To work or not to work

Just starting out in the writing center, I do not feel I am qualified to make such acknowledgements as what did work and what did not work as a new tutor last year. In a sense, everything as a whole did indeed work for me, if anything because it was something fresh and new to learn. I can say that the only time I did have any trouble was reading one students paper that screamed a controlling male was bleeping on my b.s.radar but professionally how I felt at that time is irrelevant and I moved on, thankfully, and forgot about it until this exercise. I also noticed that the varying levels of writing pieces that flow through here can be troublesome to the tutors because there are some students who need more help then the tutors are expected to do i.e. teach how to use a computer, or how to use the basics of Microsoft word, or even the most basic of spelling skills and grammar usage--like a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence followed by a period at the end. However, that is a matter for the initial testing students have to do for placement in levels of classes when they first start. On the other side, the atmosphere in the Learning Center is inviting, and I enjoy my co-workers company and input as well.

One of the biggest irritants for me every quarter is the abundance of last minute students. I have never failed to have at least a handful of students come to me on their first visit to the writing center and announce, "here is my paper, it is due in an hour." Ahhh, really! This summer was no exception for students, including me. I gained a new prospective on all those last minute students by becoming one of them myself. As I was frantically trying to finish a major assignment for my professional writing course (five minutes before I had to leave for class) it dawned on me, maybe the last minute students of the past were not just lazy or unprepared as I had always thought in the back of my mind. Perhaps, like me, they were just overwhelmed. I truly appreciate being able to gain new prospective on the people and situations I have to deal with in the Writing Center, it can only help me become a better tutor and students. I hope the next time I find myself face to face with the "it's due in 20 minutes" student I can remember what it was like for me to be in the same situation. Although there may be little I can do for the student on the writing assignment, now maybe I can at the very least lend on understanding ear.

The majority of my sessions this past year were rather simple, and I didn't have many issues. However, that worries me because I always felt I was missing some glaring error that needed addressed. I think I would be more efficient if I were to be able to quickly notice these problems and help to fix them. Or maybe I'm just a fantastic tutor and solve every problem (ha!) I'm fairly certain this is not the case!
Often, when I didn't have an answer to a question presented by a tutee, I asked another tutor with more experience for help (my apologies to the busier ones!) However, they were always helpful, especially when I first started working in the Writing Center. The team work in here is definitely working.
I try to always ask tutees if the information I have presented to them has helped them at all, and I always hope they say yes! The majority of the students say I have been helpful, and the other part seem simply too overwhelmed with the assignment to come up with a response (mostly ones that haven't begun yet.) My goal is to make these tutees contain the assignment and not feel quite as overwhelmed with it. This feedback has certainly helped me become more confident in assisting other students.
Overall, I hope the work that I do, and have done, is sufficient in helping students visiting the Writing Center.

I seem to come across three types of students who come into the Writing Center each quarter: The Completely Clueless, who leave with a new excitement for writing; The Apathetics, who have absolutely no opinion about being with me or writing a paper; and, my absolute favorite, The Victims, who acts like I have crushed their only thing worth living for, and fights me on every issue. Now, there are varying degrees of how the tutees fit into the categories, and some quarters I feel like I'm making a Venn diagram in my head to encompass all of these personalities. But, in the end, each one of these students has challenges they are facing in writing-- some just want to make them a lot more difficult.

The students I grow agitated with the quickest are definitely The Apathetics. I know some students are strong armed into coming into the Writing Center, but that doesn't mean they have to sit across from me, slouched in their chair, trying to text while I tell them that, no, you do have to cite this entire paragraph that they "paraphrased" from Wikipedia. Students like this... well I think I need some more tips on how to even deal with them.

As far as The Completely Clueless, I really adore them sometimes. They seem to come in with a blank canvas, and by the end of the session, they are completely filled. They always seem the most appreciative and, in a way, are like a sponge; any information I give them, they soak it all up. These are the students with whom I normally form a bond, and they are my "regulars." Last quarter, I had a wonderful Completely Clueless who turned out to be a wonderful writer by the end of the quarter; his professor even came in to comment on how much his writing has changed.

The Victims... oh, how I crush their hopes and dreams with every purple mark on their "perfectly" articulated piece of art. They, along with The Apathetics, are the most likely to fight me. With every suggestion, comment, and question of change, they are defensive and rude; they have a reason for everything, and to them, I don't know what I'm talking about. They are another student that I could definitely benefit from learning how to tutor better; the sessions turn into an endless circle of excuse after excuse, and no changes are made.

But I guess that's tutoring. There are definitely skills I need to refine when working with students who have a bad attitude or who simply don't want to be here because I'm sure I will run into just as many this quarter as I have before.

Sparks.

According to our CIA's annually published World Factbook, The United States (6.26/1000) is #46 globally when it comes to infant mortality (infant deaths per 1000 births). This position is directly behind Guam and two slots behind Cuba. Meanwhile, if the District of Columbia (14.1/1000) were it's own country, it would be displace the British Virgin Islands for slot #96. This means that a baby born in the Ukraine (8.98/1000) is more likely to survive than one born in our capital. The median household income for D.C. was $59,290 in 2009 while the same metric for the Ukraine was $27,996 during the same period.

Thoughts?

Tips for Tutoring

The following sites and links are helpful tips and techniques for creating a helpful tutoring session:

1. In this link, the De Anza College has compiled a list of various links to excellent references and resources used in their own writing tutor sessions. This includes a wide range of topics, from thesaurus and dictionary sites to general writing techniques and their explanations.

- http://www.deanza.edu/studentsuccess/writing-reading-center/resources.html

2. The following is a handbook for the Bluefield College Writing Center. The link states objectives for tutors to use in their sessions, as well as processes and specific steps to follow to be certain a tutor is successful in helping the tutee.

- http://bcweb.bluefield.edu/cowl/tutor/bchandbook.htm

3. The next link is from the Dartmouth Writing Program. They have shared ways of quickly getting to know the student writer, as well as specific questions to ask the writer to help him or her achieve what he or she is attempting.

- http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/tutor/methods/diagnose.shtml

Writing Center Stuff

http://php.scripts.psu.edu/dept/ulc/Dangling_Modifier/index.php

This is a great international newsletter written by and for peer tutors in writing and produced by the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing. The contributors come from a wide variety of background, from Western Kentucky University to Villanova. But they all do what we do and offer some great insights and ideas. I especially liked “Investing Tutors in the Future of Writing Center Theory and Practice.”


http://www.jccc.edu/home/download.php/19948/WritingCenterJournal.pdf

This is a writing center journal by Johnson County Community College titled “IN THE POCKETS OF YESTERDAY’S PANTS: Theory, practice, theory.” It has some great pieces including “Patchwriters” which deals with recognizing and deterring plagiarism, as well as “On the Road to Being Less Critical” and “The Role of the Peer Writing Tutor.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRc2_U4xJeU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXK8Z79NOBk&feature=related

These are two short YouTube clips titled If Writing Center Myths Were True and Get Thee to the Writing Center! They are not so much educational as just plain funny.