Re: Tutor Qualifications

[Clinton Gardner <cgardner@englab.slcc.edu>]

D'Ann George wrote:
> 
> A few days ago I expressed my doubts about finding good peer tutors to
> work in a community college.  IN short, I figured that by the time students
> finish their writing course work, they graduate.
> 
> Am I implying that tutors need some sort of expertise?  I certainly am.
> To suggest, as Clinton Gardner did, that writing centers must exist either
> as "places where writers c ome to share their work," or as places where
> "experts" work with student writers, leaves out the possibility that
> writing centers might be places where writers come to share their work
> with writing experts, or at least with people who know more than they do
> about writing.  I wonder how students visiting a writing center would
> respond if you told them not to expect any expertise from their tutors.
> 

It seems that the topic of expert vs. respondant is coming up all over the place!  In any case, I'm not sure I meant to imply such a cut-and-dried definition of what a writing center does.  I fully recognize that many of the students who visit writing centers do so because they feel that their writing is not up to "par" and that a tutor in the writing center can help them to learn about their writing.  (That is a possitive case scenario...the less positive case would be the student writer who comes to the writing center because they want the tutor to fix his/her paper.)  A response based writing center, however, keeps the needs of such students in mind.  Feedback is situated in a cooperation, if you will, between student and tutor.  I supose that sounds idealistic, but the discussions of writing that occur under such a system are often more interesting to me than the "novice" to "expert" discussions that often happen between students and instructors.   I think, however, both have a place in learning about writing.  I'm not sure, however, that both have a place in a writing center.  How do students respond when we tell them we are not writing experts?  Some, as you suggest, seem to respond negatively initially, but once they begin to work, they discover that they are learning and that the writing task is possible for them to negotiate.  Other students who come to us find it reinvigorating that they "aren't going to be talked down to by some English teacher" (a quote from an evaluation).  

> 
> I'm not saying that a 2-year college can't find peer tutors with enough
> expertise to qualify for the job, only that I thought it might be more
> difficult, given the limited amount of time they have had to study and
> practice writing at the college level.  But I'm intrigued by the many
> claims of success by members of this list.
> 
> What I'd like to know is, what qualifications have directors at various
> writing centers decided that tutors need to work in their centers, and
> how do they go about finding students with these qualifications?
> 

Desipite my rather free wielding claims about the benefits of response, our writing center has very set critteria for hiring peer tutors.  Students who wish to work in the Writing Center must have completed English 102 (our second term writing course) with a "B" or better (we've never hired anyone with less than an A); must show proven abillity to work well in peer response groups (this is done both through teacher recommendation and a peer group model in the interview); and must have the recommendation of their writing instructor.  The purpose for these criteria is to ensure, in fact, that the tutors who apply have had experience working in peer groups.  In the interviews we purposely weed out people who tend to take on the role of the "expert" vs. the role of the respondant.  While at times it is difficult to locate tutors, usually we recruit tutors from English 102 classes, Business writing classes, and general announcements.  

> Do tutors need to have completed course work, and if so, what kind?  Do
> grades in this course work matter?
> 

See above.

> Should a tutor be able to produce an acceptable portfolio of her writing?
> 

We've usually have peer tutors share their writing with us, but, again, we are more interested in the prospective tutors abillity to work in peer response than their artistic abillity.

> And what about a tutors communication skills, or her ability to empathize
> with others?  How does one screen for something intangible like that?
> 

That's a tough question.  The screening for communications skills is a bit difficuly, but can be inferred from the interview. 

 

> D'Ann George
> Writing Program Director
> Essex Community College
> 7201 Rossville Boulevard
> Baltimore County, Maryland 21237-3899

 

I'd be interested in the answers you receive to your questions.

 

 

--clint gardner