Our Students CAN Do This: Combatting Misconceptions in Two Year College Writing Centers
By Elizabeth Mercado
My name is Elizabeth Mercado, and I’m an English major at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I have been working in HCC’s writing center for two semesters. I am also the current Editor-in-Chief of HCC’s student run magazine, Horizons. In his article, “Our Students Can Do That: Peer Writers At The Two-Year College,” Clint Gardner breaks down some of the stigma surrounding two year community colleges, especially in their writing centers. He compares two year college writing centers and mentions that student writing tutors are usually looked down upon in the writing center community, and are rarely hired. He writes, “…I was rather taken aback when my whole presentation and premise for hiring peer tutors was dismissed by a writing center colleague from another community college.‘Our students could never do that,’ she said.” One of the questions that arose in our own writing center after reading Gardner’s article was “how can the role of student writing tutor create agency and engagement, especially at two-year colleges?” This was incredibly important since the majority of our writing center tutors are students. Gardner’s article inspired our writing center to take action against issues that prevent our community from fully accepting student writing tutors.
Reading Gardner’s article helped me become aware of all of the things I’ve done on campus while working in the writing center. During my time as a tutor, I’ve helped spread awareness about the writing center to our HCC community, breaking down barriers between the misconceptions about two year writing centers. Like Gardner mentioned in his article, many people, including students and some staff at HCC, believe that because we’re student writing tutors, we don’t have enough experience to help others with their work. They think that we’ll do the work for the students.
Gardner writes, “I can only make informed guesses about the reasoning behind why two-year colleges don’t avail themselves of peer tutors: peer tutors are ill-prepared and cannot talk about writing; having them do so would be having the ignorant teaching the ignorant.” In addition, students come into our writing center with the preconceived notion that our tutors will simply edit their papers while they sit back and watch. Because of these misconceptions, I wanted to help inform my school about what the writing center really is and how hard tutors work.
During the fall 2018 semester, I worked on a story for Horizons’ website, informing students about our an event our writing center holds every semester called “Writing Day.” In my article, I wrote what is was, when it was, and where students could go for more help. During days when the writing center was quiet and I didn’t have any tutoring sessions, I hung up informative writing center flyers on every bulletin board I could find and pinned them up in classrooms. By putting up these flyers, I’ve helped students around campus become aware of the safe, welcoming environment where they can come for writing help. I am proud of the impact I have made. Students thank me after I work with them, telling me that I’ve helped them understand their assignments, and I’ve even seen students around campus who tell me that they got a great grade on the paper I helped them with.
I strongly believe that I have become a more visible member of the academic community since becoming a writing tutor. In March, I was given the opportunity to create and facilitate my own workshop through the writing center, called “How to Write a Literary Analysis”, a workshop where I worked with students struggling in writing these types of essays. I designed a PowerPoint with information on what a literary analysis is and tips on how to write stronger essays. In my PowerPoint, I focused on writing strong thesis statements and citing sources. I also highlighted what each paragraph in the essay should contain. Before the workshop, I made copies of an old literary analysis I wrote the semester before, so the students would be able to use it as a guide to follow along during the workshop and to use while writing an essay of their own.
Opportunities like these allow me to meet new students in other classes, and introduce them to HCC’s writing center. This leadership has allowed me to become more active in the school community, and has helped me feel less shy, and able to speak up. Because of my experience in the writing center, I am better prepared for beginning my career in the future.
Works Cited
Gardner, Clint. “Our Students Can Do That: Peer Writers At The Two-Year College.” Praxis: A Writing Center Journal , vol. 15, no. 1, 2017.
Author’s Biography
I’m a second year English major and Editor-in-Chief of Horizons Magazine at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I’ve always had a passion for writing and wanted to be more involved on campus, so during the end of my second semester at HCC, I decided to apply for a job in the writing center. I’ve been working as a student tutor for two semesters, and I absolutely love my job. Working with students who are having trouble with writing is so rewarding.
At 19 years old, I’m still undecided on what kind of career I’m working towards, but being in the writing center and working with students has helped me experience what it’s like in the education field. Working as a student tutor has encouraged me to consider pursuing a path in this field as I continue to further my education.