The Tutoring Book - California State University, Sacramento

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formatting, and citations, her organization needed work. She admitted to struggling with organization in the past too. Before she left she thanked me for pointing that problem out for her. As I walked away from the table and back to break room, I was thankful that I was able to help her, even if just a little. Works Cited Farrell, John. “Some of the Challenges to Writing Centers Posed by Graduate Students.” Writing Lab Newsletter. 8:8 (1984) pp. 3-5. Garbus, Julie. “Tutoring Graduate Students in the Writing Center.” Academic Exchange Quarterly. (2005) Powers, Judith, and Jane Nelson. “L2 Writers in the Writing Center: A National Survey of Writing Center Conferencing at Graduate Institutions.” Journal of Second Language Writing 4:2. (1995) pp. 113-138. Purdue OWL. "Higher Order Concerns (HOCs) and Lower Order Concerns (LOCs)" The Online Writing Lab at Purdue. Purdue University Writing Lab. 3 December 2008 . Waters, Gregory. “Peer Tutoring.” College English. 43: 7 (Nov., 1981), pp. 749-750. 52
Your Safari Guide to Tutoring Advanced Writers 53 Rebecca Parker Spring 2011 So, safari hunter, you think you’re hot stuff. You are a tutor. You are the expert, the giver of knowledge, the advanced writer who knows how to write a darn good essay. You have wrangled Freshman into reading their essays out loud and have observed Sophomores working on transitions in their native habitat. You just got told that your next session is with a graduate student. And now you don’t know what to do. Once you’re done hyperventilating and wringing your hands, here’s some facts for you. Graduate students don’t have sharp teeth. Most graduate students who come to the Writing Center are either dropins, have one-time appointments, or are working on a very specific project that they will only need help with for a few weeks, though sometimes they will be working on their thesis all semester. Working with graduate students is the opposite of confronting a pride of lions. It can be fun and easy. Graduate students know how to be students. And you know how to be a tutor. They assume that because you are a tutor in the Writing Center, you will be able to help them. They assume correctly. I’ve never had a graduate student ask to work with someone older or more experienced. To them, you are the wise trail guide. You usually don’t have to worry about graduate students being lazy during the tutoring session. While with other students/monkeys you might have to be careful they’re not trying to trick you into doing their work or editing for them, graduate students are used to doing work themselves. They are in the graduate program because they know how to work hard and be a diligent student. So if you point out a grammatical mistake in their paper, they are more likely to take the initiative to see if they made the same mistake anywhere else. Sometimes, graduate students want help navigating the Amazon River. Most often, however, graduate students want help with organization, grammar, and clarity. These are things you know how to do; the basics are the same. Does this sentence make sense? Do these ideas flow clearly? Is this paper drowning in commas? Can you help me get this thorn out of my paw? Before you think that graduate students are all cuddly koala bears, let me remind you that they are human after all. They might be upset about feedback they have gotten on their thesis. They might feel like their years of jungle exploration mean no one should tell them how to write anymore. These types of students are usually never upset at you; they just want to vent. They’re not going to bite your head off. It’s okay to start the session with five minutes of griping if that’s what the writer needs to do. Once they get their frustration out of their system, the two of you can get to work. Now, you might be worried because graduate students have been exploring the jungle a lot longer that you, and the idea of helping someone with their thesis paper feels like climbing a volcano in the dark. Don’t fret! For thesis papers, graduate students have a professor advisor in their department also looking over their papers. This person looks into the technical aspects of the graduate student’s paper. So if their paper is about engineering, and the only thing you’ve ever engineered is a well-written essay, have no fear. If they do ask you a technical question you don’t know how to answer, feel free to reveal your ignorance and refer them back to their advisor. The graduate student doesn’t need your help with the technical aspects, and they don’t usually expect it. They know, and you should too, that you have a different, equally important role. You may not be the lion tamer, the zebra wrangler, or the highly experienced safari leader when working with graduate students. Instead, you are the tourist on this safari. You are the dumb reader, the supportive tutor, another invested set of eyes looking at their paper. Remember that the graduate student already has at least two other people in their department looking at their paper, their advisor and a committee member. They come to the Writing Center because they want a fresh set of eyes. And your eyes are trained to look at grammar, for clarity, and at organization. It is of great benefit that you probably have no idea what they’re talking about. Because they know what their jargon means they might get caught up in explaining things in a technically correct way. Your job is to say, “I don’t know what a
Page 1 and 2: The Tutoring Book Fall 2011 Edition
Page 3 and 4: �� Diverse Students and Cont
Page 5 and 6: Helpful Strategies 5 Savannah Corti
Page 7 and 8: Draw Upon Other Tutors Experiences
Page 9 and 10: and that even the sessions that did
Page 11 and 12: What is one thing you wish you had
Page 13 and 14: eceiving tutoring. But don’t let
Page 15 and 16: helped me see that. As a result, ex
Page 17 and 18: One Time Wonders: 30 Minutes to an
Page 19 and 20: No Draft? No Problem! 19 Kathleen U
Page 21 and 22: 10-4, Little Buddy: Two Way Convos
Page 23 and 24: her paper, I noticed she hadn’t a
Page 25 and 26: mentors and sounding boards for the
Page 27 and 28: �On this page, the top link leads
Page 29 and 30: Purdue OWL (http://owl.english.purd
Page 31 and 32: • Argument • Writing about Lite
Page 33 and 34: The WAC Clearinghouse (http://wac.c
Page 35 and 36: “This exercise, popularized by Pe
Page 37 and 38: active problem solving and critical
Page 39 and 40: Directive or Not? Adapting an Appro
Page 41 and 42: essay meet the page limit is no lon
Page 43 and 44: particular solution, you are still
Page 45 and 46: was to trust her own knowledge and
Page 47 and 48: Step 2: Learning to Praise Equally
Page 49 and 50: • Hand gestures. Students who are
Page 51: Despite the fact that their struggl
Page 55 and 56: esources for help. And don’t be a
Page 57 and 58: the instructor is saying, but she q
Page 59 and 60: Dyslexia in the Writing Center 59 A
Page 61 and 62: thinking about it and without reali
Page 63 and 64: Conceptual Learners: Students who a
Page 65 and 66: Tutoring Hearing-Impaired Students
Page 67 and 68: Writing Tutors. Boston: Bedford/St.
Page 69 and 70: Story 3: I brought up the subject o
Page 71 and 72: try reassuring them that writing is
Page 73 and 74: Tips for Tutoring Reading 73 Kathry
Page 75 and 76: each paragraph, and transitional se
Page 77 and 78: Theory to Practice At our writing c
Page 79 and 80: After each paragraph I asked her to
Page 81 and 82: Reading Out Loud: An Effective Stra
Page 83 and 84: discussion throughout the reading b
Page 85 and 86: Are There Proof-reading Traps Regar
Page 87 and 88: Labels and Misleading Assumptions:
Page 89 and 90: A Spare Tire, Not a Windshield 89 D
Page 91 and 92: experience on the tutoring road. I
Page 93 and 94: While I have had many successful tu
Page 95 and 96: that he was forced to learn five la
Page 97 and 98: work with students who seem to spea
Page 99 and 100: My Personal Experience with Tutorin
Page 101 and 102: Worldview: the Continent, Asia and
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) In case they believe to be excell
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grammar. After free-writing, a tuto
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which represents more than just a p
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developed in the American Academic
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order writing concerns will be very
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113 Niccole Scrogins Fall 2008 Afri
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they are unaware of the social impl
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writer had trouble understanding yo
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Like other immigrant groups and Nat
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121 Katie Johnson Fall 2004 The Wri
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One of my writers was told that in
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It Is Ok. I Am an Expert. 125 Gordo
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The Value of Writing Center Tutors
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expectation of their disciplines mo
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Tutoring for the Grade: Finding the
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The Writing Center and the WPJ 133
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available. Students need to make su
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Essay #1 (60 minutes/90 minutes for
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“Learning to write is a complex p
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Analyzing Rhetorical Situations in
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word choice and the attitude that r
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Social Constructivism in Action 145
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Social Constructivist Strategies fo
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The Writing Center as a Bridge: A P
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Situated Acts of Writing and Tutori
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Kastman Breuch, Lee-Ann M. “Post
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