Practice and Experience, I guess

I think that in Wingate's article, she says that it comes with experience to not only know when you have crossed the line but also how to fix it and "move on" (13). Along with this, I have learned through my minute experience, how tutoring should, maybe, feel like. The best sessions for me is when the writer is interested in what they have written, willing to revise and do most of the talking. The silence, as Dr. Rogers has warned, sometimes is unbearable, and it helps to hear what the writer is thinking. I like it when those that I tutor explain what they were thinking (or trying to say) when they wrote a particular sentence or something--- they talk about what the assignment is suppose to be, what they think the professor wants them to write about, why they think the assignment could be meaningful, etc. In other words, I like to hear what their thinking process is so I can see a little more where they are coming from and maybe a little of the "why" they wrote the way they did or something. And then, hopefully I can help them convey that thinking more clearly in their writing.

I also like it when writers fix their own mistakes. It shows that they are understanding what I might have been trying to explain to them or (more often) it shows that the writer is really engaged in the session, and by reading it, they revise their own writing, which I think is fantastic. Self-revising is the way to go because it shows not only me that they can do it, but also to themselves. They are always welcome in the Writing Center to write, but by revising something for themselves, maybe the student can realize that the skill of writing can be taken wherever--- thus fulfilling our statement, processing writers as well as writing.


Tutors need to be good listeners, too. If I am a good listener and take the time to realize what the student’s needs are and explain only the concepts that apply to the student’s needs, then hopefully I will give them what they need and not just random stuff that they probably won’t remember when they leave anyway. It takes experience to realize when you are crossing the line. But not only that, tutors learn what a good tutoring sessions feels like. When the session does not feel like it is going as well as I think it should, or as good as favorite sessions have felt, where I feel like they have been fulfilling for the writer, (and sometimes they say that) then it must mean that I have “crossed the line” somewhere and I need to adjust to a change in my way of tutoring. I think that is what Wingate was talking about when she said that when tutors think that they have crossed the line then they probably have (12). I guess I need to trust my intuition when I feel like I might be doing something wrong because I know what a good session feels like, and this is not it--- so it needs to change.