Current Feature
Transitioning from high school to college highlights the disconnect between learned secondary education skills and post-secondary expectations produces anxiety, ruffles insecurity surrounding individual opinions and acceptance, and shames students for their apparent inability to write. As a result, students often swear off writing and any subjects requiring it. Others come in desperation to the writing center, looking for guidance.
About Tutor Voices
- We want to highlight the voices of tutors from writing centers around the world with images, short videos, and texts.
- Interested in submitting your own? Check out the Ongoing Project under our Submission Guidelines page or contact us via email.
Resilience Gallery
Click each image to read about their stories!
Inspiring Resilience
From Meghan Flaherty – What is Inspiring You Lately?
There is nothing more beautiful than a slap to the face by the cold, brisk wind when you walk outside to catch the bus to campus. I am not being sarcastic.
From Justin Laiti – Connecting Pen Pals During Isolation
A sense of connection is restored by these weekly letters, full of doodles and jokes, exchanged between fellow students in isolation.
From Mackenzie Williams, Virginia Tech, USA – What Is Inspiring Me Lately?
Our focus on the next thing disassociates us from the present. This notion, embracing real-time events, is what has been inspiring me lately.
From Dr. Shireen Campbell, Davidson College, USA – I Am Inspired by Change
Thanks to rich conversations with an Associated Colleges of the South summer working group, I reaffirmed what mattered most—available, effective writing support—and changed long-standing practice. Seven weeks in, as compared to last fall, the Center has experienced a 13% increase in use of available hours despite an 18% reduction in total hours. As predicted, we have seen fewer clients, driven by a 25% reduction in first-year writing course sessions. Yet individual sessions are longer, with a 46% increase in sessions lasting an hour.
From Jack Menya, Daystar University, Kenya – What Is Inspiring Me Lately?
I recently received quite inspiring phone calls. Two students from my University, part of some I had tutored during the semester ending May 2020, called me back, separately and on different occasions, to individually appreciate for the time and attention I accorded them in my online tutoring sessions.
From Monicah Kiarie, Daystar University, Kenya – What Is Inspiring Me Lately?
The confinement is obnoxious—almost everything is amiss. I sure do miss seeing the before frustrated tutees grin like a Cheshire cat after a successful session. But you know what's inspiring? The hope that has stayed alive all through, hope for a better tomorrow, that come hell or high water, we will ultimately come out of this "cage" and be on the loose again.
Tutor’s Perspective
From Jillie Alexander: My Journey: From Perfectionist Hokie to Gracious Writing Coach
“What’s your biggest flaw?” “My perfectionism.” Thankfully, my perfectionism has slowly begun to transition with my journey to become a Writing Coach. After 19 years of perfectionism that leads to disappointment and self-degradation, being enrolled in the training course for new writing coaches at Virginia Tech has been a breath of fresh air.
Navigating The Labyrinth That Is Language for Writing Tutors and Students Alike
With a nation rich in culture and diversity it is not uncommon for English to not be the primary language of communication. This is definitely true at our university, Stellenbosch University (SU), a public research institution in the Western Cape, South Africa. SU has focused much attention on multilingualism in recent years. So much so that academic, social, administrative and professional settings at SU use a variety of languages for communication.
No Lights and No Power: Another Day in a South African Writing Consultant’s Apocalyptic World
“Sorry I cannot hear you, I think my internet connection has been disrupted,” says the student I am attempting to have a consultation with. Just another day in our unequal online-dominated apocalyptic world. Online learning is not accessible and user friendly for many students in South Africa. This is aggregated by intermittent load shedding.
Strategies that I Embraced as an EFL Writing Center Consultant at an American University
In this Tutor's Perspective piece, an EFL writing consultant reflects on how he developed his tutoring approaches for offering feedback. "As a newly-arrived international EFL Writing Center consultant at UTEP, I certainly encountered some initial tensions and challenges. However, despite these tensions and challenges, the two strategies that I embraced allowed me to deal with student writing and became a successful consultant. "
Becoming Less: My Evolution as a Writing Center Coach
As someone who moved to California from India at the age of eleven, I understand how even a small language correction, such as the pronunciation of a mispronounced word, can bring feelings of alienation and humiliation. By recounting and reflecting on my own experiences, I learned to ease the spotlight off myself and onto the client during sessions. I started thinking of their language differences as something that could enrich writing by adding uniqueness in the way they understand and convey meaning.
Hello. My name is…
In this piece, Dunya Suleymanova, a writing consultant from ADA University in Azerbaijan, captures the moments in her work when she hears "Hello, my name is..."
