Rebecca Sambursky

Dr. Hall
ENC 4275
October 22, 2014
Writing Tutor 101: Focus on Facilitating
After observing several different writing consultants work in the writing center, I have
noticed that every writing tutor facilitates a writers learning differently. I have also noticed that
writers tend to respond in various ways, showing that they are actually learning and absorbing
the information being provided to them. While observing writing consultant Ali Valerio, I was
given the opportunity to see the role both Ali and the writer played when it came to the writers
learning. From the moment I began observing Ali, I noticed that she used a very indirect tutoring
method to facilitate the learning of the writerspecifically, Ali asked the writer to explain what
the assignment was, had the writer explain what she was struggling with, and had the writer
change errors in her paper herself after they discussed the issue together.
After Ali brought her writer to the back table, she asked her what assignment they would
be working on. The writer responded that she was working on a discourse community paper, and
she had a draft written up to discuss and go over. Ali then asked a series of questions including
what discourse she chose to write about, why she chose that discourse, and if there was anything
specific she was struggling with that she needed help on. The writer responded by stating that her
discourse community was on her sorority here at the University of Central Florida, she chose it
because she is a member of the sorority so it was easy to write about, and that she was struggling
with MLA format and the use of commas. Ali then continued to ask questions, mainly about the

writers issue with MLA format. The writer then stated that the majority of her problem lied with
in text citations and the work cited page itself. Instead of asking an excessive amount of
questions, the writing consultant could have just blatantly asked the writer to give a brief
description of what they would be working on and to explain what issues she wanted to address
in the forty-five minute session. This would have left the door open for the writer to state
anything she wanted to say about the assignment and could have saved a considerable amount of
time.
At this point of the session, Ali got up and gathered all the handouts she could find on
both MLA format and commas. When she came back to the table, she asked the writer whether
she would like to go over MLA format or commas first. The writer said MLA format because the
rubric clearly stated that a lot of points would be taken off for incorrect citations. The writing
consultant placed the MLA format handouts in front of the writer and had her look over them.
Instead of just bringing back one copy of each handout for the writer to look over, the writing
tutor could have brought back two copies of each so they both could have looked over them
simultaneously. They discussed the handouts briefly with one another, and then she had the
writer go through her paper and see if she could make any changes herself. Ali gave the writer
about five to six minutes to do so, and then they both evaluated the changes she made to see if
they were done correctly. The fact that the writer was able to read through her paper and make
corrections on her own after reading the handout demonstrated learning. In order to ensure that
the writer had properly absorbed the information, Ali proceeded to go through the paper with the
writer to see if the citations were properly applied. Ali then asked if the writer understood why
she made the changes she did, and had her explain her reasoning. Alternatively, both the tutor
and writer could have gone through the essay and made some changes together, leaving other

citation errors for the writer to find and fix herself. This way, the writing consultant would have
been able to see if the writer understood how to appropriately apply MLA format before having
the writer make changes on her own. Also, in addition to using handouts, it would have been
efficient to use online resources to find examples of both in text citations and work cited pages.
This would have provided the writer with a visual aid and a link she could refer to if she
misplaced the handouts.
With about half the session over, Ali asked the writer if she would like to move on and
discuss commas. The writer said yes, and pulled out the handouts Ali had given her on commas.
Once again, this portion of the session could have been more effective if both the writer and the
writing consultant each had copies of the handout to look over together. They briefly went over
the handouts together before jumping back into the paper. This time, instead of just having the
writer go through her paper and make the changes by herself, Ali read the paper out loud and the
writer either added or removed commas as she read. After reading through the entire paper, both
Ali and the writer went back through the essay to discuss the changes. Ali asked questions
including Why did you add a comma here? and Why did you discard this comma here? This
indirect approach encouraged the writer to explain why she made the changes she did and helped
the writing consultant understand the writers thought process. This also helped Ali confirm
whether the writer was correctly absorbing the rules on commas and applying them properly
throughout her paper. Instead of reading through the entire paper, it could have been more
productive to go paragraph by paragraph. This could have helped both the writer and writing
consultant zone in on areas that needed more work than others. Also, instead of just reading
through the entire paper, the writing consultant could have asked the writer if there were any
particular sentences she wanted to go over first that she knew she had struggled with. Going over

those sentences first could have boosted the writers confidence to look through the rest of her
paper and potentially facilitated better learning.
To conclude the session, Ali asked the writer if there were any other major concerns of
the paper that she wanted to discuss. After the writer said no, the writing consultant gave her the
handouts to take home with her and stated that she hope she helped. Instead of asking the writer
if she had other concerns when the session was practically over, it would have been more
effective to ask that about midway through the session. If the writer did have other concerns, this
would have given the writing tutor a chance to rearrange the original plan and timing of the
session to work in other issues. Throughout the session, I also noticed that when the writer
seemed to understand a concept, her body language changed dramatically. She would both lean
forward and seem very engaged with what was being discussed, or turn her body toward the
writing consultant and talk with her hands when discussing a topic. When she seemed nervous or
unsure about an issue, she would lean back and slouch in her chair and just agree and nod her
head while the writing tutor spoke. This is something that would have been beneficial for the
writing consultant to notice, for this is a strong indicator of whether learning is happening. Once
the writer was escorted out, I debriefed Ali and we examined the session together.