Teaching in a Writing Center Fall 2020

 1. Will I know ahead of time what major my students are and what kind of help they might be looking for before we meet? Or is that what I learn in the first session? 2. How will I provide helpful feedback to a student who's working on a topic I don't know anything about? 

1. How does formality/informality translate into our online work? What are some of the markers of inappropriately informal behavior? How does formality/informality intersect with personality types and the ways that we as tutors wear the many different hats referenced in the Bedford Guide? 2. The guide asks us to avoid taking sides between students and their instructors, which seems largely to be great advice. How do we balance this principle with some of the hats referenced in the Bedford Guide, which seem to be well-suited to taking the student's side? Is there ever a time when that's appropriate?

 1. There was some mention throughout the resources that referred to the writing process, but a lot of those references seemed to assume that all writers are going to approach the writing process in similar ways. I am a firm believer that there is not a universal process that works for all writers; however, I do acknowledge that there are steps in any writer's process that are vital to that process. My question is based on these two ideas: How much of our jobs as tutors will be teaching a writing process and how much of our jobs will be working with the process that the writers already use? Are we to act as purveyors of the process or facilitators of a process? 2. With all Writing Center interactions being online this fall, how do cancellations and no shows work for checking the Document Review system? Are we simply acting as if our Appointment time is the time we would have been in the Writing Center? To extend this question, how often should we be checking Document Review otherwi...

1. I perked up quite a bit at the warning about doing too much of the work for your students (mentioned both in the tutor guide and the Bedford reading) because I often worry I'm doing that when my students visit office hours for help. This "doing too much" happens most often when the student isn't responding productively to the questions I'm asking and so I instinctly take over instead of letting the meeting stall. My question is am I asking the wrong kinds of questions? Are there tried and true questions for nudging a student along? 2. Chapter 1 of the Bedford reading advises against being sarcasitic or flip with the students as it can be perceived as off-putting. That makes sense, but being a little flip is deeply embedded in my personality, so I'm wondering if there's clearer examples of the kinds of quips that should be avoided, like the negative examples the authors provided for the waiting area, e.g."I guess I'll take this one."

My two questions are the following:  1.   Are we able to choose what type of tutoring we do (enrollment program, appointment program, or document review)? Is it required we do all different types?  2. What does the contract look like? (Is there a required minimum of hours we must work? Is there a maximum? Are we eligible for University employee benefits? What is the pay?)

 I ntroductory Questions.  Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors: When the guide was discussing confidentiality it raised to question of how much is confidential when discussing a student with their professors. How do we respond to instructors who want to talk about their student’s work? How much is confidential when talking to an instructor? Are we able to discuss specific things we talked about with the student? Are we able to mention problems we encountered with their piece?   Policy: In the past I have had students who were told specifically by their instructor to come to the Writing Center, ether for a particular project or as a requirement to turn their next assignment in. How would we handle that situation? I know we don’t sign extra credit slips, but do we ever inform the instructor a student has attended? Is there a specific way of doing that?

 BLOG POST #1: What questions do you have about writing center policies and procedures in general (the Bedford Guide ) and those specific to our Writing Center (The UI Writing Center's Tutor Guide, our website)?  Please post two questions, each of you in an individual post with your name as the title. No need to post replies this time.  Thanks!