Yes
Recently we have had a rush at the writing center of bio-med students. Professor Hutchins assigned his/her entire class to take their papers into the writing center and have them looked over. I had the opportunity this week of tutoring a variety of students from his/her class who wrote on many different topics that I did not know anything about. The advantage to tutoring many of them is that after a couple I don't really need to wonder what the assignment is.
What I attempted to do was to focus on helping them with their writing. There was one instance in which one of the girls I tutored asked me questions about the subject matter. I told her that I was not the person to ask and referred her to her professor. She said that was probably a good idea and that she would talk to him.
The first time I got somebody who wrote on an unfamiliar subject I just tried to focus on mechanics. His paper was way too long for the assignment that he was given, and he wondered what he should cut out. I had no idea. He asked me at one point if I thought one of his paragraphs was really necessary. I bluffed and said something like, "If you don't think it is, then it probably isn't." I later told him that, "What you've gotta ask yourself, is what does the reader really need to know." I think this frustrated him more than it helped. He was mad because he came into the writing center to get help with shortening his paper, and the tutor that attempted to help him did not know enough about the subject matter to tell him what he could cut out. Wearing his shoes, I would have been upset. He must have thought that writing center tutors are omniscient, or really close to it. I am pretty close, but I don't know the specifics on the many different ways to download music.
I had another student this week from a nutrition class; a subject that I feel I know pretty well. We talked about what he wanted out of the tutoring session before starting. He told me that he didn't expect me to know anything about nutrition, but he wanted some help with his writing. If only all the students had that expectation. As a writing center tutor I think my main job is helping people to improve their ability to write. I do not think that we should be expected to know the ins and outs of music downloading or when someone should say "glycogen" instead of "glucogen," but I do think that I should be able to help with their writing in any case.
What I attempted to do was to focus on helping them with their writing. There was one instance in which one of the girls I tutored asked me questions about the subject matter. I told her that I was not the person to ask and referred her to her professor. She said that was probably a good idea and that she would talk to him.
The first time I got somebody who wrote on an unfamiliar subject I just tried to focus on mechanics. His paper was way too long for the assignment that he was given, and he wondered what he should cut out. I had no idea. He asked me at one point if I thought one of his paragraphs was really necessary. I bluffed and said something like, "If you don't think it is, then it probably isn't." I later told him that, "What you've gotta ask yourself, is what does the reader really need to know." I think this frustrated him more than it helped. He was mad because he came into the writing center to get help with shortening his paper, and the tutor that attempted to help him did not know enough about the subject matter to tell him what he could cut out. Wearing his shoes, I would have been upset. He must have thought that writing center tutors are omniscient, or really close to it. I am pretty close, but I don't know the specifics on the many different ways to download music.
I had another student this week from a nutrition class; a subject that I feel I know pretty well. We talked about what he wanted out of the tutoring session before starting. He told me that he didn't expect me to know anything about nutrition, but he wanted some help with his writing. If only all the students had that expectation. As a writing center tutor I think my main job is helping people to improve their ability to write. I do not think that we should be expected to know the ins and outs of music downloading or when someone should say "glycogen" instead of "glucogen," but I do think that I should be able to help with their writing in any case.
posted by Bob at 1:34 PM
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