My First Tutoring Experience

First off, I was so nervous about tutoring. I didn't want to give wrong information and make my tutee's paper worse. My tutee's name is Kyung, she is from South Korea and came to New York last year. She came in with a paper that was already written and marked by her Professor. The essay was a CATW and overall her paper was good. I spoke to her for about 2 minutes and asked her what he strengths and weaknesses were. After, I told her to read her paper out loud to me. Her grammar wasn't the greatest but very good considering she is an ESL student. She understood what is needed to get a good grade on this essay. She had good points and didn't leave out anything required in the essay. The one thing that she had trouble with was organizing her ideas and putting them in order. I gave her a couple of tactics she can use to get better at this. I really liked working with her, she was very sweet. When our time was up she thanked me and told me that this hour of tutoring was very helpful. I felt really good after hearing that. I enjoy6ed tutoring and helping her with her paper.

Student Evaluation on Hype Essay (CATW)

Overall the writer did a good job writing this. They explain what the issue was about and what the author's main point was. A summary which is necessary, definitely is added in this paper. The writer also does a good job adding in one most important idea of the author's. The writer's grammar/language wasn't perfect but it still allowed me to understand what was being said. One problem with this paper is the organization. The student lacks making strong connections in an organized way. Their choice of words were good, considering that the writer maybe an ESL student. This student does a good job by adding in outside knowledge they had on this issue; which is another important factor in the CATW exam. If I had to grade this studentI would pass them.

Felt Sense is a great aspect of writing and also a very significant one because it allows one to say what they are thinking. This is important because what we want to say should get through on paper. The retrospective structuring aspect is also very important in writing. This aspect allows us to put our paper in an organized order, and be aware of sentence structure, grammar, etc. The projective structuring aspect of writing is the one that is most confusing. Trying to add your response in the paper is easy, but trying not to be one sided isn't. My favorite most useful of these 3 aspects is the felt sense because writing what you think and knowing what you want to say is what makes a paper.

Tutoring Do's and Don'ts

Do's:

• Be polite to the person you are tutoring
• Encourage them and motivate them to let them know they can do better
• Help them to the fullest extent that you can
• Give them main and key points that they will benefit from
• Educate them on  what's important and what's not
• Ask them questions and make sure you answer theirs

Don'ts:

• Don't use discouraging language
• Do not rush them off, use as much time as you have
• Don't write things out for them
• Do not promise them things you don't have control over
• Don't get distracted with anything, make sure your focus is always on the tutee and their paper
• Don't focus on only your ideas; the tutee has a say as well
• Do not give them information or examples you yourself are not sure of

Becoming a Writing Tutor

When I first found that that we had to tutor students in the writing center I was really nervous and excited. It would give me great pleasure to help other students improve their writing skills and hand in papers that they will receive a good grade on. I was a bit nervous at first because I have not tutored people in writing before and I don't want to mess it up. I am also very excited because I would like to tutor students in school who struggle with writing and help them get better at it.