We Are Scaffolding

          Motivational scaffolding.  It’s a term that intimidated me when I first saw it, and it’s because I had a hard time getting rid of picturing workers balancing on rickety, terrifying platforms to scrub windows or paint the walls of a skyscraper.  Moreover, when I wondered if there’s maybe another association with the term, I looked up the definition of scaffold, and, no joke, found this: “A raised wooden platform used formerly for the public execution of criminals.”  What the what?!  Finally, I remembered to place the –ing suffix to scaffold and found something entirely different in the online dictionary, which describes scaffolding as “a temporary structure on the outside of a building…used by workers while building, repairing, or cleaning the building.”  Aha!  This is beautiful, and this imagery helps my mind to comprehend just what it is we’re doing as consultants in the writing center.  The pieces of this definition connect the dots to create the bigger picture of what our job encompasses.  

            Oh, and on a side note: There was a profound difference between typing in the word “scaffold” versus the word “scaffolding”.  What’s the lesson to be learned here?  Grammar, grammar, grammar!  Grammar is phenomenally important.

            Now, back to each of the individual pieces of our yummy pull-apart bread.  Let’s start with the part of the scaffolding that is used by workers to build the building.  As consultants, we are tasked in assisting the writer with generating new ideas.  The ebb and flow of our transaction must evoke a sense of creativity—of compelling the writer to think critically and inventively.  Also, the writer is trying to build an entire infrastructure of the intellectual slice that he or she is serving to the universe.  He or she is building a stance that needs many fundamental parts secured in place in order for it to stand tall and proud and complete, especially in a world of flurries and criticisms that’d tear weak structures down in a matter of short moments.  As we help the writer learn how to pour a nice, concrete foundation that we like to call a thesis, and then as we continue on in assuring the solidity of what the writer has built (or is building), we are taking part in motivational scaffolding.

            As the definition points out, scaffolding includes repairing and cleaning.  This is an important charge we have placed on our shoulders because a good building needs improvement and polishing.  If we’ve helped the builder create a stunning exterior but failed to make sure the necessary support beams are in working order and free of defect, the whole thing—lollipop windows, laffy taffy shingles, and all—are doomed to collapse.  The hopeful essay will be destroyed by the gusting criticisms of academia.  Then, along these lines, if our deliciously tantalizing building, complete with a formidable support structure, is dirty, this poses another problem.  Who wants to admire and approach and peer through your lollipop windows if they’re covered in pocket lint?  Gag.  Yes, we consultants need to help writers with giving what has been built a good, clean sweep, too.  This is part of the scaffolding.

            Okay, so now that the writer’s work is built, weak areas are repaired, and it’s all cleaned up, scaffolding has just happened.  Then, factoring in the motivational part to this scaffolding means something extra—this is an interactive process that requires helping the writer realize the desire to want to complete it.  Through the different politeness strategies discussed in our readings from Mackiewicz and Thompson, we can encourage the writer to find the will for wanting.

            Lastly, I just want to point out one more thing.  The definition of scaffolding leads with the words, “A temporary structure.”  This detail is a very big deal because it means that, for all of our assisting and supporting and instructing, our role is temporary.  However it is we’ve taught what we’ve taught, it has to have been done in such a way that it leaves room for us to step out without the building crumbling.  We are ultimately meant to have prepared builders to be able to build entire, lasting structures on their own.  We were never central to their work, for we are only scaffolding.

            If you’ll excuse me, I now feel motivated to build a gingerbread house.