The Tutoring Book - California State University, Sacramento

22
Julie Colombo
Spring 2011
The Grammar Conundrum: Effective Ways to Incorporate Grammar Into Tutoring Sessions by
Building Connections Between LOCs & HOCs
As new tutors, we are introduced to a variety of theories, strategies and techniques for effective
tutoring. Beginning my first semester as a tutor, I strove to understand and incorporate much of what I
was learning in the internship course into my tutoring sessions, desiring to provide the best possible
tutoring to students coming into the CSUS Reading & Writing Center. Yet, when I attempted to apply
specific strategies relating to grammar to my tutoring sessions, I noticed a gap between the theories and
techniques presented and the difficulties faced by a number of students in their writing. In the St. Martin’s
Sourcebook for Writing Tutors, authors Christina Murphy and Steve Sherwood introduce several theorists
and their views on the ‘grammar’ conundrum in writing centers. In Stephen M. North’s essay titled “The
Idea of a Writing Center,” he voices his frustration over the beliefs expressed by other academic
professors and theorists who view writing centers as nothing more than “some sort of skills center, a fix-it
shop” for remedial writers with “special problems in composition” (33-34). To dispel these
misconceptions, North is a strong proponent of a “student-centered” approach to tutoring that takes the
emphasis off lower order concerns (LOCs) or ‘local’ writing issues and puts the primary focus on higher
order concerns (HOCs) or ‘global’ issues in students’ writing. In the text Tutoring Writing by Donald A.
McAndrew & Thomas J. Reigstad, HOCs are described as “features of a piece of writing that exist
beyond the sentence level” including: clarity, development, structure, organization, voice and tone. In
contrast, LOCs are described as “features within a sentence, at the level of individual words and
punctuation” that include: sentence structure, punctuation, grammar, spelling, syntax, etc. (25). Placing
the emphasis on HOCs rather than LOCs, students coming into the university writing center are informed
that it is not the tutor’s responsibility to focus only on grammar concerns or to edit student papers.
With all of the above in mind, I made a concerted effort when I first started tutoring to focus on
HOCs. But what I soon realized was that some of my tutees, whether of not their primary language was
English, were struggling at the LOC level in their writing. These students had issues with ‘grammar.’ So
much so, that the grammar issues were affecting HOC concerns, inhibiting their ability to achieve clarity
and focus in their writing, to cohesively organize their ideas and supportive evidence, and to present
persuasive arguments. The grammar issues also affected other LOCs as with the structure of sentences,
often resulting in convoluted, fragmented and/or run-on sentences. I quickly surmised that neither HOCs
nor LOCs could be addressed to the exclusion of the other. I’m sure some of you may have already or will
soon run into similar disparities between HOC and LOC priorities in your tutoring sessions. Determined
to bridge the gap between HOC and LOC priorities as they relate to grammar, I decided to address the
needs of each individual tutee, focusing in on their specific writing issues. The following two examples
are taken from my own tutoring experiences with the hope that, in sharing these experiences with you,
you might find some idea or bit of information helpful and apply the idea(s) to your own tutoring
sessions.
One of my first tutees was an ESL student majoring in Biochemistry. She came in for her first
session requesting assistance on a research paper. I began the session with an open-ended question,
“What would you like to focus on today in your paper?” She responded emphatically,
“Grammar. I have many problems with grammar. My professor not understand my paper.” I
continued on with the session, attempting to focus in on HOCs. She continued on with the session, only
interested in her primary goal, the correction of her grammar. I had her make notes throughout the session
on her paper so she could refer to my wonderful insights into improving clarity, structure, paragraph
cohesion, etc. later during her revision process. The tutee was enthusiastic and determined, just like I was.
Our next session began the same way, the tutee even more anxious about her grammar. When I reviewed