I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about having to experience being tutored in writing for the first time. Sure, it wasn’t my first experience being tutored ever; I’d spent many days in the library back at SCCC struggling to complete my math homework. But this time it was a little different. I’ve always been nervous about others reading my writing, especially if they were my peers. Would the tutoring experience be awkward? What would it feel like to show someone my paper and have them read it right in front of me? I simply didn’t know what to expect.
However, the moment I walked into the Writing Collabratory some of my anxieties were eased. The room looked comfortable and inviting, and before I could even say anything, my tutor asked me, “Are you Kimberlee?”
Once we sat down together, I opened my laptop and showed her a short paper I was working on for my Tolkien class. It was in the final draft stage, and I was genuinely curious to see what her approach would be. The first thing my tutor asked was, “Would you like to read it aloud or should I?”
I was still a little too nervous to read it out loud, and the thought of being able to hear someone else read my own words back to me actually seemed helpful. It was certainly something I’d never experienced before, so I went for that option.
Having my paper read aloud to me was an interesting experience. It definitely helped me to hear things I normally wouldn’t if I were reading it in my head or even out loud to myself. My tutor gave me some suggestions regarding pinpointing a clear point in the novel where the main character (Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit) experiences a definitive change. Once we discussed my paper and I rephrased some things and considered what else I might add to draw on more specifics, my tutor talked about what her experience has been like working in the Writing Collab as well as why she wanted to be a tutor in the first place. We actually discovered that we had many things in common, one of them being that we both loved Cassandra Clare’s series The Mortal Instruments.
Ultimately, my experience being tutored in the Writing Collab went better than I even expected. I can truly see the benefit in being the “tutee” in a tutoring section before taking on the task of tutoring someone else myself. It also made me become more familiar with the environment of the Writing Collab, which happens to be a warm and welcoming one. I look forward to my sessions where I observe the tutor helping another student, as well as eventually being able to tutor someone myself. I imagine that these experiences will help shape me as a tutor if I’m ever given the opportunity to work in the Writing Collab myself, and show others why writing doesn’t have to be a chore or an insurmountable task.
