The Task: A Guide for Tutors in the Rutgers WC

The coordinator states that the Rutger's WC is working under the assumption that the students who come for tutoring will be there for more than one session, but are the students actually doing that? if they are, then is the student working with the same tutor during all the visits? and if they are not is there a file that is kept on all students so that different tutors know where any particular student is in the writing centers personalized seemingly step-by-step process to bettering the student as a writer?
I wonder if the coordinator's assumption is actually true. I know that at City as a tutor I often see students once a semester and if I see them more than that, it is usually right before they have to hand in an essay. I do not have the opportunity to really make them better writers by giving them writing prompts and having them go through the writing process. We sit down and I work with them on the paper they have, but with the intention to use that paper as a means to explore persistent errors in grammar, mechanics and composition. I avoid line editing (mostly because organization is usually the issue and I see it as a waste to work with details that will most likely be cut). But there is an expectation on the part of the student and there is the desire on the part of the tutor to help the student do better now and in the future. What I see is a more systematized process at the Rutgers WC with the theory and process laid out in a handbook. City's WC gives the tutor more control in guiding the session. There is no guidebook; sure minimalism is the philosophy emphasized in all informational material, but the method for any individual session is left up to the tutor: the heuristic method is what we really practice.
I guess the approach at City is reacting to the students. If Rutgers is keeping to its assumptions, they are approaching all students regardless of whether they will be repeats or not with the same mindset. That works for the repeats, and I guess it prevents a perception of the WC as a fix it shop...

September 29, 2010 12:14 PM