Blog #7 - Features of Effective Tutoring

Based on my experiences in class, I believe that one of the most important features of an effective tutoring session is that a tutor's job is to produce better writers, not better writing (North). I enjoyed the scenario that Brooks wrote about in his essay entited "Minimalist Tutoring: Making the Student Do All the Work" wherein he basically says that a tutor should not be the editor. Even though it may be tempting at times for a tutor to just find the errors in the paper and correct it, or just give information that may seem helpful to make the paper better, being the editor will do "little service" to the student.

I agree with Brooks when he said that students should "own" their paper and take full responsibility for it. The student should do most, if not all, of the work during a tutoring session as well as do most of the talking. This is where North comes into play when he says that talking is an essential part of a tutoring session. There should be a constant flow of conversation going on between the student and tutor in order for ideas to be passed around that collaboration (Lunsford) can take place.

I think that it is important for the tutor to be encouraging and provide positive feedback. Just like what Brooks mentioned in his essay, tutors should make every effot to "find something nice to say about every paper, no matter how hard you have to search".

As I prepare to enter the writing center to become a peer tutor, I would like to improve on all of the important features of a tutoring session. I believe that with added experience, I will be able to develop my skills in order to be a good tutor and not an editor. As with a previous tutoring session I had with Stephanie, I need to learn to make the student do most of the talking and all of the work.