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Grammatically Speaking: A Look Into Writer Development, Bayli Luebke
Grammatically Speaking: A Look Into Writer Development, Bayli Luebke
Tutor's Column
This Tutors’ Column explores the ways in which focusing on grammar and mechanics in tutoring sessions at the writing center both helps and hinders students. This paper begins with a first-person explication of a new peer tutor’s past writing and editing experiences from high school to the time that she began working at the writing center. The author describes her previous view of the importance of grammar and acknowledges how this view has changed and developed during her time as a peer tutor. Using research from four different writing center and education journals ranging in years from 1984 to 2016, …
Wearing The Collaborator Hat, Jessica Hahn
Wearing The Collaborator Hat, Jessica Hahn
Tutor's Column
Writing tutors take on several roles when working with students, which range from coaches to counselors. However, one of the most important roles of writing tutors is the collaborator. Collaboration encourages both the tutor and the student to draw on each of their strengths, rather than only relying on the knowledge of the tutor alone. Some roles that restrict tutors as collaborators are roles such as editors and experts. Tutors avoid being editors of papers because they are only able to address surface level issues in writing rather than global issues. Being an expert is too much of a burden …
Let’S Talk: Training Anxiety Out Of New Tutors, Nichelle Pomeroy
Let’S Talk: Training Anxiety Out Of New Tutors, Nichelle Pomeroy
Tutor's Column
This paper focuses on the author’s experience becoming a new tutor at Utah State University’s Writing Center. The author gives suggestions on what can be done to ease anxiety in new tutors during their first few sessions. Additional training is suggested with collaborative efforts between new and experienced tutors along with familiarization with logistical aspects.
Lost In Translation: The Immigration To Academia And Implementing Critical Thought, Stacie Denetsosie
Lost In Translation: The Immigration To Academia And Implementing Critical Thought, Stacie Denetsosie
Writing Center Analysis Papers
Denetsosie compares her entry-level English students to immigrants. New to the requirements of academia, these students need practice acclimating to academic culture. Denetsosie recommends writing centers and composition classes as low-stakes environments where students can practice their new voice. Tutors and teachers can make this transition easier by asking open-ended questions, encouraging students to use their own words, and teaching students to think critically.
Getting To Know You, Emily Withers
Getting To Know You, Emily Withers
Writing Center Analysis Papers
Unless students feel comfortable with their peer tutor and teachers, they rarely open up enough to learn. Withers suggests behavior problems--especially passivity-- can be avoided when teachers, tutors, and students feel respect for one another. She suggests questioning and reflecting as two tools to establish open communication.
Adaption Reaction, Michelle Jones
Adaption Reaction, Michelle Jones
Writing Center Analysis Papers
Jones identifies adaptability as a fundamental aspect of tutoring and teaching success. Teachers and tutors who are genuinely invested in students find themselves in unconventional discussions. Being adaptable in these off - script situations leads to better listening and understanding.
Engaging In The Drafting Process: The Key To A Student’S Writing Success, Camila Sanabria
Engaging In The Drafting Process: The Key To A Student’S Writing Success, Camila Sanabria
Writing Center Analysis Papers
In comparing her tutoring and teaching experiences, Sanabria discovers the value of drafting and editing. She believes success in tutoring comes from engagement early in the writing process. While she as a teacher cannot be heavily involved in every step of her students' writing process, she can allow for more time and focus in the early stages of brainstorming through revision.
“Whatever Happened With That Student?”: How To Measure Our Success As A Tutor And Teacher, Rachel Ross
“Whatever Happened With That Student?”: How To Measure Our Success As A Tutor And Teacher, Rachel Ross
Writing Center Analysis Papers
Through her experience as a peer tutor and teacher, Ross finds success as a tutor and teacher cannot be entirely defined by the student. Ross shares an impactful tutoring session that ultimately led to inaction on the student's part. In reflecting on this tutoring appointment, she chooses to focus on the good that happened during her interaction with the student instead of the end result. Ross ultimately defines success as growth in process.
Analyzing Wants Versus Needs In The Writing Center, Jessica Griffeth
Analyzing Wants Versus Needs In The Writing Center, Jessica Griffeth
Writing Center Analysis Papers
Last year, as I was sitting in my living room doing my homework, my sister, Abby, started telling me about her experience in the Writing Center. She was encouraged from her visit because of the praise she had received, and she was excited to implement the advice she was given. However, when Abby got her grade for the paper, she was devastated. The grade she received was unacceptable, and she was confused. She went to the Writing Center, and shouldn’t applying the few suggestions she was given help her get an A? The tutor gave Abby some suggestions laced with …
A Folklorist's Touch, Daisy Ahlstone
A Folklorist's Touch, Daisy Ahlstone
Writing Center Analysis Papers
Ahlstone uses folklorist questioning strategies to make the most of her short time with her students and writing center tutees. She suggests asking open-ended, contextualizing, environmental genre, and specific open-ended questions to help students open up and think critically.
Cold Turkey Belongs On The Dinner Table: How Tutors Can Warm Up To New Tutoring Sessions, Terri Wesemann
Cold Turkey Belongs On The Dinner Table: How Tutors Can Warm Up To New Tutoring Sessions, Terri Wesemann
Writing Center Analysis Papers
While tutors may feel anxiety towards the unknown of tutoring sessions, Wesemann suggests they appreciate the training they received before becoming tutors. Tutors bring experiences and resources to the job that help them connect with students and give them good feedback. Wesemann also suggests tutors share tutoring experiences with one another to validate concerns, ask questions, share solutions, and practice new strategies.
Three Powerful Tools For Teaching And Tutoring, Chris Davis
Three Powerful Tools For Teaching And Tutoring, Chris Davis
Writing Center Analysis Papers
Though initially perplexed by the writing center tutor requirements for graduate students, Chris Davis found tutoring beneficial to his teaching. He identifies questioning techniques, the inverted triangle of focus, and reading aloud as three of the most beneficial crossovers between peer tutoring and teaching. His essay gives specific examples of how these techniques have helped him in both tutoring and teaching.
Keep Them Coming: Discovering Why Upper-Division Students Use The Writing Center, Ethan Marston, David Stock
Keep Them Coming: Discovering Why Upper-Division Students Use The Writing Center, Ethan Marston, David Stock
Journal of Undergraduate Research
Because the development of writing skills is crucial to professional success, many writing center studies attempt to determine how to best encourage undergraduate students to attend their university writing centers. Many universities require freshmen to attend the writing center while enrolled in a first-year writing class. Because of this, a large portion of writing center research focuses on the effectiveness of this requirement, and its impact on students’ perceptions of and experiences with the writing center (Bell and Stutts, 1997; Bishop, 1990; Clark, 1985; Gordon, 2008; Rendleman, 2013). This research added to the extensive debate over whether or not writing …
Skeptically Optimistic, Moira Hammons
Skeptically Optimistic, Moira Hammons
Writing Center Analysis Papers
While many "soft" writing tutoring skills have helped Hammons in her classroom, she finds that not all tutoring skills transfer well to teaching. Hammons is complimentary of peer tutoring's emphasis on wait time, silence, and adapting to individual needs. However, she finds she does not need these skills as often in teaching because of the long-term relationship she has with her students. Hammons asserts that better student and tutor education on the purpose of writing centers--along with students visiting the same tutor repeatedly-- will help tutors and students make the most of their brief time together.
Learning To Write By Teaching Writing, Richard A. Blake
Learning To Write By Teaching Writing, Richard A. Blake
Writing Center Analysis Papers
Blake asserts that English teachers and writing tutors both strive to answer students' problems by addressing language skills, grammar, assignment requirements, and brainstorming. He warns that students' concerns must come first, even if teachers and tutors find alternative concerns in the students' writing. After helping students address their concerns more thoroughly, students can take advantage of writing center tutors to make more universal changes.
Age Perception And The Peer-Tutor Relationship, Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq
Age Perception And The Peer-Tutor Relationship, Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq
Writing Center Analysis Papers
As a non-traditional graduate student and peer writing tutor, Itchuaqiaq explores the challenges she and other older students encounter connecting with their much-younger undergraduate tutees. Itchuaquiq includes several reflections from other non-traditional graduate peer tutors that explain the struggles they face establishing an appropriate peer power balance. Additionally, Itchuaquiq calls for more writing center research on how age affects tutees' writing center perceptions and experiences.