University Writing Center

The Introverted Tutor: Introversion as an Asset

The Introverted Tutor: Seeing Introversion as an Asset

By Nicola Larson

Even though the name of the class was Tutoring Writing, it still came as a shock when Dr. Wells announced that everyone would have to tutor in the University Writing Center. I have always seen my introverted personality as a handicap that I needed to overcome. This self-perception was only reinforced at the thought of tutoring other students in the UWC.

What I learned through this experience, however, was that my introverted personality correlates well with essential methods of tutoring.

In a tutoring session, it is invaluable to listen more and talk less. The introvert can more easily fulfill the role of the listener because he or she is likely to do this in everyday situations. It is easy to point out all of the mistakes in a student’s essay. What is more difficult is getting the student to open up and begin talking about the thought process that went into the writing of their paper.

An essential function of a tutor is to teach the student how to find their recurring mistakes and learn how to fix them in the future. The student will more easily be able to self-correct if the tutor acts as a guide to lead them through the mistakes rather than fixing them for the student.

One of the first things a tutor-in-training learns is that higher-order concerns should be addressed before lower-order concerns. An example of a higher-order concern would be the thesis of the paper. A lower-order concern would be issues such as spelling and punctuation.

An introvert who tends to put more thought in before speaking can process the overarching ideas of the paper before addressing the smaller issues. It can be very difficult to push grammatical errors aside to focus on the overall content and organization of an essay. However, this becomes a little easier for an introvert who is accustomed to analyzing more thoroughly before making a judgment.

Most students who go to the UWC feel nervous about their tutoring session. Exposing one’s written work to criticism can make anyone feel vulnerable, but an introvert will be able to mindfully approach each session in a way that caters to the insecurities of the student.

An introverted tutor has the ability to relate to these feelings of insecurity because it is likely he or she has felt the same way in the past. The tutor can steer the tutoring session in a positive direction by offering constructive feedback to the student in a way that is sensitive to the student’s apprehension.

Jessica Robbins is a tutor for UAB Student-Athlete Support Services. She also considers her personality more introverted than extroverted, yet it has not kept her from becoming a successful tutor for the last eight months. She had similar concerns as myself when she first began her tutoring job.

When I asked Jessica if she was intimidated when she first began tutoring student-athletes she responded, “Most definitely. I was scared that I would freeze up and explain something in a totally ineffective way to a student. I was also worried that because my students are athletes, they would be very overbearing and not take well to someone like me who tends to be more quiet and not as outgoing.”

Eight months later Jessica is much more confident in her tutoring abilities. She is able to acknowledge the fact that her introverted personality is actually very beneficial in tutoring sessions.

Jessica recognizes the importance of placing all of the focus on her student-athletes, admitting “It is easy for me to focus on them because as an introvert, I naturally do not like for the attention to be on me.”

The most difficult aspect of tutoring for Jessica is being assertive when the student-athlete is unresponsive. I can attest to the fact that being assertive is one of the things I have struggled with most throughout my life.

Those who are extroverted are likely more comfortable with being assertive, and there are obviously many other strengths that characterize an extrovert. However, tutoring sessions are great opportunities for introverts to practice honing those communication skills innate to extroverts.

The introvert is more than capable of being a successful tutor and possesses several attributes which offer significant value in tutoring sessions.

By emphasizing the positive qualities of introverts, I am hoping that all personality types, whether introverted, extroverted or somewhere in between, will be inspired to change the way they think about their own personality in relation to tutoring.

Busting a Writing Center Myth

The University Writing Center, courtesy of UAB Image Gallery

Busting a Writing Center Myth

By Anna Sims

The simple words “peer review” is enough to inspire dread in students. They come to class biting their nails. They pass their papers around with warnings and apologies. However, the fear of feedback is unnecessary.

The opportunity to have a fellow student critique your work before it gets to the professor is invaluable. At UAB, we have the University Writing Center that offers face-to-face tutoring to undergraduates and graduates.

Students can schedule sessions for 30 or 60 minutes and bring papers at any stage, from drafts to finished products. The center currently offers tutoring from English graduate students.

However, there exists a myth that the Writing Center is meant for freshman students struggling in English Composition, or visiting the Writing Center is an admission of failure.

According to the 2016 UWC newsletter, 35 percent of those who visited the Writing Center were upperclassmen, and an additional 23 percent were graduate students. This leaves only 42 percent of the breakdown to freshman clients. The highest percentage of clients by category, therefore, were upperclassmen students.

Making an appointment with the Writing Center does not indicate an acceptance of failure but rather an investment in success.

No matter your stage of the writing process, your major or your class standing, I see the following four points as the most important results of visiting the UWC.

Verbalizing Thoughts

By speaking your thoughts out of your head, you can untangle them. A great way to identify flaws with your argument is to explain your thoughts to another person. In that situation, you are forced to think about your peer’s immediate reaction to your thoughts, which helps you evaluate your argument more critically.

Also, by hearing your thoughts spoken out loud, you may draw connections that you had not realized when your argument sat stagnant on a map in your head. Verbalizing thoughts transforms them from the abstract to the real.

Having a graduate student who has previously been in your undergrad shoes listen, critique and support your ideas helps foster awareness of public reaction to your work.

Receiving Peer Feedback

The tutors at the Writing Center have been in your shoes; let them offer you wisdom that they wish they had been offered. Similarly to how you can identify flaws or links in your argument when you speak it aloud, peers can find flaws or links in your argument that you had not seen.

Seeking feedback means that the student wants to improve the final product. While there is a considerable number of freshman students who visit the Writing Center, this more reflects on those students’ desires to understand the writing process and how to succeed in a new writing environment.

Seeking feedback requires confidence. One student indicated that, “it was great to come and talk to someone about my ideas and get great tips, advice and comments.”

Collaboration

The workplace in which many Professional Writing students will find themselves will likely be a collaborative environment. Bouncing ideas off one another allows a company to produce quality content, products or services. Practicing collaboration by visiting the Writing Center provides students with a better idea of what they will encounter in the workplace.

Writing feels more personal than other schoolwork, so students may be afraid to have their work critiqued. However, the tutor wants the student to succeed. When teachers give grades for papers and deduct points for errors, it may seem like punishment for poor writing. This misconception is often carried over to tutor-student scenario, causing the student to feel that the tutor is picking apart their work and looking for failure. However, the entire process at the UWC is a collaborative effort that improves not one specific piece but the entire writing process of the student.

Increased Confidence

Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness. Identifying a need for guidance demonstrates self-awareness, investment in individual potential, intellectual confidence and maturity.

Visiting the Writing Center may feel like admitting defeat, but nobody is above asking for help. Being able to ask questions means that a student has evaluated his or her writing, identified pitfalls and has decided that the piece deserves to be carried out to its full potential. Understanding the strengths of the piece and knowing that the student has taken the necessary steps to improve weaknesses allows the student to turn it in with confidence in the result.

Controlling Flow in Writing

By Ashton Cook

Coherence and cohesion are important to keep in mind when writing

From news to fiction to blog posts, writers seek to grab attention with their work. It is one of the reasons why creators create: to express themselves in a way that leaves an impact. In writing, however, that impact can be heavily hampered by flaws in coherence and cohesion.

To keep the reader happily invested in whatever they are reading, the text must seem natural and accessible, or flow.

Coherence and Cohesion

For readers to connect to a piece of writing, the text must be capable of comfortably communicating with them, which relates to coherence. But to be coherent, the words themselves must be able to connect as seamlessly as possible, which is to be cohesive.

It can be daunting to revise the flow of a piece. Sometimes, the issue with an article can come down to just one word choice, and finding that problematic phrase can feel similar to looking for a needle in a haystack. There are some ways to help make the process simpler.

Who? What? Where?

First and foremost, to know if you’re communicating fluidly with your audience, you must know who they are. If the article or story is meant for a younger audience, using complicated language won’t be very effective. If the target is an academic group, See Mike hike and similarly simple phrasing might come across too dull.

Another thing to consider is sentence length. While it is good to have some sentences that run for a decent amount of space, having too many can leave the reader feeling like they cannot breathe. Too many short sentences can be equally overwhelming. Utilizing a good mix of the two can help keep a reader from breaking away from the text.

Sometimes the issue with a piece of writing isn’t in the sentences. Paragraphs can be too lengthy or too brief, or they may introduce material at wrong times. Looking at how you could restructure what you’re working on can lead to finding new ways of strengthening it.

Resources Around You

There is some writing that, no matter how much we rethink and revise, we’ll never be satisfied with. Something is forgotten, leaving the whole text feeling incomplete. Or, maybe, something is awkward, but you can’t figure out what it is. Times like these are when you should have someone review your work with you. Visiting the University Writing Center on campus, meeting with a professor or finding a good friend are all great solutions for when revision feels like hitting a wall.

Providing Peace of Mind

By Michelle Love

University Writing Center sign — The UWC, located in Sterne Library

As a student’s academic career progresses, the amount of research papers and related stress follows suit. It does not help that the list of rules when writing research papers seems to always be changing.

Thanks to UAB’s University Writing Center (located on the first floor of the Mervyn Sterne Library), students no longer have to feel alone.

How We Help You

By using face to face and online counseling, the University Writing Center helps students create polished papers to get the best grade possible and in the process teaches students helpful writing tips that will improve their overall performance.

UAB professor Jaclyn Wells is the Director of the writing center and also one of the many tutors offering guidance. “We have three types of folks [offering services]. We have adjunct instructors from the English department, we have grad students from the English department, and we have undergraduate students that serve as friendly greeters when people come in.”

No One Left Behind

While some younger students may believe they do not qualify for the center’s resources, Dr. Wells wants them to know that is simply not true. She said the center is open to students of all levels, whether freshmen or graduate students, and all majors. Students are also encouraged to bring in their papers no matter what stage the assignment is in.

“Some people have this idea that they can’t come to the writing center until their paper is finished, and that’s not true. We encourage people to come to the writing center during any stage of their paper writing. They can come in with an idea or they can come in in the middle. It really does not matter. We just want to help you.”

Providing Opportunities

Recently, the UWC has started offering an internship program in coordination with UAB’s internship director Cynthia Ryan. “If students want to intern here they have to take the Tutoring Writing class and then they can follow up with Dr. Ryan.”

Consultations are available by appointment and Dr. Wells wants any students skeptical of visiting the writing center to know that there’s nothing to be ashamed or afraid of.

“Everybody needs feedback on writing,” she said. “It’s not just a beginner thing. And by coming to the writing center, you’re doing what good writers do. Good writers get feedback, good writers revise. So when you come here you’re already doing what a good writer does just by virtue of coming here.”

Why It Is Important

As a Professional Writing major and aspiring writer, I feel that the University Writing Center is more than just a valuable asset to a young writer’s career: it should be considered a requirement.

It’s easy for students to feel safe with their writing style while they’re still enrolled in school and believe they don’t need help polishing their composition. But as someone who has taken the plunge into the professional writing world outside of an academic setting, I can say that going to the writing center is vital to creating a more sophisticated writing style.

The UWC staff will teach you the do’s and don’t’s of being a writer, and can help you grow a thicker skin when it comes to taking constructive criticism. I believe everyone should visit the writing center, if not for the sake of your college writing, then for any future job prospects you may have after graduation.

What Teaching Writing Taught Me

By Rebekah Kummer

two people analyzing a book — Image courtesy of Adobe Stock

Einstein said if you can’t explain a complicated concept in simple terms, you probably don’t understand it well enough yourself. This was the first thing I learned from teaching writing.

Understanding and accepting my own lack of knowledge is the necessary first step toward learning. Teaching writing taught me a lot about my own approach to writing, how much the writing process varies among student writers and the importance of being able to explain why students should care about writing.

Teaching Writing

I have tutored for two and a half years with Student Athlete Support Services and with the University Writing Center. I’ve encountered students across the spectrum of investment in writing.

Some understand that writing well is a good skill, but don’t have much desire to learn beyond a sufficient level of writing. Some abhor writing, or see it as irrelevant to themselves and their future careers. Some come to me with questions to ask their professors after realizing that they don’t know how to sound professional in an email. Some don’t see the point of taking pains to sound a certain way in an email, or in any document for that matter. How do I convince these students that writing matters?

Coming face to face with answering how and why writing is relevant to everyone has been a good lesson in understanding it myself. EH 101 can seem completely useless to a football player on scholarship who has no desire to even be in school. So I put myself in his giant shoes and think about specific situations in his life that would require writing: if he does make it to the NFL as he hopes, that contract is going to be awfully hard to decipher if he doesn’t learn to analyze texts critically the way we do in a rhetorical analysis. Plus, if those dreams are not realized, he will more than likely work at a great job that requires written communications via email, and written reports or evaluations.

Addressing complacent or disinterested students was difficult, but it was a great lesson not only in how to explain why writing matters, but also in adopting and understanding alternate perspectives.

No Right Way to Write

Having so many opportunities to see others’ thought processes and communication styles has been invaluable to me as a writer and as a person. My approach to writing is distinct to me, and may not be useful to all of my students.

While I’m an external processor and think out loud, especially in dialogue with others, many students are internal processors. As a result, I have discovered the value of silence.

Another thing I learned was the way structure—like required outlines, rough drafts or format suggestions—factors into various writing styles. Paralysis was a common accompaniment to structure—students were either paralyzed by fear of not filling structures in correctly or by the rigidity of the structure itself weighing upon them with no way to get out. So for some students, an outline was a creative block, not an organizational aid. Many, however, found comfort in structure, and used it as a foundation for their writing.

The writing process is simply not a one-size-fits-all framework, and while I still have a lot to learn, I think the lessons I’ve learned so far in teaching writing have allowed me to gain experience myself in understanding how others think, and how I can improve my own writing.