Some Key Terms

The key concept that has helped me the most in the writing center has been reflection. Almost every time I have tutored, someone has asked me something like, “does my thesis make sense?” “is my argument clear?” “did I answer the prompt?” I think reflection has played a big role in my experience as a tutor. As a writer, you consider your intention for the paper, consider the prompt, read it, and reflect on it. But, as a tutor, you consider the prompt, read the paper, and you compare the two. The tutor perspective is more difficult because you are missing a few steps in the writing process. But it’s also easier because you can view the writing objectively and critically. I think that having this perspective as a tutor has enabled me to better reflect on my own writing. 

Another important concept has been constraints. I’ve been working with a lot of international students and it’s impossible to approach their work without a constraint: the language barrier between us, the language barrier on paper, the cultural influences of the international student. Some things are just hard to translate into English and it’s hard to help them when you don’t understand their language! It’s frustrating. The constraint remains no matter the audience.

Collaboration and conversation are two concepts that I think go together well. Collaboration I see as a little negative in the writing center. Sometimes I feel like I’m putting myself into their writing—while we are re-constructing sentences and re-phrasing and brainstorming, I feel like I’m infringing just a little bit on their original writing. But conversation is good. I love talking about writing. My favorite tutoring sessions have been the ones where we brainstorm and talk about their draft and their ideas. I think conversation is so important when it comes to writing because I feel like sometimes students in other disciplines don’t know that there is a community of people who write and care about good writing and talk about good writing. I also like to know that I’m part of that community.