Blog Schplog

When I decided to become an English tutor for Student Support Services four years ago, I was most nervous about being intimidated by the student I was tutoring. I worried that if I was unsure of myself, they wouldn’t trust me, or that if I made too many suggestions, they’d feel self-conscious and dumb. But as I made it through my first few sessions, I realized that the people I was tutoring were grateful for the help and trusted most of my advice, even if I suggested they do something based only on my opinion. That’s not to say I never had anyone challenge what I said; there were plenty of times a student thought I might be wrong about a certain grammatical or organizational element, and we settled it by checking a reference book or asking someone with more experience. (These instances encouraged me because it showed that the student was thinking about the subject and was feeling confident enough to challenge what their tutor said.)
But with tutoring for SSS, I met with a student for an hour a couple of times each week for a full semester. That way, I got to know the student’s strengths and weaknesses with writing, and I was able to determine the best way information should be presented to them for complete understanding. I worked with the student through the entire writing process, from idea generating to final editing. I’m concerned about not being able to do all of these things with the Writing Center. My impression is that most of the students will be bringing in nearly-completed work and will only want help “fixing” it. I’ll have to quickly determine what the students most need help understanding and the best ways I should approach the situation. I don’t think I’ve been catching on as quickly as I would like to the problems with the sample papers we’ve discussed in class. Maybe I’m a little out of practice, or this is something I really need to improve what I already know. I want to help students in the most effective way I can, so I’m probably going to have to modify my current impressions of tutoring into something that is most suitable for the Writing Center’s procedures. I hope to see students coming in during the beginning stages of the writing process and making continual visits throughout their assignments. I expect there to be at least a few.
More than anything, I’m just excited to get back into tutoring because I enjoy it when I can help students not only improve their skills but also feel more confident with their writing. It’s a pleasure to see students go from dreading the subject to enjoying the writing process at least a little. Sometimes on campus, I still see some of the students I tutored, and we talk about what they’re doing academically and how their lives are going. I feel like that in being a tutor, I really got to make good connections with people. I hope to do the same at the Writing Center.