My original plan for getting tutored was to truly fulfill the role of tutee and transcend my knowledge and role s a writing tutor/fellow entirely. However, I realized quite quickly that if I was investigating ethics, it wouldn’t be rational for me to use my assumptions as a tutee to avoid the mistakes associated with my assumptions as a tutor. Instead, I chose to employ a more casual interview format— using the experience of Sinead, as a “veteran” writing tutor and fellow, and Sarah, as a new writing fellow to validate or refute the assumptions I was worried about using. I obtained a wealth of information when talking with them, but for the purposes of this reflection, I’ll talk about the larger picture realizations that were formed throughout and after my conversations with Sinead and Sarah.
Ultimately, what I uncovered in our discussions was an inspiring reflection and variation of my own experiences. Often, Sarah and Sinead validated and explicated my concerns and barriers as a writing tutor. As a short digression into research and obtainment of qualitative information outside of what was circumscribed in my IRB exemption proposal, both have given verbal agreement to use our conversations in my paper and in the process of creating writing resources. Also, I fully intend on giving them credit for the resources that they innovated our influenced.
What ultimately came to fruition after my hour long meetings with Sinead and Sarah, was a need for two different categories of writing resources: one for writing fellows, and one for writing tutors. As both a fellow and tutor— and as someone who is accustomed to oscillating unremarkably between those two roles— I wasn’t aware of how the different structures of either role implicated the respective tutoring processes deployed. Talking with Sinead, who is more experienced and therefore more apt at the comparison of the two roles, I realized the fundamental difference of requirement and how that can change the determined effort given by tutees. In the SASC, people have to autonomously decide they need writing help, make an appointment, and show up for an hour with things they need help with. As a writing fellow, the appointments are usually no more than twenty minutes and are usually attended to fulfill a homework requirement. While it is true that once students meet with a writing fellow, they tend to return and visit the fellow as a resource of their own accord— the context of the meeting is undeniably different.
Ultimately, this helped me realize that the SASC writing tutor and the Writing fellow face different boundaries, and therefore need different resources. However, my initial question about whether or not it was possible that the tutor or fellow would be eradicated by such resources was met with a resounding “no”. The general consensus about both processes was that there are things both fellows and tutors spend a lot of time on explaining that they wish they didn’t have to (think, citations, introducing authors, forming one’s own opinions, or coming up with questions to bring to the tutor). Both Sinead and Sarah determined that having resources to supplement these topics would help them have more fulfilling and effective tutoring appointments.
