Teaching Writing Tip of the Week: A Plea to Remember the Value of Peer Tutoring

Hi, everyone.

I thought I was going to tip you with a caveat about ChatGPT based on a query I made for Al DeCiccio. ChatGPT provided a lot of information about me, such as “DeCiccio has also served as the Director of the Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and as the founding Director of the Writing Center at the City College of New York.” The problem is, as in this statement, the information is wrong.

I thought I would discuss what I have learned about “query engineering,” which is to the AI community what we would call “preparing effective writing prompts.” My initial query probably led to the inaccurate information ChatGPT provided. I also thought I’d tell how Bill Coyle and I have discussed with tutors ChatGPT’s affordances (helps with invention (particularly thesis construction), revision, rhetorical situation) and ChatGPT’s constraints (often provides incorrect data). Indeed, the Writing Center tutors are prepared to work with ChatGPT AI, just as they are prepared to work with your students about all aspects of the writing process.

I may yet write that tip about ChatGPT, but what I really want to tip you about is why the Writing Center’s peer tutors are so powerfully integral to the success of the writers they tutor:

1. Peer tutors encourage writers to collaborate and then to think for themselves;

2. Peer tutors assist writers in acquiring strategic knowledge, that is, writers learn how to write by practicing a variety of writing strategies the peer tutors suggest for planning, drafting, organizing, and revising;

3. Peer tutors assist with affective concerns by motivating writers and reducing their stress; and, perhaps most important,

4. Peer tutors interpret academic language for writers, by translating it from teacher talk to student talk.*

As the semester unfolds and your students are working on the many fine assignments you’ve prepared—annotated bibliographies, reflective essays, video texts, and everything in between—I am hopeful you will tell your students about the amazing resources they have in the Writing Center tutors.

Here are our in-person and remote hours for the remainder of the semester:

In-person
Monday-Friday 10:00am-5:00pm

Remote
Monday 10:00am-7:00pm
Tuesday 11:00am-7:00pm
Wednesday 10:00am-7:00pm
Thursday 11:00am-5:00pm
Friday 10:00am-5:00pm
Saturday 10:00am-5:00pm

To give your students knowledge about the areas of study the Writing Center graduate and undergraduate tutors are pursuing, here is a list of all our tutors this spring:

GRADUATE TUTORS
Ammarah Aslam (PSYCH)
Theresa D’Entremont (MAT ENGLISH)
James Rego (ENGLISH)
Omer Sarica (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, TESOL)
McKenna Tryson (ENGLISH)
Alison Pinto (ENGLISH; concentration: CREATIVE WRITING)
Christopher Daigle, (MBA)
Logan Austin (ENGLISH)
Nick Stark (ENGLISH)

UNDERGRADUATE TUTORS
Isabella Perez (FINE ARTS, BFA)
Emeline Class (CRIMINAL JUSTICE)
Nora McQuade (HISTORY, EDUCATION; minor in POL SCI
Ben Townsend (ENGLISH), Undergraduate
Christian Doyle (PHILOSOPHY), LOA
Kelsey Francis (NURSING; minor: BIOLOGY)
Angela (Quill) DeAngelis (ART; minor: ENGLISH)
Andrew Bercovitz (MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS)
Frances Gervais (MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS), LOA
Norelys Mendez-Rivas (NURSING)
Derek Moran (MARINE BIOLOGY/AGRICULTURE)
Arianna Nuvoli (MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS)
Anna Rudy (BIOLOGY)
David Spalding-Aguirre (ART HISTORY)
Samantha Stevens (UNDECLARED, HONORS)
Ben Westgate ((MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS), LOA
Marv Worrick (ENGLISH/CREATIVE WRITING), LOA
Jingwen Zhou (ENGLISH) 
James Howard (HISTORY) 
Rachel Southall (ENGLISH; SECONDARY EDUCATION minor) 
Krystal Giffen (SOCIAL WORK; PSYCHOLOGY minor) 
Lara Nieves (PSYCHOLOGY; ENGLISH minor) 
Yufei Hei (ENGLISH) 
Maya Dunn (ENGLISH; SECONDARY EDUCATION minor 
Jazmin Hopkins (ENGLSIH; CREATIVE WRITING concentration; MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS minor), LOA 
Ren Cruzada (PSYCHOLOGY) 
Grace Connor (SOCIOLOGY; ENGLISH minor) 
Carly Calnan (PSYCHOLOGY; SOCIOLOGY minor) 
Taliyah Perrin (EARLY COLLEGE, SHS)  
Olivia Marino (EDUCATION; PSYCHOLOGY minor)
Dorottya Balazs (ENGLISH)
Jaylynn Pridgen (EDUCATION; SPANISH minor), LOA
Zander Ragucci (SOCIOLOGY; BIOLOGY, minor), LOA

GRADUATE PRACTICUM TUTORS
Yusuf Aydin (ENGLISH)
Alessandra Romano (ENGLISH)

UNDERGRADUATE PRACTICUM TUTORS
Autumn Brian (SOCIAL WORK; minor PEACE STUDIES)
Aiden DeCaro (PSYCHOLOGY; minor BIOLOGY)
Daniel Gallegos (ENGLISH)
Marcus Johnson (ENGLISH)
Kelly McDermott (ENGLISH)
Michael Morrison (HISTORY)
Gina Nunez Roman (EARLY COLLEGE; HEALTH STUDIES)
Giulia Rotondo (UNDECLARED)
Avery Sullivan (ENGLISH; minor MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS)
Christina Tsetsakoy (ENGLISH)

As the data corroborate, writers who work with Writing Center peer tutors produce meaningful texts. So, my tip makes a plea to you to remind your students of the Writing Center tutoring available to them.

Have a great day!

Al DeCiccio

*See Muriel Harris, “Talking in the Middle: Why Writers Need Writing Tutors,” College

English Vol. 57, No. 1, pp. 27-42.