Observation Three

During my third observation of a tutor in the Writing Center, the student needed assistance editing an English paper that received a poor grade from the professor. The student was discouraged because the professor wrote many negative comments all over the work and stated that the student completely missed the topic of the assignment. The tutor sensed the student's desire to quit and made an effort to validate the student's work. He pointed out that the overall language of the essay was clear and informed the student that there were a number of good ideas throughout the piece.

The majority of the session was spent on HOCs, especially the overall structure of the piece. The tutor helped the student create better connections between the ideas in the body of the paper and the thesis. The tutor asked the student questions to gain a better understanding of what the student was trying to say in each paragraph. Then, the tutor informed the student that each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that will let the reader know what will be discussed in that particular paragraph. After the session, the student was more optimistic about editing the assignment. The tutor instructed the student to return the following day after making the revisions discussed during the session.

I thought that the tutor was effective in engaging the student by validating her work, assisting with proper structuring and giving the student a deadline of when to return to the Writing Center. When I am given the opportunity to tutor, I will borrow the engaging techniques this tutor used if I encounter a disenchanted student.