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[ The Elmhurst Scene ]
Getting the Point Across
Student collaboration and the straightfoward work of sitting down at a desk with pens and paper: these are the hallmarks of the Writing Center.
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 Forget, for a moment, the PCs and the shelves brimming with reference books. They can be handy resources, but the crucial equipment in the Writing Center is a pair of humble desk chairs.
Students at the center are paired with tutors who help them develop their composition and language skills. A newcomer will be quick to notice the desk chairs, positioned side by side along the edge of a work table. More than likely, the first thing the newcomer will be asked to do upon arrival is to have a seat in one of the chairs. The tutor, a fellow Elmhurst undergraduate, will take the other chair. Then, with the newcomer’s work laid out on the table between them, the two will begin to read.
Sounds simple. But that dynamic—two students sitting side by side, reading and working together—is what the Writing Center is all about, say the student-tutors who help run the place. “It’s a collaboration, and the goal is to make more independent writers,” explains Melina Probst, a senior English major who has tutored at the center for two years and served as the student director last term. “We’re not here to judge them or critique them or edit them. That’s why I like to make sure the student’s paper is sitting between us, not in front of me. You can’t really collaborate when you’re sitting across the table from each other.”
That collaborative approach seems to have caught on with the students who turn to the center for help. The number of students visiting the center each month has risen steadily over the past several years, Probst says, climbing to a record-high 121 visits last November. Not surprisingly, tutors say that business tends to be at its most brisk toward the end of terms, when paper deadlines loom. Some students come to the center on their own, seeking help with particular problems. Others are referred by their professors. A few come hoping that the tutors will do their work for them. That notion never lasts very long. “We tell them that we’re not here to write their papers for them, and we’re not a dropoff editing service, and we’re not going to mark up their papers with a red pen,” says Stacey Smith, the current student director. Instead, the idea is to help students find their own answers to their writing problems. That, says Smith, is where reading together comes in. “The first thing I like to do is just have them read through something they’ve written. A lot of times the problem is just that they never bothered to do that,” she explains. “If they just do that, they’ll save themselves a lot of work.”
For some students, including those for whom English is a second language, mastering some of the thornier rules of grammar is the primary goal of their sessions at the Writing Center. But for a surprising number, writing problems are rooted not so much in an inability to master grammar but in a lack of organization and clarity, says Assistant Professor Bridget O’Rourke. “Tutoring isn’t necessarily about identifying every dangling participle,” says O’Rourke, who co-directs the center with her English department colleague, Associate Professor Tina Kazan. “If the tutor is a good listener and asks good questions and can say to the writer, ‘I’m not quite sure what you meant by that last part,’ it will help the writer organize his thoughts and express himself better.”
Working at the Writing Center, Probst says, can be a learning experience for the tutors as well as for the students who come seeking help. “It has definitely helped me with my own writing,” she says. “I’ve learned to question myself about what I’m writing, to ask myself the ‘So what?’ question.” “It gives them confidence in their abilities to know that they can help another student,” O’Rourke adds. Tutors must apply for one of the positions and typically work five to ten hours each week. They earn a wage that is paid out of the budget of the Learning Center, in which the Writing Center is located. The Learning Center also offers tutoring and workshops in reading, writing, math, study skills, and test-taking. Its director, Professor Janice Fodor, supervises the tutors.
Beyond the tutors’ quarters in the Frick Center, students also can find writing resources on the Writing Center’s web site, created by Kyle Jones ’07, a former student director. Eight or nine tutors work at the center in a typical term. O’Rourke says their experience pays off, in the moment and down the line. “It’s really a professional development opportunity,” says O’Rourke. “Employers always say they want graduates with the ability to work together to solve problems. That’s what our tutors do, work collaboratively.” |
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