Reading Responce's 9/19

 Bedford Guide Chapter One: 

Chapter One of Bedford's "The Writing Center as a Workplace," explores the role of a worker in the writing center from a more professional stance. It explained the various responsibilities that tutors in the writing center must follow in order to be the best tutors that they can be. As tutors, we should not be so harsh on the students. It is important to support the students that you are working with. As we have mentioned a lot in class before, the whole process of writing she be carefully looked at instead of just the final paper. All students have different skill levels so the tutors need to be able to adapt to the different skill sets of the students. The writing center is not just a place to learn how to write better but also how to communicate with each other and be open to giving/receiving constructive criticism. My reflection on the chapter was that it is I never looked at our writing center as a place to develop other professional skills. Now that I read that perspective it has changed how I will approach the center in the future. The question that I am left with is what are the most important skills for the tutor to have in order to succeed? 

 Bedford Guide Chapter Two: 

Chapter Two of Bedford's "Inside The Tutoring Session," talks about what a session would be like in a writing center. the chapter talks about how it is important for the tutor to listen carefully to what the student has to say/ask. It also can help if the tutor asks questions as well to create more in-depth conversations about the writings. Setting goals can also help guide the session. It is more helpful for tutors to work with the students to think critically about the questions asked rather than provide the answers. My reflection on the chapter is that I learned what higher and lower-order concerns are. Higher order is more important, like the layout of an essay, while lower order comes after. Lower order are things like punctuation. This is something I will keep in mind the next time I write a paper. I am not left with any questions. However, I do feel I learned some new skills from this article. 

Oxfords Guide: 

The reading Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors, "Tutoring Is Conversation/Tutoring is not just any conversation," talks about how there are specific ways to communicate within a tutoring appointment. The tutor and the student should both equally share input and ideas during the session. The session will not be successful if the conversation is mostly one-way. The tutoring sessions have certain goals to achieve and going off task will not help achieve those goals. Guiding the student through questions, answers, and ideas is really important for a successful session. It will help the student open up more and create ideas. My reflection on the reading is that I always attend tutoring appointments and let the tutor take charge. It is interesting to read that if both the tutor and student equally take charge, it will be a better outcome. A question I am left with is how can you balance being approachable but also professional?