Madeline McDonald
Jesse Miller
WRT 342
November 20th 2023
How to Expect the Unexpected
There is the common understanding of a student being anxious about utilizing a tutor, but the nerves that the tutor themselves may feel are not always equally acknowledged. It’s easy to view a tutor as the one who is supposed to have all the answers, or put them on a pedestal right next to the professor, but truth be told most of the time they are also just students that may have less figured out than one may think. Specifically focusing on writing fellows, our main focus is always to help the tutee in the best way possible. However there are a lot of situations that can be thrown at a tutor that make it somewhat difficult to adapt at times. The good news is there’s so much room for growth and a big step to that is understanding that not everything has to go perfectly all the time. Actually most of the time, it probably won’t go perfectly.
Being a tutor can mean something different for each individual person, however one common theme is reassurance in the ability that we may be making a difference to somebody. SASC can be used by anyone, and all students in a class have the option to schedule a writing fellow meeting, but not every student is going to use these resources to their advantage. It’s not about those students. With tutoring the little wins are important, and being able to make a difference to the one or two students who may use your advice for every paper they write from then on out is more important than trying to please the students who may not think you are worth their time. A lot of students claim to struggle with writing and this can come from the way it’s taught as they grow up, “writing assignments are often designed as a way for students to demonstrate to their instructor that they have learned course material. This type of audience.. has been criticized for asking students to simply parrot information in a limited and monotonous rhetorical setting (Fisher, 1). Writing is not one track in the same way that math or science can be, so it’s important to help students who may not believe that they can ever be a good writer understand that there is more than one way to write and different approaches to take that may be easier for them in the long run.
The importance may lay in making changes for the student’s willing to accept help, it also doesn’t mean disregarding the difficult students. Of course we want to try and help to our best degree but it’s about understanding that things may not always go exactly according to plan. After speaking to Mya Hankes, a senior writing fellow and tutor in SASC, she agrees that we have to be prepared for failure by saying that her biggest piece of advice is, “to remember that we cannot fix every single thing for the tutee. We can only show up as our best selves and ready to guide, that is the tutor’s responsibility. This not only preserves the fellows mental wellbeing but takes away some anxiety in regard to tutoring success.” Dealing with mental wellbeing and anxiety is equally important for both parties involved, so as long as a tutor approaches a session with an open mind and puts forth a good effort, there is not much more that can be expected. Although it is sometimes stress inducing, working with a student and seeing a click in their brain as they understand their error, or watching them work through fixing an issue on their own makes you realize the significance of what we are trying to and can help re-center the focus on the good that is coming out of this experience. Just the other day I was sitting with a student who came to see me through writing fellow, and together we worked through her draft. By the end of the session she was making corrections without me even pointing them out and I could tell she was understanding what I was telling her which made me feel confident about the advice I was giving.
Having been a tutor for a little over a year now, I can easily say that I went into being a writing fellow with a little more confidence than I should have. I was thinking they would be entirely similar, and although they are not entirely different, there are definitely different approaches that you take to both circumstances. With tutoring through SASC, it is a student scheduled appointment where you have a maximum of an hour to work with a student through any of the problems they may have. With writing fellow, you have a way shorter allotted time, usually around 15-20 minutes and so you have to make sure your focus is direct and efficient. Hankes emphasizes this importance and is surprised at, “The way that Writing Fellowship has influenced my own writing and the process of doing it. I’ve become more conscious of the choices I’m making and how it aligns with the advice I give others.” You can do a lot for a student in a short period of time and it’s learning that practice makes perfect. This is also helpful to implement with revision in our own papers, and learning how to help others can correlate with us learning how to help ourselves. Rather than going through an entire paper with a student piece by piece, you could benefit them more by giving them habits or suggestions that they could then apply to their paper on their own, and even continue to use into the future. Another thing that I personally had not expected was the uncertainty of it all. In SASC, everything falls under a pretty similar grouping and you can be pretty confident in what your purpose with the student is. For writing fellow, I was put into a psych class, which is obviously not a writing focused class, and that kind of stressed me out a little. From there I had to figure out where my priorities lay and how to help this class in the best way possible. It was nerve wracking to put myself out there and offer help in a class that I had not taken myself, but eventually I was able to bring myself to a stable point and rebuild my confidence. What helped me through this was having the support of the writing fellow practicum, where I was able to communicate with my classmates where I felt stuck and from there was encouraged to reach out to the teacher to create guidelines for my expectations in the class.
Over even just the course of this semester, I have seen myself grow as a tutor exponentially. One thing that we have talked about a lot in class is the importance of asking questions. For example asking students to explain a prompt, or a decision they made or just having them put something in their own words. This can not only help us have a better understanding of how we can help them, but also creates potential for things to become more clear for them as they explain it back to us. Using this asking questions approach has helped me alot with situations that I have not been certain about and has been something I’ve been able to utilize in my psych writing class, which then makes me feel better about the advice I give. Hankes say’s that her, “overall persona when it comes to tutoring has evolved. Instead of being content focused and driven toward the essay they’re bringing in, I’ve moved toward a comforting environment. Meaning I spend time with the tutee as a person before a writer. This allows for a more comfortable space to share writing while also showing the tutees they’re supported.” It is just as important to be a friendly face for a student to rely on as it is to be educated on what you are helping with. A lot of the time, a student will have an essay completely done and are just looking for a person to give them the validation they want before turning it in. Sometimes they just want someone to talk to and that’s ok. It’s a satisfying feeling to help give a student that boost of confidence they are looking for and watch some of the stress melt off of them. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of students struggle with their writing and it has even been studied that, “STEM writers reported much lower initial writing confidence and knowledge scores than their humanities and social sciences peers. STEM students also realized the largest increases in these same measures upon completing their engagement with a semester-long writing group” (Hambrick, 1). At such a STEM based school, it could be important to keep in mind that a lot of these students might throw writing on the back burner and immediately assume that they are not good. Growth is talking them through these circumstances and potentially helping them change this mindset they may be struggling with.
As this semester nears the end, I feel as though I am walking away with a better knowledge of what tutoring really is. A big thing that I have learned is that it is ok to not have everything laid out perfectly, and that in fact it may be better when everything isn’t perfectly clear. Through the uncertainty of this writing fellow process, I have developed a better sense of self confidence now knowing that I can figure things out when I’m not sure what to do. This also gives me reassurance for the future because if I am put on classes where I’m not sure what to do I can take a similar approach to figure it out. For all the tutors out there, this is a reminder to focus on the good and remember that the negative feelings that may come with bad experiences are temporary but also necessary for growth. It’s important to know that even a small win still counts as a win and honestly we should take the advice we give to students, which is that practice makes perfect.
Citations
Fisher, R. (n.d.). “this is the type of audience I’ve learned to write to my whole life … https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/atd/volume19/fisheretal.pdf
Tatu, C. J. (n.d.). Abstract algebra and the conversation of humankind – WAC clearinghouse. https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/atd/volume19/tatuetal.pdf
Hambrick, K. M. (n.d.). Understanding the challenges and needs of international stem graduate … https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/atd/volume19/hambrick-giaimo.pdf
