Sean Tyler

 Introductory 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?

Comments

  1. Carol SeverinoSeptember 1, 2020 at 4:45 PM

    For better or for worse, rarely do teachers want to talk with tutors about their student's work, and if they do, they'd come through Deirdre, the assistant director, or me. It would be a mediated vs. a direct conversation. When I talk to instructors I'm very careful because some of them, at least in Rhetoric and Lit, are brand new and will be influenced by what I say. I don't want to present the student as "having problems with writing" because that may affect the teacher's perception of the student and the student's grade. I might talk instead about the student's lack of writing experience.

    Our policy is that teachers can't require students come to the writing center, even for extra credit. We don't sign papers (especially now that we're virtual!), but let me know who the instructor is, and I'll send them an email. Usually we give the student a handout with that policy to take to the instructor, but we can't do that now.

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  2. Carol SeverinoSeptember 2, 2020 at 1:09 PM

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