Response to Thonus

Quote from Terese Thonus, “Tutor and Student Assessments of Academic Writing Tutorials: What is ‘Success?’” Page 188:

Of the 12 tutors, Tutor F provided the most extensive critique of his own “directiveness.” He felt that doing “more constructive work than Socratic work” was a decision harmful to the student: “The authority you have as an instructor—when you say that, it’s as good as said. Someone’s going to walk away thinking, ‘The instructor or tutor responded to that. I’m on to something.’ You want them to be on to it because of their winnowing out the wheat from the chaff. You don’t want them to be on it because you said, ‘I like it.’” 

I fully agree with the idea of this passage. The purpose of writing center sessions is to help writers grow and learn, which makes it necessary for the writers to think through their papers on their own rather than merely believing a certain detail is good or bad because of an advisor’s comment. This bit of Tutor F’s approach to advising will definitely be incorporated into my own. In the attempt to balance directive and nondirective techniques, I believe it important for an advisor to frequently analyze his or her approach to avoid taking a position of authority that hinders or eliminates a writer’s personal, thoughtful analysis of his or her work. A session should enable a writer to see his or her work’s strengths, weaknesses, and its potential, but the writer should be able to justify those critiques through their own thought process, not merely the authoritative voice of an advisor.