9.5: Getting What You Need

So why visit the writing center? If I had to boil down what I have tried to convey here, I would say students should visit the writing center because:

• Writing isn’t easy and tutors can help. (It’s pretty basic.)
• Tutors are able to discuss writing in a way that moves you forward. They create idea-rich conversations.
• Writing centers instill confidence that you are on the right track, or help you get there if you’re not.
• Writers need readers.

I think these are sound reasons, but some readers may wonder why it has to be a writing center tutor and not a roommate or a gym buddy. Listen to Kelly Ruth Anderson, a tutor at the University of Iowa. I asked her the same question I asked the others, “Why do you believe students should visit the writing center?” For her answer, she posed a
slightly different question: “Why do students visit the writing center?” She pointed out that what people should do and what they actually do are often quite different. I like her answer because it demonstrates one of the ways that tutors are trained to help writers: when given an assignment, they turn it to the writer’s advantage. Kelly told me:

Why do students visit the Writing Center? For all
the wonderful talk about “becoming a better writer,”
most of my tutees visit the WC—at least initially—
out of a sense of real and tangible need. My teacher
said that I need better transitions. English isn’t my first
language, and I need help with grammar. I need an
“A”—how can I get an A on this paper? And I’m not
sure that I can blame students for acting out of these
specific needs—we seem to be a pretty results-driven
society, and many students overlook the role that
writing can play in their future lives. (So why bother
with some lofty, perhaps seemingly insurmountable,
goal like “becoming a better writer”?) In other words,
I can give students the “real” reason to visit the Writing
Center—to become a better writer—but I’m not
sure that answer will actually get them to visit the writing
Center.

Kelly eventually answered the question I had asked, but first she said something she felt was just as important. This was a wise move, one that elevated her idea and made it memorable. Kelly knew what I had asked, but first she told me what I needed to hear. Writing center tutors do the same thing, and Kelly’s response is a reflection of this.
Tutors and teachers know that everybody wants to receive good grades on their papers. But grades are the end product of what you do to earn them. If Kelly were your tutor and you didn’t know what to write in response to a question on an assignment, she could help you to see the question in a different light that would show you a different path to take. She cannot give you the A you want, but she can give you the idea you need.

Learning to write is not a uniformly warm fuzzy experience, but it can lead to some of the best encounters you will have in school—with tutors in the writing center who are there just to help.