Example 1:Tutee: Ms. Q.Assignment: her favorite placeWhat did I do: let her read essay first + told her what I thought this essay in positive words + I did almost the talk = ?

The outcome: she agreed with me almost everything.My doubt: does she really agree with me? do we have the same thought?

Example 2:Tutee: Ms. QQAssignment: about religions & gender discriminationProblems: not able to recognize her essay with strong points that related to the thesis + weak content of her essay + a little bit lazy to rewrite the essay on her own + completely relies on me = ?

What did I do: I asked her to free write about the topic.

Reasons why students may not be active:On TUTEEs side:For ESL students, their speaking skills are limited. Cultural background can lead a different perspective to the tutor.

Cultural differences affect tutoring sessions:From the article Cultural Conflicts in the Writing Center: Expectations and Assumptions of ESL students, Muriel Harris tells us that: ESL students, then, perceive tutors to be more immediately helpful, more approachable, more practical, and more personal than

teachers are, but the students expect tutors to work on errors and difficulties in specific pieces ofdiscourse,not on the larger, moreabstract level of writing skills andprocesses.

Two Examples of ESL students different points of view of tutoring:Country: Puerto RicaPoint of view: --help and encourage students to keep it up. --encourage the students to improve their work.

Region: AsiaPoint of view: --correcting errors, showing mistakes, and giving clear understanding. --not providing motivation or encouragement.

Tutees are afraid of making mistakes like grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, sentences structure.Tutees assume that tutors actually can write better than them.

On TUTORs side:Tutors are not patient enough to wait and listen to tutees thoughts.Tutors generally have a thought of being a tutor, which equals we should know the answer. As tutors, we thought we are the teller, but not all the time.

Suggestions:FOR TUTEE:Tutees can take the assignment and the questions that tutor asked based on the assignment home for a few days, reflect on what they wanted to say, and then write for a while. In order to be an active writer, students have to write more. Like brainstorming, free writing based on the topics of the essays, students may get more than they expected when they do these.

Free writing is helpful because:Free writing is an attempt to capture the same verbal energy on the paper, just like we say or express something we want to say.All these factors of being afraid of making mistakes in an essay can be ignored when students are doing free write, and that is a very good practice for those who wants to improve their writing.

When students are free writing, their hands and pens cannot stop writing, they have to keep on thinking and writing on the paper in a short time. Free writing can be at the computer as well because some study shows that people may feel easier to free write on a screen.

For Tutor:What should we do to tutees?Help tutees to get their motivations of writing. Tutors should encourage them to write, ask them not to be shy to make mistakes.What should we do to ourselves?Before the tutoring session, physically, tutor can choose a seat that is on the tutees right side if the tutor is right-handed.

More:Tutors should help tutees to set up a concept, which is we can learn and explore more from the mistakes. Tutors have to make tutees feel confident to write everything. We can share our writing experiences to our tutees.Tutors should keep in mind that we are not the owner of the paper. Dont help too much. Dont take it over.There are at least two people in the tutoring session, so tutors should give others chance to talk.Dont feel awkward if there is a period of silence; its a good way to push tutees to get the chance to talk.

Finally,Tutors, dont be afraid of using I dont know/Im not sure. its also a good way for both tutor and tutee to work together, and tutor can help tutee to explore what their expectations are and the motivations of writing.

What would happen if we used these methods?I try to stop talking and moving my chair a little bit further than before, so I will not sit too close to the paper, which makes me feel like to edit them; the quietness stays for a short time. Ms. Q realizes we should discuss something to keep our tutoring session going on, so she starts to ask me questions, such as what do you think about this sentence? Is this right? Example 1:

Example 2:-As the old saying goes, "Practice makes perfect", by practicing free writing several times, tutee would be able to think more and write more -Tutees are able to work on their own to get some ideas and able to generate more materials for their essays -not to rely on tutors so often -change their attitudes towards writing -become an active writer eventually