“How I feel about becoming a Writing Tutor”

I have mixed feelings about becoming a Writing Tutor. I am excited that I would have opportunities to help and learn from the tutees, but at the same time scared because I might give wrong responses and not help the students make their papers better. However, in spite of what I am feeling I can not wait to be able to have my first tutoring session. I am sure that this would be an unforgettable learning experience. I know that it will be a different experience and challenge for each student that I will tutor, but I will do my best and make sure that the writer will accomplish whatever is needed to be done to have a paper that is well written.

"What I have learned about being a Writing Tutor"

I think being a Writing Tutor is not an easy task at all. As a tutor you don’t just give a response to the tutee for the sake of just giving some feedback about the paper. There are number of things that a tutor needs to consider. I think the first and most important element that a writing tutor should have in mind is that, their goal is to assist the writers to learn how to make and develop a paper that is well written, and give them specific details that will help them revise their paper into a better one. Second, as tutors we should consider how to approach a student depending on the circumstance and with certain students. Just like what the author of Tutoring Writing mentioned, the three ways we could approach them is through “student-centered tutoring” “collaborative tutoring”, and teacher-centered tutoring”. It is important that we deal with them in a way that is not intimidating, but is focused more on the students by asking questions that will make them think, and letting them do the work. Third, last but not the least, our main focus are the (HOCs) higher order concerns not the (LOCs) lower order concerns. We do not want to irritate or discourage them by pointing out all the small mistakes they have on their paper like spelling, punctuations, grammar, and sentence structure. But rather we want to address the HOCs, like the clarity of thesis, effective organization, right tone or voice, and adequate development and information of the paper. These are the important aspects that tutors need to work on the writer’s paper. I believe that these three are the factors that will help the tutor and the tutee have an effective session together.