About the Writing Center @ CAPS

Individual Tutoring

Tutoring in the Writing Center @ CAPS can take any of a number of different forms, depending on what will be most useful for individual students, and can be geared toward any stage in the writing process.

For students who are struggling with how to respond to a particular essay prompt, it can be very helpful to talk though their thoughts with a tutor, who can help students to formulate their ideas and think of possible approaches to the assignment. Tutors can also help students to work between drafts, diagnosing problem areas and indicating the direction towards the next stage in the revision process.

The goal of all tutors in the Writing Center is to provide tutees with tools that will enable them to more effectively work independently. In appointments, tutors will generally try to steer discussion towards 'deeper' issues (e.g., organization, thesis, argumentation), focusing on 'surface' issues (spelling, grammar, etc.) after these have been addressed.

It's easy to think of a writing tutor as a proofreader, but students should bear in mind that the goal of tutors at CAPS is to send students away with skills that they'll be able to use in future collegiate and professional writing.

This being the case, tutors won't proofread papers for students. They are, however, more than happy to help students to identify patterns in the types of errors that they are making, to work on specific grammatical issues, and to coach students in the use of tools that will enable them to become better editors and proofreaders.