Blog 8: BF Chapter 5, Bishop, and Johnson et al

 Summary:

   Chapter 5 of the Bedford Guide talks about tutoring students across multiple curriculums, other than English papers or English classes. The chapter goes through different types of assignments across majors such as research papers, argument papers, lab reports, media reviews, group writing, and more. While each curriculum has different assignment format and expectations, there are some things that a tutor can universally look for in all papers. These include ideas and argument as well as and grammar, organization, and structure. In the sections for each type of assignment, the textbook gives a checklist, that include organization, format, any claim or argument, any statistics, and more elements that are necessary for those specific assignments and curriculums.

    Johnson, Clark, and Burton's article discusses the importance and effectiveness of having "expert tutors". In a study with English students and engineering students, the research found that tutors tend to come off as more dominant when tutoring the English students. This was because they tutors were "experts" in those fields, whereas when tutoring the engineering students, they asked questions and had a conversation because they were unfamiliar. The article stresses the importance of listening, asking questions, and having an open conversation in all tutoring sessions, regardless of content.

    Bishop's article discusses "uncreative" writers. She starts by talking about how most writers (in writing centers and academic spaces) lack the passion and connection to their writing that creative writers have. In addition, Bishop says that writers must be critical as well as being creative. Some strategies she suggests to get to a creative and critical place in your writing include revising, outlining, thinking ahead, thinking about how the text itself looks, highlighting, and editing and proofreading. The result of these strategies is positive writing which will help form more passion for and a better connection to the writing.

Comment:

    I appreciated how Johnson, Clark, and Burton emphasized that while it's beneficial to be knowledgeable about one curriculum, it's not necessary to be an expert and you shouldn't act like one or think you are. That was a worry of mine, because if I were to work in the writing center, I would be very hesitant and anxious when working on an assignment from a topic that I'm completely unfamiliar with.

Question:

Would it be beneficial for writing centers to have a variety of tutors from various backgrounds in order to have a broader area of expertise? Would specializations for tutors be possible?