The Tutoring Book - California State University, Sacramento

able to internalize the information and make it more manageable.
Reading Familiar Texts
Approaching a text in which we have knowledge might seem like the ideal situation to most
tutors, but even if we know a lot about the subject matter we still have to monitor ourselves to make sure
we are truly helping the student learn and not just feeding them answers to our own questions. The
biggest danger in this situation is taking over a session. Even if we aren’t directly telling a student how to
interpret a text, a trap we can fall into is asking a question with an answer already in mind. In their article,
“Reading in the Writing Center,” Paula Gillespie and Neal Lerner note that, “Rather than engaging the
writer in a discussion of the strategies she’s using to make that interpretation, the tutor instead pulls the
student ever closer to guessing what’s in the tutor’s head” (114). In order to avoid this situation, it is best
for the tutor to set aside for the session his or her opinions, biases, and interpretations concerning the text.
What is left is the tutor’s general knowledge in the subject area. The tutor can use this knowledge to first
ask open-ended questions (remember that open-ended questions can lead a student to important areas of
the text, but should ultimately ask for their thoughts or opinions), and, if necessary, develop more direct
questions from cues the student has supplied. Above all, make sure the student is aware of important
things to look for in the text with which he or she is working. For example, if students are reading a
literary text, they might consider themes, plot, narrative strategies, and setting. If they are reading a
research article, they would probably want to look for the author’s argument, evidence, assumptions, and
conclusions.
Reading Unfamiliar Texts
Working with a student who is reading texts outside of our knowledge base can be frightening.
Sometimes we doubt our abilities to provide them with helpful feedback and questions simply because we
are unsure of our own understanding of a text. However, if we can identify the structure and genre of the
unfamiliar text, it becomes much more manageable. Often, students will come to the writing center with a
list of questions which are based on their reading. If we are having trouble finding a place to start, these
professor-provided prompts can serve as a good jumping off point, especially if we find that the student
has not read the questions thoroughly, or perhaps didn’t understand what the professor was asking.
Ultimately, as Gillespie and Lerner write, “As tutor, your goal is for the writer to teach you the content of
the reading material” (116). What an unfamiliar tutor can do is make sure that the session doesn’t get lost
to confusion. Keeping the session on track by asking questions concerning important features of the text
and encouraging students to develop their thoughts can help when a tutor feels less-than-knowledgeable.
Reading Student Writing
One of the most commonly read things in the writing center are rough drafts of students’ papers
for their courses. As much as we would like to have students come in before words even hit paper, many
come into the writing center with fully-formed rough drafts, or even what they consider final versions of a
paper. In this case, the first step towards helping students with their writing is through careful reading.
Sometimes students are able to read their own papers closely enough to spot error or make logical
organizational corrections, but often they come to the writing center hoping that we can help them with
these sorts of issues.
Higher Order Concerns
When reading student writing, essays for example, for higher order concerns it is
important to look at the overall organization of the paper as a whole. This type of reading will be
most concerned with identifying main structural components. Does the paper directly answer the
prompt? Is each idea presented in a logical order? Are there topic sentences at the beginning of
74