Blog #7: Lulu

Advantages of online tutoring over face-to-face:
  1. You can (sometimes) choose what kind of writing you want to give feedback on. I especially enjoy working with students on statements of purpose for applications, so when i see an SOP pop up in the online tutoring center I make sure to claim it. 
  2. You’re able to take time to consider the work as a whole and construct your global feedback more carefully, as well as quickly identify smaller changes with syntax and grammar through comments in the margins. It often feels more efficient - less “thinking on the spot” and more of an opportunity to pause and consider what broader feedback or suggestions will most benefit the writer for their next draft.
  3. This separation also makes it easier to avoid the feeling of “over-critiquing” or of not having struck the right tone with a writer, because you’ve had space to formulate your feedback. 
  4. There’s a limit to what you can do with the information you have, which means that the writer takes on more agency in their revision. Because you don’t have the writer in front of you to explain their choices, you’re only able to give options based on the draft alone. I think this gives the writer a more active role, whereas in face-to-face meetings a tutor might feel like they’re “doing too much” or inadvertently steering the writer in a particular direction. 

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 9, 2018 at 3:49 PM

    I super agree. Sometimes I panic about that on the spot feeling in tutoring. If I had more time to reflect on things, my feedback might be more useful. And it is a helpful constraint for a student not to be able to give context for their work and just let it speak for itself. Also, I’ll fight you for those statements of purpose.

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  2. UnknownOctober 9, 2018 at 7:11 PM

    Your fourth bullet point also really speaks to me, and is something I haven't thought of before. I've noticed in my past few sessions that I'll be helping my students through their analysis, and they'll occasionally incorporate identical phrases I speak into their subsequent drafts. I'm not into this. So I think that, by taking myself out of the equation a little bit and forcing them to come up with analysis of their own (and not simply rely on what I'm giving them), they'll end with a paper that is more authentically of their voice.

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