The Ethics of Tutoring Pre-College Level Writing Students

Learning When Being Too Helpful Is Not a Good

Thing….Teri MatesPassaic County Community College

Ethical Components of Tutoring

Key to running a successful tutoring program is establishing an ethical foundation so that students learn skills that will help them to work autonomously, and no faculty member can complain that essays that the student brings to the tutoring center are 100% better than what the student is capable of producing in class. Hence, the conundrum....

Ethical “Commandments”

Thou shall not “fix” errors for students.

Often, students believe that writing tutors exist to proofread and “fix” their errors. Occasionally, tutors get a bit too happy to show off their own skills. That is not tutoring. The student learns nothing from watching “experts” do their work for them.

Authenticity of Authorship

Thou shall never ever write any part, no matter how small, of a student’s essay.

No matter how “stuck” a student claims to be, the best service you can provide is showing them how to prewrite to generate ideas and sift through those to see what works best.

Prewriting in Fast Forward

Determine exact topic about which student is being asked to write

Establish “working” thesis:(exact topic + attitude/approach towardtopic)

Take topic through BOO!*Brainstorming (generating ideas) *Organizing (grouping similar ideas together) *Outlining (selecting order of presentation)

Payment for Services Rendered

Thou shall not recruit among tutoring center students for private tutoring, for which the student would have to pay.

If your institution offers tutoring free to enrolled students, you break an ethical taboo by offering to these same students more “intense” tutoring for a fee. At some colleges, this is grounds for dismissal.

“Sharing” Work

Thou shall not encourage students to use the same materials or “share” an essay unless the assignment is a group project.

It’s astounding how, with some developmental students, “sharing” work is so built into their academic patterns that it doesn’t seem wrong or unnatural. Questionable “sharing” should be logged and reported to a tutoring center supervisor and/or the instructor(s) involved.

You Might Be Too Helpful If….

The student simply “follows along” while you do the work.

Students want to work only with you, because other tutors “don’t help,” and you “get” them A’s.

Yours is pretty much the only voice heard during the tutoring session.

Your students “require” the same level of help from you the fifth session they work with you as they did the first.

Useful Advice

Think like an instructor. How much outside involvement, likely not acknowledged by the student, would you want your student to have? Do not provide more assistance than that

More Useful Advice

To keep the level of help that students receive appropriate to the stage of the writing process, it is beneficial to establish writing center policies that are clear for all students, tutors, and faculty. What follows are some general guidelines that we follow at Passaic County Community College.

Essays Graded By Instructor

Review essay with student, focusing primarily on instructor feedback.Provide supplemental materials to help student understand problems that occur most frequently.Give students strategies for revision, following instructor guidelines first, and general principles of good essay writing.

Essays Instructor Hasn’t Read

Proofread intro carefully with student, identifying types of problems and guiding student toward possible improvements.With student’s permission, quickly proofread essay, placing a check mark in the margin of any line containing an error.List types of errors found at bottom of page.

Ungraded Essays (2)

Let student work independently to correct as many errors as possible.

Once student has made corrections, review and help clarify with student any errors not found.

Note: Essays should represent student’s actual ability, not yours. If student cannot write equally well on his own, this creates ethical conflict and false expectations.

Works Cited

Boylan, Hunter (1999). “Exploring Alternatives to Remediation.” Journal of Developmental Education 22 (3).Boylan, Hunter (2001). “Making the Case for Developmental Education.” Research In Developmental Education 12 (2), 1-4.Boylan, Hunter (2002). What Works: A Guide to Research-Based Best Practices in Developmental Education. A joint project of the Continuous Quality Improvement Network & the National Center for Developmental Education.Elbow, Peter (1973). Writing Without Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press.