Discipula

Hello Blog!

This week’s topic is how working as a tutor in the Writing Center has affected my life as a student.

Being a tutor has influenced my schoolwork in a few ways. For one, I am more cognizant of what goes on the pages of my papers. I have learned so many organization, grammar, syntax, and flow rules from this class as well as by having to explain concepts to tutees that come through the Writing Center and DELC. I also believe that my clarity and ways of explaining concepts in a paper have improved because of tutoring. In many, many tutoring sessions I have had to find alternate ways in which to explain and describe concepts and subjects to tutees in a way different from the way I originally tried to explain it. Everyone’s learning styles are different, and that has something to do with how students take in information, but sometimes I know that I am just not being totally clear with the student and I need to change my ways. Working as a tutor has helped me to write more clearly in my own work.

Being a tutor has also helped me develop as a student in general. I have a better idea what professors are looking for in their assignments. I have tutored papers for some classes that I may have to take in the future, and by looking at how someone else did the assignment, it helps me to have a clearer view of what the professor may be looking for. Also, I start every tutoring session by finding out what the assignment is and, if possible, by reading the assignment description and grading rubric. Sometimes students that come into the Writing Center completely miss the mark on an assignment because they did not read the assignment very closely. This has helped me as a student to read assignments more carefully and closely follow directions.

The way that I think of myself as a student has also changed. When I read a paper for a tutoring session, I am reading the paper as would a professor if the professor had seen this draft of the work. It is not exactly the same I am sure, especially because we are only peers and we do not have the experience of professors in their so-and-so year, and we do not have any preconceived notions about what the paper is supposed to look like, but we are looking at the paper to help a student become a better writer, and in doing so, we do point out patterns of error in many areas. In some sense we are looking at the paper from the other side of the desk. This has changed the way I view myself as a student because I know that the professor is there to help the student. The professor (hopefully) has the student’s best interest in mind. I have learned to better respect my professors and ask for help if I need it because professors care (or they should, and if they don’t, then what is the purpose of their job?).

Being a tutor has affected many aspects of my schooling and student life. Not only my schoolwork has been affected, but also my approach to being a student and the way I think about myself as a student. Tutoring has done things for me that I did not expect.