Whether on college tours, meeting up with group project members, or let’s face it—goofing around in the spinning chairs or taking quick naps in the bubbles—the Learning Commons is a place for college students to take on their next challenge. If you’ve done any of these things, you’ve probably noticed the Writing Center, which is located perfectly in the center of everything. As a new tutor at the center, I notice many students walk by our doors, give it a quick curious look—occasionally making awkward eye contact—and then continue on their way.
This is in no way a judgement toward those students—I was like that before I decided to apply for a tutoring position. It’s totally justified to have some reservations about the Writing Center; after all, writing is one of the most personal things we do as students. However, it doesn’t dissolve from our lives when we get our cap and gown; it remains in almost every job, certainly in every application. So don’t be afraid to ask for help, the tutors themselves get tutored more often than you’d think. Here’s an inside look at the Writing Center without the stress of going inside (sometimes it’s hard to know what to expect), so you can see what we’re all about and maybe drop in next time you want to talk.
The Writing Center is all about collaboration. We aren’t a group of teachers that will further cover your essay in red marks. We won’t criticize your thesis statement and leave you feeling worse about your final grade. But we also won’t tell you what that Shakespeare character represents in society or what the tiresome fish symbolizes in that Hemingway story. We won’t “fix” your grammar. We are your peers. We aren’t necessarily “smarter” than you, we could have a completely different major than you. What we’re here to do is listen to you and discuss your ideas. We are trained to understand writing across the academic disciplines, and we have developed the skills to help you by figuring out what you want to say.
This photo made me laugh because there are so many expectations of the Writing Center, but what we do is actually quite simple. We have conversations.
Every session in the Writing Center is different because we value the individual over the individual’s assignment. We acknowledge the stress of wanting to get a paper done before a creeping deadline, but we value thought behind writing, the reasoning behind certain choices, and their meaning. So we ask questions. Many questions. It’s okay to not always have answers—we certainly don’t. Think of questions as prompts within your writing prompt, to further your thinking and enforce what you already understand. Each tutor is different, but we all have the same goal: to give you the tools you need to become a confident writer on your own terms. Questions can be daunting too, I get that. If you feel like you have a specific learning style, tell us. It would be naïve to assume that everyone learns the same way. It’s easy to feel left behind at such a large educational institution where it seems like the “lucky few” are to be weeded out from the rest in the real world. This is not how the Writing Center works with its clients.
There’s a great place to tell us about these kinds of concerns before even coming into the center. Upon making an appointment with us online, you are required to fill out a brief form, telling us a little bit about yourself: your preferred pronouns, your assignment, when it’s due, and your learning style. This can relieve you of any awkward conversations and allows us to have an idea of what we’re going to discuss prior to the session’s start. We want you to feel as comfortable as possible because the Writing Center is a space for healthy discussion and collaboration, not for anyone to feel out of place or anxious.
Each session lasts about 45 minutes and then we ask you to fill out a short anonymous survey about what we did that helped, and what didn’t. We are always trying to better ourselves so we can be as useful a resource as possible. Before you leave, we make sure you have set plans for your paper, so you don’t feel lost or alone after leaving the center. We want to ensure that the session was helpful, and if it wasn’t, what we can do the next time we meet to make it a better experience for you.
I hope this gives you a better sense of what the Writing Center is all about. Writing is an expression of the mind and you should feel proud of what you have to say. If you ever feel like your writing doesn’t reflect what you want to say, come talk to us. If it does, but you want to go even further, let us know. There’s no shame in conversation.
If you’d like to learn more about the Writing Center at UMass Amherst or set up an appointment, visit our website.
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