 |
 |
The Writing Center
Ways Tutors Help
Before you visit the Writing Center
-
Don't wait until the last minute to visit the Writing Center. Give yourself at least a day between your visit to the Center and the date the paper is due. Otherwise, you won't have time to make significant revisions.
-
Think about what you want to accomplish before you confer with a tutor. The tutor will ask, "How may I help you?" Be ready with a specific answer. What are your main concerns regarding your paper?
-
Bring the assignment sheet, the written-down directions for the assignment you're working on.
-
Don't think you have to bring a completed draft before you can confer with a tutor in the Writing Center. A conference can be helpful at any stage in the writing process, even if you haven't written a word yet. A tutor can help you decide on a topic, limit it, brainstorm ideas for developing it, and consider how you might organize your material before you begin.
Ways tutors help
-
Tutors can help you check that you've followed your instructor's directions and have addressed any explicit criteria of evaluation.
-
Tutors can help you develop your ideas by discussing them with you and asking questions.
-
Tutors can help you identify technical errors in a draft (for example, in sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation) and teach you to make corrections on your own.
-
Tutors can help you become a better reader of your own writing by helping you analyze your draft in terms of focus, organization, development, style, and correctness.
-
Tutors can help you with citing and documenting source material in MLA (Modern Language Association), APA (American Psychological Association) styles, or another documentation style.
-
Your tutor will be an attentive, thoughtful reader of your writing who can let you know how your words are getting across. If nothing else, allowing a tutor to read your paper and talk with you about it will help you learn to internalize an audience--that is, predict and respond to the needs of readers in general, whatever the assignment.
-
You can meet weekly (or more often) with the same tutor over the course of a semester. Your tutor can monitor your progress and focus with you on the writing skills you would like to develop.
© 2005-2008, Southeast Missouri State University
Last Updated 28 January 2008
by Dave Reinheimer