The Writing Center - What I Expect

I'm a student in ENG 220 - Seminar in Teaching Writing at LaGuardia Community College. As part of our class requirements we have to visit four sessions in the school writing center and blog about what we observe. Since I haven't visited the center yet this blog entry is about what I expect to observe when I go, and what I expect it to be like.

I've visited the writing center as part of my ENG 101 class. Our professor brought us there to show us where it was and so that we could observe a brief presentation by Bert, the director of the center. I have taken a class with a professor who was a supervisor at the writing center, and spoken to students who visited the center for help, although I've never gone there my self. My expectations for what it will be liked are based on all this, as well as the material we've covered and discussions we've had so far in ENG 220.

I know that the sessions are one-on-one between one tutor and one student. I expect most of the tutors to be English or Ed majors who are good writers and who are genuinely interested in helping other students with their written assignments. I'm not sure how effective I expect them to be. In my experience, many people who mean well don't actually know how to talk to other people without coming off as condescending. Writing is a particularly sensitive topic because it's a representation of one's self, one's thoughts. Criticism, even well-meaning constructive criticism is often not well received.

I know I've done it myself. A classmate of mine asked me to take a look at something he had written. I thought it was pretty good, and I gave him feedback regarding what I thought were minor concerns. There were a few spelling issues, some punctuation issues. Some of his wording was a little repetitive. I asked him questions about word choices he made and told him about similar issues I had, and told him what I tended to do when I encountered similar errors in my own writing. I thought I did a decent job but I know he was offended. I still don't know what I said or how it was I said it that was too much. But there was something.

Another thing I expect to be an issue for tutoring sessions is student attitude. Some students I've worked with at LaGuardia who have asked for help have actually expected me to do their work for them, or have asked me for help the day before an assignment was due and handed me a draft that was... really... extremely... definitely not ready.

I'm interested to see how the tutors I observe in the lab overcome these two issues that are my primary concerns about working as a tutor, at least right now. I expect I'll also witness things I haven't foreseen at all. I'm just as, if not more, interested in the unforeseen issues as I am in the ones I anticipate.