HOW TO BEGIN THE TUTORING
 
· Ask about the assignment and the writer’s approach to it, her purpose.
· Ask about the process - what the writer has done so far.
Encourage weaker writers to come in early in the process next time. They may return for revising or editing the same paper later.
· Ask what the writer wants from this session.  Then gauge what you want to try to accomplish in the time limit.  Focus on the priority (ies) and limit what you discuss to what the student can reasonably absorb at one time.  Start with the larger elements - purpose, structure, development - and work down to the sentence level, considering the basic writing process:
Prewriting
Organizing
Drafting
Revising (content)
Editing (form)

· Then look at the paper.  You may start by having the student read it aloud while you insert "readerly responses."   You may look at selected parts of the paper to see if they match the writer’s stated purpose.  You may focus on the introduction if the writer’s purpose seems unclear.

YOUR ROLE AND JOB: SOME TIPS
 
· Your job is to develop the writer, not the writing. You are a teacher, not an editor.
· Ask yourself, "What will take this writer one step forward?"
· Remember that this is the student’s paper - not yours!  So:

1)  Don’t tell the student what to say.
2)  Ordinarily, do not pick up a pencil.  Do not write on the student’s draft.  The most you might do is record ideas as a student brainstorms.  If you help an international student with how to express a thought, offer her alternatives and let her write down the one she chooses.
3)  Don’t let a dependent student get you to make decisions for him. Press him to decide on the main idea, organizational pattern, the supports, and the clearest phrasing.
4)  Be professional.  Don’t make judgments about the grade the paper deserves, about the assignment, or the professor.

· The goal is to make the student a competent, independent editor of her own writing.

· Absolutely refuse to edit a paper for a student.  If a student’s professor or dissertation committee directs the student to have his writing professionally edited, you may edit privately or refer the student to a professional editor.  However, make sure to clearly separate this function from your job at the Writing Center and EGS.

· However, you may help the student edit a couple pages of a paper. International students in particular need this sort of guidance.  Remember that this should be done in the final stage of the writing process. Some techniques:

1)  Have the student read his draft aloud listening for problems or for a particular error.  This works particularly well for run-on sentences.
2)  Use the "silent method" by pointing out errors and seeing if the student can correct them.  If not, add some more information (type of error). If not, explain the problem briefly.  If the problem is serious and/or recurring, you might teach a short grammar lesson and copy a couple pages from a book for the student to keep.  If you don’t know the rule, just say, "Let’s look this one up together."  Hacker or Azar are good sources to start with.  A student may then want to try out some exercises with you or at home  - let him decide.
3)  Ask the student to edit one paragraph; then go over it with her.  The editing could be general or could be focused on one problem.
4)  Help students discover their own frequent error patterns so that they can find and correct them independently.  Work on one at a time.
5)  For international students with many miscellaneous problems, you might have them bring a tape.  You dictate a paragraph or page, speaking slowly and correcting the errors.  They can play the tape over and over at home, hearing correct forms and writing them down.  This is tedious work that some students love and some hate.  (While taping, don’t change their syntax any more than necessary to achieve accurate English expression.)