As the writing center director, I believe our professional tutors provide valuable expert perspectives to student writers. They also help me mentor the peer tutors and push me to reevaluate our practices. They add staffing stability to the center (whose peer tutors never stay for more than three years). Finally, these trusted writing experts professionalize the writing center’s status among administration, faculty, and students.
In the following paragraphs, Amy, Ellen, Chris, and Lindsey illustrate the rich variety of skills and perspectives professional writing tutors can contribute to a writing centerUniversity Writing Cente

Campbell, Lindsey

Cohn, Amy

Goldstein, Ellen

Jefferson, Jennifer

Wallis, Chris

English

Texas ScholarWorks

Praxis: A Writing Center Journal (2003-2011)SectionsFocusColumns and ReviewsConsultingTrainingNews & AnnouncementsArchivesBrowse past issues of PraxisAbout UsAbout UsSubmissionsSubmit an article to PraxisHome » Archives » Fall 2009 (Volume 7 Issue 1) - Professionalizationand the Writing Center, Part IA Writer, an Editor, an Instructor, and an AlumnaWalk into the Writing Center...Fall 2009 / Focusby Jennifer Jefferson, Amy Cohn, Ellen Goldstein, Chris Wallis, andLindsey Campbell, Endicott CollegeReal-world professional experience in the writing centerWhat happens when professionals from diverse writing backgrounds walk into asmall New England college writing center?[1] At Endicott College, sevenprofessional and ten peer tutors work with a traditional undergraduatepopulation of approximately 2,000 students, as well as with a growing numberof graduate students and non-traditional undergraduates. What benefits–besides providing advanced writing support for our graduate community–mightthe professional tutors’ additional experience bring to the writing center?The Endicott College Writing Center is locatedon the first floor of the Diane M. Halle Library(Beverly, MA). Photo by Catherine Wechsler.As the writing center director, I believe our professional tutors provide valuableexpert perspectives to student writers. They also help me mentor the peertutors and push me to reevaluate our practices. They add staffing stability tothe center (whose peer tutors never stay for more than three years). Finally,these trusted writing experts professionalize the writing center’s status amongadministration, faculty, and students.In the following paragraphs, Amy, Ellen, Chris, and Lindsey illustrate the richvariety of skills and perspectives professional writing tutors can contribute to awriting center.AMY: From Writer to Professional TutorI joined the professional staff at the Endicott Writing Center more than fiveyears ago. Although it was my first writing center position, I had enjoyed a longcareer in the children’s book field -- publishing, reviewing for a variety ofmedia, graduate-level teaching and writing. How did my expertise transfer tothis new setting? And how did my background affect my work withundergraduate students? Let's look at the first question first, as any good tutorwould suggest!After working for three decades with professional writers, as wellas being one myself, I understand how hard writing is. Foranyone. For everyone.After working for three decades with professional writers, as well as being onemyself, I understand how hard writing is. For anyone. For everyone. It is hardto come up with ideas. It is hard to craft cogent sentences. It is hard to wrestlejust the right vocabulary word to the page from one's internal (or external!)thesaurus. And writing takes time -- lots of time. I share this with students. Iencourage them with anecdotes and stories from the working lives of authorsthey may have grown up with. I tell them about my own writing challenges.And while I entertain and cajole, I remind them that feeling stuck or lost or fed-up or frustrated is something they will not only work through but come toembrace. It is, after all, part of the process.Now for the second question. Because Endicott College values and promotesprofessional caliber internships, students relish advice from non-academicexperts. It is natural to draw upon my particular piece of the professional worldwhile tutoring, and what happens during our sessions reflects a professionalwriter’s everyday challenges, such as: Which word? What phrase? What stays?What goes? Can I do better? But I’m not just a professional writer. I'm also aprofessional reader. I've had a lot of practice making sense of texts–not in orderto grade them, but to learn and grow from reading, to have my curiosity firstaroused, then satisfied.My perspective as a professional reader-writer, I believe, enables the studentsto relax. They know I won’t evaluate them in the way faculty might. I read, askquestions, talk things through, and never judge. Conferences have an air ofcollegiality and a feeling of partnership. We can talk as one writer to another, asa less experienced one with a more experienced one–as an apprentice, if youwill, to a master tradeswoman.ELLEN: From Editor to Professional TutorLike Amy, I tutor from outside the traditional student—faculty relationship, inmy case drawing from my experience as an editor. Tutoring uses many of thesame skills as editing. Both require an eye for detail, the ability to locate anargument–even when it is well-hidden–and a respect for the author and thewriting process. The difference between the two jobs lies, in part, in how theseskills are used. The editor is often more focused on getting to the finishedproduct while the tutor lingers in the process in order to help studentsunderstand the steps necessary to improving their work. As a result, a tutorcoming from an editorial background needs to remember to slow down andshow their work, as in a math problem.One of the unexpected benefits of my professional editing background is theability to provide context. A professor can talk until she is blue in the face abouta literature review and its role in a research paper, and students will still comeinto the writing center not quite sure why they have to do one. Often I candraw on my experience copyediting academic journals and can offer a concretereason as to why certain conventions, such as literature reviews, exist.Students tend to respect my experience (and are sometimes surprised to learnthat these things occur in the “real” world). They can go back to class with myquick professional explanation, and are able to follow the professor when shetalks about the bigger research issues involved. Once students see theconnection between the academy, their own thesis or paper, and theprofessional world, they are much more likely to see the writing process as awhole. The professors and the professionals make a great tag team.CHRIS: From Instructor to Professional TutorWhereas some students enjoy sessions with Amy and Ellen because of theperspectives they bring as “outsiders,” others choose to work with me becausethey consider me an “insider.”Over my nine years of tutoring college-level writing, the phrase Iheard most was “I just don’t know what Professor X wants.”In The Transition to College Writing, Keith Hjortshoj notes how students oftenbelieve in a handbook that will tell them everything they need to know abouteffective writing (189). I might take this a step further and say that manystudents are on a quest to discover another more general handbook, WhatProfessors Want, and that some students choose to work with me preciselybecause they think my identity as an instructor also means I can provide thema glimpse into their professor’s mind. Despite chuckling a bit at such apossibility, I also acknowledge that this belief underscores a fundamentaldisconnect between college students and faculty, one that becomes especiallyapparent during some of my tutoring sessions.Over my nine years of tutoring college-level writing, the phrase I heard mostwas “I just don’t know what Professor X wants.” This grievance highlights afrustration that writers take with them into tutoring sessions, and their anxietyonly increases when they realize their professors all seem to want differentthings. Certainly, I felt a similar frustration when I first started tutoring and hadto negotiate unfamiliar disciplines–how to use APA citation in addition to MLA,how to organize a lab report, how not to fall asleep when reading an overlytechnical paper. And yet, though it’s true that my colleagues represent variousdisciplines and practice a number of writing styles, it’s also true that there is aconsensus when it comes to student papers: they should contain clear openingsand closings, strong arguments and reliable evidence, coherent organization,few distracting language problems, and a steady sense of audience.What most college faculty desire from student writing, then, is consistency,something that students often misinterpret as uniformity. As both a tutor andan instructor, I am in a strong position to help students recognize this vitaldifference, and perhaps even shrink the ideological gap.LINDSEY: From Peer Tutor Alumna to Professional TutorThere is no better way to get the inside scoop than from a former insider. Notonly was I once a student at Endicott College, but I also acted as a peer writingtutor for three of my four undergraduate years. After graduation, I went on toreceive a master’s degree at Boston University and have since pursued acopywriting career in advertising. Now as a professional tutor, I am not onlyable to rely on my education and background as a writer, but I am also able topull from my time as a student to become a better tutor, listener, supporter, andat times, psychologist (sometimes it can take more than a little coaxing toconvince a student to hit “delete” and start all over again).From my experiences as both a tutee and peer tutor, I’ve found that I am ableto connect with the students in a unique way. At the beginning of each writingsession, I introduce myself as a former student at Endicott. This statementgives me instant credibility with my tutee–and it has nothing to do with mywriting skills. For instance, I once had a senior business major that scheduledan appointment with me to go over a chapter of his thesis project. After ourfirst session, I could tell he was frustrated with all of the changes we made tohis work. To ease his disappointment, I explained to him that I had also writtena thesis at Endicott, and I knew exactly how he felt. It is not just the thesis thatis difficult to handle, but also the additional internships, classes, and part-timejobs that most students juggle. He seemed relieved and grateful for myempathy, and left the session a little lighter than when he had arrived.Initially, this student sought out the writing center only under his professor’sadvisement. But eventually, he made a standing weekly appointment and evenmade a point to share his final product with me. What helped my tutee morethan my writing expertise was the benefit of my experience as a formerstudent. He knew that I, too, sat on the other side of the table; wrote papers;wrote and re-wrote a thesis; and horror of horrors, had to hit delete and startall over again. But in the end, I survived. And by knowing I had, he knew thathe could, too. Sometimes all it takes is a lot of understanding mixed with a littleadvisement and a dash of confidence to make an impossible writing situationseem possible for a student. Speaking as an insider, I can definitely relate.JENNIFER: Final ReflectionsThe common thread throughout these narratives has been what gives theindividual tutors credibility with student writers. As a director, I also see whatthe tutors accomplish from a campus public relations perspective. Faculty knowthese tutors bring expertise to their interactions with students, they see theimprovements in student writing, and they encourage students to visit us. Manyof those students who initially visit to work with a professional tutor thenexperience working with peer tutors as well. These students take positivereports back to their faculty, and faculty continue to refer and to reinforce thisaffirming cycle. The presence of professional tutors therefore seems to enhancethe campus perception of their peer tutor colleagues. Each professional tutorbrings to the center a wider range of writing experiences than could peer,graduate student, or faculty tutors alone. These tutors professionalize theentire center, which ultimately benefits students, faculty, and the College. That,for us, is what happens when a writer, an editor, an instructor, and an alumnawalk into the writing center.Notes[1]The authors would like to thank Dean Kathleen Barnes and peer writingtutor Ashley Vosburgh for their help with editing and brainstorming. Photocredit and thanks also go to Catherine Wechsler.Works CitedHjortshoj, Keith. The Transition to College Writing. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2001. Print.____________________Jennifer Jefferson directs the writing center and teaches writing courses atEndicott College. She holds an MA in composition and rhetoric fromNortheastern University and a BA in English (Phi Beta Kappa) fromHamilton College. She chairs Endicott’s Writing Advisory Task Force and hasserved on the steering committee for the Northeast Writing CentersAssociation. Jennifer also spent several years in the publishing industry; shecontinues to edit books and professional articles on a freelance basis. Herrecent publications include two Writing Lab Newsletter articles: “Knowingthe Faculty (Too?) Well: An Advantage or Disadvantage for SmallCollege Writing Centers?” (March 2009) and “Instructors Tutoring TheirOwn Students in the Writing Center: A Conflict of Interest?” (December2007).Amy Cohn: After a distinguished career in children's book publishing andreviewing, which included serving as marketing director of The Horn Book,Inc. and editor-in-chief of three different children's imprints at William Morrowand Co., writing two books, teaching graduate-level courses at Simmons andLesley colleges, and appearing regularly on various National Public Radioprograms and the CBS Morning News, Amy Cohn joined the staff of the writingcenter at Endicott College. There, she works daily with great pleasure helpingstudents improve and mature as writers of all sorts of texts. Amy is a graduate(Phi Beta Kappa) of SUNY Binghamton (now Binghamton University) andholds an MA in children’s literature from Simmons College.Ellen Goldstein is a freelance editor by day and a professional writing tutor atEndicott College by night. She has a BA in English from Carleton Collegeand an MFA from Emerson College. Ellen is a poetry reader for Junctures: AJournal of Thematic Dialogue. She has published poetry in Mid-AmericanReview, Valaparaiso Poetry Review, StorySouth, Able Muse, and you are here:the journal of creative geography, as well as in the anthology Letters to theWorld, published by Red Hen Press.Chris Wallis began his tutoring career as an undergraduate at Saint Michael’sCollege in Vermont, where he earned a BA in French and English (Phi BetaKappa). While pursuing his MA in English literature at Boston College, hecontinued to bolster his tutoring skills at the school’s Connors FamilyLearning Center. Currently, in addition to tutoring in the Endicott CollegeWriting Center, he teaches composition and literature courses at both EndicottCollege and Wheelock College. His research focuses on gender and sexualityin early modern English literature and culture, and he has written essaysexploring sodomitical discourse and representations of the female body inRenaissance drama and anatomical tracts.Lindsey Campbell is a professional tutor at the Endicott College WritingCenter and a copywriter experienced in cross media: print, television, radio,outdoor, online, and guerilla copy for advertising. She has won “Best OverallPackage” for the development of a web-based interactive children’s game andpublished an international feature article in Hot English Magazine. She holds anMS in advertising from Boston University and a BS in communication fromEndicott College. She worked as a peer writing tutor and a communicationtutor during her undergraduate years. Lindsey is currently pursuing acopywriting career in the advertising world.‹ Fall 2009 (Volume 7 Issue1) - Professionalization andthe Writing Center, Part Iup An Interview with BenRafoth on Writing CenterResearch, Dissertations, andJob Opportunities ›    Praxis is a project of the Undergraduate Writing Center at the University of Texas at Austin     Editor login

A Writer, an Editor, an Instructor, and an Alumna Walk into the Writing Center

https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/2152/62283/2/jefferson_7.1ProfessionalizationandtheWritingCenter.pdf

A Writer, an Editor, an Instructor, and an Alumna Walk into the Writing Center

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Texas ScholarWorks