A Difficult Question

This is such a hard question, especially since each individual situation is different and would obviously require different approaches, based on the student. My overall opinion, however, is that students walk into the writing center with an expectation that the tutor understands more than they do about the writing process. Because of this inherent responsibility, I think that it is our duty as tutors to make it so the student has the best possible chance for receiving a decent grade on their paper. Therefore, I think that if the student’s paper is making no logical sense, it doesn’t matter how perfect their spelling or grammar is, they are not going to receive a good score. Although it might be difficult and perhaps a bit bold on the tutor’s behalf, to suggest a complete revision of the paper, I think if the situation requires it, the tutor should say something in a diplomatic way. In my opinion, however, I think that there will be very few cases when a paper is so dismally unsalvageable that the student has to completely start from scratch. Hopefully, even if the student is completely off-topic, there will be enough of a basis that points can be drawn from some of the student’s ideas (this was my opinion about the paper we read in class about America’s “more” factor that prompted this whole discussion).
Answering the question and responding to the set forth topic, then, is the most important thing that a student needs to understand. If this is not the case, then it is the tutor’s duty to try to explain the importance of this to the writer. The responses to this, of course, are a whole different story. Since the session is supposed to be about the student, tutors should in no way force the student to change their ideas of what the question is asking if the student responds to the tutor’s advice negatively. If the tutor feels that they are pushing too far in asking the student to rethink their ideas of what the paper is supposed to be about, then the tutor should back off. At that point, I would say it is acceptable to simply try to make that individual paper better instead of trying to take a path that the student obviously doesn’t want to go down.
An even more difficult question, then, is concerning the offensive material that could come up in a paper that is simply not appropriate even in our modern day society, let alone a classroom. This is a line that I think, needs to be treaded very delicately. First of all, perhaps it might be possible to get around it by seeing if the student answered the right question according to their prompt. Hopefully, tutors can suggest that the correct topic has not been addressed, for example if the prompt called for delving into the intricacies of materialism in American culture and the student wrote an essay exploring the benefits of racism. If this is the case, then perhaps the student can be convinced that their subject material doesn’t really apply to the situation (and perhaps this is one of the few times that starting over on a fresh sheet of paper might not be a bad idea) and should be revised. If this is not the case, however, then I don’t think it is really the tutor’s place to encroach on the opinions of the student. If the student feels strongly about their viewpoint, I don’t know if there is much that can be done to alter it short of the student walking out of the door in a huff. But the real question is then, should we as tutors help the student refine their offensive points by helping make the essay better? I think that in the role of a tutor, we have an obligation to. At the same time, though, I think that as an individual we have a certain amount of independence to perhaps make it known that we don’t necessarily agree with the viewpoint, but that we are willing to help in other ways. For example, maybe tutors could help with the tone of the essay to calm it down a bit so it doesn’t sound so aggressive to its audience. Techniques like this might make it a little more acceptable and not so blatantly offensive to the student’s professor and fellow classmates. However, each situation is different and I think the tutor’s actions will really depend on the “vibes” received from the writer and their reactions when a tutor does give advice.
Overall, I think that by improving the individual paper, tutors will simultaneously be improving the general writing skills of the student. Since students come in to the session with the goal of an individual paper in mind, tutors should not take away the focus of improving that paper that is in front of them. But I also think, that by focusing on the importance of things like answering the question and writing a good thesis, students are going to be learning skills that will help them in later papers. The ideal, in my mind, would be to knock two birds out with one stone and simultaneously try to improve the quality of the paper and the skills of the writer.