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Roads Converging: Approaching Differences in Subject Tutoring and Writing Centers
Jessica L. Puzzo and David Hall Bowman
The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), like many other institutions, has a learning center which provides students with academic assistance in the form of tutoring. At UNCW, the University Learning Center (ULC) is divided into Writing Services, Learning Services, Math Services, and Supplemental Instruction. While the goals of these are similar, the approaches and techniques taken differ. This paper will critically explore writing tutoring and the tutoring of other subjects to assess ways in which each style may positively influence the other.
Writing
The average writing consultation begins with a brief exchange of information between the consultant and the student, such as subject and class for which the paper is being written, instructor, topic, and the student's particular concerns. This is a crucial time for the consultant to discover whether the student speaks English as a second language (ESL), or is in some way disabled, either from observation or direct information from the student. This exchange is essential because it will assist the consultant in potentially customizing the session to the student's needs.
A typical session is one which involves a student who is writing a paper for a basic English class and who is not ESL or disabled. The consultant asks the student to read his/her paper aloud. This insures that the consultant and student go through the paper collaboratively and that the consultation is more than just an editing session. If the student has not yet written the paper and would like to brainstorm, the consultant talks with the student causally until he/she finds something of interest. The student is encouraged to make corrections and take notes throughout the session. The consultant may also take notes, particularly while the student is reading aloud, but consultants do not write on the student papers because this could lead to a one-sided, rather than collaborative, attempt at revision. While the student reads aloud, the consultant may ask the student to pause and address an issue that needs immediate attention.
A writing consultant's main concerns with student papers are "global" concerns, (i.e. thesis, focus, development, organization, audience, etc.) although, when asked, students are usually more concerned with grammar and punctuation, or "local" concerns. Despite a student's local concerns, the consultant is obligated to focus on global issues. Typical global concerns with these papers include incoherent thesis, lack of supporting quotations, lack of organization, and weak or no conclusion. After addressing these global concerns, the consultant may choose to address some local issues. Students must understand that the consultant will not "fix" their papers as an editor would; the consultant will show students the tools and methods they can use to revise their papers independently.
While consultants are most comfortable with papers from English classes, they must be prepared to handle papers on other subjects, as well as students with special needs. Consultants may encounter papers from all subjects, on topics with which they are not familiar. A writing consultant is trained to tutor papers globally and locally, regardless of the content, because a consultant need not be an expert on the subject to help the student revise a paper; knowledge of standardized rules is more important than extensive familiarity with a particular subject.
Occasionally, a writing consultant may encounter a student whose primary language is not English. The concerns of these particular students are typically about grammar and English usage, which can make it difficult for a consultant to address the global concerns of the paper. In this case, the consultant should address any glaring local concerns. It would be careless to not help these students with grammar and sentence structure, especially when they often omit necessities like articles and prepositions. Frequently, ESL students will notice patterns of mistakes, allowing them to edit their own papers.
Subject
In specific subject tutoring, the structure is geared toward helping the students succeed on their own when they leave the Learning Center. Different students with varied strengths and weaknesses must learn the same material for a given class, but how students absorb information, and more importantly, learn to process it, varies. The tutor’s tasks is to shorten the distance between the students and the material, not teaching the students, but helping them figure out the best way to meet their own needs.
Most tutoring sessions are single incidents in a series of meetings between the student and the tutor. Over the course of a semester, a pedagogical relationship develops in which the tutor can at least begin to understand whether the student is a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner, or some combination. Also, the tutor has the opportunity to build upon work already done to maximize the time spent in a session, beginning with a review of what they covered the week before. Repetition is the best way to retain information, regardless of one’s particular modalities of learning, and it shows the tutor what the student needs to go over again.
Familiarity with a particular subject is of crucial importance in subject tutoring, but as tutors are not professors, it is equally important for tutors to know where to look for answers they lack. To become a tutor at a university, one has done extensive work in a particular field, which means one knows a wealth of sources to consult for answers, such as bound periodicals and electronic databases.
Diverging Roads
While subject tutoring has existed in one form or another for a very long time, it is curiously shorter on standardized literature than is writing consulting. Most universities' websites list similar procedures for writing instruction, but finding consistent texts on tutoring specific subjects is difficult. This could be because different disciplines require different approaches, and what may work in the tutoring of Mathematics or Science will not in the Humanities. The modern university's writing center is a relatively recent phenomenon, and writing techniques are more consistent because they work are geared toward persuasive papers, attempting to prove a point using supporting arguments.
The recurring student is one of the advantages subject tutoring has over writing tutoring. Ideally, the student will return, but it is a fact of the modern university that some students seek help with a particular paper, rather than with big picture issues in their writing. In these instances, subject tutoring can be likened to a regular checkup, and the writing center is more like an emergency room.
Subject tutors address a number of different reasons why the students need help. Students have different styles of learning; some are visual learners, some auditory, some kinesthetic. There are students who learn best from reading a text, and students who must approach the subject in a more tactile manner, using charts, models, graphs, etc. A student must absorb information, but also be able to process it. The tutor seeks to help the student pass a test, but also to comprehend the material and its importance.
Conversely, the writing consultant faces many subordinate issues, but one overarching problem: thesis. The thesis problem may have many contributing factors; there may not be one, or the one that exists is weak. There may be other problems, but the writing consultant must make the student understand that whether or not he/she has five pages instead of the requisite six does not matter if the five pages are a rambling, incoherent mess. The student usually finds the paper easier to write and clearer in its argument if there is a properly constructed thesis from which to build.
Come Together
Subject tutoring’s principle advantage over the writing center is the pedagogical relationship between the tutor and the tutee. This is especially true for students with learning, or physical disabilities and ESL students. Special needs students should be assigned to regular writing consultants because the consultants can then tailor each session appropriately to focus on the students' weakest areas.
Writing consultants are trained to deal with students’ issues symptomatically. If the student does not understand comma rules, the writing consultant can teach the student, or give the student a handout that will. Similar handouts and other resources exist for subject tutoring, but they are vague and less prescriptive. Subject tutors can emulate writing consultants by customizing these resources to their students' particular needs.
Writing consultants and subject tutors have the opportunity to positively influence each other. Both have codified methods and similar goals; they should not become involved in their own methodologies so deeply that they lose sight of the ultimate focus, which should always be the students. By remaining flexible and adapting to changing trends, by trying new approaches and failing or succeeding, tutors can ensure that students everywhere will benefit.
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