What works / what doesn't: the Writing Center

Problem Posing Exercise:
Evaluation of Tutoring at the Writing
Center
ENG 220

Now that we have observed tutoring at the Writing Center,
we will write an evaluation of what we saw in the form of a letter to Bert
Eisenstadt, who manages the Writing
Center. This exercise
will be our preparation for writing that letter.


Part A: What Seems
Good at the Writing
Center

Step 1: Identify
and describe the best tutoring experience you witnessed over the last four
weeks of observing tutoring at the Writing
Center.

Step 2: Which
strategy from our course readings best describes what you witnessed? Explain
the strategy and cite the source. If what you witnessed does not resemble
anything we read about, then describe the tutor’s strategy as best you
can.

Step 3: How did
you know the strategy worked? In other words, what evidence from the tutoring
session makes you sure it worked? What learning outcomes did you observe?



Part B: What Seems Not To Work at the Writing Center

Step 1: Briefly identify and describe a
problem you witnessed during a tutoring session you observed at the Writing Center.

Step 2: Which “tutoring don’t” from our
course readings best describes what you witnessed? Present a quotation
(identify the source and page number) that describes the problem, then continue
the description in your own words, emphasizing what this “tutoring don’t” means
to you in a way that will set the reader
up for step 3.

Step 3: Describe what you saw in detail
when you observed the problem. Describe how it relates to your definition of
the problem in steps 1 & 2.

Step 4: Propose a solution to the problem
based on strategies and “tutoring dos” from the course reading. Describe what
strategy the Writing Center Manager might present in a tutor training session
to remedy this problem.