Lets try and be a little open-minded Mrs. Smith...

I'd like to start by saying that when I first started reading the article, "Non-traditional students in the writing center: Bridging the gap from a process-oriented world to a product-oriented one" by Angie Smith, I was determined to keep an open mind because sometimes I feel that I criticize the readings just for the sake of criticizing them.

Besides the fact that it is the start of the article's title, the mention of the "non-traditional student" is virtually everywhere in Smith's article. I can understand if the author wanted to elaborate on the idea of the "non-traditional student" and correlate it with the use of the writing center but what really bothers me is what Smith defines a "non-traditional student" to be. From her personal experience, Smith is a "non-traditional student" for retuning back to school to earn her degree after spending over a decade in the workforce. Thus, she defines the "non-traditional student" as someone who follows her situation and has been out of the academic environment for a significant amount of time. I can agree with her on that but what bothers me is when she adds a note of sympathy for members of this classification by saying that they have to deal with the big change in environment and they "must re-learn how to negotiate critical writing and thinking skills". Well wouldn't you stay first-year students have to deal with the same issues? High school is a completely different environment and for a majority of first-year students, high school did not nearly demand the same critical reasoning skills that college does.

Further on in the article, Smith makes me dislike her even more when she acclaims that the "non-traditional student" is different because they "want help" and "always come early and come prepared". So are you implying that a 'regular' student is lazy and unappreciative of receiving help? Well I guess if that was the case we should just close the University of Richmond's writing center down completely. She also states that the "non-traditional student" needs to "start from the beginning" and needs help "to go through the necessary processes to get a final product that would be acceptable". Well excuse me Mrs. Smith, but isn't that every college writer's goal?

I can understand making the argument of "bridging the gap from a process-oriented world to a product-oriented on" in terms of writing where the context and situation differs but I don't think Smith has the right, let alone the authority, to define how students and their needs differ when Smith only stands on one side of the spectrum.