Help the author

I’ve probably written a paper or two in my day that was soooooo horrible that there seemed to be no other alternative except for starting over. If I were presented with a student’s paper that compared to one of my early papers, after howling inside at the welling pain of remembrance, I would try to emphasize that everything written is a start. No matter what the plethora of problems may be, the student has still presented some ideas with whatever they have written.
Besides a good start, there are always ways to address a mass of disorganization. As long as the student’s feelings and opinions are valued above my own vain attempts to correct them then I think we could get along fine. In some way, customized to the student, I would let them know that even with their wave of ideas, some refining organization and editing may be needed for the benefit of whoever will read their paper next, especially their professor. I would negotiate what the purposes of coming to the writing center are, and looking over the paper, I would explain that by working together we would be able to improve the paper as we improve the writer. I hope that by gently suggesting ideas for reorganizing and prompting some good brainstorming that the tutee may not be too offended.
However, what if the writer has written something that seems slightly offensive to me? Even offensive topics contain amazing grammar and organization at times. I like to look at as many points of view of others that I can. I try to perceive what they are thinking. Nevertheless, I am open in my opinions and I will play devil’s advocate if the occasion requires. If a tutee’s paper were really that offensive, I would play the part of several different points of view and explain how others may see the paper. Yes, the author has a need to express their own ideas, but I think that what ideas to share depend on who the audience is. In addition, we would both need to consider how the professor might receive the potentially offensive ideas.
Overall, I do think that it is important to improve the paper as well as the writer. If the author walks away from me with a better idea of how to present their ideas, I think I can handle that. Accomplishing the task will be a challenge indeed. As I have watched other tutors I have noticed that there are many things that they seem to do very similarly. Sometimes it is as if we are robotically helping people to write more and more like everybody else. I want to learn how to conserve originality at the same time with helping the author.