The Tutoring Book - California State University, Sacramento

At this point, you may very well be wondering what any of this has to do with you, a future tutor of
writing. After all, while in 1974 such statements as those professed in the Students’ Right to Their Own
Language were fairly radical, three decades have passed since then. Higher education is no longer what it
once was, and the face of the university, so to speak, is changing. There are now students of many
different races, ethnicities, cultures, ages, and socio-economic classes attending college; this is especially
true of a university like CSUS 2 , where one has only to look around the campus to appreciate the changes
which have occurred in the span of thirty years.
The language of the academy, however, is progressing at a slower pace. While students who attend
the university are diverse, the academic discourse they are expected to master is static and allows for very
little variation. Although students are expected to join the academic conversation going on around them,
many of them are not sure how to speak the language. Instead of questioning why they must learn this
new language, most students (understandably) simply want to know how to do so. For some students
learning the language will be a major adjustment, while others, typically those whose home discourses are
similar to the discourse privileged at the university, will find the adjustment somewhat easier.
Nonetheless, most student-writers, whatever their background, are unsure of what an academic essay
“should” look like, what constitutes evidence and examples in scholarly writing, or if they are “allowed”
to use “I” (this is a very common one, it seems). Often times this is compounded by the fact that the
writer’s first language is not English (everyone in my class worked with at least one ESL student).
Therefore, one of your tasks as a tutor will be to help writers to become familiar with the kind of writing
that is expected at the university.
So how do we help these writers? After all, you have no control over the kinds of assignments the
students must confront and, unfortunately, you do not have the power to single-handedly change the
university, either. I have to agree with Nancy Grimm’s assertion that postmodern writing center work is
often very sticky. It is a Catch-22, for, on the one hand, you do not want to perpetuate the notion that
standard English is superior to other dialects, but, on the other hand, you will certainly not be helping –
but rather hurting – your writers if you suggest to them that they disregard academic conventions in favor
of the dialect of their choosing. You want your writers to do well in their classes so that they can move
on and accomplish whatever goals they have come to college to achieve (which may have absolutely
nothing to do with passing 1A).
But in order to do well, students’ writing must conform to the standards of academic writing, which
is frustrating for you as a tutor because you realize that the university’s standards are arbitrary and that
linguistically speaking one dialect is not superior to another. Often it seems that how something is said
matters more than what is being said. It is difficult not to become angry or disheartened when your writer
gets a near failing grade because his or her paper contains grammatical “errors.” You have witnessed
firsthand the time and effort that he or she has devoted to the assignment, and it is you to whom the writer
expresses his or her frustration and confusion. We need to realize that because an individual’s language is
inextricably linked to who he or she is, if students feel as though their dialects are not “good enough” for
the university, they are likely to feel badly about themselves – this is neither easy nor inconsequential
work that we are doing.
In the writing center, we have the unique opportunity of helping students learn to feel more
comfortable with the language of the university without feeling as though the different languages and
dialects they speak at home or in their communities are lesser. In all honesty, however, I am not sure how
we are to best accomplish this. I have a suspicion that it is something with which most tutors and teachers
continuously struggle. Nevertheless, in what follows I will at least offer a few suggestions.
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