Tutoring Session #4

This tutoring session by far was probably the most inspiring one. This tutor really embodies everything that it takes to be a tutor. She had two tutees talking about two separate issues, and she handled it with such ease. The first writer she helped came with a philosophy paper, questioning the stance of religion in society. The first thing she did was ask to read the paper. She read the paper, and the first thing she said to the writer was, "Question: What is the core meaning of religion to you. Why is it important to you? Why should it exist?" At first the girl was stumped, she couldn't answer, but she explained that it gave her hope and a reason to believe in something other than the chaos here. Working on that, the tutor was able to build a thesis, and even the first body paragraph. There was a lot of collaboration here, and she asked her so many thought-provoking questions. In addition to this, the tutor introduced her to JSTOR and showed her how to use it to find articles, while the second writer looked for her paper.

The next writer had as much quality tutoring as the first. She had a hard time finding the assignment, so the tutor went back to make sure the other girl was finding her sources okay. The student had an Urban Studies assignment, and she had a lot of Higher Order Concerns. Her thesis was missing, her quotes were not cited and her sentence structure was way off. This was more of a teacher-collaborated session, but it was much needed. The writer said she didn't know what to do, and that she needed as much help as she could get, and was pushing for more of this style of tutoring. As the tutoring session went along, the writer tried to be collaborative and give her ideas for what she wanted, but she kept giving in to what the tutor wanted. The tutor told her that when trying to develop a 10 pg paper, have questions that you should answer along the way, to build up your paper. She told her to think in terms of questions, not statements. This tutor was very though provoking, and she made sure that the writers left feeling that they understood their issues, where they need to fix, and what they need to take out.