Resources for Tutoring Writers

As writing tutors, we can't be expected to know everything about writing (nobody does!).  What we can do, though, is learn with students + point them to useful resources.  

While these resources can be useful during tutoring sessions, they can also be useful after tutoring sessions -- they can function as “deliverables” that students can take with them + study on their own.

The UNC Writing Center's "Tips and Tools"

• From arguments to annotated bibliographies, this site is a treasure trove of awesome writing-related resources.

Wikipedia 

• Remember Alan Liu's advice: Wikipedia can be an excellent "pre-search" tool that can help us get a feel for breadth, first, before we dive down further for the depth that's required of many research-based writing assignments.

Purdue OWL

• Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) has plenty of useful information, especially up-to-date suggestions for your citation practices.

YouTube

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Google Scholar

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Let's Apply Bunn's "Reading Like a Writer" Idea to These Videos on Peer Tutoring

Tutor Training: How to Run a Tutoring Session

Writing Center Training Video | Duquesne University

DePaul Writing Center — The Nervous Nellie

DePaul Writing Center: "The Genius"

DePaul Writing Center: The Mime

Writing Tutoring - The Wrong Way

Writing Center (Bad Session)

Writing Center (Good Session)

Writing Center Tutorial

Writing Center Tutoring Scenario: ESL Writer

Advice from Multilingual Writers

Sweetland Peer Tutoring Session – First Year Writing

Communication Techniques in Tutoring

Syllabus and Assignments for Week 2

Prospective writing tutors:

Here's our syllabus for ENG 250 Peer Tutoring in Writing.  I might make modifications from time to time -- and when I do, I'll almost definitely make an announcement about it -- but please get into the habit of checking the online version regularly.

To bounce back from our Week 1 scheduling mishap, we've got some ground to make up.  Per the syllabus, here are the assigned readings that I'm expecting you to complete before our next class, Tuesday, August 28th.  You can find them all on Canvas under the "Files" tab.

• Backpacks to Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis (Carroll)
• Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking (Elbow)
• Note: please annotate this -- we'll be discussing annotations next week
• The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors, CH 2: The Writing Process  
• The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors, CH 4: Helping Writers Throughout the Writing Process  
• ESL Writers: CH 7, Looking at the Whole Text
• “So What?  Who Cares?” Saying Why It Matters (Birkenstein & Graff)

Woooo, that's a lot, and we won't nearly have that much to read again -- at least not until Week 7.  Please remember, though, that: (1) we're a week behind and (2) we're only meeting once a week, so the assigned readings, above, reflect 4 classes worth of "homework."  Each of those articles/chapters will be very important for developing a background about writing and education that you'll be bringing to your tutoring practice -- and to your assignments in our ENG 250 course.

On the syllabus, you'll see that you've also got some writing due before our next class:

1. A brief and informal "About Me" blurb on your blog
2. A 500-word (or more!) reaction to the assigned readings.  What resonates with you?  What can you relate to, and why?  What are you looking forward to learning more about?  As you craft your responses, please make direct connections to at least 4 of the 6 above readings.  Also, feel free to combine Week 1 and Week 2's blog posts into one post.  
3. Respond to 3 of your classmates' posts.  Each of these should be somewhere about 150 words.

Don't forget to leave me your blog address on this Google Doc so I can sync it up with my/our course blog.

Thank you, good luck, and try to have some fun with this.

Z