Identifying Success in the Writing Center: A Tutor’s Perspective

by Nisheal Watson ||

Worst. Session. Ever. I squeeze my eyes shut and bury my face in my hands. I had 30 minutes to help this writer improve their paper. But I feel like I failed. The questions I asked to guide the writer were answered with furrowed brows, blank stares, and awkward silences. There appears to be no trace of success. Now I have 30 seconds to compose myself and prep for the next writer, even though my heart flutters in fear of failing with the next one.

As a tutor, it can be internally degrading to complete session after session with different writers and feel as though no progress is made. Similar grammar mistakes are made over and over and over again. Writer after writer brings in new questions, concerns, and problems that at times appear unsolvable. It’s probable for some tutors to feel trapped in a vicious loop of failure.

However, perhaps the failure is not the tutor or the tutoring session, but rather how the tutor is measuring success. So, how can tutors measure success of a session?

In “The Idea of a Writing Center,” Stephen North explores the definition of a writing center and also explains how to measure success. A writing center is not meant to be a first aid station where writers can patch up their grammar mistakes. Fixing the paper is not a measure of success. The purpose of a writing center is to help people become better writers long-term. Writing center tutors are encouraged to “produce better writers, not better writing” (North 438). If a tutor focuses on the writer instead of the paper, they can know that they are fulfilling their job.

But how do tutors measure the success of a session? North points out that tutors should “measure their success not in terms of the constantly changing model they create, but in terms of changes in the writer” (439). Every session will be different. Every writer will improve at a different rate, but a writer’s improvement is how a tutor can determine if the session was a success.

Measuring success by observing changes in the writer is not always easy. During one session, I helped a student write topic sentences for his paper. I was frustrated for the first 10 minutes because we didn’t seem to be making any progress. I was too focused on successfully answering each of his questions perfectly instead of helping the student become better at writing topic sentences. I was failing. I made a split-second decision to put North’s idea to the test. For the last 20 minutes of the session when I asked the student a question, I carefully watched him in an attempt to measure success according to his progress. While observing, I could see the wheels turning in his head. It was obvious when I asked a good question because his eyes would light up, and he would quickly jot down his new ideas. Of the seven topic sentences he wrote down, five of them made his eyes light up. I knew the session was successful because the writer had made progress.

It is difficult to measure how much a writer has changed during a session, but tutors can still identify elements of success. Tutors can feel successful when they ask inspired questions because this helps writers consider different perspectives and ultimately helps them produce comprehensive writing. “Ask [writers] questions they would not think to ask themselves” (North 438). If a student writes down a tutor’s suggestion, that is success because the writer has learned something and intends to implement that change. If a writer walks out the door relaxed and relieved, that is success because the writer has experienced a welcoming and positive experience at the writing center. Success comes in a variety of forms. It’s just a matter of recognizing them.

Measuring the success of a session is like catching water with a strainer. Sometimes you catch a glimpse of short-term success, but it rushes away and there is not any trace of long-term success. It is hard to quantify long-term success because tutors “aim to make better writers, not necessarily—or immediately—better text” (North 438). Although long-term success is hard to quantify, it is important for tutors to focus on helping people become better writers because people make the text meaningful. If the writer is unable to effectively communicate their thoughts, fixing what is written becomes irrelevant. When tutors focus on improving a writer’s skills, the text becomes better because the writer is better. Melody Pickle, who is a teacher at Kaplan University, explained, “Most things that we can measure, we measure in the short term. Data usually captures one moment in time” (Pickle). Sometimes tutors get caught up in the short-term data that can be measured and defined immediately. Tutors can find pieces of short-term success, but should also keep in mind that they can influence writers long-term too.

Pickle shared a personal experience that impacted her writing long-term. She visited her college writing center, and the professor who was tutoring asked her why she had used a particular word. This one question opened the door of understanding for Pickle. She realized that every word she wrote mattered. This tutor changed Pickle’s perspective on audience, syntax, word choice, and the power of words. This one visit to the writing center had a long-term effect on Pickle’s writing style:

I never went back to the Writing Center on my campus. I did not feel the need. In this one session, with really only one sentence, this professor changed how I thought about writing and communication forever. From my one writing center encounter, my learning kept going. . . The reason it is hard to quantify learning and specifically learning in the Writing Center is we never know what students will do with their moments of experience in the Writing Center (Pickle).

In this instance, long term success was impossible for the tutoring professor to measure. Pickle was changed as a writer, but her tutor never saw those changes because Pickle never returned to the writing center. We cannot predict what students will do with their “moments of experience in the Writing Center,” but tutors should recognize that these moments occur (Pickle). Tutors are successful, even if the success seems unmeasurable.

Yes, it is difficult for a tutor to determine how successful a tutoring session was, but that does not mean it was not successful. Tutors need to keep an open mind when they measure their success “in terms of changes in the writer” (North 439). Tutors should focus on the writer, not the paper. Focus on writers one by one, and suddenly successes will show up one by one.

Worst. Session. Ever?

Think again.

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

North, Stephen M. “The Idea of a Writing Center.” College English. Accessed 6 Nov. 2016.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/377047.

 

Pickle, Judith. “Measuring Success in the Writing Center” Kaplan University. Accessed 12 Nov.

  1. https://kuwcnews.wordpress.com/2014/04/01/measuring-success-in-the-writing-center/

 

 


Nisheal Watson grew up in Price, Utah. In May of 2017, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English, with an emphasis in technical writing, at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. Nisheal enjoys racquetball and biking.  

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