This course introduces you to the field of Composition Studies with a focus on tutoring writing one on one. We will study influential scholarship that has shaped approaches to teaching composition, and we will use two texts in particular to help you learn how to tutor. Readings and discussions will address practical approaches for helping students at all stages of the writing process, including invention, organization, and grammar, as well as writing for different genres and in different disciplines. The complex teacher/tutor/student relationship will also be a focus as students will be asked to reflect on how to incorporate their own style into the teaching/tutoring dynamic. Everyone enrolled in the course will work several hours each week in UHM’s Writing Center to gain actual tutoring experience.. The work students do in class and in the Center will provide a departure point for examinations of how place figures into the teaching of writing—specifically, we will look at the cultural connections and demographics of the students we work with and interrogate theories and approaches in terms of their efficacy with our students.
Required Texts (available at the UH Bookstore)
Murphy, Christina, and Steve Sherwood. The St. Martin’s Sourcebook for Writing Tutors. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011.
Ryan, Leigh, and Lisa Zimmerelli. The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010.
Additional readings will be uploaded to Laulima.
Instructor-determined Learning Outcomes
- Demonstrate an introductory knowledge of the theories and practices of writing tutoring and ability to articulate these theories within the larger discipline of Composition Studies.
- Develop an ability to tutor peers at all stages of the writing process and in a variety of genres.
- Develop skills in reflecting on your own tutoring practices as well as observing others’ and use this information to inform and refine your own praxis.
- Develop skills in leading class discussions and writing academic discourse (grounding discussions in scholarship by synthesizing and juxtaposing various approaches and schools of thought).
Assignments
Weekly Response to Readings
Throughout the semester, you will write a semi-formal response to the readings assigned for that week, posted to a Discussion in Laulima.
Writing Center Activities and Journal Log on Tutoring Interactions
You will conduct several observations of experienced tutors as well as of each other, practice tutoring each other, and conduct actual tutoring sessions (about 3-4 hours per week beginning the 2nd month of class). You will keep a journal in which you reflect on these observations and tutoring sessions. This journal will be an instrumental part of your final project.
Midterm Paper
5-7 page mid-term paper synthesizing theories for composition teaching practices with writing center theory/practices.
In-class Presentation
An in-class presentation that involves leading class discussion on readings /tutoring practices
Final Project
7-10-page final paper that, drawing from the tutoring journal log, situates/critiques tutoring practices employed within both composition and writing center theory.