Writing Center Observation #3

March 25, 2015

The third observation at the writing center, I can say was the best  I've seen so far. The tutor was very friendly and asked for my name. After she called for the student, the three of us sat down to begin the session. The tutor nicely introduced me to the student letting him know that I was an observing her and not the student but that she was hoping he wouldn't mind. The student didn't mind my presence there either so I'm glad the tutor made it comfortable for all of us. I also realized that this was a follow up session this student was having with the same tutor. So the tutor took a minute to explain the assignment to me so I can have an idea on what would be going on in the session.

During the session, the tutor asked the writer to make a list of supporting arguments for his essay.
The tutor constantly was asking the student questions in order to keep him brainstorming.
The student seemed like he wanted most of the answers for his essay, however the tutor was very patient with him and never made him feel like his ideas were wrong either. She nicely lead the writer to emphasize all his ideas better. This is an example of usurping ownership, according to the book Tutoring Writing.

Since the tutor had already explained the assignment to me, we both knew that the students professor did not want their students to use outside sources. The student was only given one article to write his essay on. As the tutor was reading through the students essay, she pointed out words and sentences that she believed were outside sources. I found that amazing that she was confident that it wasn't his own words and that he was using an outside source when he wasn't supposed to.
So the tutor politely asked the student if those sentences were from an outside source. The student confirmed. So the tutor told him he would have to remove that from his essay since the professor only wanted him to base his essay on the article that was handed in class. In addition, the tutor told him that even if he was able to use outside sources he would have to cite it because the way he did it would be considered plagiarism.

This tutor was a great example of what should be happening in the tutoring session. Now I know if I ever have to go to the writing center, I'd go to her. :)