For Tutors
And so I think having awareness is something that I learned as a Writing Center tutor and that sometimes what the person on the other end needs is just for you to listen to them and work with them but not you giving your experience. In so many ways I can think of being a WC tutor translated into being a really great physician, and then, obviously, I think my writing got better when I worked with other writers.
We’re all learning and growing together. And I feel like the Writing Center was one of the first places I experienced that. Like: I can teach people something, they can teach me something, in an ecosystem of learning together.
I think a lot of our job is negotiating expectations, because a lot of people don’t necessarily understand the social media sphere yet, and it’s just always changing. So being able to temper those emotions and negotiate those expectations, being able to explain things calmly—and just acknowledging their feelings is always my thing, which is also something that I learned at the Writing Center. Acknowledging someone’s feelings goes a long way.