Tutoring Values, Principles, and Policies

• The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors – Leigh Ryan & Lisa Zimmerelli
• The Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors – Lauren Fitzgerald & Melissa Ianetta
• The St. Martin’s Sourcebook for Writing Tutors – Christina Murphy & Steve Sherwood
• ESL Writers: A Guide for Writing Center Tutors – Shanti Bruce & Ben Rafoth
• The Online Writing Conference: A Guide for Teachers and Tutors – Beth L. Hewett
• “Disability in the Writing Center: A New Approach (That’s Not So New)” – Kerri Rinaldi
• Tutor’s Guide to AI & Writing
• Supplemental Readings

Writing Center administrators use this form to conduct formal observations of student tutors in real appointments at least once per academic year. The content of the form is based on the principles covered in training. The score a tutor earns in their observation is factored into their annual evaluation.

Observation Form

• Above all else, the client must retain authorship over their writing. Tutors may facilitate their writing process or provide direct suggestions but must never impose their feedback upon the client and their paper. The client has the final say on the vision for their paper and any subsequent revisions.

• Active learning is learning by engaging. By actively engaging on a topic, a learner takes what they passively learned and comes to a more independent, embodied understanding. A tutoring appointment provides a time and space in which a tutor fosters a writer’s active learning with their written material through careful listening and Socratic guidance.

• HOCs are elements of a written work such as content, organization, thesis, supporting evidence, transitions, and analysis. These are central to the work’s meaning and communication and reflect the writer’s critical thinking, individuality, and authorship. As such, tutors prioritize these over sentence-level, “Lower-Order Concerns (LOCs)” such as grammar and mechanics.
  • This does not mean tutors will refuse to address LOCs. Repeated LOCs such as frequent run-on sentences affect overall readability and are worth addressing. Also, a student may decide that a particular LOC is all they want to address. The tutor may offer to discuss HOCs as well, but the agenda of the appointment is ultimately determined by the writer.

• Our services attend not only to a writer’s particular piece of writing but, more importantly, the writer themself and their approach to writing (their process, wordcraft, mindset, etc.). Tutors often frame their feedback as an overall lesson in writing rather than remarks isolated to a specific paper. Writers should leave appointments more confidence in their paper and in themselves as a writer.

• Our space and our services strive to be as accommodating as possible. Tutors abide by the idea that a person knows their specific needs best, hence they will defer to the client on how to best serve them rather than imposing predetermined needs. We treat special needs as a matter of privacy and will never outright ask a client for them. It is the client’s decision whether or not to disclose their needs and to what extent.

• The Writing Center’s atmosphere is as relaxed as it is professional. Tutors are friendly professionals who, as peers to students, are especially approachable and can empathize with the ordeal of being a college student in a way only current students can; however, they are expected to not treat the tutoring appointment as a social event and expect the same from the client.
• Tutors are expected to not judge the content or style of any instructor or their assignment. They may empathize with a client’s frustration about the demands of class but will not “take sides.” Tutors should also never speculate what grade a student’s paper would receive.

• Tutors begin appointments by breaking the ice with the client and confirming what they want to accomplish in the appointment. This helps ease into the business of the appointment and ensures the tutor is on the same page as the client.

• The tutor will ask the client to share or explain the assignment so that they are on the same page as the instructor. Tutors are expected to never take liberties in interpreting an instructor’s expectations and will refer the client to the instructor as needed.

• With the student’s concerns and assignment requirements in mind, the tutor will suggest an agenda for how to proceed with the appointment. Having a structured agenda keeps the tutor and client on the same page, allows for more cohesive, prioritized feedback, and prevents the appointment from devolving into an aimless, sentence-by-sentence error correction session.

• Tutors will suggest the paper to be read aloud by the client or themselves. Reading aloud keeps both participants engaged and avoids internally auto-correcting errors that occurs when reading silently. If the paper contains personally sensitive subject matter, the tutor may offer to read the paper silently.

• In order to preserve authorship and promote active learning, tutors provide a mixture of guiding, Socratic-like questions and direct suggestions when deemed appropriate. This results in the appointment becoming a collaborative dialogue about the work and the writer’s process rather than a paper drop-off editing service.

• When a client’s needs are beyond our tutors’ capability or purview, they will refer the client to the appropriate campus resource, such as the Boreham Library, Academic Success Center, Career Center, or their instructor.

• Tutors will not proofread or edit a writer’s paper for them during an appointment as this would infringe on authorship. The paper/computer is kept “between” the writer and tutor, and the pen/keyboard is kept in the hands of the writer. The writer is expected to converse with the tutor about their thoughts, intentions, and concerns that they have with their paper so that the appointment remains collaborative.

• Clients have the option to attach their paper to their appointment, but tutors are not required to read it prior to the appointment. They are, in fact, encouraged not to read it beforehand. Discussing an already read paper is less conducive to collaborative discussion. The purpose of the attachment option is to have the paper ready to access at the start of the appointment.

• Appointments are confined to their reserved time (30 or 60 min), though a 30-minute appointment may be extended to 60 if the tutor is available. Writers are welcome to continue working on their project at the Writing Center after their appointment ends, but their tutor is expected to end the session after or approximately five minutes before the allotted time to ensure punctuality for their next appointment and to complete their client report form.

• We cannot assist with homework assignments, take-home quizzes, tests, etc. Our services apply to written papers (essays, articles, letters, statements of purpose, creative writing, etc.), speeches, presentations, and English language conversation.

• Our space is not meant for proctored testing. Please contact the Academic Success Center (ascFREEuafs / 479-788-7675) for these purposes.

Tutors are not to use any generative AI program (ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot) as a tutoring tool in appointments.

• If a student strongly suspects that a client inappropriately used AI, they can, but are not required to, discuss this with their client. If the tutor’s concerns are not resolved with the client, they are to discuss the matter with the Writing Center Director. The Director may decide to follow up with the client’s instructor. Because the Writing Center treats what a client shares in an appointment as a matter of confidentiality, the student’s name or any specific identifying information is not disclosed to the instructor. The purpose is not to report on any individual student, but to inform the instructor of a tutor’s concern regarding their course content.
  • Our AI policy is subject to change based on the rapidly evolving nature of generative AI programs and as tutoring and composition theory becomes further informed on how to adapt its practices to this new technology.