The presentation about Rutgers and Brookdale Writing Centers by Lynn Reid and Mary Kerwin was interesting. I was surprised by the differences between a community college and a 4 years colleges writing centers.

Like Mahla, I was worried with Brookdale’s 30-minute tutoring sessions. I cannot belief that 30 minutes are enough to help a student. I think that when Students are very good prepared (questions, all information and so on) then 30 minutes could be enough to talk about the paper and make some changes.

Internal Battle

Thank you Viktoriia for this poem. This poem expresses my own situation. Between school and work.

Group 3 Stacy-Ann Edwards, Ayse Keskin Saglam

We decided to focus on two articles, "Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant
Writers" and "Tutoring during Emotionally Charged Sessions." However, we were only able to discuss "Talk to Me" due to the interest we had in the subject matter and the dilemma unresponsive students pose in the tutoring session.

Here's what we covered in our discussion.

We spoke heavily about how ESL students may display many of the characteristics of a reluctant writer because of the language barrier and lack of confidence.

We discussed how they ESL students may seem unresponsive because they may be too tired to speak and discuss content in the target language due to many outside, personal factors. This would certainly impact the tutoring session because
they would not be able to focus and actively participate in the session.

We also discussed how cultural barriers could affect the tutoring session. Every country has its own teaching style and the relationship between student and teacher could be different. In some cultures male tutees could have a problem being taught by a female tutor because they cannot accept a woman is a "leader.”

Another point we discussed is that the correction of grammar and spelling mistakes should not be the main aim of the tutoring session. But for most ESL students these kinds of errors are more important than the writing style and development of an argument. ESL students do feel shame about their language deficiency.

We also pointed out that writing is not a primary focus for all majors; not all students who come in for tutoring are interested in becoming a writer and improving their writing skills. Therefore, as tutors we should not expect that our tutees will try their best. They are sometimes only at the Writing Center because of the professor or their grades.

Both ESL students and “native speakers” have active and passive vocabulary knowledge. ESL students and native speakers use in active vocabulary in their writings. To improve writing it is helpful to keep this in mind because the student will think about this and expand her/his vocabulary use.

Nowadays, students have access to too much knowledge and the quality of information is diminished. It is important to teach how to filter this amount of information and decide which is useful.

Muriel Harris's article, "Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers," shows some reasons why students might not want to actively participate in a tutorial session. Students may be overwhelmed with other schoolwork and personal problems (family or financial). Students may think that they are not talented writers and may be shyly to speak with a tutor. The student may think his/her writing is strong but regardless the student may has been forced by a professor to attend a tutorial. Regardless of which individual case the student might has, the tutor must be understanding and willing to help the writer connect with the process of the tutorial and her own writing.