Tutoring Maiden Voyage

            After four attempts to tutor in the writing center, the moment of truth finally arrived midday on a Thursday. I must say, I had already accepted that no student would come into drop-in hours while I was there, since my timeframe was coming to a close. In the remaining time I had, two students entered my cubicle with a peculiar request. Two relatives of theirs had died unexpectedly a few weeks ago- an aunt and her daughter. The aunt had written into her will a quote that she wanted on her tombstone many years before, but the family had decided to bury the mother and daughter under a single tombstone. The two students requested that I help them rephrase the quote so that it included the daughter. This particular situation was complex because other family members felt very strongly about it, as I was shown many emails with various suggestions for the quote. The students’ main priorities were to remove any grammatical errors and “make sure it made sense” within the context. In the session we discussed “who and whom” rules as well as comma use. I put a particular emphasis on the sentence being theirs to make the final decision because it was such a personal situation. Additionally, I requested the input of the tutor supervising my session. The two students seemed to be satisfied with the end results and thanked me profusely. After telling them they could come back at any time, I felt satisfied and confident at the end of the session. I even saw them later on at my job at Yogurt Vi! I would like to work on grammar rules for future sessions so I do not have to spend time looking them up during a session.