A Manifesto on Tutoring and the Writing Experience
Is there anything else you feel that we should know that was not covered in the interview?
Yesterday, I bombed several questions on my interview for a tutoring job, including the one featured above. I hate questions like these, because they translate roughly to "Hey, last chance to brag shamelessly about your qualifications!" And well, I said, "no" even though I had pretty relevant things to talk about. It's been haunting me since yesterday so in an effort to put it all behind me, I'm going to answer it.
Interviewer: Is there anything else you feel that we should know that was not covered in the interview?
Me: Why yes! I don't think I've been able to adequately talk about my approach to tutoring and editing. I think throughout the interview and especially through the simulation you got a sense of how I tutor, but not necessarily the rationale or the why. So this is what I have to say!
I was an editor for my high school literary arts magazine. I had a great instructor who said that a role of an editor is to not create (that's the writer's job) but to help bring the piece into being. The job of an editor is to recognize the potential and direction of a piece and to help it achieve what it aims to be. An editor does not change or alter or improve, an editor simply "helps."
I think the same concept works for being a writing tutor. I try to keep this idea in mind when I look at other peoples' papers, short stories, and essays. Writing, for me --even when it's not creative-- is always a very personal process and is greatly rooted in identity. When you write something whether it's on Shakespeare, the election of 1860, or a movie, you have to bring yourself, your beliefs, ideas, and opinions into the piece. Therefore no two pieces are ever the same. I think we all have a right to our particular viewpoint and as an tutor, it is not my place to impress my ideas onto someone else. A paper is an exercise and exploration into a particular subject. And unless it's a group paper, a paper is a journey for one. While I can take the role of wise sage, I cannot do your quest for you. It's not only horrible to rob someone out of a discovery, it also is probably plagiarism.
Therefore, with writing I try to have a very hands off approach. I know this can be an extremely maddening way, especially for people who see papers as something worse than forced family vacations. The student wants a straight answer. He or she wants to know what to write, how to write, etc. They want to get in and get out. Which is fine, but it's not an excuse not to think. I'm a writing tutor, not a thinking tutor. It's not even my job to teach the mechanics of writing, that would be a teacher. I assume that you already have a nice arsenal of writing tools and I'm helping you hone your skills. So I guess that's my approach to writing/ tutoring, the hands off, everyone-has-their-one-way way.
I guess, that would be my philosophy on writing and writing tutoring. It finished a little lamely, but I have a paper to write so that gets all my creative juice.
Yesterday, I bombed several questions on my interview for a tutoring job, including the one featured above. I hate questions like these, because they translate roughly to "Hey, last chance to brag shamelessly about your qualifications!" And well, I said, "no" even though I had pretty relevant things to talk about. It's been haunting me since yesterday so in an effort to put it all behind me, I'm going to answer it.
Interviewer: Is there anything else you feel that we should know that was not covered in the interview?
Me: Why yes! I don't think I've been able to adequately talk about my approach to tutoring and editing. I think throughout the interview and especially through the simulation you got a sense of how I tutor, but not necessarily the rationale or the why. So this is what I have to say!
I was an editor for my high school literary arts magazine. I had a great instructor who said that a role of an editor is to not create (that's the writer's job) but to help bring the piece into being. The job of an editor is to recognize the potential and direction of a piece and to help it achieve what it aims to be. An editor does not change or alter or improve, an editor simply "helps."
I think the same concept works for being a writing tutor. I try to keep this idea in mind when I look at other peoples' papers, short stories, and essays. Writing, for me --even when it's not creative-- is always a very personal process and is greatly rooted in identity. When you write something whether it's on Shakespeare, the election of 1860, or a movie, you have to bring yourself, your beliefs, ideas, and opinions into the piece. Therefore no two pieces are ever the same. I think we all have a right to our particular viewpoint and as an tutor, it is not my place to impress my ideas onto someone else. A paper is an exercise and exploration into a particular subject. And unless it's a group paper, a paper is a journey for one. While I can take the role of wise sage, I cannot do your quest for you. It's not only horrible to rob someone out of a discovery, it also is probably plagiarism.
Therefore, with writing I try to have a very hands off approach. I know this can be an extremely maddening way, especially for people who see papers as something worse than forced family vacations. The student wants a straight answer. He or she wants to know what to write, how to write, etc. They want to get in and get out. Which is fine, but it's not an excuse not to think. I'm a writing tutor, not a thinking tutor. It's not even my job to teach the mechanics of writing, that would be a teacher. I assume that you already have a nice arsenal of writing tools and I'm helping you hone your skills. So I guess that's my approach to writing/ tutoring, the hands off, everyone-has-their-one-way way.
I guess, that would be my philosophy on writing and writing tutoring. It finished a little lamely, but I have a paper to write so that gets all my creative juice.