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The Writing Center Journal Vol. 32, No. 1 (2012)
Perceptions of Tutor-Tutee Roles
Chinese ELL writers may misunderstand how much authority
their tutors have; many come from diverse cultures with "rules of
speaking that may conflict with those of US classrooms, [which
influences] the students' perceptions of their and their teachers'
roles in a conference" (Goldstein and Conrad 456). Such students
may have preconceived notions about how to approach conferences
with someone seen as an authority (Goldstein and Conrad 457). For
instance, students may be accustomed to dynamics wherein the
teacher initiates and questions (Goldstein and Conrad 456), and
the student responds or is not allowed to ask questions. If a student
believes she or he cannot or should not argue with the tutor, he or
she may feel uncomfortable questioning suggested revisions, which
could lead to further misunderstanding.
Suggestions for Improving
ELL Writing Partnerships
Tutors themselves must have a meta-awareness of their consultation
style to be able to work effectively with ELL writers. Like teachers,
tutors must be aware that their (mis)informed assumptions about
a writer's ability may influence how the conference is run. Once
tutors observe writers' behaviors, and subconsciously behave "in
ways consistent with [their] expectations" (Goldstein and Conrad
456), they may accept less participation from these writers from the
beginning of their writing partnership, without allowing writers to
showcase just how active they could be. Second, a tutor should not
be "blinded by the [tutor's] own conference objectives . . . regardless
of the [writer's] reactions" (Han 259). In other words, sometimes
tutors may be so concerned about improving their partner's paper
that they forget that it is their partner's paper, not their own.
ELL writers must understand the slow process that writing
partnerships may take and that tutors as well as ELL writers
themselves should prioritize higher order concerns, rather than
focusing on those lower order concerns for which professors may
penalize them more heavily. Some tutors tell their partners from the
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Frances Nan
beginning that their partnership will be a . long-term progression,
wherein they may not be able to immediately fix eveiything in eveiy
essay (Goldman, 29 Sept.). In order to keep one's position credible,
the tutor should be clear that, whereas the writer's professor will be
grading the essay compared to the writer's peers, the tutor will focus
solely on helping the writer develop.
Assess Where the Writer Is Now
A tutor attempting to develop a course of action for a semester-
long writing partnership should set aside the task of examining
individual papers and instead ask the writer how much he or she
knows about US academic writing. Rather than sermonizing at the
writer on the difference between US and Chinese writing styles, the
tutor should gauge the writer's level of knowledge by transforming