The Tutoring Book - California State University, Sacramento

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