Some Advice for Future Tutors

I hate to seem like I'm writing a mere reiteration of the sentiments of other tutors, but I must say that experience truly is the most important thing I can stress to future tutors. When you start out next August (assuming there aren't some postseason firings. J/k!), you will feel out of your element for the first couple of weeks. Don't stress. The first couple of sessions may not flow very well, as you will still be finding your voice. But with each session that passes, you will gain experience, expertise, and efficiency. Another thing you should know beginning tutoring is that Ms. Ramirez and Dr. Fishman are your most useful resources. They will help you with any problem you could possibly have. They are your allies.
As I said earlier, experience is key. By mid-September, you'll have a strong sense of what the rest of the semester will be like. The first international tutee you have may be a little trying, but you will get the hang of it. And remember that each tutoring experience is different. You'll have to get a feel for each student, but within a couple of minutes, the uncomfortability will simply melt away. You should also always remember that our goal is to improve the writer, not the paper. And one more thing...avoid amorous relationships with your tutees. I'm just kidding, but seriously, do.

Advice

If I had one piece of advice for future writing center tutors, it would be to tutor as many students as possible. I realize more and more that the greater number of students I see, the happier I am with tutoring. Not only do I become a better tutor with every tutee that I see, but there are also gains that accompany the sessions which I would never have thgouth of. For one thing, reading students' papers is informative. A writing tutor has the priveledge (although it may sometimes seem like a chore) of reading hundreds of essays written by college students of all developmental levels in all subject areas. From freshman research papers on terrorism/counter terrorism to doctoral theses on health economics, each of the essays read teaches the tutor not only about writing but about, simply put, what the essay says. Some of the papers that I have read this semester have been excellent, and although I never really expected it, I felt grateful for having read them.

Advice for Future Tutors

There is nothing I could say that would completely prepare a future tutor for the experiences they will endure. Though this is a bit unfortunate, I believe that the notion that tutoring is best learned via experience is perhaps the best advice one can give. It is important for one to know the commonly held misconceptions about the "purpose" of the writing center, and even more importantly to know the actual purpose of the writing center. It is important for one to acknowledge the scholarship that has preceded them, be it through the act of reading or just general conversation. While on the surface this scholarship may seem pedantic, the ideas underlying writing center scholarship are ideas that can be applied to virtually any tutoring session. Any tutor, regardless of how long or little they have been tutoring, must consciously work to find his/her own "tutoring voice." With the discovery of this voice comes the recognition of all a tutor's responsibilities and a release from the anxiety that often accompanies the intial portion of tutoring sessions. This voice is not an easy thing to come by. A tutor must be comfortable in his or her own knowledge of writing, in his or her own writing, and in particular in the mode of expression they utilize to convey suggestions to the student. There are times throughout the course of tutoring that frustrating situations may arise. These situations must be tackled head-on, though with relative patience and a cordial nature. We, as tutors, are expected to "understand" where the student is coming from or how that student has gotten themselves into such a position. This is certainly easier said than done, though it is expected of any tutor. We must not kid ourselves into thinking we always perceive the student's situation, but we must acknowledge that when we do not, or if we cannot, we must still approach the situation with a degree of compassionate understanding. A tutor must be firm, ethical, though open-minded. There are times when we are forced to endure papers from students whose native language is not English, often leading to papers that are hard to understand and harder to work with. This is to be expected. We must approach these situations with a different mindset than the mindset with which we approach other tutoring sessions. Not that one or the other is consistently easier or harder, but they are different, and it is important to recognize that tutors, just as papers and students, are adaptable. Tutoring is a profession that is never stable, but inevitably growing. If I were to give one last piece of adivce to a future tutor, having said all this, it would be to take all as it comes and learn from your experiences. Some things work and other's don't, but tutoring is always changing, as are tutors, and it is our job to remain pliable.

A Metaphor for My Experiences as a Writing Center Tutor 2006-07

After much deliberation, I feel the best way to describe my experiences as a writing center tutor is to use the metaphor of the 1990-91 Chicago Bulls. In that year, the Bulls won their first NBA Championship. The Bulls found themselves in an entirely new environment—the Finals—and they realized that they had to work as a team in order to succeed. What we faced as writing center tutors at the beginning of the semester was not unlike the plight of everyone’s favorite Chicagoans as Game One rolled around. I say “we” because it is impossible to function in the Writing Center strictly as an individual. There is a constant exchange of ideas and information among individuals; in this way, then, we function as a team. And as we all know, there’s no I in team.
We were dropped into a completely new environment, lacking experience and filled with nervous energy. What if we were not able to effectively help our first tutees? We would, of course, give it our best shot and, hopefully, learn the ropes quickly. This sentiment parallels the actuality of the Bulls’ Game One performance. They played some good ball, but came up short in the end. They now trailed in the series. But the Chicago Bulls would persevere, and so would the writing center tutors.
But who are these characters, these Bulls, these tutors? I will draw parallels between the Bulls starters and the elemental units of which the writing center consists:

John Paxson—a team leader; shoots long balls from outside the three-point arch with great accuracy; “goes downtown,” the lingo for being a great three-point shooter.
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Gordon Sauer—also a team leader; tackles (without personal foul or injury) the most difficult tutoring sessions with finesse; lives downtown.

Bill Cartwright—the center, the big guy, the man in the middle; the backbone of the team.
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Matthew Fairman—the big guy of the writing center; lovable, huggable; literally sits in between the other writing center tutors; gives our team a commanding presence.

Horace Grant—the power forward; the workhorse of the team; fights for the ball and for his team; wears goggles.
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Ben Shealy—known around the writing center for his workmanlike qualities; willing to fight the good fight, to protect the reputation of the writing center by displaying excellent writing center mentoring prowess; wears contact lenses; wears sunglasses on sunny days.

Scottie Pippen—the young guy on the team; a “diamond in the rough”; a potential superstar; always already improving his skills.
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The Student—takes the first step toward being a better writer by showing up to the writing center; has potential, always potential; is molded into a better writer by those around him/her.

Michael Jordan—the team superstar; the gamechanger; MVP; MJ
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Technology—revolutionizing the way we approach writing center theory and pedagogy; a limitlessly valuable tool for leading students to better writing. Trouble with citing sources in MLA or APA format? Check out Purdue’s online writing lab at owl.english.purdue.edu. Feeling under the weather and can’t make it to English class? E-mail your teacher. Want to look up the Chicago Bulls’ starting lineup for the 1990-91 season? Google it.
The Bulls went into Game Two of the Finals—and the writing center tutors into mid-September—doggedly determined to succeed. The Bulls fought and won Game Two as well as Games Three, Four, and Five; as a result, they won the series and the first of many championships. The writing center tutors also greatly improved and are now benefiting Clemson students from many different disciplines. Some of the Bulls players were selected for the United States Olympic team; they competed in the 1992 Olympics in front of the international community and won the gold. In the writing center, we have helped international students realize true potential and create golden papers.
We’ve had the opportunity to gain experience and depth of knowledge with every week that passes in the writing center. Next semester should be no different. For, if we continue the Bulls parallel, we see that they would win five more championships over the next few years.

We are Not Men Who are Green Tomatos

As a writing center tutor, I am a transplanted, vine-ripening tomato. The stage at which I began my career in the writing lab was not germination. It was, however, a transplantation into a whole new world. I had been gaining nutrients and growing stronger throughout my undergraduate coursework, not only in my English and language arts classes but also in my education classes. However, I was considerably green when I stepped foot into Daniel Hall (where I would later spend countless hours tutoring and attending classes in writing center theory and pedagogy).

To be frank, I couldn’t even have been considered as a candidate for a dish of fried green tomatoes by the time I met my first tutee. But relentless beats the sun that nourishes, the food that fights our entropy. In my new environment the sun, my ultimate source of energy and power, became the time spent in actual tutoring sessions. That there can be no substitute for experience is a statement nowhere more true than in tutoring. Working in tandem with the sun in ripening me is the water of collaborative reflection on tutoring experience. Tutoring experience would have merely dried me out if I were left unable to reflect on that experience in the presence of advanced writing tutors. The only items that I, as a vegetable, require in addition to sunlight and water are nutrients (AKA food). Utilizing the power of sunlight, I am able to break down the food of our Writing Center Theory and Pedagogy readings into pieces profitable for my own specific use.

I may never become a tomato that is edibly ripe, but I am ever-ripening. As sunlight, water, and food continue to work together inside of me, I become more and more red.

A Sea Journey

I guess the best way for me to describe my writing center experiences are through the metaphor “a sea journey.” Though I have been trained in the “art” of tutoring and given suggestions on how to conduct my tutoring, in the long run, there really is no How-To. Quite like being on a sea journey, one must be versed in the knowledge and experience that has passed before him, but ultimately determine the best path he is to follow. It is an individual experience, an experience that can only be learned during the process. While it is important to recognize the success that has come before and the methodologies that fostered this success, we, as tutors, are inevitably left to find our own voice in tutoring.

A blend of both creativity and critical scholarship, we must approach writing as a discipline of multiple facets. Writing is an expression of culture, something I have come more to recognize as the year progresses. While it is not necessarily an assertion derived at through tutoring, the recognition of culture and writing can be perceived in others’, and my own, papers. All of this can bleed directly into my metaphor. Within an expedition, especially one into the unknown, we are not blind at commencement, but are driven to stray from our original direction: external forces, internal changes, obscure challenges, all of which determine the course of a journey, and all of which are unpredictable. I like the notion of the sea as metaphor because it implies an undeniable, and, though often unwanted, inevitable influence. At sea, we must succumb to the nature of the sea; we cannot change it, but must work with it, work through it to arrive successful. This is essentially the mode of thought that I feel directly correlates with both writing and writing center tutoring. It is a mode of thought that pervades my responses and reflections, and one I feel best presents my process as a tutor in the writing center. Not to mention that I admire the ancient explorers who set sail into the unknown with little more than the knowledge of how to handle the boat. We may all be prepared for the things we are to encounter, though nothing can supplement personal experience, and it is ultimately personal experience that dictates the path we carve for our lives.

Tutoring in ASC

English tutoring has been very rewarding for Clemson University students. Both the Academic Success Center as well as the Writing Center are helping students to conquer problems with punctuation, grammatical mistakes, organization, poor sentence structure etc. Lately, majority of the students I've encountered all have similar or identical problems. Most often students wrestle with the following areas: commas, quotations, paraphrasing, and documentation.

In addition, tutoring has been very rewarding for me. I've learned how to properly and effectively use semicolons and even conquered my fear of commas and comma splices. Recently I've been battling a new monster known as ACS or American Chemistry Society. I was compelled to tamper with this writing style after a Chemistry student dropped by one day for help with a works cited page. I have yet to master ACS; however, I am working diligently towards this effort. My next project is to become more familiar with the Chicago writing style. This same student advised me that very soon all Chemistry students would be writing a paper in this format.

The Readings That Matter

Two issues addressed in the current readings that I feel speak to my personal experience in the writing center (particularly as of today) is Carino's insight into the issue of peer tutoring versus teacher/authoritative tutoring and the notion of the writing center as a thing less important in the eyes of the students. Essentially, Carino asserts that with the onset of peer tutoring in the writing center followed a non-hierarchical, non-threatening environment. Because the students feel more closely associated in both age and academic value with peers, there is an overt benefit to enacting peer tutoring. Promoting such an environment allows students to open their minds, relax, and ingest more thoroughly the issues with their writing and the processes of writing. I feel very strongly that as a student, having one, such as myself or Ben or Matthew, as tutor helps them work in a hospitable environment. As well, the notion of a writing center as a thing less important was addressed in Carino's article. Because students are not graded on their writing center visits and are merely addressed in order to "better the writer" there can be an element of withdrawal that takes place. Carino states that students "sometimes come to the center expecting work to be done for them in exchange for the time they sacrifice," an attitude that not only fosters a divide between tutor and student, but can create an atmosphere of hostility if frustration persists (102). In a sense, it is our job as tutors to help the students recognize the need for personal development and the fact that they will be rewarded in the long run, via good grade, good job, etc., should they take their development seriously.

Prior to this reading, and as was iterated in my previous blogs, I am particularly intrigued by the necessity to acknowledge cultural differences, both within the tutor and student, when dealing with non-native English speakers. Arguing against assimilation, this only hindering the student's unique perspective as an "outside writer," the article asserts that we, as tutors, must foster a degree of individuality; we must help the student perceive his or her differences and push them in such a direction that helps them formulate the best possible mode of expression for their writing. It is quite easy to over-step cultural boundaries, to push the student into our own mode of expression as we are the native English speakers and feel that our mode of expression is the most fluid. This, however, is erroneous, and undermines the purpose of the writing center as a realm to better writers, not papers. I have stumbled upon this issue often in the writing center, particularly as of late which I guess is a bit odd. I am not sure if international students are simply in the process of the last step of composition, or rather that this is the time they feel most comfortable with their own grasp of English to ask for help. Regardless of the circumstances though, I am seeing international students more and more and becoming very conscious of the need to keep myself on the right side of the playing field. It is easy to takeover their papers and correct them, so I am extra careful to discuss their own issues with the English language before delving into the issue of the paper.

Furthermore, one of the most pertinent articles we have read, and one that we read at the beginning of the year and have continued to read in little blips throughout the rest of the articles, relays the ideal of an endlessly developing writing center. Writing center scholarship, though a new field when pitted against the backdrop of the study of literature, recognizes the need for an aspect of life. If the center were to become static, it would ultimately fail as a mode of education, for with the progression of technology and the slowly dissolving borders of the world the center has become an area of where one can experience an important sense of growth. The article(s) hinge upon the fact that a 21st century writing center, the center we operate in, is one that is more technologically oriented with the necessity for second language acquisition. This is certainly true, and an issue we have encountered in the center. I guess that is why we are learning to compose portfolios, and rightly so, though I must admit I still feel a bit lost sometimes in a place that must adapt, in a sense, before the times do.

Writing Center Readings

I glanced back over the pages of TCWH today trying to find something to bring up in class. The last article in the book, "Mentoring in Electronic Spaces," seems especially fitting at the moment, since we're blogging right now. We're so used to computers and the internet now that it feels strange to even think about a time before we did so many things electronically. A main point of the article is the importance of professionals (in this case writing center professionals) to be able to connect with other professionals as effectively as possible. It's so much easier to share ideas electronically. We can email each other, blog, or construct personal websites.

Another way to think about the importance of email and the internet--and something I had not thought of before--is in terms of budget. Clearly, writing centers have not historically received the same amount of financial support as, say, the athletic programs. The internet and its capabilities level the playing field to some extent. We can email other writing center tutors or show tutees online documentation guides, etc., and all for minimal cost.

One aspect of this article that I feel conflicted about, however, is the concept of electronic mentoring. Showing someone the OWL website is one thing, but the article promotes the idea of actually tutoring a student via email. The Clemson writing center chooses not to perform this function, but should we consider it? The author here confesses that electronic mentoring requires more subtlety than face to face tutoring, which, I believe, is an understatement. We could perhaps construct a list of frequently asked questions that students could access any time, but I feel that the tutoring experience should be more personal, more hands-on.

The article also mentions an online writing center, the WCenter. The author praises the WCenter for its accessibility and denouncement of the "crankiness" often seen in other academic fields. The author comments on the clowning and fellowship that goes on within the confines of WCenter. I couldn't help but think of some of the posts made by Gordy, Matt, and me on our blogs. We were embodying typical writing center mentoring without even knowing it.

I found the topic of electronic mentoring quite relevant to writing center pedagogy. As we move more and more into the use of digital media in our everyday lives, this issue will grow ever more fundamental. How should we approach tutoring in a digital age? Should we offer online tutoring sessions? Should we give up trying to give a personal feel to tutoring? For now, I say we definitely should not

3 or four things from the readings and their influence on my tutoring

First, I'd like to say that each of my four things come from last week's article. I found the article to be very interesting in light of issues I've been noticing concerning hierarchical relatiosnhips in the writing center. One idea presented in the article comes from John Trimbur's "Peer Tutoring: A Contradiction in Terms." Trimbur points to the "uneqal positions tutor and tutee often hold in terms of rhetorical knowledge and academic success" (CWH 97). With the recent wave of freshmen in the writing center, the inequality of the respective positions of the tutor and tutee becomes grossly apparent. The gap complicates the ideal of an equal, comfortable, and reciprocal collaboration. With these students, assuming the stance of peer tutor rather than "sage teacher" and thus providing each of the participants an equal share of authoity/power is difficult.

Second comes an idea presented by the author of "Power and Authority in Peer Tutoring" herself: "None of us likes to feel less empowered than another in interpersonal relations, students who enter writing centers should be made to feel as comfortable as possible" (98). Where does the tutees' comfort fall in the tutor's list of priorities? Personally, I find this author's emphasis on the comfort of tutees to be problematic. First and foremost comes the tutees' writing ability. Often, a mutual attempt made by the particants in the writing conference to improve the tutees' writing will be uncomfortable.

THREE: "To engineer peer tutoring techniques that divest the tutor of power and authority is at times foolish and can even be unethical. Yet to some degree, that is what writing centers have done. Much tutor training routinely includes community-endorsed noninterventionist claims, if not dogma, that instruct tutors to never hold the pen, neve write on a studnt's paper, never edit a student sentence or supply language in the form of phrases" (98). Are such instructions dogmatically and universally applicable in the writing center? There have been times, albeit few and far between, in which my providing a possible wording might have allowed the tutee a positive oppurtunity to discover their own potential for communication. They don't have the idea for a better wording; nor do they come up with a better wording when notified of a problem. Might I present an option to the tuttee if only to expose him/her to a new tool for the articulation of an idea?

FOUR: "Irene Clark . . . attributed the community's long commitment to nondirective peer tutoring not to saintly

Reading the Writing Center Part Deux

It is interesting to me that there has been scholarship devoted to a passive-agressive attack towards tutoring. Discussed in the article was the fact that many tutors tend to approach a difficult situation with a rather agressive attitude: a tutor encountered a difficult student who would merely concede to all of the tutor's suggestions, and, thus, the tutor began to give elaborate, and often negative, suggestions to counter-attack the student's passive attitude towards his writing approach. This, as was argued, can become a method by which tutors, having to deal with the frustration and often dissatisfaction that comes with tutoring, begin to approach their own tutoring. While erroneous, the article asserts that this is a "natural" method of approach-natural in the sense that it is a common approach to such problems. However, the author continues to claim that we, as tutors, must recognize the fallacy in this approach, and curb our instances of agression, for it is not the student that we are lashing at, but the frustration that is inherent in the writing process. This agression often runs counter-productive to our goals, leading the student to essentially blockade the tutor and his "attacks" with the typical self-defensive state of mind.
Still to me, though, the most fascinating thing I have discovered through the readings is the amount of writing center scholarship devoted to the various methods imbedded within tutoring. When you picture a writing center, you do not take into account the variables that are intrinsic in the tutoring process. Feminist perspectives, multicultrualist perspectives, emotional perspectives, developmental perspectives, psychological perspectives, all these elements bleed directly into the tutoring process, and often at the same time. One can both have a female student from Romania with a self-imposed psychological roadblock to the process of writing. In this one session, a tutor must address, simultaneously, the issue of English as a second language, the psychological issues imbedded within the student, and, if necessary, the issue of being a woman in an inherently patriarchal society. It would seem that being a writing center tutor would be simple: help student's with their papers, and possibly, in an ideal world, devleop themselves as writers. This is simply not the case. The tutor must be both a writer, a teacher, a psychologist, a sociologist, and a companion all in one. Simple is the last thing that follows becoming a writing center tutor.