PeerCentered

How do you initially build rapport in your sessions? For my final paper, I wish to explore this question and would appreciate any input. For writers, areas of weakness can be difficult to expose. We have only a brief time to work with a writer, and often delve into some sensitive areas or deep topics during these sessions. How do we create a comfortable environment for our writers and establish rapport with them (through our language and behavior)? In "Asking the Right Questions: A Heuristic for Tutors" The Writing Center Journal . [9.1 (1988): 28-35], Evelyn Ashton-Jones asks: "What are the students actions telling me about his or her attitude? . . . How is the student perceiving me? What kinds of messages am I unconsciously sending? . . . How can I put the student at ease? Establish rapport? Set the stage for this session?" What are some answers to these questions? Some ways I think we build rapport: By greeting writers immediately when they enter our c...