the question he asked about the difficult diagnostic prompt, a piece from Thoreau's Walden. He asked: "What did you guys expect me to do with this? What kind of answer SHOULD I have made to this question? "I asked him what he thought the question was, and he had a very intelligent answer, but said he was used to writing stories, not essays, and I endeavored to explain the difference. Then he asked me whether I thought he was in the right level of class, and I explained the difference between the bottom level of developmental writing and the next one up. He decided he was in the right level, and that was the end of our discussion.