Tutoring, Being Tutored, and Co-Tutoring

Tutoring:

I tutored a girl on my own for the first time today. She came in needing help with grammar and making sure her sentences were clear. We sat down she read her paper paragraph by paragraph and we discussed each section afterward. Her paper was extremely well written, the only problem she had was misplaced commas. There were commas all over the page, I discussed with her why they didn't belong and we moved on. The session didn't last an entire hour but she left happy and I felt comfortable with where her paper had progressed to.


Being Tutored:
The first time I was tutored I went in with a paper I had just written and was not due for another two weeks. I knew the paper had some problems but I had been working on it for so long I didn't know what to change because I was so involved with the paper. I took my paper in to Bessey and had an hour long session. There were a lot of problems with the way I had organized my paper. I was so thankful I went into the writing center. The tutor was able to help me figure out what I needed and didn't need in my paper, what parts of my paper stuck out because there weren't in the right order, and how to strengthen my argument. It was so helpful to get someone else's point of view who wasn't just a friend on my floor. The tutors at the writing center are truly concerned with your paper and its content. They look for ways to better you as a writer which in turn helps better your future papers. It was a wonderful experience.

My second time being tutored and this time I went to the library instead of the Writing Center. It was a disaster. I arrived about five minutes late because the bus never came, and when I arrived the guy looked annoyed with me. We sat down, I explained to him what I wanted from our session and that I had already come to the center once and had also spoken to my teacher about my paper. I asked him if he would like me to read my paper again, he said that he had been reading all day so why not. I read my paper and the whole time he was yawning, above and beyond seven times. He also spent the same time resting his head in his hand and staring off into space. I was completely annoyed and even a little embarrassed. Was my paper really that boring? So boring he felt like sleeping? Then he insults my thesis basically telling me my paper sucked. It made me feel terrible about my paper. Then to top it all off he didn't even answer Any of the questions I had to begin with. When I left I felt that I had completely wasted a half hour of my day.

Co-Tutoring:
I've co-tutored twice. The first time it went extremely well, I was asked to actively participate and the other tutor and I spoke about sections one after the other and gave the student the best advice we had. The student asked when I was going to be hired as a full time tutor and told me I was incredibly helpful, I felt really awesome after that session. The second co-tutoring session the tutor told me he didn't feel comfortable with having two tutors because he felt it would confuse the student. I was only asked to participate once he was done with the sections. It was a little awkward but I still felt that I was able to add productively to the session.