Honestly, my biggest fear about beginning to tutor is that I'll fall into the trap of editing papers, not improving writers. I worry that I won't know the right kinds of questions to ask or that the student won't be receptive to my suggestions, which will make it easy to take on the impersonal role of editor/reviser. I also feel like it might be challenging to not just insert my own voice into the student's paper, thus silencing the student's voice. Throughout my entire academic career, I've simply edited my friends' papers and "fixed" their writing without actually helping them improve their writing process; this is exactly what we've been taught to avoid doing in this class. I will have to consciously remind myself that, as a tutor, my job is not just to help the student with their paper, but to help the student become a better writer. I believe the leading-question approach might be useful to me, so that I can still point out areas that I think need improvement, but in such a way that the student can figure out what needs to be corrected for themselves.
Otherwise, though, I feel relatively prepared to start tutoring my peers. I can't wait to observe my mentor next week so that I can begin to learn first-hand what a tutoring session is like.
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