Transcript Example 1:    Tutee: Ms. Q. Assignment: her favorite place What did I do: let her read essay first + told her what I thought this.

Example 1:
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Tutee: Ms. Q.
Assignment: her favorite place
What did I do:
let her read essay first + told her what I
thought this essay in positive words +
I did almost the talk = ?
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The outcome: she agreed with me almost
everything.
My doubt: does she really agree with me?
do we have the same thought?
Example 2:
Tutee: Ms. QQ
 Assignment: about religions & gender
discrimination
 Problems:
not able to recognize her essay with strong
points that related to the thesis + weak content
of her essay + a little bit lazy to rewrite the
essay on her own + completely relies on me = ?
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What did I do:
I asked her to free write about the topic.
Reasons why students may not
be active:
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On TUTEE’s side:
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For ESL students, their speaking skills are
limited.
Cultural background can lead a different
perspective to the tutor.
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Cultural differences affect tutoring
sessions:
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From the article Cultural Conflicts in the
Writing Center: Expectations and
Assumptions of ESL students, Muriel
Harris tells us that:
“ESL students, then, perceive
tutors to be more immediately
helpful, more approachable, more
practical, and more personal than
teachers are, but the students
expect tutors to work on errors and
difficulties in specific pieces of
discourse,not on the larger, more
abstract level of writing skills and
processes.”
Two Examples of ESL students’
different points of view of tutoring:
Country: Puerto Rica
 Point of view:
--help and encourage
students to “keep it
up”.
--encourage the
students to improve
their work.
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Region: Asia
 Point of view:
--correcting errors,
showing mistakes,
and “giving clear
understanding”.
--not providing
motivation or
encouragement.
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Tutees are afraid of making mistakes like
grammatical errors, spelling mistakes,
sentences structure.
Tutees assume that tutors actually can write
better than them.
On TUTOR’s side:
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Tutors are not patient enough to wait and
listen to tutees’ thoughts.
Tutors generally have a thought of being a
tutor, which equals we should know the
answer.
As tutors, we thought we are the “teller”,
but not all the time.
Suggestions:
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FOR TUTEE:
Tutees can take the assignment and the
questions that tutor asked based on the
assignment home for a few days, reflect on what
they wanted to say, and then write for a while.
In order to be an active writer, students have to write
more. Like brainstorming, free writing based on the
topics of the essays, students may get more than they
expected when they do these.
Free writing is helpful because:
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Free writing is an attempt to capture the same
verbal energy on the paper, just like we say or
express something we want to say.
All these factors of being afraid of making
mistakes in an essay can be ignored when
students are doing free write, and that is a very
good practice for those who wants to improve
their writing.
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When students are free writing, their hands and
pens cannot stop writing, they have to keep on
thinking and writing on the paper in a short time.
Free writing can be at the computer as well
because some study shows that people may feel
easier to free write on a screen.
For Tutor:
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What should we do to
tutees?
Help tutees to get their
motivations of writing.
Tutors should
encourage them to write,
ask them not to be shy
to make mistakes.
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What should we do to
ourselves?
Before the tutoring
session, physically, tutor
can choose a seat that is
on the tutee’s right side
if the tutor is righthanded.
More:
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Tutors should help tutees to
set up a concept, which is
we can learn and explore
more from the mistakes.
Tutors have to make tutees
feel confident to write
everything. We can share
our writing experiences to
our tutees.
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Tutors should keep in mind
that we are not the owner of
the paper. Don’t help too
much. Don’t take it over.
There are at least two
people in the tutoring
session, so tutors should
give others’ chance to talk.
Don’t feel awkward if there
is a period of silence; it’s a
good way to push tutees to
get the chance to talk.
Finally,
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Tutors, don’t be afraid of using “I don’t
know/I’m not sure.” it’s also a good way
for both tutor and tutee to work together,
and tutor can help tutee to explore what
their expectations are and the motivations
of writing.
What would happen if we used
these methods?
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Example 1:
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I try to stop talking and moving my chair a little
bit further than before, so I will not sit too close
to the paper, which makes me feel like to edit
them; the quietness stays for a short time. Ms. Q
realizes we should discuss something to keep
our tutoring session going on, so she starts to
ask me questions, such as “what do you think
about this sentence?” “Is this right?”
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Example 2:
-As the old saying goes, "Practice makes
perfect", by practicing
free writing several times, tutee would be
able to think more and write more
-Tutees are able to work on their own to get
some ideas and able to
generate more materials for their essays
-not to rely on tutors so often
-change their attitudes towards writing
-become an active writer eventually