math class was really fun! have a great summer!
Dear future tutors,
My name is Brett, and I am an awesome tutor. If you follow my advice then one day you too will be an honored and revered man or woman just like me.
A list seems to be the best way to start this:
First, learn how to use APA before you get caught not knowing it. It may seem like something that you might not need to know, especially if you’re a senior English student and have never used it, but it is important. I-M-P-O-R-T-A-N-T. Learn it. At some point in the year about a thousand nurses will lay siege on your poor little table and you’ll have to waste your time flipping through all those blasted pages about citing figures, pie graphs, journals with one author, no author, five authors and god-knows-what else-but-you-need-to-find-it-because-its-your-job-and-they’re-here-for-your-help-so-you’d-better-find-it-and-fast-too-because-their-class-is-in-ten-minutes-author. A good two or three hour reading session with the APA guide book at the start of the semester will be an invaluable investment.
Second, when with ESL students—sllooooooowwww down. If this piece of advice seems trivial to you, then you’re smarter than I am (an understatement). When I started tutoring ESL I didn’t really think about how many issues they were dealing with just to write a simple one page essay. It’s bigger than you think. You have to consider the student’s culture, writing style, language barriers, and previous exposure to English—the list goes on. Also, if they ask you a question about grammar that you don’t know, it might be wise to avoid wasting the entire session explaining the language and just say, “You know, I don’t know why we say it like that, but that’s how we do…what is your next question?”
Third, complete sentences contain a verb and a subject. If they don’t, then they are a fragment. Nothing more needs to be said about sentence fragments.
Finally, avoid focusing on just fixing grammar problems. These are really the easiest to fix and should almost always be saved for last. It is a sickening feeling to spend an hour hacking through a paper with horrible grammar only to turn finish and realize that there is absolutely no point at all to the paper. Start big—worry about paragraph organization, the existence of a thesis and whether or not there is a conclusion; then, and only after you have considered these points, move on to sentence structure, verb conjugation, and finally, ultimately, lastly, at-the-very-endly, look at grammar.
I suppose that is all the really valuable advice I have to give.
Now I will reflect for awhile.
When I started this job I thought it would be easy. Just come in for a few hours a day, put some red ink on some papers and get paid, right? ¡Incorrecto! Those students can come at you with some crazy questions, and you have to be prepared to answer them. You have to know all sorts of nutzoid stuff like being able to guess what a student means when they say, “I want my paper to flow,” or when they have a question about citing guys who cite other guys in their papers. It gets hard. One tutor can’t possibly know all of this stuff, and that’s where I have learned that one of your most valuable resources can be other tutors. It’s been a humbling learning experience. Sometimes you can leave a session having learned more than the student.
Well, I think that’s all. If I’m still working at the writing center when you read I this, then I will be lucky and you will be annoyed, because I will give you more advice even if you don’t appear to be even the least bit interested in what I have to say.
Stay out of my way man, I’m crazy.
Don’t drink and drive. Stay in school.
Brett.
P.S. The key to the writing center is in the testing center.
My name is Brett, and I am an awesome tutor. If you follow my advice then one day you too will be an honored and revered man or woman just like me.
A list seems to be the best way to start this:
First, learn how to use APA before you get caught not knowing it. It may seem like something that you might not need to know, especially if you’re a senior English student and have never used it, but it is important. I-M-P-O-R-T-A-N-T. Learn it. At some point in the year about a thousand nurses will lay siege on your poor little table and you’ll have to waste your time flipping through all those blasted pages about citing figures, pie graphs, journals with one author, no author, five authors and god-knows-what else-but-you-need-to-find-it-because-its-your-job-and-they’re-here-for-your-help-so-you’d-better-find-it-and-fast-too-because-their-class-is-in-ten-minutes-author. A good two or three hour reading session with the APA guide book at the start of the semester will be an invaluable investment.
Second, when with ESL students—sllooooooowwww down. If this piece of advice seems trivial to you, then you’re smarter than I am (an understatement). When I started tutoring ESL I didn’t really think about how many issues they were dealing with just to write a simple one page essay. It’s bigger than you think. You have to consider the student’s culture, writing style, language barriers, and previous exposure to English—the list goes on. Also, if they ask you a question about grammar that you don’t know, it might be wise to avoid wasting the entire session explaining the language and just say, “You know, I don’t know why we say it like that, but that’s how we do…what is your next question?”
Third, complete sentences contain a verb and a subject. If they don’t, then they are a fragment. Nothing more needs to be said about sentence fragments.
Finally, avoid focusing on just fixing grammar problems. These are really the easiest to fix and should almost always be saved for last. It is a sickening feeling to spend an hour hacking through a paper with horrible grammar only to turn finish and realize that there is absolutely no point at all to the paper. Start big—worry about paragraph organization, the existence of a thesis and whether or not there is a conclusion; then, and only after you have considered these points, move on to sentence structure, verb conjugation, and finally, ultimately, lastly, at-the-very-endly, look at grammar.
I suppose that is all the really valuable advice I have to give.
Now I will reflect for awhile.
When I started this job I thought it would be easy. Just come in for a few hours a day, put some red ink on some papers and get paid, right? ¡Incorrecto! Those students can come at you with some crazy questions, and you have to be prepared to answer them. You have to know all sorts of nutzoid stuff like being able to guess what a student means when they say, “I want my paper to flow,” or when they have a question about citing guys who cite other guys in their papers. It gets hard. One tutor can’t possibly know all of this stuff, and that’s where I have learned that one of your most valuable resources can be other tutors. It’s been a humbling learning experience. Sometimes you can leave a session having learned more than the student.
Well, I think that’s all. If I’m still working at the writing center when you read I this, then I will be lucky and you will be annoyed, because I will give you more advice even if you don’t appear to be even the least bit interested in what I have to say.
Stay out of my way man, I’m crazy.
Don’t drink and drive. Stay in school.
Brett.
P.S. The key to the writing center is in the testing center.
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