Over the past few weeks of working in the Writing Center, I have been continually amazed by the power of writing. Though I have always had a very high opinion of the way writing can express ideas and connect individuals, the experiences I have had in tutoring sessions have only helped to strengthen these beliefs in my mind.
A few weeks ago, a girl walked into the Writing Center who seemed to be having troubles speaking. Within a few seconds, she communicated to me that she was deaf, and that she would greatly appreciate assistance with a paper she was writing for her degree. I was not sure how the session would be successful at first, but we soon worked out a system by which we could communicate. I read over short sections of her paper, and circled spots that we needed to look over. After I had finished reading each section, she looked at the places I had circled, and pointed at the ones she did not know how to fix. By setting a piece of scratch paper in between us, we could write short notes to each other, and communicate ideas back and forth. This method was conducive to a great tutoring session, and we had soon gone over the majority of her paper before I had to leave for a class. Helping this student with her paper was an amazing experience for me, and it was great to spend time with an individual who especially relies on the art of writing to accomplish goals in her life.
Helping ESL students with their writing has also been a source of satisfaction for me recently. I have noticed that by having a written record of their grammar sitting in front of us, an ESL student and I can effectively assess problem spots in their usage of the English language. A paper presents a sort of visual aid for a tutoring session because the student can actually see what is being done with each correction. This would be much harder if the student were simply speaking to the tutor. Therefore, a tutoring session has the potential to affect the writing skills and the speech of an ESL student. This allows me to see my role as a tutor in a much higher respect when it comes to ESL students, because I am not only providing them with a better grade in a class, but also helping them to communicate better with the world around them. In addition, this enables me to see how powerful of a tool a writing tutor can be to a non-native speaker. I am sure that if I were in a foreign country, learning a new language, I would come to greatly appreciate anyone who was willing to sit down and analyze a piece of writing I had completed in that language.