The Type of Work I Do While Tutoring

By Robyn Gray

I still remember my first solo tutoring experience at the Dalhousie Writing Centre. I was rather terrified; while I had been trained with other tutors, this was my first appointment alone with a student.

Based on the fact that I took a few medieval courses during my BA, I was paired with a first-year student writing a paper in this area. However, this student’s paper featured a story I had never read, with character names that were basically unpronounceable, like Enkidu and Gilgamesh. As the student started to read the paper aloud, I found myself panicking. How was I supposed to wrap my head around the story being analyzed and figure out what recommendations to make, all within half an hour? The student paused about halfway through the paper, and asked whether her first two supporting paragraphs acted as strong enough arguments. My mind was a complete blank, and I became flustered as the silence stretched on and she looked at me expectantly. From what I could tell, the paragraphs were more summary of the story than actual arguments, but I was unsure if this was what I should tell her. Eventually, I said “let’s continue to the end of the paper and then we’ll see.”

When we reached the end of the paper, and the student asked me again whether those two paragraphs provided enough supporting evidence, something clicked for me. My job was not to magically create amazing paragraphs that she could use or somehow provide all of the answers for her. My job was to help her build on her own ideas. Instead of answering her question, I asked “Do YOU think they provide enough supporting evidence?” She knew that these were weak paragraphs and had mainly been looking for confirmation from me. From there, I asked her questions regarding what other arguments she could use, and she came up with several ideas to make each paragraph stronger and more distinct. She had the answers for how to rectify her paper all along; she just needed to vocalize them to me in order to recognize them.

 

Gray_picRobyn Gray is in her second year of the Master of Library and Information Studies program at Dalhousie University, and did her undergraduate degree in English with Honours at the University of Victoria. She is in her second year of working at the Dalhousie Writing Centre. To read more of Robyn’s work, please visit www.thebagpippinlibrarian.wordpress.com

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