You don't have to know magic to be a Writing Center Tutor:

                                               But you do have to know some basic Do's and Don'ts!!!

Expertise is a continual process.  Thus, no tutor will ever become an expert at tutoring, and they are not expected to do so.  Thomas J. Reigstad and Donald A. McAndrew, in their influential book Training Tutors for Writing Conferences, details the four principles needed to be a good tutor.  These principles are:

1. Establish and maintain rapport:  a successful tutor will be able to create a comfortable, stimulating learning environment that will encourage discussion and critical examination.

2. The writer does the work: the writer is the client of the Center; thus, it should be he or she who leaves the conference more knowledgeable and confident in his or her writing.  To encourage this, tutors are advised to allow the writer to make corrections, suggestions and express problems with their writing throughout the conference.  The tutor should strive to become a tool in the writer's composing process.

3. High order concerns come before low order concerns: a paper can be grammatically correct, but if it is not organized, fully developed or directed towards a specific audience, it will fail to communicate the writer's message.  To this end, tutors are advised to concentrate on content concerns before addressing grammar.

4.  Tutors do not have to be experts:  As mentioned previously, no one knows all the corrections that need to be made in a paper.  A tutor is not expected to help the student create a perfect document.  Rather, the tutor's role is to help the student realize what his or her composing process is and to find different ways to develop, examine and revise papers. Ideally, both the student and the tutor should come away from  a particular conference having learned something they didn't know before going in.

Always keep in mind your goal as a tutor:  to help change the student into a more independent writer; not to change the text into a "perfect" piece of writing.

With these principles in mind, the following are some things to do and some things to avoid in the Writing Center conference:

Do make the student comfortable upon entering the Writing Center; Don't allow a student to wait for a long period of time before being addressed by a tutor.

Do ask the student what the assignment is and what the paper is about; Don't tell the student how to do the assignment or what the paper should be saying.

Do allow the student to ask questions throughout the session, allowing yourself to become an active listener; Don't cut off all communication with the student and take the role of "expert."

Do concentrate on both the student's and your own concerns with the paper; Don't simply proofread.

Do be considerate of time, allowing only twenty minutes for conferences on busy days; Don't let a student wait for an hour for a session (and, if this in unavoidable, let the student know how long a wait he or she will have when they enter the Center).

Do ask open-ended questions (beginning sentences with the words What, Where, When, Why and How); Don't tell the student what the correction should be.

Do let the student make his or her own corrections; Don't take over responsibility of the paper by picking up the pen and making the corrections for the student.

Do give positive reinforcement to the student, while still being a critical reader; Don't simply harp upon the student's faults and mistakes.

Do thank the student and encourage them to return to the Writing Center after the conference; Don't simply let a student walk away from the conference.

And finally, Do have fun and learn while you are a tutor at SRU; Don't look upon this chance simply as another "job;"  it can be much more exciting if you allow it to be.