Self Awareness Through Tutoring

I believe that tutoring has helped me as a student in a number of ways. It has helped me become more aware of how I write, and it has also helped me in my own writing. But most of that has also come from taking this class, not necessarily through tutoring other students.

Through taking this class I have come to realize more about myself as a writer and as a student. I remember the first time I stopped to think about how I begin an essay, and I realized that I have almost always started by outlining my essay before actually writing anything down. This was something that I had always done without really ever thinking about doing it because it helped me visualize the assignment. This was around the time that I started to help students write their own outline to help them figure out how to organize their thoughts and main ideas into their essays.

I can also remember last week when Kimmy (Kimmie, Kim-E?) was explaining the idea of technology improving learning, and I was able to reflect on the importance of the computer/internet in my own education. I can't even remember the last time I wrote an essay with pencil and paper, but it was probably my senior year of high school for my AP exams. I now realize how important my laptop is to me in all aspects of my education. I don't feel comfortable writing anything unless I am sitting at my desk typing my ideas down.

My final example of how this class (and tutoring in general) has helped me become more aware of myself as a writer is when we were discussing innate grammar rules. I believe David (Dave-ihd...just kidding) brought this up in his presentation, and I was able to recall my struggle with explaining the grammar rules when I started working at the Writing Center because I had always written based on what I felt was right, and those feelings had never failed me until I tried to teach someone else.

This class has essentially helped me become more aware of myself as a student. Tutoring has helped me become a better writer because what I have learned at the Writing Center, I have been able to implement into my own writing. Before working here, I had no idea that "pique" was even a word let alone what context it is used in. I also didn't know the specific comma rules or the importance of getting rid of contractions in formal writing. It turns out that working at the Writing Center has been very beneficial in more ways than I originally realized.