Last week I ran into one of the situations I've been most afraid of as a new tutor -- tutoring a grad student from a discipline I know absolutely nothing about. I've been worrying about this happening all semester! Tutoring undergrads, I feel fairly confident, especially when their papers are for a class I'm familiar with, like an English, Writing, or Philosophy class. But I've been nervous about how much I'd be able to help a grad student, especially one from a discipline that I have no experience with. I was nervous about whether or not I would be taken seriously, if the tutee would be able to figure out my cluelessness, and that I wouldn't be helpful at all.
Well, it happened. I got a tutee who was a graduate student in Accounting. When I found this out I had a moment of panic, trying to think of anything at all I knew about Accounting, which of course was nothing. He pulled out the paper that he wanted help with. And then he said...
"I'm mostly done with the paper, I just need some help with the citations."
I was immediately relieved. Citations are something I can do! As an English major, I am very familiar with MLA and not at all with any other style. I had no idea what style an Accounting paper should use, so I asked the tutee, and he didn't really know either, so he called a friend in the class who said their professor didn't care. I wasn't sure this was right, but what could I do? The tutee said that what he was familiar with was APA. So I quickly found the Longman handbook and flipped to the APA section. The tutee and I went through his list of sources and found the correct ways to cite each one.
I didn't think the session was bad -- it certainly went better than I'd initially expected -- but I did feel badly that the Longman handbook seemed to be doing more tutoring than I was doing. However, I don't know APA, so it was necessary.
How have other tutors handled situations like this?
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I almost always pull out the Longman during session discussions of citation, whether I'm familiar with the style or not. I use the text as a means of facilitation - instead of directing the writer ("This is how you in-text cite in APA.."), I flip to the appropriate page in the book and encourage the writer to read aloud and walk me through their understanding of the citation style. I use the aloud method to ensure they're interpreting the Longman properly - if they're struggling, I lend a proverbial hand. Then, we usually end up on the page that delineates all the examples (how to cite a book, interview, etc.) and watch as the writer flips through his or her outside sources, locates the necessary information, and mimics the style as shown in the book.
ReplyDeleteI landed on this technique because I realized last semester how directive I was when it came to citation - being well-versed in MLA and APA formatting, I simply rattled off "Oh!, Here's how...". I ultimately decided this was not the prime moment for a directive approach; citation is something so undeniably necessary to academic writing, and I have always had the suspicion that directive lessons fall by the wayside when a writer leaves the session - facilitative lessons, on the other hand, wherein the tutee has come to learn this knowledge on his or her own, really sticks. Therefore, I've decided using the Longman as a resource is most helpful for my tutoring style when addressing citation.
Interestingly enough, it was through tutoring a citation style I did not know - Chicago style - that lead me to this technique. Out of necessity, I grabbed the Longman during that first Chicago-style session, and happily discovered what a helpful tool it was. Of course, this is also in conversation with a post earlier this month: Using the Longman (to tutor citations you're familiar with or not!) can clarify your existent knowledge or teach you something new, too! My familiarity with Chicago-style is a testament to this reality.
I tutored a student who was in nursing, and insisted that portions of their paper needed to be written in short, basic sentences with no grammar. However, it was impossible to tell these sections apart from the actual significant portions of their paper! That was a really tough tutoring session for me. I find that tutoring students in the medical fields is particularly difficult for me, as I don't have any idea what the rules are for these fields, plus the information is quite foreign to me. I basically just have to trust what the tutees tell me.
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