Hey Kendra. This is Walter. Thought I should say that for clarification, even though I think we already shared this.

Enjoy your writing by being open to inspirations

(I wrote this a while ago, but posted it now. Please excuse the outdated parts. I assure you the message is still relevant.)

After several attempts of troubleshooting and appreciative but unavailing help, I welcome you all to my brain although many may not agree with what goes on in here. It is finally the week of Homecoming along with midterms. I commend the university for that unconventional combination and apparently the dark humor that influenced this decision. Nonetheless, whichever activities you choose as a priority, I promote the existence of writing. Anything can be a source of inspiration for writing if you allow it. I have engaged in that openness in several unorthodox activities. That ultimately helped with my writing samples. For example, I went to a gathering with a couple of my friends. What made it unusual was the fact that I didn’t know most of the people, however, we were talking for what seemed to be hours. The next day, I went into my tutoring session about an hour earlier than usual. I sat down and opened my notebook and wrote a two-page story within that hour. It was a story of children in a playground, but my adult friends were the inspiration behind it. I used their experiences with life and relationships to conjure up a replica of the innocence that they were involved in. In order to manifest the innocence of their nature into a comprehensive story, I morphed my friends into children and totally refabricated the story into an age-appropriate setting for the main characters. I still read the story several times only to laugh at my innuendos and it turned out to be one of my favorites. I encourage you to do the same! Even if you are involved with something that you absolutely love, or if it is something that you completely detest, expound on that. It is those emotions that you feel that will add the respected realism to your story that people love to relate to when reading. It is when you find that heart-felt connection with your writing that you will finally enjoy the sport. Happy writing everyone!

Writing Pedagogy

As you probably were, I was a bit daunted by the task of a writing pedagogy. I've never written one. Eventually I just followed the instructions on the PDF file provided and BB and it walked me through the process. We did not however get an example pedagogy to base ours on. This would have been quite helpful.

After turning in the rough draft, which I was very pleased with, I noticed that it was to be written on our tutoring philosophy, and not teaching philosophy. I really hope I'm not penalized for this, as I really feel like I have much more to say about teaching over tutoring.

I would really like to get some feedback from my rough draft so I can see how much work I have ahead of me in editing it and perfecting it. It definitely came out longer than I thought it would, and I feel like I discovered much about my teaching methods.

experience in RWC

I've got to admit, my favorite part of the class was definitely tutoring. It was a bit of a rough start though; there were two or three sessions I went to in which I sat there for two hours doing nothing because no one had scheduled an appointment with me. I felt like everyone else was getting the experience except for me, and felt that perhaps I was falling behind. I wish there was a cut off time, and if no one had scheduled with you to that point, you wouldn't have to show up. I never had a walk in during my whole experience tutoring.

Once the tutoring actually started, I feel like I picked up on it pretty quickly. I learned how to speak to people, and how to present myself. Not as a final authority on a paper, but rather a test audience to read through the paper together. I noticed that students where a bit surprised by my simplistic approach, but that they were receptive to it.

My most challenging session was one with a student who was in the final stages of a very long and dense paper on Greek mythology, a topic I'm not too well versed in. The paper seemed to be alright, although did have some issues, but the main problem was that it was so long we could not get through even half of it. I felt bad, but had to stop our session when my other tutor walked in. Another challenge was a student writing about social work who didn't want to go over content, but instead wanted me to "make sure" that her paper was in proper AMA format, again something I knew very little about. In the process I noticed some major problems in the content and presentation of her paper, but she didn't want to deal with that. She wanted to stick to format, so we basically just read through Perdue Owl together. At least I learned a bit about that format.

Best Experiences

With this week and the past few being so crazy with finals, papers, and all that jazz I thought everyone could use some positivity. This past Friday I had what I feel was probably my best tutoring session to date and felt so incredibly proud that I just wanted to share with everyone!

I saw the woman's name and her short little blurb of what she wanted to work on, all it said was "Doctorate lecture." Immediately, I began to get nervous. I'm a senior but still, I'm an undergrad. How could I possibly help this poor woman with her doctorate lecture? What even was that? She showed up early to her appointment and told me right away she was from Russia and English was her second language. Talk about another *gulp* moment for me! In perfect English however, she described to me exactly what her doctoral lecture was and basically she was giving a little speech/presentation before she would play the violin for the doctorate panel. Right off the bat she said she needed help with pronunciation of some of the words and knew some sentences were off but she was not sure how to fix them/make them sound more natural. Luckily it was an hour appointment, so she read the speech out loud for me and we stopped when there were problems. A lot of the time when I stopped her, she pointed out exactly what was wrong before I even had to ask if she thought what sounded strange. I tried to not be too directive and only had to be a handful of times when she just couldn't find the correct work/thought. Since she was my last appointment of the day (my next class had been cancelled), I offered to stay an extra 5 minutes since we were literally on her conclusion when time ran out.

As we were wrapping up and I asked her for any last minute concerns, she began saying that I shouldn't have stayed later than I had to and trying to get me out of there but I told her I really wanted to help her finish. She actually teared up a bit as she was getting ready to leave. The lady shook my hand and thanked me a million times. At one point I said I hoped I had helped her out and she just gave me this smile, it made everything so worth it. She looked so happy, reassuring me that I had helped her so much and she did not feel so nervous and scared about her speech and how much less stress she felt now. I helped her book one final appointment for this coming week so she can practice it on someone else but the final thing that made me so happy was she requested me! Unfortunately, it wasn't in her schedule to get at my time again but just the fact she thought of me was amazing. Sorry this turned out incredibly long but it really just was such a special experience. I truly felt like everything we've worked so hard for this semester came to fruition!

So now I'd love for you guys to share your favorite/best experience in the RWC! I have a few others but limited myself to one for now :)

Stressy Stress Stress Yes

The problem with having awesomesauce students is that there isn't really much to say. Most of them are pretty quiet, but I tend to get a few more vocal ones as I said earlier. So when it comes to the issue of tutoring, I've hit quite the writer's block. I thought I was going to get some interesting experience today, but in fact, today was rather chaotic and I had not one, but two walk-ins after a grad student made an hour long appointment, dropped, had an even more advanced level grad student replace her, and for him to cancel the appointment. I guess we're in that stressful time of year then, where decisions are made at the last minute and there is no turning back. The same goes for this class.

I asked Kendra the other day if we can put class/project related experiences in the blog and she said that yes, we could, since it helped contribute to the essence of the class.

I'm deeply invested in the art of tutoring and I'm interesting in knowing all about what makes FSU's writing center unique. I notice that every other week, it seems to expand. More opportunities are given at a wider range and I decided to make a newsletter. Overall, I had fun writing my articles and I had channeled my inner journalist, as I never had any experience with even the newspaper club in my high school, but my findings were pretty interesting.

For one, Dr. Wells is trying to make several different ways to have grad students tutor the grad students themselves. So that means that people like myself and Kati-Morgan below me won't have to worry about the questions they have for content in whichever thesis/dissertation they're in trouble with. However, like Kati-Morgan said, sometimes they book appointments with us for the purpose of grammar checking and to see if their sentences don't seem awkward, so common sense can really be utilized in these aspects.

The second finding in my project was that the tutor I had interviewed told me for his funny story was that he had these two guys walk in who asked him if he could help them use Photoshop to make counterfeit Two Chainz tickets.

I am not kidding. As you can imagine, I couldn't stop laughing for a while sometime. I mean, how can someone just walk in and do that? Do they go, "hey, I need tickets to go to this concert and I think I can get them done here." or some other scenario.

It's so funny doing this project, since I had managed to use three hours of tutoring up at the digital center while using InDesign, which was pretty tricky software. I think it was the trickiness of InDesign that made me crack, as the version they have in Williams Digital Studio isn't the same as the one in Stroizer or in Johnston, which brought some problems (mostly in printing) for me. I thought that overall this project was a great way to conclude this class, since I wanted to showcase my creativity (and using our crazy unicorn manatee mascot as the logo, which I love) and I realized that taking this class was indeed stressful, but if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing.

So what about you guys? Which project was the most fun you had in the class doing? Was it for your final? The narrative? The group project? Grammar file? Were they about as stressful to you as well? Are you just about as surprised as I am that someone tried to use our services for fake Two Chainz tickets? Any crazy/funny stories (like that hot chick Mayowa had)?

My first grad student.....AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

     So...it happened today.....I tutored my first graduate student. I have faced many challenges in my first couple of months as a tutor. Whether it was an dealing with ESOL students (finding the correct balance of helpful versus being flat-out directive) or students who just wanted me to fast forward through a session because it was mandatory for their class, but this graduate student was on a whole other level.

     From the moment she walked in I was nervous because I knew she was a graduate student, all-be-it I am not very far from her position and she wasn't an English focused grad student, I was still nervous about how the session was going to go. She came in with 5 versions of a paper that she had been writing over the course of the semester each COVERED in red-ink, marked up to the point that it made them difficult to read. (Not to judge a professor's grading style, but I have never even met the lady and she scares me). At the end of the semester this (soul crushing) professor left my tutee with very low writing self-esteem, not knowing what other direction to take her (analytic art) paper in or what changes to make. She brought in a fresh copy of her last revised draft and we went through it. There were a couple mistakes, but really nothing major enough that I would have spilled any ink over them. I was astounded...and at a loss for how to really help her. I offered what little criticism I could, explained which parts I thought were just terrific, and stressed to her how I really didn't know much about what the paper was discussing, but that it flowed, was cohesive, I understood her points and found them valid, without being knowledgeable in the field. We talked and talked, discussed her ideas, I asked her questions, she thoughtfully answered them, and she made a few changes as we talked. Through all this however, no major changes were made.

When we were wrapping up the session, out of nowhere she asked if she could make another appointment with me in the future to discuss other papers......................................................... << these dots are what my face said back, it was mystified and blank. I quickly recovered, however, and enthusiastically exclaimed, "Sure, I would love that!"

Although I am still not sure how much I really helped her and am still kind of confused about how what little  help I gave had her wanting to come back to me, I am thrilled! Graduate students aren't sooooo scary after all! :)

Plans After Tutoring?

     I can't believe this semester is almost over - I feel like I just got the hang of peer tutoring and now I'm graduating in two weeks and seeing my last students this Thursday!   
     Originally, I took this course so I could peer tutor in a graduate school writing center, but now that I've pushed graduate school aside for a year or two, I'll be using my skills to critique my own stories before I send them out for publications, and hopefully I can use my experience to land a job in meantime.  Maybe I can even write a story about my peer tutoring experiences and get it published (with names changed, of course).
     I also read in Tashawn's post that she plans to be a teacher, and I'm glad she's able to get some experience peer tutoring before teaching in the classroom.  I know some of us are going on to ENG 4905, but I was curious to see what everyone's goals are for tutoring.  So now I'm curious to see what everyone's goals are for the end of the semester and beyond.  I know some of us are going on to ENG 4905, but I was curious to see what everyone's goals are for tutoring - what drove you to peer tutoring and what will peer tutoring help you accomplish in future?

Feigning Confidence in the Wake of Intimidation

"Is this in your area of expertise?" That's the first question I was asked when my tutee last week presented me with her personal statement for grad school. I wasn't really sure how to respond, but I smiled politely and said I could definitely look it over and go from there. 

Okay well, number one, reading personal statements out loud kind of sucks. Not only do you encounter personal bits and pieces of someone's life that you're dishing out to the whole writing center within the first few minutes of making an acquaintance, but there are a lot of long lists, technical terms, and names of organizations that are really hard to pronounce. Secondly, it's hard to address issues in a personal statement because there's a lot of information to be included that doesn't necessarily flow together, not to mention the fact that people are usually right around their character limit and don't have much wiggle room to work with. 

So after I stumbled my way through her essay, I found myself feeling intimidated. I had not had a student come to me with a personal statement before, and so from the question she asked when she arrived, to the killer resume I had just read, I kind of felt like I was out of my league. I didn't let it show, however, and maintained a sense of confidence throughout the session. As it turns out, I wasn't out of my league at all. Not only was I able to help her address her main issue of putting personality into her statement, but I also was able to help her with a sense of cohesion by suggesting various ways of transitioning from one topic to the next. The tutee even planned to make another appointment with me next week! From the way I felt at the beginning of the session, I never would have imagined I could feel so confident in myself by the end.

Bonding over Biology

So I had, what I feel, was the best tutoring experience this week.  I had a tutee who came in seeking help with a proposal letter for a professor's research project.  He felt that all he needed was someone to look at how it was structured and help with little grammatical errors.  As a walk-in, what we felt would be a quick 30 minute session, turned into an hour long intense session.  He already had the letter written and together we read it aloud and went over it paragraph by paragraph.  I was more hands on with him then I'd been in other sessions.  We actually discussed what he wanted to say and I helped him word it in a way that his point came across very clear. Through the session we discussed his past, I showed him how he could "show" more (even in a proposal letter), and we shared laughs.  I've never been a fan of biology or science, but reading his proposal letter and hearing about the research was exciting.  We really had a great time working on his paper, it didn't seem stressful or forced at all; in the end we both ended the seeing feeling positive about the work.  Overall, he was a model tutoring session.

Comfortable with tutoring

I'm not sure exactly what made this tutoring experience so much different than all the others, but the two sessions I had last week were awesome. I think the reason things went so smoothly can be partially attributed to the level of comfort I've felt recently in the writing center. Instead of going in and getting asked, "hi, do you have an appointment?", I've been greeted with smiles, friendly greetings, and people who now remember my name.

As I walked into the writing center last Thursday, the girl I was tutoring first had gotten there early and was already waiting for me when I arrived. I usually don't like to be rushed in any situation, so I was surprised with how calm and comfortable I felt jumping right in without getting much of a chance to situate myself. The tutee seemed to be a little all over the place in terms of her writing assignment. She told me that you could pick any movie from the class you wanted and write about it and that was all I had to work with in regards to the prompt. I wasn't familiar with the movie she had seen and well, neither was she. I eventually started reading her essay aloud, though, and as we got to about page 3 (of a 7 page paper), it was apparent that my tutee's attention span was waning. I'm not sure she was listening at all to what I was reading and I think I even saw her texting. Rather than get mad, or tell her to pay attention, I found it pertinent to change my strategy. I recognized her writing style to be similar to mine, circa ENC1101: a decent writer, not too bad with grammar, but a little hasty and unorganized. I can remember writing freshmen papers that amounted to one really long strain of conciseness. The problem was usually rooted in the fact that I didn't have a thesis, and thus, didn't know how to structure my paper.

So okay, rather than pursue with the mundane task of reading through her paper right off the bat, I had her talk to me a little bit more about the direction she wanted this paper to go in. I had noticed a few reoccurring topics, and so that's where we started. We pulled out what she felt were the most important topics or themes of the movie she had chosen to write about and then discussed what made them important in the movie. Before I knew it, we had together composed a short list that would amount to a pretty decent thesis and, subsequently, a good paper if executed properly. I had her put all the ideas together and take a minute to put together a thesis statement. After we had a good idea of how to structure the paper off of the thesis she had composed, we then went through and re-read it. We figured out how to reorganize the paragraphs to make them flow in conjunction with her thesis. This paper that I initially thought was a complete mess of thoughts was really coming together!

This session was really cool. We laughed a few times, I shared a personal story about a similar writing experience, and the tutee left feeling like they had a good grip on their paper. I also feel like I gave her some important tips that she will be able to use in future papers, regarding theses and basic structure.

Met a dragon, had a fiery conversation.

A few Tuesdays ago I had the best tutoring session yet, not because it went well but because it was a total mess and I still managed to keep it together. I had a very attractive client (this is important) who was leaving for Thanksgiving and had a stack of essays that would be due for each of her classes right after the vacation so she made an appointment at the Johnston center with the intention to hand them to me and browse Facebook on her cellphone until I was done marking all the errors.

The first was an ENC1101 paper that required her to interview an instrumental member of her community and write about their passion for public service. I asked the student what she'd written and she was resistant to saying anything more than that the paper was about a girl scout leader in her Miami neighborhood. She totally ignored me and continued to point at the paper when I asked her to elaborate on this. This seemed weird since it seemed like a very personal paper; thinking of the situation now, I feel like someone else wrote this paper for her. However, she was hot and I was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.

I tried to get her to read her own work out loud and she refused, so I began to read it out loud. This is where I began to get annoyed since it was obvious that I was reading the paper to myself. It was poorly developed and obviously written towards the word count, so I stopped to ask her about Mrs Johnson-- the topic of the paper-- in hopes that the conversation would spark something that she felt would make this paper stronger. I asked "How would you ideally want Mrs Johnson to feel when she reads this? If you had to write a recommendation or a eulogy (God forbid) for her, does this do her justice?" The client had no answers, she had checked out and wanted to be done. The few times she said something, it was along the lines of "I just came to get my grammar checked". She also wanted my signature on the draft to show that she had taken the draft to the writing center. I continued to let her know that her punctuation and grammar were secondary issues in this paper and I could not ignore the bigger issues for the sake of her writing and my reputation.

Eventually she snatched her papers off the table and began to yell about how she was going to ACE to find a better tutor because she had to get home for Thanksgiving. I lol'd. I was never that aggressive but can remember having so little invested in my writing that I could've had a similar attitude back in my freshman year, I wonder how she'll turn out in the next 4 years.

It's Over Already?!

Today was my last day of tutoring for this semester. :( I am usually always so thrilled for the semester to be ending but when it comes to this peer tutoring class and the experiences I have had tutoring in William Johnston, I'm sad to see it coming to an end. I truly cannot look back on any of my tutoring sessions with anything but positive thoughts. I know there are things I wish I had said or done while in a session but I think I have learned and am continuing to learn from these instances, so I really could not call them regrets.

Sometimes I think of what we all have been doing at the Reading and Writing Centers as a job, we are all "working" as tutors. However, it's hard for me to label it as work because I have enjoyed it so much. I love talking about writing and I like to encourage students that they do have the ability to write well, especially since so many students who come in to get tutored give off the impression that they are not confident in their writing skills. They may need feedback on their ideas, grammar assistance, a push in the right direction or maybe their whole paper needs to be rerouted. No matter what the issue, I find that I enjoy tackling it because I like to see these students learning. I can't help but get invested in their work particularly because I can relate entirely to the confusion, stress and anxiety felt when working on and submitting an assignment.

On a different but related note, I'd like to bring up one of my tutoring sessions today which turned out to be interesting. It was actually pretty funny to me because I had just read Shea's blog post about her red pen issue when I found myself encountering the same problem. I think I would have been a lot more frazzled and completely thrown off if I had not read that post and the comments, so thank you for that! In my session it happened to be an orange pen, which isn't quite as hostile as red but there was no way I was going to let this student put that pen in my hand, no matter how many times she kept pushing it in my direction. I simply told her it would probably be easier for her to decipher the comments later if she wrote them herself. It worked really well and I think it actually helped her to notice her mistakes a lot quicker since she was taking an active part in our session. She's an ESL student and mainly needed help with grammar. During the session I pointed out a word that she had made singular and explained to her why it should be plural, I was then so pleased to notice that when she made the same mistake again she was able to recognize it on her own without me having to say anything. These small yet gratifying moments are what make tutoring worthwhile for me and, looking at the other posts on our blog, it seems like everyone else can relate. 

Why I loath 30 mintue sessions

     So, as I'm sure you've gathered from the tittle, I am not so fond of thirty minute sessions. Why? I think it's because I'm Cuban.. Meaning, I talk too much. This may be indicative of a flaw in my tutoring, but I think its just reflective of my tutoring style. That's right fools, I gots' style! 
     On a serious note, I am really conversational in my tutoring sessions as I feel that it is beneficial for every facet of my teaching/ tutoring approach. I really enjoy to build rapport with my tutees, through conversation, joking, questions, and overall friendliness. It brings down the apprehension level of the student because, after all, a stranger is about to read their writing. This isn't easy for everybody.
     I always begin my sessions by asking them for a rubric, what their class is about, and what their essay is about. Then I converse a tad bit, just to see what they are like and to, hopefully, have a couple of laughs. I solemnly decree laughter to me MANDATORY for tutoring sessions (Authoritative, raspy, deep voice)!!!!!! :)  I know it does wonders for me. Of course it doesn't happen every session, but when it does, I feel the wall between them and I just melt. After I've spend about five, seven, sometimes ten minutes (when we're really enjoying our conversation) then I move on to the paper. Again, this isn't every time.
     I know that might sound crazy, but check out my reasoning. I enjoy one hour sessions because it achieves three important things for me.
     First, I have the right amount of time to be non-directive. When I have thirty minutes sessions I feel as though I am forced to be more directive, because I really want to address everything. I am put in an uncomfortable position of either being directive and knowing that a lot of what I address wont make a permanent impact on the student's writing, or being non-directive, as I like, and risk running out of time and not being able to cover everything. Lose-lose.
     Secondly, I want to build a friendship with the student. Why? Two reasons: I like having friends, and I want them to come back to the tutoring center. I want their first tutoring session with me to be the catalyst that leads them to become "regulars" in the Lab. This continuity of tutoring really helps cement any lesson we are trying to get across to the student, thus making our tutoring much more efficient. If we are truly attempting to make better writers, not better papers, then we must aim for this.
     Lastly, I want our sessions to be long, and their visits to be frequent, because I am trying to be a better tutor to Foreign and Non-English speaking students. This is an interest of mine (being myself an immigrant) as well as a topic of research for various class projects. In having a longer tutoring session, the tutee and I have more time to talk, thus improving the language proficiency of the student by framing language withing a social context. My ESL Education textbook has reiterated many times that deep, meaningful acquisition of language happens best when part of real communication. Thus, being non-directive with ELLs is doubly good, as we improve their language acquisition simply by conversing, all while addressing the content that needs to be addressed. Win-win.
     So basically, my loathing of thirty minute sessions stems from my love of 1 hour sessions. Coming from a teacher perspective, it makes total sense for me to adopt this stance; it is beneficial in every way. Then again, the session might not call for one hour. Maybe the paper is in solid shape, not that long, and only demands thirty minutes of attention. And, after all, there are lots of students that need tutoring.
     Obviously there is no one right way to tutor, and our best skill will always be our adaptability. But as far as my sessions have gone, there is often something else that needs to be addressed, and thirty minutes simply isn't enough for me.

     So what do you think? I am interested in your responses. :)

A "Red Pen" Case

For this post I want to share a challenging appointment with all of you on the blog. I had a girl come in for a half hour session last week. She was working on a paper for a humanities class, analyzing a painting and the artist. It was research-y but she had some of her own opinion in there as well. Before even saying hi to me she sat and started telling me all the things I needed to do for her/ to her paper. She proceeded to practically thrust a red pen into my and and scooted her paper in front of me; it was completely up side down to her. Well, I'm exaggerating a little but she did put a red pen in front of me. A red pen. And by pushing her paper away from herself, it seemed like she was just going to wait patiently while I edited and not engage with me in the slightest. I moved the her paper back towards the middle of us and told her she could mark up her paper while I read it allowed and we talked about it. I was glad that she communicated all of her concerns but I didn't like how she was trying to force me into using a directive approach. In my sessions, I like to focus on being a mere facilitator to help the tutee improve their writing themselves. I find that approach to be the most effective. She wasn't rude about it or anything like that; I think she just didn't understand and I think she had never been to the writing center and thus, shared that misconception that many people may have of us: that writing center tutors are editors for the the student body.

I felt like a managed to salvage the session when I gave her some ideas to lengthen the piece and improve her conclusion (both of which were some of her main concerns). Once she realized that I wanted to talk about everything she did engage with me, which allowed me to conduct the session in a non directive manner.

I'm wondering if anybody else has encountered a "red pen" case? And if so how did you handle yourself?

Awesomesauce Students

I don't know about you, but I've got to tutor some pretty awesome people so far. I know I've got one more tutoring session left, but I want to make the most of it like I always do. People often tell me that I am the human equivalent of Grumpy Cat (my boyfriend, sister, friends, etc), but when I'm at at Williams-Johnston at the tutoring center, my grumpiness seems to go away. I turn into a really friendly person with concerns and a smile plastered on her face. I try my hardest to make sure that there won't be a situation that could potentially arise that could bring disaster among my tutees, because they're turning to me and it is under my responsibility to give them the treatment they deserve and the calming environment they need to assure that everything will be alright with their work. 

That's why I always make sure I have coffee Monday mornings so that I can be pumped and ready to go, because nothing would suck more than to be falling asleep on your tutees. I also go visit Mom and Pop's by Diffenbaugh, or when I'm lucky, La Lola Loca at Landis when they're there, because unfortunately, they're like Haley's Comet. 

So far, I've been extremely lucky with my tutees. Even the quieter ones have been open towards me and have told me what their concerns are, their strengths, weaknesses, and which sentences are troubling them the most in their essays. A couple of weeks ago, I had a tutee who was pretty much the ideal in the Minimalist Tutoring article in Murphy's Handbook. This guy would ask me all of the question, show his concerns point-blank, and would join me in reading his sentences out loud so that there wouldn't be error. He knew of his bad habits with the experience of his past research papers and asked me to point out any if I had seen them, and most times, he would catch them as I kept reading. Out of all of the people I've helped tutored, this guy was pretty memorable and was with the hour long session because even I learned some interesting facts on his paper that I applied in a future (by then) paper myself, as well as his research skills and information. 

I've always pictured tutoring to be like this. You meet people and you get something in return. Sometimes, it won't be tiny tidbits like how the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) protested Delta Airlines for not having diverse stewardesses, or how Belgians base their romantic attachments on a complete open-book mentality and how secrets are taboo to them. Sometimes you get something else deep down inside when you tutor people, especially those who seek the help they need and give you direction on where to go, these guys give you a deep sense of satisfaction and a need to keep on doing this, because this is the right thing to do. 

And because of that, I lose all sense of grumpiness for the rest of the day.    

Improvements Abound!

So I finally feel confident in saying that I had a really great tutoring session! Of course, I think most of my sessions have gone pretty well so far but there is always that sense of doubt as to whether I am really helping a student to improve. However, during one of my tutoring sessions a few weeks ago I could instantly tell that we were getting somewhere. The student I was tutoring was so invested in her paper and really wanted to do well since the last paper she had written for her class received a D. I'll admit that I felt a bit overwhelmed in the beginning when she was describing all her struggles with this class so far. I almost felt responsible for whether she was going to pass this class or not and I was rushed with anxious thoughts like "how on earth can I provide this girl with the ample amount of guidance she needed in just an hour's time?"

I remained calm though and tried to focus on the major issues she was having with this paper such as the structure, organization and coherence of ideas. Somehow we managed to accomplish a lot by the end of the session. I felt assured that this student would be able to take everything we talked about and create a well written and clearly developed paper. I could sense a slight lack of confidence in her and realized I wasn't the only one that needed some reassurance. I told her that she was a good writer and capable of getting this paper done, which wasn't just an attempt to boost her ego but something I really felt to be true.

Even though I had already thought our session went over amazingly well, I gained an even greater sense of confidence when this same student came into the William Johnston center this week to tell me she had received a B on her paper! I was floored by the vast improvement she had made from her last paper and felt glad that I was a part of her success. This experience really helped me gain a better sense of my skills as a tutor.

Tutoring Cycle

I was so excited when it was time for us to begin tutoring.  This was the reason I took the class in the first place, I wanted some hands on experience.  Although I had tutored in the past, it was always friends and people I knew so it really didn't count.  As an aspiring teacher I was looking forward to the hands on experience.  Well first few weeks were anything but that, unfortunately.  I had NO appointments, zero, and I became discouraged.
Here I was, stuck in Johnston ground just twiddling my fingers each week.  The problem was my location and time.  When I first came here there were over 10 tutors here, most of them experienced and who would sit right up front and take all of the appointments and walk-ins.  I began to get upset, not at them but at the fact that I felt I would never tutor.  Then Mid-Term week came.
That week before Thanksgiving break was so fun and hectic.  Everyone wanted to get tutored, there was mayhem here in Johnston.  We all had full schedules and there was a line of walk-ins.  I finally got the hands on tutoring that I wanted and I loved it!
But that was just one day, one week.  Here I am back and ready to tutor and with only one appointment scheduled.  The great thing is, I've learned from the past weeks and I'm no longer getting discouraged because I have no appointments.  I'll just sit here and wait anxiously twiddling my fingers until Finals week.

One-hour Sessions vs. Half-hour Sessions

     Does anyone dread one-hour sessions as much as I do?  I don't know if it's my previous experience with one-hour sessions, my fear of wasting an hour with a student because I don't know how to fill the time, or a combination of both, but I don't necessarily jump for joy when I see one scheduled on the Reading-and-Writing Center website.
      The first week I was tutoring, I felt like half-an-hour was way too short for a tutoring session.  I had three sessions back to back, and while the first one went well, in the second session my student wanted me to read over a rather long paper for her because she had had problems with her professor on grammar in previous papers.  I felt so rushed (mainly because she felt rushed, too, since the paper was due the next day), and even though I tried to help her with her writing by talking to her about how to develop a particular rhetoric for her paper (the tone was a little too colloquial, and it was affecting her grammar), by the time the thirty minutes were up I had only gotten to the second page.  She immediately ran off to sign up for another session with a different tutor and I sat there feeling so disappointed with myself because I hadn't accomplished as much as I wanted to in that session.
     As I got more comfortable with tutoring, however, I was able to calm down and focus quickly on what needed to be addressed within the time limit, even finishing a few sessions five minutes early.  I focused more on creating a discussion about the material or suggesting how to counter a problem like generalization rather than reading every sentence in a paper and suggesting how to improve the rhetoric for each one.  I got used to half-hour sessions, so when I received a few one-hour sessions, I wasn't sure how to deal with them.  In the first one, I appreciated the time limit because of the length of the student's paper, but I had a hard time talking to the student for that long because he was so flustered about the vague instructions and harsh criticisms his professor had about his paper.  I was able to make a few points about organizing a particular paragraph in chronological order to emphasize a point and I tried to interpret his professor's instructions for him, but there were moments where I felt like I was repeating myself or I wasn't sure what else to say.
     The second one (I hope) was an exceptional case, but it still rattled me.  Like a lot of my students, she was flustered by her professor's instructions, but the difference was her paper was due by 2:00, and she had scheduled an appointment with me from 12:30-1:30.  She had gotten little sleep and was running on Starbucks and her nerves, and she needed help organizing what she had written into an argument.  I helped her the best I could (and honestly it wasn't that bad of a paper, aside from the organization), but by the end I was watching her hastily type up her footnotes and rush out the door. 
     Thankfully, the last one-hour session was less painful.  The student had come in needing some help brainstorming her paper on The Seven-Year Itch, and we discussed potential scenes she could use to support her argument on gender roles, ending the session in half-an-hour.  Still, I think I prefer half-an-hour sessions because not every case is easy to tackle, and not every student is willing to be responsive and engage in discussion.  I want to know if anyone has advice for tackling these hour-long sessions, or if anyone has had any similar experiences.  Do you prefer half-an-hour or hour-long sessions, and why?

I HAVE A REGULAR!!

I know we heard that it is rare, and that if you do get a regular it is because you are doing too much "fixing" or whatever. But I now have a girl who has come to me 3 times and is planning on a fourth and fifth time. Being aware of the reading and people who have said that regulars are usually so because you do too much "fixing" and not enough tutoring, I have had a few other more experienced tutors in the writing center sort of eavesdrop and evaluate my sessions with her to see how they match up with their style. They say I'm doing great, so I take that as a good sign. And every time she comes to me she has a different writing "issue" and the stuff we have gone over in previous meetings is not eradicated but definitely improved.
I love having a regular because that is the kind of person I am. I regularly go to one girl in the tutoring center (I have tried a few other tutors due to timing issues but I still love this girl the most for the projects I have been working on). I think being and having a regular is great because you really do build a relationship with that tutor and you come to value and trust their opinion as a "practiced audience." 
It's also nice to hear back from the student about how their paper ended up, not grade-wise but their satisfaction with the piece they turned in and if their teacher liked the changes and modifications that were made when the teacher had seen the draft previous to the writing center visit.
I've also found that the other tutors I have come to know and respect their style in the writing centers do have those regulars. I don't know if they have been mandated that they have to work like that or if they do it because they love the experience and the help. I know I am the later.
Truly the writing center has enriched my life both as a tutee and as a tutor.
Do any of y'all have regulars or have the people you seen been one timers?
Do you think that regulars are a result of too much "fixing" like we read and heard from others?

Focused on Writing

I've been putting off this blog post for a while because initially, I was feeling like I didn't have anything to write about in regards to my writing center experiences. I kept thinking that something really memorable would happen and that I would have an interesting story to share. As the weeks have gone by though, and I've attended more shifts in the writing center, I realize that as I tutor more students, I find myself becoming a better reader/writer and that was something I hadn't really seen coming.

Reading comprehension was never my strong suit. It wasn't that I didn't understand what I was reading, or that the material was too difficult to understand, it's just that my mind seems to always travel elsewhere if not properly engaged. It doesn't matter what the subject matter; I can be really interested in something, but still find myself wandering off mentally. I thought this would be an issue when I started tutoring. Sometimes it takes me a while to read through something and stay focused enough to see how it flows; this was a flaw in my own drafting/revision process. However, as my sessions have progressed, I've realized that I'm improving. I suppose previous to tutoring in the writing center, I hadn't had much exposure to student work. But now that I am on a frequent basis, I pay attention to the various tones and voices the students chose to implement; I focus on the thesis statement and am mindful of how it is carried out in the paper. Each of these techniques allows me to stay tuned in on what I'm doing, and simultaneously allows for critical thinking skills I can apply back to my own writing. Through these tutoring sessions, I've become more familiar with the way the essay works and that has not only allowed me to focus throughout a session, but also to better analyze my own writing.

Having fun in the lab

     Continuing the thread of positive and cool experiences within the Tutoring Lab, I will talk about some of the good experiences I have had in the small amount of times I have tutored thus far in the semester. I say: "small amount of times" because two of the Mondays which I was supposed to be tutoring in were cancelled. One for National Tutoring day and the other for Veteran's day. Oh well.
    These fulfilling and rewarding sessions are a stark contrast to my very first time tutoring someone, which I felt really uncomfortable and useless in. I've mentioned this in class already so it should ring a bell. The uncomfortable session was so because I was not familiar with what the tuttee needed of me; I've never had to write a statement of purpose for grad school and so felt utterly unsure of whether I was actually helping her or just giving her a false sense of security through my positive and encouraging attitude toward the her letter.
     So far I've had two experiences that really were great and which greatly motivated me to continue this whole tutoring thing. One of those times dealt with a student's near finished product and the second was brainstorming. In the brainstorming session we spoke for a long time about the whole theme she was tackling and somehow I was able to provide her with some really neat ideas on how to create something narrow but deep, as well as very engaging.
     This could have never happened unless it was an hour long session. At the risk of digressing I must mention that I really hate 30 minute sessions. Does anyone actually feel like they really help in 30 minutes? Maybe I'm just slow, yeah that sounds right.
     Anyways, the other one went as follows. The student came in with this really great paper on hip hop and some of its modern social and cultural underpinnings. I corrected very minor details as we read the paper but by the time I finished it felt that there was really nothing I could do for this students, because I felt the paper was excellent already..    Then he asks me to help him with his conclusion, which at first I was at a total loss as how to approach. I began to tell him my thoughts on what an effective conclusion looks like and detailed how they tend to be. This was a non directive approach that I've been utilizing so far. However it didn't do much for him; he was still at a loss. This was kind of weird because the paper was so good that I really didn't understand why he was having trouble capping the whole thing. Then, in a directive manner, I realized what was missing. I told him that something he had mentioned in all three of his mini theses was that of power roles and the structure of power. Basically the hidden thesis to his essay. We addressed this and he had no problem writing his conclusion. The paper was DEFINITELY an A+. :)
      So I'm not sure how to conclude this, on a comical note. I think the best thing to do is to say that we cannot allow ourselves to become discouraged. For every session in which you feel incompetent in there are two or three sessions in which you will definitely make a big difference in a student's paper. And man, that is a good feeling. Even if you feel like a fish out of water, stick to it. After all, two brains are better than one. This is especially true when one of those brains has been trained (peer tutoring class) to tap into and promote the intelligence and creativity of the other. Don't you think so?
     

Feeling Needed & Getting Comfortable

After not having many appointments in the past couple of weeks, twiddling my thumbs in Johnston was getting pretty boring. But today, I felt so busy; we were borderline overwhelmed in there, but it was awesome. It felt really good to be needed during my time slot. I had three back-to-back appointments and they all went really well. Some people have been mentioning on the blog how good it feels when you've had a really successful tutoring appointment. I can definitely attest to that after my experiences today.

First, I had an hour long appointment. This one was the hardest because the tutee was so quiet and it was really hard to get her to communicate with me. Thirty minutes into the session, I finally felt like I was getting somewhere with her because we were talking about different ways she could words some sentences and where she could add more examples from the film into her paper (She was analyzing a movie in terms of race or gender for a multicultural film class). Before she started to really engage with me, I felt like I was just line editing. But then she started asking me a lot about how to cite her sources and she began coming up with the corrections as I read aloud instead of me doing by myself. At that point I felt like the non directive facilitator as she improved her own paper.

My second appointment was my best one yet because those thirty minutes were so much fun. This tutee was writing a personal essay/narrative about a trip to Paris. He had a very short rough draft, so I made the decision to only focus on higher level concerns (no sentence level stuff). I read through the two pages he had so far out loud. Then we just talked about where he could go next with it in order to expand and lengthen the piece. We had a really relaxed, fun conversation about his trip. He told me what he did, what he saw, his experiences, why this trip was important to him, etc. A lot of his writing was "telling" instead of "showing," so our conversation helped him realize all the details he could include in his essay. I felt really comfortable and confident during this session because I had a lot of ideas to help him with his paper. When he left, he was really appreciative and said that I had helped him  a lot, so of course that made me feel pretty good. Tutoring is really rewarding in that way. I realize not all appointments may go this smoothly, but I'll hold on to this feeling and use it as motivation to keep improving as a tutor.

Positively Positive

After reading Jared's post, I became inspired to share my first, "yay!" moment as a tutor. I stumbled upon one of the best tutoring experiences I could have hoped for during my very first appointment as a tutor. The tutee, "Amy", shall be her name, came in wanting to brainstorm on an essay she had to write on the ABCFamily show "Pretty Little Liars". We first discussed the essay's requirements and then, since I had never seen "Pretty Little Liars" Amy filled me in on the need to know information. Amy already had some ideas and she seemed focus in on the the prevalent issue of bullying within the show and today's society. Amy then told me that she was having trouble starting her essay; she was having trouble finding direction.  After these discussions, it was pretty clear that if Amy came up with a thesis she would be able to write out her essay pretty quickly (she basically had the essay written in her head and had unknowingly already shared it with me, which I told her). I discussed with Amy what a good thesis usually maintains: it is interesting, concrete and specific, and focused. I asked her if she could think of a way to frame the issues she wanted to discuss in a sentence or two, that encompassed what she wanted to say, and that also tried to follow these guidelines. She threw out a few ideas, but didn't seem to confident in them, second guessing herself. I then tried to illustrate for her how good her ideas already were and that she just had to fit them in an order that explained their purpose. Discussing how a thesis should make an argument or a case and giving examples like: [ "This" reveals "this" and "that"] or [Although it seems like " this", "that" actually proves "this"]. While discussing these points, something clicked with Amy, she wrote down a thesis really quickly and asked me what I thought? After reading it I told her I thought it looked great and conveyed basically the whole message she had been explaining to me at the beginning of our session. I addressed an issue of the use of "I" in a thesis and asked her if she could rework it to say the same thing without using "I". After she thought about it for about 10 seconds she rewrote it and was extremely pleased. Our session was about two minutes from it's limit and I asked her if she felt better about the direction of her paper and if she felt like she could start writing it now. Amy said she was very excited about it now and when she left the RWC she was going to start writing it. I wished her luck, told her I thought her paper was going to work out pretty well, and that she was welcome to make another appointment after she had written some of it. Amy then thanked me and left. This is what I thought the tutoring would be like and I loved it. I learned and shared my knowledge too! It was fabulous! Obviously, there were a few things afterwords I thought I would have said differently or thought of later and wished I could have shared with her, but don't you feel that way with everything sometimes? Since this session, I have experienced quite a few sessions not as smooth flowing as this one. On a couple of occasions I  felt out of my league and wondered if I actually helped a tutee. But each time, I seem to learn something and I end with a smile on my face looking for a smile on their's (at the same time hoping that doesn't come off weird....lol), and each time I find it. :) Although, I am sure one day I won't  find a smile on their face and I might not have helped every tutee with exactly what they are looking for, that is my goal and I will keep working towards it as best as I can manage.

Staying Positive.

Taste of Success

On Tuesday, I had my first "successful" tutoring session. This was only my second session and my first one wasn't bad, but Tuesday was the first time that I really felt helpful and like I had everything under control. A freshman student came in because she needed help on a religion paper. She had already written an outline but needed help forming a thesis sentence. I had her read parts of her outline aloud and we talked about the assignment and about what points she wanted to make in her paper. We then focused the discussion on the main point she wanted to write about, and I shared with her some tips for creating a thesis sentence. She wrote a thesis during the session, and we worked on it until she had rewritten it twice, and we were both satisfied with it. She left the session confident and ready to begin work on her rough draft. As I said, this was my first successful session, and it was also the first time I experienced the rush of good feelings that comes from knowing you've genuinely helped somebody else. It's an awesome feeling and it makes all of the hard work invested in this class feel worth it. I look forward to honing my tutoring practice so that I can help many others in future sessions.

Actually Feel Like I Helped

I had a tutoring session the other day and he was prepared for the session! He had a paper on a burger king advertisement for his ENC1101 class, so I felt confident having already taking this class. He had already turned in three drafts and was going to turn in his final draft that week. We discussed his teachers comment then read his paper aloud, making corrections as we went. There were some suggestions I had made for him to change and he told me that his teacher didn't comment on that so he didn't want to change it. This is a moment where I felt conflicted and didn't know what to do, so I moved on to help him expand his paper knowing that he needed to add at least two more pages. In my mind I wanted to press for him to change these grammatical mistakes, but at the same time I know that the writing centers focus is not on direct tutoring (although that may be changing), any suggestions on what I should have done?  

Another thing that I have noticed, in multiple sessions, is that a lot of tutees don't understand how to create citations. I'm not an expert but I have used Purdue Owl to help in these sessions. Maybe the writing center could carry guides to MLA and APA formatting?

In the session I helped him come up with ideas to expand his papers. Who is the audience of the paper, who is the audience of the advertisement? He left with enough ideas to finish his paper and thanked me for my help. In this session I actually felt as though I helped. I felt more prepared for the session, having already taken the class and this has been my best tutoring experience so far.

Tutoring Experiences So Far

My first experience tutoring was when I co-tutored, and I was overwhelmed with mixed emotions. The tutor that I co-tutored with had set me up with a person that he thought would be a good starter appointment. When the girl came in the other tutor explained that I was a first time tutor, so that put the pressure off, and then pretty much let me do the appointment on my own. We went through introductions and I asked what her paper was on to get the appointment started. She began to tell me that she was finished with the paper and it was due tomorrow and the only thing that she had changed since her last appointment was the title. Siren bells went off in my head, oh god please let me be able to help her in some way! I shake my fears off and put the knowledge I have learned thus far into my head. She explains that the paper is really a set of poems from personal journals they wrote in class. From the minute I looked at her paper, I could tell it was filled with a lot of very personal information, including deaths and accidents in her family, so I felt uncomfortable asking her to read it aloud. I made a judgment call and decided not to read it aloud, but keep her engaged in the appointment. From the get go I was completely amazed with her writing! I understood that she had had previous appointments and was pretty much done with it, but besides one minor mistake I couldn’t find anything wrong with it. So I just gave positive feedback about her writing and how she captured the imagery her teacher seemed to want. She had changed her title and I told her that it connected with her theme better, of never giving up and perseverance. She ended her last poem on a sad note so I suggested that she may want to think about putting the positive theme more at the very end. Then at the end of the appointment, which she booked for an hour, we sat and talked and she thanked me and then left. I was a bit disappointed, wondering if this was the way it was going to be every time! I felt like I was no help to her at all, but I knew that I had done the best I could and I suppose that every appointment is different and that I can’t be a fair judge until I have more experience.

Well today I had a completely different experience. A girl came in and was a walk-in so I offered to help her. She seemed frazzled and overwhelmed from the beginning, so I tried to remain calm. She pulled her paper up and I asked her what her topic was, which she then pulled up on her laptop. After reading through the topic I asked her if she could read her paper aloud and if there were any mistakes we could figure them out together. She immediately seemed to get annoyed and said the paper was really long, so I told her I would read it aloud and told her to stop me if she heard anything out of place. I find out her paper has to deal a lot with sexuality in Ancient Greece. I could barely pronounce any of the words and felt like a moron! But I continued on understanding the benefit of this. She asked me a lot of questions about in text citations, the only problem was that they were ancient books and a bit more confusing than normal. I pulled up Purdue Owl and used that as a source to help her and also told her that I am not too familiar with MLA having just started using it again, so she may want to double check with someone else. I realized she was having trouble developing her thesis, didn’t have one of the source requirements, and no conclusion. So I decided to tackle the thesis and introductory paragraph. Well this girl had thought that I should write her thesis for her, so I had to keep redirecting her to make her write it herself. This session lasted an hour and a half and it was exhausting, but I felt like I had helped her a lot and if she had come sooner, she would have benefited more.

For now I am going to remain positive and collect as many tutoring experiences as I can, as well as brushing up on my MLA formatting.

Reflections on my first tutoring sessions

So here I am--two shifts at the Johnston writing center completed and hopefully past the apprehension I had about tutoring when this class began. First let me say:

1. Johnston is a super eerie building, sort of like a museum. I'm afraid to touch things inside because they all seem so precious and the toilets flush like a gunshot. On the other hand it is the coolest work environment I've been in so far, a futuristic open space that is so silent-- the best place to write (other than the Williams courtyard).

In both shifts I had someone book a one hour appointment and freaked out a bit, I hadn't yet considered the fact that people actually could schedule that much time. Both guys had reached the final drafts of their papers and marked "revising & editing" as the focus of their booked appointment. Both times I figured I was screwed and was going to end up with a student that will hand me the paper and refuse to work with me but maybe two experiences in a row have proved me wrong. I assume that both students did expect me to line edit the paper for them and hand it back. Student #1 had to submit his paper on gender issues thirty minutes after the appointment. He pulled the essay up on his laptop and I started to ask him questions about the paper with the fear that he might try to hand the computer to me. Student #2 successfully did put the essay in front of me to read, it was a weird assignment for a Race & Ethnicity class-- a fiction story that should be written like a non-fictional memory-- in which the student had to pretend to be an African slave telling the four stages of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Second, let me say:

2. This job is so cool! During my "shifts" I got to learn about and discuss issues like the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, war in Bosnia, and why little boys should be allowed to play with dolls. At this point I feel like nothing I'll read here will actually bore me, especially since the writer will be sitting beside me, though I guess there is a point where a chemistry lab report might fall into my lap or I might have to help with a 15 page excerpt from someone's novel.

Needless to say I did take somewhat directive approaches with both students. Though we first discussed the focus and organization of their papers, both students were close to strict word limits and didn't have room for further development. I had them read their work out loud in hopes that they would notice places where the voice sounded choppy but few times just had to give them the answer-- like in spelling--because it seemed just plain mean to withhold. Student #2 was already over the word limit and really just wanted me to run through his paper and cancel out 167 words that I thought he didn't need. It took about 20 minutes of explaining how he could solve that problem himself by not talking in circles and going straight to the point. I hope our session did something for him. I'll have to go back to the MS textbook to read the articles about "Directive vs Indirective" tutoring, I'm still not confident about technique when I think of how directive I actually should be in some situations and another read will hopefully solve that.

Feeling a little dissapointment

I have been scheduled twice to tutor on Wednesdays and still no one has made an appointment. I had one appointment during co-tutoring that i ended up fully tutoring because she was a walk-in and all of the other tutors were busy. It was an awesome experience and it really had me psyched up to do this and tutor independantly! But now, I don't know, it feels like I'm pointlessly sitting there and it's a little frustrating. I really want someone to make an appointment with me. Though I have really loved getting to know the other tutors in the Writing Center. They are a very fun group of people and we talk about the craziest things, usually spurring off an appointment someone had. Not about the person being tutored but for example they were trying to figure out the terms for a Jew who became a Christian. The term is Messianic Jew but then we got off on a conversation that it would be really fun to call the Jews for Jesus and then the conversation bloomed from there. It was pretty entertaining. But I don't know maybe posting a short bio will help get people to sign up with me for an appointment. Any suggestions? Is anyone else feeling this frustration?
-Sarah Ann

Conference Sign-up

Purpose: The purpose is two-fold: we will meet to discuss any questions you have about your upcoming assignment (WCJ), and we will also discuss your

Guidelines: sign-up for a fifteen-minute slot that you are sure you will make. Missing a conference is an unexcused absence, so double-check your schedules. To view and edit the times for the conferences, click on the link, "Google Conference Sign-Up," as seen below:

Google Conference Sign-Up

AKWAABA means "welcome" in Twi, the language of the Ahan tribe in Ghana. And, I would like to welcome you to space you can call your own...sort of. Below are some rules of engagement, also found on your syllabus (so, it should sound very familiar):

Over the course of the semester, you will post at least two times to the blog.  You will also respond to at least three other postings.  I won't put a word count on this assignment, but your posts should be thoughtful and detailed. 

Take some time and read through the Peer Centered blog posts, to see what others have to say, and how they've said it.  You may discuss an issue from a reading, or from what you observe and do in the RWC.  Your tone should be conversational, and you should bring up earnest questions you have about tutoring practice and theory.  Remember that a blog is a quasi-public genre.  When discussing situations encountered in the RWC, use pseudonyms and don't include identifying information of others.

Pretty straight forward, hunh? I am also allowing this space to double as a class bulletin board; however, you will not receive course credit for those posts.