Yeah, you're my friend, but I ain't writing your paper.

I really like begin a tutor! I feel good knowing I'm helping a student's writing experience by guiding them a bit. But being a tutor has its bad things at times. One of the worst things is when a friend takes advantage of your "skills." About three weeks ago, a person I considered (and still do) a friend came into my office asking if I could help her out with her English homework. I told her sure and I began to read her paper. From the beginning, I noticed there were grammatical errors in her paper. I didn't say anything at first and continued reading. I soon realized that my friend didn't put much thought into this paper. It wasn't the best three page English paper in history to say the least. I asked her what kind of assignment is it. She said it's supposed to be an opinion essay on why kids should learn a foreign language. I told her that we should read it together and go on from there. She looked at me and said that that's not what she wants to do. I told her I insist that we read it together. She said, with an attitude, that I was supposed to be helping her and that she was not going to write her paper again. I looked at her with this evil look. Just kidding. I sat there for a few seconds and thought about what she just said. I gathered my thoughts and told her, "OK. What do you want me to do with your paper then?" She said, "You're the English major. Fix it." I just smiled. I took a deep breath and told her that she is my friend but I will not sit down and write her paper. She said please and that we are friends, so we should help each other out. I told her we are friends but what you are asking me to do is plagiarism. She looked at me with a bizarre look and asked why am I being so uptight about this. I told her that I may seem uptight about this because I do not want to write someone else's paper. I let her know that it's wrong and that I personally have no time to rewrite someone else's paper. She looked at me for a second, probably thinking about smacking me in the face. But to my surprise, she said, "OK. I guess I'll have to rewrite some things." I told her to go re-read her paper, preferably out loud, and listen to what she has written. After that, come back and see me so we can work on it.

The moral of this story is that sometimes friendship can get in the way of your responsibility. This student still is my friend but I realized that she may have gotten too comfortable with me helping her out. She assumed since we are friends, it'd be cool for me to type up her corrections. She was waaaaaaaaay wrong. When I'm tutoring, I'm just like any other tutor. I still am Joel but when I tutor I am "Joel the tutor." I am going to try and keep it professional. There may be times when I may be a bit more relaxed,, especially if it's with one of my regular tutees. But I have not and will not write or rewrite some one's paper. Besides, if I wanted to make things fair, I'd ask those students who ask me to write or rewrite their paper to write my 20-page essay that's due next month. : )