Three roles of a tutor

Muriel Harris, founder of the Purdue University Writing Lab, has written many articles about writing labs and tutoring programs. In her article “The Roles a Tutor Plays: Effective Tutoring Techniques” written in 1980 http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/1980/0699-dec1980/EJ0699Roles.pdf Harris presents three possible roles a tutor can play during a session and suggests techniques tutors can employ for each purpose or role. She stresses that tutoring does not automatically improve the student's motivation, ability to write, to organize, or to learn - individual attention alone is not a magic formula. Instead it is the writing program and the techniques tutors choose from that makes a real difference to students.

Since students seek help for different reasons and require different types of attention, tutors must be able to be flexible and have ample techniques to choose from during their session. Three (of many) roles a tutor can play are: as a coach, as a commentator, or as a counselor.

A coach gives an athlete exercises, drills, outlines game plays, and stays on the sidelines while the athlete does the actually work. Similarly tutors need to fight their inclination to “help” by doing the work for the student and let the student do the writing, organizing, thinking, and learning for themselves. One of the difficulties for the tutor is knowing when to shut up. She claims that tutors tend to be a “talky bunch”. Too much talk fails to give the student enough time to think through the problem themselves or find a question to ask.

A commentator is someone who can see a game as an outside observer and make sense of it from a larger perspective. The benefit of a tutor who plays the commentator role is they can look beyond what the student has written and discuss/ ask about motivations, goals, the larger picture of what the student wants to express. A commentator can also provide the student perspective on where they are in the writing process and summarize what has been done and what is next. A commentator can help the student look at things like punctuation from a broader perspective – as a way to make meaning clear to readers.

The tutor who plays a counselor role (similar to the article I wrote about last week) establishes the writing center as a comfortable place to talk about human complexities such as anxiety, motivation, burnout and other issues that are not writing related, but impact the student’s ability to write. She advises tutors not to make assumptions about the student’s abilities, interest, or modes of learning. The techniques that worked for one person usually won’t work for the next one. When a tutor takes on a counselor role, it means paying attention to the student as an individual.

In our writing center we offer one of everything. With different styles, personalities, and lifestyles our tutors offer students a real choice of tutoring style that fits their needs. With plenty of interns on "stand'by" for the occasional walk-in appointment.