13
Consulting Session
COMMENTS / CODES / WRITING CONSULTATION SESSIONWRITING CENTER – WALK-IN
STUDENT: xxxx are we supposed to do this paper – for that we have to write xxxx and look at all the data. Then after that – introduction and background come to a conclusion or recommendation xxxx
CONSULTANT: Okay. And you just want me to go over it?
STUDENT: Yeah.
CONSULTANT: Okay.
STUDENT: The tenses and all, I’m not sure. And conclusion, what are we supposed to do? (Tape Restarted)
CONSULTANT: Okay, I just had some –
STUDENT: xxxx
CONSULTANT: Oh, okay, I guess I’ll look over that real quick too. (Tape Restarted) Just a few things, like, when I was reading through here you used some terminology I wasn’t familiar with.
STUDENT: Okay.
CONSULTANT: Like when you say “amplification of three,” is that out of ten or, like –
STUDENT: Oh, no, it’s – it’s kind of like if you have some signal xxxx amplification of three times xxxx
CONSULTANT: Oh, it – okay, all right.
STUDENT: And “red board” is that circuit board xxxx
CONSULTANT: Okay. And, let’s see here. Like, when you said, “Amplification of three can be used in different consumer electronics like radio, TV where they need – you could – like radio or TV or, like, does – you have this comma here so it’s like you’re about to start a list here.
STUDENT: Radio or TV?
CONSULTANT: Yeah, like either one and or you can – don’t use both. And then like “the of the amplifier system.” It’s just a typo but – Okay, so that gave me a better understanding of the decision here. You feel you have problems with it? Like you feel like you –
STUDENT: Yeah, like, is this okay or should I write more or – you know.
CONSULTANT: Well I – now going back on this, like, I understand what this is referring to the amplification and the red board. Just define that briefly just because, like, I’m not – I kind of assume that’s what it was but –
STUDENT: Where in different – the xxxx
CONSULTANT: Yeah, like, do you mean is it the same thing as a circuit board, like –
STUDENT: Yeah.
CONSULTANT: Yeah, okay.
STUDENT: Its xxxx
CONSULTANT: Okay.
STUDENT: Okay xxxx what my product is. I have to – first of all I’m making vacuum tubes. And then, like, for making vacuum tubes I’m trying and testing different kind of making xxxx
CONSULTANT: Okay.
STUDENT: And I have made that vacuum tube xxxx but vacuum tubes in different size and it’s bigger, but in my project its better to use vacuum tubes. Do you know what I mean?
CONSULTANT: Oh, yeah.
STUDENT: It’s cheaper first of all, and it’s good for xxxx
CONSULTANT: All right, okay. I like the – you know, the making the reference to, like, electric guitars and stuff. That’s –
STUDENT: Yeah, yeah.
CONSULTANT: Okay, so –
STUDENT: Amplification, you know increase – not increases but, you know, like when you have to transmit something over one thing.
CONSULTANT: -- distance, yeah.
STUDENT: Yeah, so it becomes a weak – weakened, do you know what I mean?
CONSULTANT: Yeah, I know what you mean.
STUDENT: So – and with the amplification –
CONSULTANT: Yeah, I got – I understood all that when I was reading this. You explained it very well. And so – yeah, I don’t think you had any problem with your conclusion. Let’s see – well what – let’s see –
STUDENT: Isn’t the tense xxxx is it, you know xxxx
CONSULTANT: Let’s see, like, you – are you asking, like, should it is be – should you be speaking in past tense?
STUDENT: Yeah.
CONSULTANT: Well, yeah, you’re using past tense here.
STUDENT: Yeah, I’m using past tense, but is it correct?
CONSULTANT: Yeah, you could – yeah, mm-hmm.
STUDENT: Its going to read, like, you know xxxx which xxxx
CONSULTANT: Okay.
STUDENT: Do you want to read that?
CONSULTANT: Yeah, do they specify xxxx (Tape Restarted) Yeah, I think you’ve done that mostly like – cause you talked about, you know, the “amplification of three.” But what was the actual best vacuum tube, like what was the material?
STUDENT: Oh, do I have to tell it?
CONSULTANT: Yeah, like – cause we’d like to know your results.
STUDENT: Of course I haven’t performed it.
CONSULTANT: Oh, okay.
STUDENT: So – but I can do something xxxx copper, it was better.
CONSULTANT: Okay, so –
STUDENT: So do I need to write it?
CONSULTANT: Yeah, like, are you writing this? Like, I just don’t understand, like, how there can be a –
STUDENT: Oh, yeah, that’s right.
CONSULTANT: It’s like a hypothetical conclusion, like, you haven’t really done it so you’re just – okay.
STUDENT: Yeah, okay, okay – like, no, it should not be, you know.
CONSULTANT: Okay.
STUDENT: But writing this report of course we haven’t done it, but we have to write like we have done it.
CONSULTANT: Oh, okay.
STUDENT: You know what I mean?
CONSULTANT: So can you make up results, like, say that you picked this metal and that?
STUDENT: Okay. Yeah, I guess we have to.
CONSULTANT: Or you could say, I don’t know, like, you know, best metal and then leave a blank or something like that.
STUDENT: Yeah, okay, so where should I write it?
CONSULTANT: Probably around, like, let’s see, “furthermore using the best resulting tube testing of several amplified circuits is done.” And then you’d insert some sentence right here, like “The best –
STUDENT: -- the best material was this.
CONSULTANT: Mm-hmm. And, like, what kind of – and then you might explain the procedure – the test, cause you just kind of refer that you said that you did the tests. So, like, briefly talk about the procedures cause I know you just did them – you tried to talk about how they’re being, let’s see, like, the results from the circuits and – you know, and I just don’t understand how you’re actually, like, comparing them.
STUDENT: Okay, comparative.
CONSULTANT: Mm-hmm. Like what kind of attributes does each test tube display?
STUDENT: I can make up something, you know. I really don’t know if I’m going to make a vacuum tube so, you know, like, I don’t know how to make it.
CONSULTANT: Oh, okay, so you wouldn’t –
STUDENT: In our writing lab usually, like, we have xxxx or whatever. We have done the project usually, so we have to write like that.
CONSULTANT: Would you – could you test it by, like, hooking up the vacuum tube that you’ve made to, like, the amplifier and then, like, an electric guitar and then routing that through, like, a wave pattern on a reader and see which one has maximum readout or something like that? Like, I’m just asking. That’s how I’m wondering, like, how would you test each?
STUDENT: Yeah, we didn’t do like that.
CONSULTANT: Okay, yeah.
STUDENT: Of course there’s a circuit not just a vacuum tube, you know, with different – whatever the circuit elements are you have to connect it to xxxx going to make a circuit which will hook that in an amplifier.
CONSULTANT: All right. Well just – yeah, just because you’re xxxx to like explain it in context. And so that means sort of explain it to somebody who doesn’t have any knowledge of the field. Like, you know, explain what the term “amplification of three” means. Like, you know, this means, like, you told me with the diagram you drew. And then also, like – you know, I know like red board its pretty self-explanatory but, you know – like, I think I’ve seen like xxxx students that little thing with the little plugs and stuff.
STUDENT: Yeah.
CONSULTANT: So just call it – just briefly address that.
STUDENT: Okay.
CONSULTANT: And so – yeah, just make this as if you’re explaining it to someone who has –
STUDENT: Okay, so I should be explaining the circuit board and which – and whatever I compare, and whatever the results were.
CONSULTANT: Yeah, like talk about, like, maybe the, you know, these are the metals that you chose. And then – and then you compared them. And then – I don’t know if you’d have to make up results comparing to each. You could just say that that one – this particular one was the best one.
STUDENT: Okay. Yeah, because conclusions should not be that big – not that lengthy.
CONSULTANT: What’s that?
STUDENT: Conclusions should not be more than 150 words or something.
CONSULTANT: Oh, okay. Well how many words is this right now?
STUDENT: Probably 140 or something.
CONSULTANT: Oh, really, okay.
STUDENT: About 130.
CONSULTANT: Well, you know, just work with whatever limit you have as making it as concise.
STUDENT: But I’m not sure about the recommendations.
CONSULTANT: What exactly do you – are you just saying –
STUDENT: That I’m really not sure about.
CONSULTANT: Okay. (Tape Restarted) I don’t know, like, an example of a recommendation. It will probably be, like, how they’re explaining it there. Like, let’s say --
STUDENT: How to improve my product?
CONSULTANT: Well that could be an aspect of it, too. Like, what I just had in mind just now is thinking about, like, this is, you know, let’s say the best is not always copper. Like, why – you know, why was copper the best? And then like maybe explain well, you know, copper has the best conductivity or something like that. So – and sort of one of those – talk about hindsight, and so you would say --
STUDENT: Talk about what?
CONSULTANT: Hindsight, like, you look back on something you’ve already done. And you’re, like, oh, of course that’s why this happened or – and so now that you’ve figured out that this one was the best you can kind of figure out why it was the best.
STUDENT: Oh, okay.
CONSULTANT: Like some property of copper or something like that.
STUDENT: Okay, like, I have to explain – like I can say a recommendation like I use copper – I test it different materials for making vacuum tubes, and I found copper was the best xxxx and why it was the best one because of conductivity. You know, something like that.
CONSULTANT: Yeah, something like that. And then you could talk about maybe the cost of it, like, this is even better since the –
STUDENT: I can say it’s cheap, you know.
CONSULTANT: Yeah, like, the whole point of doing vacuum tubes is cheaper. And so, like, the material that’s used is even cheaper.
STUDENT: Yes, that’s good, okay.
CONSULTANT: But you could sort of, like, maybe – maybe it wouldn’t work out cause, like, you could say the production value of – the production cost of making vacuum tubes is one value. But if its made out of this particular material it may balance out and be just the same as using regular transistors; something like that. And then how you can improve on it, you could –
STUDENT: But I can see – in my project I’m just xxxx amplification of three. So I can say it’s material a little bit – you know, the circuit I can make it for a number – any kind of xxxx It’s not especially three, it could be four or xxxx
CONSULTANT: Yeah, cause I’m not sure exactly how this all works, but you – like, I don’t –
STUDENT: I don’t know I guess its – if it’s three it should work for more of them.
CONSULTANT: Because, like if it was, like, a more expensive material, and you could get it as an amplification of six, would that be a more cost effective value than if it was a slightly cheaper product. Everybody can only get an amplification of three? See, I don’t – I mean, I –
STUDENT: Well I can say, like, in my circuit if I put some more –
CONSULTANT: Yeah, cause I know you can sort of –
STUDENT: Some different non-material – some different circuit element I can get amplification of six or more.
CONSULTANT: Yeah, like maybe – I don’t know, you could –
STUDENT: Mine was big. I don’t –
CONSULTANT: Yeah, I mean, I’m making this up since there’s no experiment.
STUDENT: Yeah, even though there’s no real vacuum tube. I cannot imagine.
CONSULTANT: Yeah, so I mean, you could do all sorts of things, like, maybe different sizes of tubes. I don’t even know how that all works so –
STUDENT: Yeah, probably the sizes.
CONSULTANT: Yeah, you know, one builds upon the next, and then the second chain or something like that, I don’t know. You could – yeah, I mean, these are good ideas. So how much – when is this due?
STUDENT: Umm, 2:30.
CONSULTANT: Oh, 2:30, okay.
STUDENT: I can write it. I just have to – I was just making sure what to write.
CONSULTANT: Okay, well do you feel a little better about it now?
STUDENT: Yeah.
CONSULTANT: Okay, good. Yeah, I think this is –
STUDENT: I was just confused about the tenses, you know.
CONSULTANT: Oh, okay, yeah.
STUDENT: And the conclusion has to – like we have to xxxx as we have done it.
CONSULTANT: Yeah, so then you talk about it in past tense, cause you’re looking back on it too, like, I did this, I did that.
STUDENT: And then recommendation is full of, like, what I have achieved and –
CONSULTANT: And what you will.
STUDENT: Yeah, if I have to improve my product.
CONSULTANT: Then it’s xxxx okay.
STUDENT: Good, thanks.
CONSULTANT: All right, you’re welcome. Good luck with your assignment.
STUDENT: Thank you.
CONSULTANT: All right, bye.
(End of Interview)