If you’re curious about how tutoring works, these sample videos can give you a general idea of what to expect when you visit the Center. Although these videos were not made in the SMCM Writing & Speaking Center, they show tutorials that are similar to the types of sessions provided by peer tutors at our center. Click the links provided to watch the sample tutorials, and read the explanation of how the samples compare to tutoring at SMCM.
This sample tutorial describes how a tutor might work collaboratively with a student to proofread and shows how the tutor might assist a student with organizational concerns. As illustrated in the video, SMCM peer tutors are trained to assist with proofreading rather than to edit students’ papers for them. SMCM peer tutors also sometimes use the reverse outlining technique referenced in the video to help with organization, but they may also have you jump ahead to points in a draft that you know feel disorganized, read part of the draft aloud with you to locate and address organizational issues, etc. The SMCM peer tutor may also recommend you make multiple appointments if you need to address multiple concerns from different steps of the writing process like the student in the video, but other times an SMCM tutor may be able to assist you with multiple concerns in a single session.
This sample tutorial shows how a tutor might assist a student in developing ideas and lengthening a draft. Similarly, SMCM peer tutors are also happy to work with you at any stage of the writing process, and they may have you identify your audience, restate your argument, and clarify your ideas in order to help you develop your draft. The SMCM peer tutors may also recommend other strategies, such as brainstorming or sentence outlining, to assist you.
This sample tutorial shows how a tutor might assist with grammatical concerns and proofreading. The tutor does not simply read and correct the draft for the student; instead, the tutor calls the student’s attention to sentence-level concerns, and they work together to address them. SMCM peer tutors will use a similarly collaborative approach to help with proofreading, but they may not get into as many of the technical terms since most students are like the one in the video—they can recognize and correct errors even without knowing the official terminology. Unlike the video, SMCM peer tutors will likely recommend you tackle higher-order concerns like content before lower-order concerns like grammar.