RESOURCES FOR TUTORS
An effective tutor is a sensitive and attentive reader who is capable of reading a student's writing in multiple ways, while remaining curious, responsive, and open to the ideas presented on the page. Being a good reader of your peer's writing requires the ability to read critically, so that the you are able to gather and process the writer's thoughts in a comprehensive manner which will form your response to the student's work. While reading a paper, remember to look for its strengths and weakness, make a running list of the problems the paper has (structural, sentence-level errors, punctuation, grammar), and craft your response to the tutee based on what you are reading. By acting as a receptive reader, you are better able to offer insight and criticism that the writer will utilize in future writing endeavors. Ideally, a successful writing center tutor is engaged with both the paper and the writer at the same time, remembering to acknowledge the unique individual whose motivations, directions, and emotions need to be accounted for while analyzing and critiquing the academic work.
It will help your tutoring sessions to familiarize yourself with our Writing Center's online resources. You'll find represented here a wide variety of writing elements that you will encounter in your tutorials. They can inform your knowledge of writing in various styles and disciplines, and often come in handy in the middle of a session, or as a recommendation writers can take home with them. Knowing the contents of these cites will enable you to inform your students of valuable resources that are available to them, and you can learn a lot from these online resources too!
Specific Writing Skills
grammar | language and audience | organization | argumentation | writing process | transition | clarity and concision | citation
Various disciplines and classes
Anthropology | Art | Biology | Business | Chemistry | Cultural Studies | Government | History | Literature | Mathematics | Philosophy | Physics | Psychology | Sociology | Theology
More Tools for Tutors
These links connect to compilations of useful handouts
and explanations that can aid both writers and tutors alike. Have a grammar
question? Need a brainstorming strategy? These pages provide guidelines
for writers in any stage of the writing process, and suggest approaches
that can help you shape a productive writing conversation.
- The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing: This site includes information from Michael Harvey's book, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, with links to pages about thinking, style, structure, evidence, and mechanics. This book is also available for purchase online.
- Purdue OWL: The Purdue Online Writing Lab is an award-winning resource for student writers and tutors. The site provides a wealth of concise information on writing topics from A-Z, including citation in a variety of formats, how to overcome writer's block, and tips and strategies for revising.
- UNC: The UNC Writing Center site offers a menu of helpful handouts, including general strategies for academic writing, explanations of writing in different disciplines and styles, and tips on common grammar pitfalls.
- University of Toronto: This website offers readable instructions on each stage of the writing process - from planning and organizing to style and editing.
- Marquette: The Marquette University Writing Center offers expectations for writing in various arts and sciences.
- Brown: The Brown Writing Center provides resources in five areas, including general resources, academic writing guides, non-academic writing links, tools on references, and links to other university's writing centers.
