LOOK AT THE ELEPHANT!

                I had a student this week that was only interested in proofreading and grammar. He was very clear about it, so that is what I went into during the session. The assignment was for a reader response, so there was no set structure that he was told to adhere to. When we first started I was a little leery of how exactly I was going to go about the session, but as we worked through it I was able to settle down. I made the assumption that the severe comma issue was indicative of greater structural problems, like surface cracks revealing deeper issues. In the end he did not need any help on the brick and mortar stuff, although he used commas like he was getting paid for each one. His point was really clear and his paragraph structure worked really well. My initial incredulous response to his only asking for grammar help was a mistake on my part.

                I think this is similar to the kind of writer that I am. I excel in the big picture stuff and get caught in the nuts and bolts. I have a sense for where to put commas in papers(sometimes a very wrong sense), so I did not want to lead him astray. During that session I had to pull out the purple sheet for my sake as much as his. I usually know the type of clause I use as I am writing, but looking at other people’s papers throws me off. Reading them aloud helps, but I still trip up a bit when the writer’s sensibility is not my own. In many cases it is not that I think they are wrong, but that I think I am. Basically all of these insecurities bounce around my thoughts for a moment, but I get over it and continue with what I am doing.

                I am still trying to mentally prepare for the tutee that wants purely grammar help but hands over a paper that is a structural mess. I imagine that I would discuss it and try to help clear it up, but dread the person that refuses any suggestions. I have known people in my academic career that became furious at the suggestion that their thesis or argument could use a little work, so it is a line that I will walk carefully. It would be a disservice to ignore the elephant in the room, but an even greater problem to force the tutee to look at it if they don’t want to.

Gary Lindeburg

Opposite Problem

Hello Blog!

This week has been really exciting as far as using what I have been learning about in class and applying that to my sessions. I am really trying to find the language to describe errors that makes sense to the students. I am starting to get better at talking about organization and grammar concepts in the “proper way,” which is also a logical way to describe things.

As far as the question “de la semaine,” I do not think that I have come across a situation yet in which the student is looking for something very specific, such as a comma splice, and yet is unwilling to accept the big picture. It seems that most people I have tutored so far are more concerned about the big picture and less about the smaller details. However, sometimes the smaller details can break a paper too.

For instance, I did have a session this week where all the student was worried about was the organization and flow of the paper. She recognized that she had bad spelling and apologized in advance, but she was far more worried about the big picture. Usually that is a good thing. The only problem was that her organization and flow were very clear and very good. Here real problem was with comma splices and run on sentences. Her paper was riddled with them. She did not recognize that she was doing anything wrong when she did not use any punctuation or she put a comma before a complete sentence without a fanboys. Even though what she had worried about was more important, I believe that her professor would have been extremely upset with her lack of correct punctuation. Frankly, even though the paper was well organized and well written with logical sense, it was really hard to follow sometimes because of her lack of correct grammar. In this case, I think the smaller picture was the more important focus.

What is one to do? At first, I was heavy handed with the praise of her work as far as ideas, organization, clarity, and structure were concerned. I then handled the situation by pointing out a few of the comma splices and run on sentences. I tried to explain to her that it is important to use fanboys and periods because without them, sentences are either not linked together as cohesive thoughts or they are so long and drug out that the reader has a hard time following what is going on in each thought. Sometimes it is better to keep thoughts concise so that each thought is given the gravity and uniqueness that it deserves. Sometimes it is better to keep thoughts together so that they build upon each other and give credibility to each other. Either way, by using correct grammatical punctuation within sentences, it strengthens the argument. I also told her that her professor would probably appreciate it too.

Her response to my praise was surprise. Her response to my correction was confusion. She did not seem to want to learn the concepts, as if they did not matter. The more I explained how it would be good for her overall flow and her grade, the more she came around. By the end, she was willing to fix the mistakes, but she was still unsure of the correction I had given. Perhaps next time I should consult another source or another tutor to see if they can explain the concept better.

C'est La Vie!

Well, my one and only experience with a student openly verbalizing or physically showing that our expectations were not in sync was the first OWL I chose to tackle this fall semester. Apparently, the tutee was not satisfied with the critique I gave them about her paper on feminism because I was not “extremely harsh” enough compared to other tutors and “overlooked big things like obvious typos.” Because she did not specifically ask me to be meticulous with pointing out grammar errors, I did not do so. I mean, of course, I noticed them and wanted to write a nice little comment for every single one of them, but it is not my job to do so. And, of course, I could have made the essay perfect (or nearly) with all the corrections and changes I made mentally as read through it, but, again, that is not my job. If someone has an opinion on something, I will not try to change it, even if it seems completely wrong to me.

My expectation is always that the tutee will come to me with an essay that they have already looked over for “obvious” typos, so we do not have to waste time doing them during a face to face or online session. Obvious typos to me are spelling, missing words, some punctuation marks, etc. Also, anything tutees can look up on the internet and comprehend on their own, such as how to head their paper properly using MLA, APA, Chicago, and the like. And, once we have gone over their paper and made corrections, I expect them to revise it once more themselves after retyping it or come in for another tutoring session before handing it in to their professor.

After this experience, I sense that some students just do not think about doing these things prior to their session or do but do not have the time to do so because they completed the essay or assignment at the last minute (the same fear I spoke of in Blog 1!). Needless to say, I was taken aback and frustrated with this situation because I felt like I did what the tutee asked me to do (and so did a few other people that I talked to about this), and what was worse was the tutee sent somewhat of an unpleasant email back about the fact once they sent it in again for further tutoring.

I honestly have not decided whether I am going to change my tutoring style and become more meticulous and be more of a perfectionist, which is what my personality is already like, but I felt was not appropriate for tutoring. This is due to the fact that I have never had an issue like this with my face to face sessions, and my other tutees have claimed to be satisfied with my help. But, I do not want that one incident to change what has proven to be successful so far. I did think about emailing them back and asking them if it would satisfy them for me to go back and point out to them everything I saw that was not on point. But, this would be petty of me! 

On Saturday I had my first tutoring session! I was a little nervous, but I was grateful that I had so many in-class discussions to fall back on. Because of our discussions, I was looking for specific things; we made a session map; and let the session evolve according to the needs of the writer. I do not feel that I did a perfect job, but I felt much more confident than I would have had I not been taking this class. It was amazing how useful the map was, as well as phrases like “teachers generally like to see…” Using these tools helped the writer understand that I was there to help, not to criticize. Letting her write down the thoughts we had helped her understand that I was not there to write her essay for her, but to help her become a better writer.

Because of our class sessions, I was more focused on helping her become a better writer rather than just getting an A on the assignment.  We talked about tips and tricks she could use, as well as reviewed sources to help her when she was uncertain about thing such as APA format (a necessary step as I was not familiar with all the requirements myself). The tool that I felt was most useful, however, was asking questions. Instead of telling her “put a comma here” I would say things like “This sentence has a natural break in it. Where do you think it is?” When I used this kind of meta-cognitive talk path, the student was not defensive, and felt that they were revising their own paper. This feeling was reinforced by my refusal to write the changes for her.

If there was a sentence that I struggled with, I would say things like: “I’m having a hard time following you here. How could you rephrase this?” Again, this helped the student know that I was on her side, and not trying to critique her essay. Another thing that I found very useful to our session was my knowledge about the internet and Microsoft Word. I was able to show her a few tricks with Word that will help her in the future, such as how to add references and citations, then have Word build that citation itself. I feel that this knowledge is invaluable to students, as it saves them time and allows them to focus more on their essay than the mechanics of the paper.

The final thing I’ll say about my first session is that I learned how important it is to complement often. I showed her what she did well and why I liked it, and this created a friendship between us. Then, when there was an issue in the paper, it was easy to talk about because it was just one little thing that was wrong in a whole sea of “good stuff.” To end our session, I asked my tutee if she felt better about her essay, if she had any more questions, and if she felt like I had done a good job in helping her. She responded positively, and said she felt very confident about her essay. I am sure she had no idea it was my first session, and I have this class to thank for a huge portion of her confidence in me.  In short, I really like this job. I love helping students become better writers, and I love the look in their eyes when they understand the concepts we’re talking about.  

- Sam Bartholomew

The Big Picture Intiative

           To be honest with you, every tutoring session I’ve had thus far began with a student who had a very specific goal in mind. Many of my tutoring sessions have been with ESL students who are aware that their writing needs some work. Each individual came in with specific desire (e.g. academic vocabulary work, sentence structure, fragment revision, etc.) but all of my tutees have been very open to the idea of addressing big picture issues in their writing. I have very little experience with ESL learners but my experiences with the ESL students at Weber have been overwhelmingly positive. They are all committed to improving their English writing and are dedicated to turning in the finest product they can.

            As far as expectations go, I have yet to encounter a situation in the Writing Center where the student seemed disappointed with the tutoring services I provided them. While the students initially have specific goals in mind, I find they respond positively to organizational or developmental suggestions. Now, in a theoretical sense, how would I respond to a student who rejected my attempts to address big picture issues?

            We have been taught in class to slowly and leisurely address students whose writing needs significant improvement. We have also been taught that, on occasion, a student asks for a specific form of help because they are unable to communicate what kind of help they are actually seeking. Should a student sit down with me and ask, “I need you to proofread my paper”, my trained response would be to let them know that I can’t proofread their paper in a traditional sense but that I can help them comb through their writing and identify mistakes that they can then return to at a later time (I will take the time to note that I am blantantly stealing this response from Matthew per our lecture discussion last class). Then I would begin to read her paper out loud and ask her what kinds of mistakes she can already see – if any at all. This would be a great way to segue into bigger picture topics.

            In reading the essay out loud, the tutee and myself would be able to identify issues present in her writing. If we notice her transitory sentences are choppy, we could discuss organization and topic transition. Should we stumble upon a paragraph that seems horribly unrelated or out of place, we can discuss the flow of her paragraphs and see if this ‘black sheep’ relates back to her thesis in any significant way. Lastly, referring back to the thesis would be a great way to transition into talking about the paper as an argumentative or cohesive unit. Does the thesis hold up throughout the entire essay? If not, how can we fix this? Does the thesis even exist? If not, how to we take the bulk of the paper and either locate or draft a thesis?

            While I have yet to encounter such a student, I would hope that my conversations with and observations of other tutors would aid me in transitioning to a big picture topic without offending or upsetting the tutee. I’m sure I will encounter a headstrong student who only wants a tunnel vision tutoring session but I believe I am prepared to express that we are not a ‘fix it shop’ – as Eric has said many times – and gently push them towards the services we do offer instead.  

My very first tutoring session... ever

I mentioned my first tutoring session a good amount in my last post, but since I was asked to write about it in Blog 2, I'll write a little more. I say I should just get credit for 2 assignments with my one blog post, but I guess that isn't how this whole education thing works.

If you read my previous post (which I'm assuming was only read by Dr. Rodgers) then you know my first tutoring session was brainstorming the article "Body Ritual among the Nacirema." As a transfer student, I had never even heard of this article till our staff meeting and was very confused what the article was even about. Considering I knew that I would have to tutor students who had read the article, I went home googled Nacirema, and read the paper multiple times. Once I felt comfortable with it I knew I was prepared to also tutor it.

Conveniently,  I had a student come in wanting to go over the article the very next day. We sat down, discussed what the assignment was a little, but mostly talked about "how weird" she thought the article was. She didn't come in too prepared, and had only read the paper once, but she was convinced the Nacirema civilization couldn't survive. This was reaffirmed multiple times throughout the tutoring session as she posed the question "are these people still around." I didn't want to ruin the paper and tell her that we were the Naciremans, so I would divert her back to the assignment. Each time she would get closer and closer to figuring out that they not only were still around, but they were us.

At first she seemed scared by the article. She seemed intimidated by the "weirdness," but as she realized that the strange "holy-mouth-men" were a lot like our dentists, she seemed to ease up a little. The more she caught on to each aspect within the article the easier it was for me to help her learn. By the end she was able to have a clear idea as to where she wanted to go with the paper.

This first session taught me a lot. I really will never know what to expect with each student. They all are slightly different. Before doing anything with the paper, finding out a little about the student is a must. Even if it just takes a couple minutes, if the tutee knows you care about them, they will be more willing to learn.

First tutoring session

Like a couple of others experienced, my first tutoring session was with an ESL student. To be honest, she was far more prepared to be tutored than I was to tutor. The anxiety I had about tutoring in general was quickly resolved by turning my thoughts to the scripted questions I had committed to memory. After introducing myself, I got right into it, asking, "So what are we working on? What are your main concerns? Tell me, in brief, what you want to communicate in this piece."

She had printed out a first draft, as well as a printed copy of the assignment details. This was very helpful for me, as I then knew for what the Professor was looking. It was a journal entry reader response of the first short story the class had read. We were in luck because I happened to have read the short story about which she was assigned to write. 

I remembered the classroom discussion we had about putting students on the spot who may be self-conscious about reading aloud, so I asked her if she'd like me to read the piece out loud, or if she'd prefer to read it to me. "Please," she said, "You read," if memory serves. 

As I read through the piece, she caught just about every spelling (word form, usually) and grammar issue, without me saying anything. At first I would make the change, but after a few times, I just let her mark the paper herself. I felt this was more appropriate, as well as being empowering. Instead of having someone else's marks crowding her margins, she would make her own marks -- she, after all, was aware of the mistakes without me having to explain what went wrong. 

Her language was a bit confusing at some parts, particularly when she was stringing together apparently unrelated thoughts on the story's subject. I asked a few times, "Tell me, just in conversation, what you mean here." She would concisely explain the connection and the relevance of the thought about which she'd written, and I would respond, "That's perfectly clear! Write that!"

This exchange opened up probably the most significant advice I offered during the session, which was that often we consider writing and explaining verbally two completely distinct exercises, and because of this -- particularly in a classroom setting -- sometimes we have a tendency to make our writing way less clear, and unnecessarily complex, than we normally would in a conversation in which we were simply explaining something. Cheesy as it sounds, it was as if a lightbulb popped over her head, and she asked, "So, you mean, I should just write it as simply as I can? Even if it's shorter?" "Exactly," I responded, "You have great insights about this story -- just write them in the same manner you explained them to me."

Following that, we had a discussion on the purpose of journal writing. I told her that in this form of writing particularly that she should feel liberated to relate the story about which she was writing to her personal experience. Ultimately journal writing is personal writing, I explained to her, and it is an invitation for you to open up about your experience. The Professor, I suggested, will be able to tell that you understand the text to the extent that you've related its subject matter to your own experience, bringing in your own perspective. 

She told me that where she had come from, it was not expected -- or even wanted -- for students to write about their own thoughts about a story in the context of their personal experience. She asked as if she were hesitant to write that way, to which I assured her that her professor would receive her own experiences in her journal entries with enthusiasm. (It helped that I knew her professor, and knew that he wanted nothing more than to get his students to respond on a visceral level to the literature he assigned.)

Overall I felt the session went very well. There were a few things I would have changed -- for instance, it may have helped to make a formal outline of our session for her to refer later on. Before leaving she asked, "So I can come in again for help? Or only a certain number of times?" "Whenever you need us," I told her, "Provided, of course, that we're open," I said, indicating the hours listed at the front.

(Sept. 2, 2013) Fear: Too Many Damns Not Given

The question: 

What are you most nervous about with regard to tutoring? What scares you? What keeps you up at night as you think about the hoards of ENGL 1010 papers you'll be dealing with?

What scares me most, frankly, is working with students who don't care. This fear has more to do with teaching next semester than it has to do with tutoring; for the most part, those who enter the Writing Center have done so volitionally (Red underline? That is definitely a word). One might think the same would be the case regarding anyone entering university-level studies, but my experience in taking general education courses proved otherwise. Unfortunately, the dynamic at play between many students and general education courses (especially core courses like English) is woefully trasactional (Another red line?). That is to say, students enter the classroom with -- rather than an I'm here to learn mentality -- a let's get this over with aura. 

It's a function, in part, of higher education becoming more accessible, which is ultimately a good thing. There's a sense in which the 'special' status of higher education is thereby reduced, however, which has the effect of negating the atmosphere of learning, as it were. I'm here, with everyone else, to get credit and get out of here becomes an acceptable ethos. 

At risk of waxing Platonic, ideal learning is a development, a process without a defined end, whereas the necessary institutionalization of 'credit' (in its various forms) reduces learning to a system of defined boundaries, and a finish line. While the democratization of education, I maintain, is not only a great accomplishment but mandatory in a free and open society, its advancement bears with it a sort of 'lowest common denominator' effect. 

My main concern is that my time will be spent primarily with students who are consciously doing as little as possible to get their credit, rather than with students who are really in the classroom to learn, develop, and expand their intellectual horizon. It may be the case that I have created a monster, envisioning a worst-case-scenario. Perhaps my concerns will prove unfounded, and my experience will prove far more positive.

Looking through past tutors blogs on the subject, it seems I have been able to get through the worst of it already: not knowing the procedure, not knowing the tutees expectations, not knowing the answers to their questions, focusing on the wrong aspects of the tutees writing, etc. I feel confident (enough) in my ability to help students that walk in, and I'm looking forward to using my tutoring experience to inform my teaching approach for the following three semesters. 

Monday's First Session

As with Matthew, my first tutoring session at the Writing Center was with an ESL student. My own experiences, along with the instruction and advice we have received, left me prepared for the experience. I felt confident and happy to help this student.

Our discussions of High Order Concerns (HOCs) such as structure, organization, flow, thesis, and discussion of Low Order Concerns (LOCs) helped me understand the student’s concerns and prioritize the topics of our discussion.

The student helped the session by being prepared with the complete unit package that the class was using for vocabulary, grammar, comprehension, and included the writing prompt. The student was also engaged and invested in her own learning.

The first thing I had her do was to read the paper out loud. She caught and self-corrected four errors: one spelling; two commas; one verb. She seemed embarrassed, but I told her that I always read my own papers out loud to “hear” where the errors are.

The student's primary worry was that the paper "[Said] what I want it to say.” So we talked about a thesis statement, and about sentences and statements that support the thesis. Her paper had a clear thesis and supporting ideas. Since she executed the thesis/support structure, we reviewed and reiterated those concepts. I think she wasn’t quite certain she was on the right path, and wanted the additional input and one-on-one discussion of those concepts.

Her second concern was that the individual sentences were “not so good.” One error pattern was incorrect use of “the”. We talked about using articles, in particular “the” with count and non-count nouns, and she self-corrected some of the incorrect usage. This made her feel that her sentences were better formed.

The other “big topic” of concern for this student was how to get ideas for an essay. We talked a little bit about brainstorming, and pre-writing. I told her that she could come into the Writing Center even at those early stages for support.

I made certain to check for understanding. In addition to observing her body language, I explicitly asked, “Does this make sense?” I also asked her if she could find examples, herself, of the good things she did, such as pointing out the sentences that supported the thesis statement.

At the end of the session, I made certain she knew where she could print her paper. I also asked if she had learned anything new. She laughed and said that reading the paper out loud was a new idea that helped her. I invited her come back to the Writing Center again.

I need to work on not overwhelming the student with too much information. When I sensed that I was giving too much information, too fast, I pulled back, slowed down the session, and asked the student for her input.

Overall, I felt the session went well. The student seemed happy and not so nervous about her writing when she left. 

My first (writing) tutoring session.

Matthew Kunes


My first tutoring session was quite different from what I expected.


The first thing I noticed was the class the student was in: an upper level nursing course. This tipped me off that this paper would be a bit different from what I usually see.


The paper was a mock write up of a patient's current state of health, alongside a brief of their health history. The student had collected the information in a personal interview, and simply had to arrange it according to a predetermined rubric.


Not having taken any nursing classes myself, I dived right into the paper alongside the student.


Everything I had prepared to help out with, including organization, thesis, or even formatting, went out the window. The paper fulfilled to the letter every stricture of the rubric. It filled out a healthy ten pages, which gave me plenty of time to go over it. The only thing this paper really needed was a good proofread, with some low level editing of sentence structure here and there. Honestly, that's all the student was looking for, really.


My inexperience in the nursing department showed as well. There were many points where I would ask, “Is this particular formatting typical? Is that what the professor would expect?” I was assured by the student that they knew what they were doing, having written many such write ups before, and all they needed was a second pair of eyes to catch the grammar errors. And, in between the jargon and the technical language, we had plenty of (very low level) issues to work with.


I have to say, it wasn't what I'd call an ideal tutoring session. All I could express when it was over was the hope that the student knew what they were doing.


I accomplished what I needed to, however: I sincerely believe the student left the session a better writer than before they had come in. If only that could have come without having to slog through so many hundred of comma splices and verb tense issues!


I'm guessing that the students that we have been preparing for (the Developmental English students, along with a healthy amount of 1010 and 2010 students) don't have papers assigned yet; or if they do, they haven't gotten to a point where they feel they need a tutor's help.


I'm sure it's different up in Odgen, where tutors see a lot higher volume of students go through the writing center every day. I honestly don't think that many students know there are writing tutors available on the Davis Campus. Half the time in my drop in sessions, I just help students out with their math homework, helping lighten the load on the math drop-in tutors.



I'll definitely be ready for them when the writing students come, though! Count on it!

First Tutee Anticipation

Being a late hire, I have not yet had a tutoring session. This has been a blessing in disguise. I am extremely nervous for my first student, but I am ready to get some experience under my belt. This previous week I had the opportunity to observe a couple of top notch master tutors which was enlightening. Each had their own technique and brought something different to the table. One was extremely friendly, charismatic, and supportive. The other was intelligent, competent and helpful. I learned various techniques on how to solve different problems. The most useful thing I learned was the "happy essay man." This tool provides a visual aid for students learning how to structure an essay. I think that this particular device would be most helpful for students in English 1010 and English 2010 where the professors are looking for proper structure and syntax. Another key issue that was addressed was developing a thesis. The second master tutor that I observed helped his student by having them verbalize their ideas. He then took the key information and wrote it down for the tutee. He took this information and had the student develop his own thesis statement. I was impressed by this. This process directly involved the student in the thought process of developing a good and solid thesis statement. I am finally becoming more confident with my skills in grammar, subject-verb agreement, etc. and I believe that after a couple of more observation sessions I will be proficient enough to tutor on my own.

Tutee #1

I have yet to tutor anyone but I have observed quite a bit. I have been working on the 3840 learning modules and feel more confident in my vocabulary associated with tutoring. I have observed the tutoring sessions of a few English as a Second Language (ESL) and that provided me with a really good post-summer refreshing course. I feel well prepared to take on my own tutee number one.

Looking forward to first tutoring session (with a good deal of anxiety built in)

As a late hire, my tutor orientation is scheduled for this Wednesday, so I have not yet had my first tutoring session. I have been reading over some of the posts on the blog and most seem to mirror my feelings and a few included some interesting subjects that I had not thought about before.

I imagined my first tutoring session to begin with a 1010 or 2010 student. They would have a thesis that was okay or maybe somewhat lacking, something I could help them strengthen or clarify. I am a naturally quiet person, so I sometimes worry that I wouldn’t ask enough questions or share enough information to make the session as productive as it could be. I’m very glad to be brushing up on grammar and syntax, because although I know them well enough to write a good paper, I don’t know them well enough to explain them in detail to someone who has trouble with writing. Something I hadn’t expected, though now I realize is very likely to happen, is to possibly have an ESL student for my first time tutoring. One tutor had some experience with Farsi and was able to better help a student that was native in that language. I took a class in Chinese and had few semesters of French, but as far as Arabic or other Non-Latin languages, I am pretty much clueless. During orientation, I hope to learn more about helping DELC students as well as the basic parameters of a good tutoring session. That way, my first session will be as helpful and productive as possible.

Shelley Williams/Blog 2: Feelings, Fears, Fantasies for Fantastic Tutoring after First Time

Since I tutored last Spring semester, I am unable to recollect my first experience tutoring. I was not nervous then nor now though. I enjoy getting to have a view in on another’s life and heart by seeing what they’ve spilled onto the page. It’s an honor to get this opportunity. However, I do remember the first time I had to teach composition, versus tutor it, and my fears match some of the new tutors (feeling unqualified), but to summarize my own personal fears in my early teaching and Writing Center tutoring days, I was horrified at the fear of failure teaching and coaching students whom I did not look much older than at the time. Now, I have the opposite fear—that, at the other end of the “mature” student spectrum, students will consider my input irrelevant, dated, old-school, unnecessary.  But, that is not proving to be the case, or at least not in most cases. Furthermore, tutoring, as a one-n-one activity is more manageable in many ways than teaching a whole classroom of students whose minds are flitting about as fast as a Tweet.  In a tutoring session, I am only responsible to aid as best I can the one individual in front of me. So it is a walk in the park by comparison, and when the paper is well done, it’s more like a pleasant stroll through the park where you may notice only a gum wrapper lying on the sidewalk. Conversely, you may notice large wads of chewed  or used gum, put in inappropriately to a text, and that is where the job of the tutor gets sticky.

 Though the blogs don’t ask for advice per se, the advice I would give new tutor would be to learn to read the student’s capacity for positive and/or more constructive criticisms in addition to learning to read and assess a paper.  A tutor has to be able to feel out not only where and what level the student is coming from based on their writing, but also what level of tutoring and constructive criticism they can take. I will make no judgments about what has been come to be called the “me” generation, but let me say only that the sense of entitlement or its opposite, guilt or shame, over a writing student’s own imagined writing skill or lack thereof, are often the greatest roadblock in any given session.

I find if I can establish touch points of common experience with the student--praising, corroborating, reinforcing whenever possible, (but without over sympathizing), the tutee is pulled in immediately. My first two sessions of this semester were both that way. It would be easy to take these kinds of experiences for granted as how all students will be, but I know that’s not true, but it can become true more of the time as I improve as a tutor. As I or any tutor become a good student of students—watching and learning from them how they themselves best learn, assess, will listen, and digest--both by watching and by asking pointed questions and trying to tap the student’s ability to self-assess, I move closer to that goal of pulling all tutees into the magical world of good written communication. Though it’s cliché, it’s the ole’ “Teach a man to fish . . . “ adage. Though I have only cast a few times this semester, so far it’s been very pleasant and the fish are biting.

First Session Awkwardness

My first tutor session was with an ESL student, which was interesting. I wasn’t expecting to be given such a difficult assignment as my first session, but I was also excited to begin tutoring. The assignment was for her to write a basic introduction about herself, so there wasn’t much work in way of correcting organization and structure. So, I had the opportunity to get into grammar and syntax. I found it interesting to see how she used the English language. Some of the words she chose to use weren’t exactly incorrect, but they were not how a native English speaker would construct sentences. So, we worked on that. It was an eye opening experience, and it was a good learning opportunity.

As far as preparedness goes, I was not. We had spent a lot of time in class discussing the basic English 1010 paper. I was expecting to go into a situation where I would be looking for a thesis, and making sure all of her supporting points corresponded with her thesis. Instead, I was looking at one paragraph with no real thesis (except for, maybe, the student’s intention to introduce herself) and no need for organization consistent with an academic paper. This threw me off, and it took a second for me to adjust.

Preparedness is one thing, but how did I feel? Was I scared? A little bit. I was more nervous (which is a form of fear, I think) but I was also excited, as I’ve said, to begin tutoring. The nervousness, however, didn’t pass as the session went on. I was second guessing myself, wondering if I was actually giving good advice. I was also unsure if I was telling the student things she already knew. She wasn’t very engaged in the session, and I was worried that it was my fault. At the end, I asked her if the session had been productive, and she assured me that it had, but I was still unsure. Since this experience, I have felt better about my role as a tutor. I think I have been able to more accurately pin-point a student’s needs and address them. This, I think, stems from my first frightening experience.

All in all, my first session was a happy occasion (looking back). Yes, I was nervous, and yes, the session may not have been as productive as it could have been. But, I was able to adjust from there. I was able to view some of my weaknesses and begin tearing down my personal barriers. I’m learning how to manage a session, how to take the lead and not let a student’s anxieties pass onto me. And, while I’m still not comfortable with certain sessions, I am finding that I am able to take the 2010 student more easily, because my confidence is growing. I feel that all of these successes, no matter how small, are a result of my first, semi-awkward, tutoring session.

First Session of the Fall Semester

Preston Carter

The first tutoring session I took was a student from an upper division course. Normally, I would have probably let another tutor take this session, but I decided to give it a shot. Being the first upper division session I have taken, I opened with asking some questions about the paper to get a better idea of the paper and the author's intent. I scanned the essay, which was the first ten pages of her thesis, and I asked about formatting and structure initially and then began reading the paper aloud.

I did feel sufficiently prepared for the session, and I was not feeling too nervous. I have gotten fairly comfortable asking master tutors questions in the middle of a session if I do not have an adequate answer for the tutee. This has allowed me to feel fairly confident when entering any session. Luckily, this paper had been revised multiple times; I believe I was reading a final draft. The ideas were well developed from the writer's perspective, and the structure was logical. I did not get to read the entire thesis, nor would I have been able to read it during our session, but I believe she was heading in the right direction to continue her paper from where we left off.

Her preparation for the session allowed me to focus on the more minor details of her paper. We looked at some issues of sentence structure, syntax, and grammar. This is something that I am comfortable with, more so than judging the idea development of a longer essay, so I am grateful that we were able to focus on these details. I used the session to develop my own recitation of the syntactical rules. I know these rules well and am learning them all the time, but I am trying to use the correct vocabulary to explain them.

The session went really well. I asked a master tutor about a particular rule in order to clarify it with the tutee. We read the paper all the way through; I marked instances of problems and identified patterns. I showed her the diagram of the clauses and gave her a printed copy for later reference. Other than comma and conjunction issues, her essay did a really good job discussing her topic of interest.

The First Week

                Going into the first week of work, I was a little nervous about the situation. I think this comes more from being unemployed for the last six months since I returned from Japan than any doubt of my abilities. That feeling died down as we went through the orientation and got to know my co-workers. As I started feeling comfortable in the space, I began looking forward to my first session.   

                I had my first tutoring session on my second day, and it went pretty smoothly. It was a girl in a 2010 class asking me to look over her thesis and intro to see if it made sense. Thankfully, it was already pretty solid and all I did was ask a few clarification questions that she used to strengthen her position. Her assignment was only to write the thesis and intro, so we discussed the further development of the paper and she told me some of the points she wanted to make.  

                I can say that I was not nervous about the first session in the least, and was quite confident and comfortable about it. It was nice to feel I was doing something worth getting paid for, a feeling I had not had in about half a year. The only point that went a little rough was at the end when I wasn’t sure about filling out all of the paperwork. Thankfully, Joni helped by showing me where the brown forms were and walked me through the exit survey.  

                I lucked out on that first one and have since had several that made me really appreciate how easy that one was. Immediately after the easy start, I had my first “Nacirema” brainstorming session. I had never read it before, so when I had my “Aha!” moment it was difficult to not spoil the secret. That was the one I was a bit nervous about because I was not immediately sure how to deal with it. I was able to get things under control pretty quickly when I tried to think of it from the tutee’s perspective. He thought that the Nacirema were an actual, distinct tribe, so I talked to him as such.

                This is where my previous experience came in really handy. The ability to quickly adapt to the situation to keep the session progressing is one of the best skills to have in this profession. The curveballs I mentioned in my last blog are about the only things that are certain in my experience. This week also proved that being confident, yet willing to ask for help when needed, benefits not only me but the people I tutor.

Gary Lindeburg