You might wonder what happens when you have a tutorial at the Writing Center. You don't have to have a complete paper to work with a tutor--an outline, a thesis statement, or even an assignment sheet are enough to get started. And you don't have to have a hard copy of any of it: you might prefer to work off a disk or off your P:drive in the Writing Center computer lab. No matter what you have to work with, here's what you might expect from a typical tutorial.
Fir
First, you may have made an appointment with a specific tutor and/or for a specific time
of day. If so, come in at the appropriate time and the tutor should be ready to see you. You may also come in at any time on a drop-in basis.
The tutor may begin by asking you questions such as, "What is your paper about?" or
"What is your thesis?" If you're not yet sure what you want to say, or if you have
only a small portion (or even nothing) written, that's OK. Talk to the tutor about the main
ideas you're exploring or the argument you're making.
The tutor will ask you what problems you're having with the writing or which areas you'd
like to work on. You know best what help you need with your paper; some common
concerns are organization, "flow," supporting the argument, using and citing sources, and sentence structure. Certain kinds of essays have conventions that might be a concern--for example, personal voice is appropriate in some kinds of academic writing but not in others.
You may be worried about your grammar or use of punctuation. Although the tutor
will concentrate on higher-order concerns (see our Mission statement), the two of you may return at the end of the tutorial to review specific grammar or usage problems. If you know, for example, that you often make comma mistakes, or if your instructor has asked you to avoid the passive voice, ask your tutor to keep an eye out for repeated problems.
Some tutors like to ask you to read parts of your paper out loud; other tutors might even
read aloud to you. Writers can often hear problematic passages that we didn't see.
You should see the tutorial as a conversation with the tutor, not just the tutor "telling you
what to do." Be ready to think aloud and answer questions, but also feel free to ask the
tutor questions of your own.
At the end of the tutorial, the tutor will get some information from you for our records
(professor's name, course title, etc.); your instructor will receive a copy of this record to lethim or her know you have taken the initiative to visit the Writing Center. You will also have the opportunity to fill out a tutor evaluation form to give us feedback about your tutorial.