I am a second- year college student studying Psychology. I am fascinated with the workings of the mind and intrigued by its mysteries. My compassion for humanity has led me down this career path, and I feel a sense of duty to contribute to the betterment of society. Mental health is very important and it plays a phenomenal role in persons over all well - being. During my studies at LaGuardia Community College I have become increasingly aware that writing translates not only to Psychology but many other fields and parts of life. This awareness has inspired me to broaden my education into the field of teaching writing.
I made the best decision when I chose to take Professor Justin Rogers- Cooper’s Seminar in Teaching Writing, because it has endowed me with the valuable skills needed to be a peer - tutor. Working as a peer tutor has provided me with new perspectives on writing that have enhanced my own process. The opportunity to tutor at the Writing Center has also allowed me to combine my greatest passions: writing, discussing a variety of interesting topics and obtaining new knowledge, and helping others.
To me, writing is like an onion, there are many layers. Uncovering these layers is a crucial aspect of being a peer tutor. Writing is a task that no two people do the same way, however, there are certain steps that every writer complies to. There is no such thing as a bad writer, for It does not require any special gift or talent that makes any one person’s writing superior to another. To be a proficient writer one must think critically and be intrinsically motivated. Everyone has the ability to be a great writer; it is just a matter of believing it.
I tutored my first ENG 099 student at the Writing Center on Monday May 2nd, 2011. I was assigned to work with a very vibrant young woman, who’s name I sadly forget. She moved to the United States from Europe three years ago.
I recall being extremely nervous before going into the tutoring session. I couldn’t help second-guessing my abilities to help my tutee. Upon our meeting though, my fear quickly subsided and I sprung into action. I made sure to maintain good posture and body language in order to demonstrate my interest in my tutee’s work. “When tutors use posture, gesture, and tone of voice to send messages, that can sharpen their tutorial effectiveness” (Reigstad 29). Before I began to look over her paper I asked her what the assignment entailed, this way I would know what to base my evaluation on. To my knowledge, she was instructed to write a practice CATW response to the movie “The Matrix. Since, I have never seen the movie I asked if she could give me a brief synopsis of the film.
According to James Moffett, “After orally improvising once or twice, one will arrive at an improved version that they can then write down definitively as a composition” (Moffett 18). Therefore after learning about the movie I asked her to read her paper aloud and we reviewed it together. While reading her paper aloud I would intervene by asking a series of open- ended questions, which prompted her into realizing where corrections needed to be made.
After reviewing her paper I noticed she had some great ideas but she lacked organization and her introduction failed to introduce what she was trying to say. She told me that she does not know what a thesis is or how to write an introduction. She explained to me that these rules are new to her and that writing in the United States is much more directive then in her home country. This truly opened my eyes to the cultural divide that exist within educational institutions. Nancy Hayward claims that, “Cultural expectations have everything to do with the success or failure of any tutoring session, just as wind velocity has everything to do with a successful sailing expedition” (Hayward 63). Therefore, I gave her a lesson in essay structuring and provided her with helpful outlining exercises. I helped her construct a solid thesis by making correlations between ideas in her body paragraphs.
To ensure that my tutee comprehended my lecture I made sure to periodically ask if she understood what I said and if she had any further questions or concerns before moving on. She stressed to me that she experiences a lot of anxiety because of the one- hour time constraint given for the CATW exam. Her anxiety becomes debilitating and causes writers block. I suggested techniques to help ease her anxiety, such as, rehearsing the task in her head to block out irrelevant thoughts, and breathing retraining. I know that writing is a very emotional process, hence why great writing stems from strong feelings. These strong feelings derive from experiences. It is through experience that people learn about what they like and what they don’t like. Because writing is such a reflective process I used what I refer to as my topic equation strategy. I like to think of it as a mathematical equation: Area of Interest + Area of Study = Possible Topic/Thesis. As her tutor I created a T-style charts consisting of a variety of combinations, such as, likes/dislike, usual/ unusual experiences, enjoyment/ obligations and regrets/ achievements. I explained that in each category she should make a list of how ever many things she can think of. The list is intended to help her think critically and make connections between different issues. I told her that when she is lost for words to fall back on this to help reduce anxiety and get her writing.
Overall, I know the session was a success because the tutee became more confident and seemed excited. At the end of the session we wrapped it up with a little friendly chit- chat and she thanked me. She found me to be a great help and even went as far as to thank the front desk personnel for assigning her to me. I treated my tutee as my conversational equal and engaged her in conversation whenever possible. I was sure not to undermine her work by simply correcting her mistakes for her. I possessed an ability to keep an open mind, listen well and provide clear explanations. My mindfulness allowed me to figure out the tutees learning habits and structure my approach accordingly. To know that I was capable of helping someone has made my first session a very rewarding experience!
Works Cited
Moffett, James. Active Voice: a writing program across the curriculum.
2nd ed. New Hampshire: Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc. 1992
McAndrew A. Donald. , and Thomas J. Reigstad.
Tutoring Writing: A Practical Guide For Conferences. New Hampshire:
Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc. 2001
Hayward, Nancy. ENG 220.5633 The Seminar in Teaching Writing Course Packet: Insights into Cultural Divides.
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