The Task: A Guide for Instructors in the Rutgers Writing Center

An interesting video! As a writing center tutor I think that the director's expectations/assumptions might be a bit flawed but his intentions are on point. As he says of Rutger's Writing Center, the goal is to improve the student's writing over the course of the semester. I believe that this should be the goal of all writing centers, however tutors are desperately trying assist a majority of students who are lacking a solid foundation in English grammar.

From my observations, more than half of the students who visit the City College Writing Center need instruction in basic grammar. My question is: "Are we really helping students by working on the process of writing when they have deficiencies in grammar and other basic areas of English? "Scaffolding" is a term in education that explains how children learn or educators should teach, by teaching smaller concepts and building upon them with larger as the student's capacity to learn increases. This is what I think is the "missing link" between what students learn in college classes and what they do at the writing center.

This is the problem that I think prevents writing centers to be as effective as planned when first conceptualized. Many hope that tutors are working with students whose writing abilities are reflective of at least high school level grammar. However the obvious difference between the expectations of students who visit centers and tutors who serve them is that a majority need grammar instruction before they can complete their assignments.

Lisa Williams

October 5, 2010 1:59 PM