Writing Fellow Journal 8

David Colon

Writing Fellows

Professor Miller

10/19/18

One aspect of chapter 12 that stuck out to me was that in interdisciplinary writing, I don’t need to be an expert on content material that I do not know. At UNE, there exists a vast number of majors. And as a Communications Major, I have no idea how to judge or critique the content within some of these majors. Throughout my writing tutor sessions, especially those at SASC, I have had numerous students come to me who are in science classes that are looking for writing help. This has led me to judge and critique their papers based on the organization, flow, and grammar within the paper. In my sessions, I like to ask questions on what the writer is concerned about within their paper, largely due to the fact that I’m usually not an expert on the field they’re writing about. Throughout chapter 12, Gillespie and Lerner discuss the idea of a writing center having an expert about the subject the student is studying, stating that “…the ‘expert’ or ‘knowledgeable tutor’ will be more likely to take an ‘authoritative stance,’” within the tutoring session (159). As a writing tutor, you may not be this expert, leading you to focus on lower-order concerns. In the past, I have felt bad about not being able to help a student with the content within their paper. But now, whether at SASC or as a writing fellow, I know to refer students to either a content knowledgeable tutor, or the professor of the class. Chapter 12 was reassuring in the sense that it’s okay to not know something completely, that as a writing tutor, all I can possibly due sometimes is to review and judge the structure of the paper itself.

Another interesting aspect surrounding chapter 12 was the idea of online tutoring. Although I have never tutored online, I found this section helpful in case I ever come across online tutoring. It was reassuring to see that Gillespie and Lerner’s tools for face-to-face tutoring apply to online tutoring as well. By giving pros and cons of the writing, being personable, and critiquing the work thoroughly, one can effectively tutor students online. I found it helpful that Gillespie and Lerner broke the chapter down into sections for online tutoring, giving quick summaries of what to do when tutoring online. I always thought that tutoring online was much different than tutoring in face-to-face because of the nature of the two mediums. But now, if I need to tutor online, I just need to remember and treat the session as I would if it were essentially a face-to-face tutoring session.