bias

Well I have not had to deal with a paper that has offended me. I guess I’ve been lucky so far, but I can imagine what I would do in this situation. But here goes.

If I was presented a paper that had some insulting information such as a racist comment or an anti-homosexual message, I would probably want to make sure the writer meant to include this-and if so, I would want to ensure that’s the way the writer wanted it to come across. While I am against racism and I believe in homosexual rights, I am not personally offended by these issues. So again, my first step would be to point out the comment. If the entire paper is on this subject, I would obviously skip this step. So, I would point out the comment and ask the tutee what was meant by it. If the tutee simply phrased it in a bad way without realizing it, I would help fix the problem. However, if the writer meant to phrase the comment in a prejudice way, I would try to explain some of the risks in that. I would try to make sure that the teacher would be okay with it, and if the writer still wants to phrase it that way, I would not argue. The writing center is not the place to mold students into ethical beings, and it is certainly not my job to push my ethics onto another person.

Now, if the entire paper was a racist argument, then I would again point out the risks and maybe a few other directional ideas that closely relate. If the writer is persistent in the original direction, then I think I would play devil’s advocate. I would explain to the writer my goal in this tactic is not to disprove the writer or argue, but I want to point out some different ideas to address to make a stronger argument.

The only issue I could possibly have a hard time with is religion. I can deal fairly well with different religions, but what I cannot deal with is someone who refuses to see points in other religions. Some people don’t even want to take other ideas into account. I know that is their choice, but honestly, it bothers me. If I received a paper that had some biased comments on religion, I would try to point them out, and if the writer doesn’t want to change incorrect information or consider other view points I might have to call on another tutor. Before resorting to that, I would explain to the tutee that I am not comfortable with the topic after all but another tutor is.

However, I don’t see myself getting overly concerned with this issue either. I think I can handle myself really well, and I would probably laugh off the entire situation. The only time I can see this being a problem is if I just had a terrible day; then, I might get a little frustrated in the session.