Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Changing The Narrative: Proofreading At The Writing Center, Claire Atwood

Tutor's Column

Writing Centers have a golden rule against proofreading. It gives student’s the impression that they can send their paper in to a tutor and they’ll correct all the grammar and semantics errors for them. This does not facilitate learning on the part of the student, and diminishes a tutor’s purpose, to tutor on writing. There needs to be a switch in how we approach a proofreading request, so we don’t refuse services to any students. Tutors can find grammatical errors and use them to teach basic principles.