Writing Identities: The Transformation of Student-Tutors through Tutor Training
File(s)
Date
2011-05Author
Wolfe, Michelle
Publisher
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, College of Professional Studies
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This study examines a tutor training practicum, conducted in a writing center at a
state university during the fall of 2010 and the ways in which training for tutoring is
transformational for student-tutors. Though writing center research often focuses on the
tutorial as the site of critical inquiry, this study‘s hermeneutical focus is analyzing how
new tutors‘ understanding of writing transforms through tutor training and the effects of
that transformation on their role as tutors. First, literature regarding writing center
history, peer tutoring, tutor training pedagogy, and student writing is examined. Then,
student data, collected through ethnographic techniques such as survey, observation, and
textual analysis, is evaluated and conclusions are reached relevant to possibilities for
further research.
Student-tutors reported more confidence in their writing as a direct result of tutor
training. This increased confidence was described as due to a new awareness of the
writing process. Student-tutors also noted improved grammar and punctuation skills and
better attention to the idea of audience and discourse conventions. The awareness and
confidence gained was interpreted as a result of students‘ conflict about their
understanding of the writing process. Through theory and other classroom readings and
discussions students explored their prior relationship to writing and questioned the
strategies they used in their own writing processes. Skill improvement, though in part
influenced by a small amount of direct instruction and discussion during the course, was
considered primarily a result of tutoring and both observing errors and helping other
students correct them.