Writing Center: close encounter with the students

Hey Readers,

One of the benefits of having a supervisor, who also teaches English, is having a supply of students to work with.  Our supervisor's class coincided with the writing center hours, so she ended her class a bit early so students could have a chance to check out the writing center.  It's been almost a year since I did tutoring a la Writing Center style thus I felt that the whole process would be "alien" to me; it's scary how I still remember my tutoring process.

The student demography that we're working with challenges us to adapt the "on-the-fly" approach.  We can't plan too far ahead, and we just have to be ready whenever.  We'll have a sign-up sheet for the week, but mostly, we'll operate on a "walk-in" basis. Today was an example of how it can be chaotic, but nothing 3 very efficient writing assistants can't handle.

I guess I was spoiled when I worked at Utah State University's Writing Center.  We had a receptionist who managed the appointments and room traffic.  At first a student came in, then followed by 2 more students, and then 5 students.  The great thing was that the students waiting congregated to an empty table and maintained their patience.  I used to get a 5-minute warning from the receptionist but not this time.  I had to be mindful of time on my own ( a 30-minute session which includes: intro, the works, the wrap-up ).

After establishing rapport, I briefly explained how I would collaborate with the student focusing first on content before the technical aspect, such as grammar.  And since we emphasize "writing as a process", it's okay if we don't address every issue during the first session because students are always welcome to come back many times.  The student then summarizes in his or her words what we worked on during the session, and what he or she plans to do for revision ( there's no guarantee that students will actually do it, BUT verbalizing an action is a good first step in taking responsibility and ownership of their writing ).

I worked with 2 students.  They smiled and laughed at my jokes ( to be nice ).  The first student's sentences were wordy almost becoming like a run-on sentence.  The evidence supporting her tentative thesis was getting lost.  The second student needed to work on her structure so her summary could be more concise and clear ( making sure the evidence matched with the main idea ).  At the end of the session, I encourage them to spread the word: "The Writing Center is here to help students at any stage of their writing: brainstorming, drafting, and revising."