Several directors (27%) noted that that tutor research makes peer
writing tutors better at their primary job: the tutoring of writing.
When the
writing tutor asks a question, he or she needs to step back and wait, letting silence allow the student to feel the tutor's confidence that the student has the capacity to formulate a solid response.
In this position, I was responsible for the hiring and training of
writing tutors and working closely with the tutorial coordinator on day-to-day student-athlete and tutor scheduling.
Their work builds on the Peer
Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project by Bradley Hughes, Paula Gillespie, and Harvey Kail, which surveyed over a hundred former tutors to gauge their level of professional development in writing centers.
Research Methods for
Writing Tutors," the third main section, helps students structure their research questions.
For
writing tutors, it is vital that we teach students the power of writing for oneself.
Aware of the value of the English writing center, foreign language faculty supported the idea of an MWC staffed by trained and fluent undergraduate peer
writing tutors.
As I considered what this keynote (1) would be about, I found that, because of recent work with Melissa Ianetta (including editing a special issue of The Writing Center Journal featuring undergraduate research), I had no choice but to focus on undergraduate
writing tutors as researchers.
In doing so, we discovered that grounding our practices in principles derived from carefully selected scholarship was a successful approach, both for meeting our goals and for professionally developing our peer
writing tutors.
This realization prompted me to design my own study to examine current views on academic writing instruction by surveying university and community college writing instructors and
writing tutors.
Our field has over three decades of scholarship on how to educate
writing tutors in a multitude of settings, but the wealth and variety of resources can create challenges for those seeking guidance.
Their program brings together librarians, First Year Composition instructors, and
writing tutors to help student writers become competent researchers.
