PeerCentered

In consultations as a tutor, I notice students struggle with their own written language based on the demands of the academy. Many students enter college feeling their writing is inadequate compared to the academic material they read for courses. This anxiety leads to students and clients adopting writing practices that causes them to lose their personal writing voice and to view any mistake they make as a personal failing instead of the process of writing. Worse, clients come in fearing to use their voice in assignments through overly citing materials, believing they cannot possibly offer anything analytically or mechanically to the academic discussion within their assignment. Fear of sounding unintelligent or demonstrating their incompetence shapes this tactic regardless of discipline and rank, instead of the generalization of student laziness. How do we, as writing consultants, address this issue of encouraging clients to value their learning and written voice while also guide them t...

Hello PeerCentered Readers, My name is Cora Thomas. I have been a Peer Writing Consultant for the Writing and Communication Center at the University of Washington Bothell for about two years. I began in September 2011 as I pursued a Master's Degree from the Cultural Studies Graduate Program. The Assistant Director permits a wide range of creative freedom for staff to suggest ideas and initiate projects that would improve the learning and teaching of both students and tutors. In Summer 2012, after I had a significant encounter with a student I was inspired to create a project entitled, “Collecting Tutor Stories Project.” With support from our Assistant Director and Director this project evolved into an anthology that will be published (print) for our writing center this summer. These samples from the anthology below are comprised of a collection of voices from Peer Writing Consultants at UW Bothell Writing and Communication Center.  This idea for a Tutor Story Anthology ar...