How Tutoring Ignited My Passion for Writing

We all know the feeling too well: a paper is due in four hours and you have not even started, so you dutifully march (or more accurately drag your feet) towards Miller. We have all hunched over our computers with adrenaline fueling our furiously typing fingers and somehow, with a little luck and lots of coffee, we barely read it over and submit it with seconds to spare. Even though the assignment is done, it is never the finest writing. 

When I signed up to take the course that trains writing tutors at the Farnham Writers’ Center, I expected to be dealing with lots of these types of students. I imagined a lot of frantic students who had a deadline in hours and needed some quick feedback. I expected to be doing a lot of quick editing and correcting grammatical errors. I expected to read and talk quickly, focusing on helping students achieve the best possible grade. 

In reality, my job looks quite different from what I expected. Instead of two students hunching over a single computer trying to sift through a paper and find every grammatical error, I have a student read their paper aloud. While they read, my only job is to listen. I do not interrupt them. I am not looking for sentences to correct but rather questions to ask. Though we work to make your writing better, our overarching goal is to make you better writers. 

My role at the writing center has changed the way I view my own writing. Though you will still see me in Miller, aggressively typing two hours before a deadline, I have learned to try and avoid these last-minute ventures. I now view writing less like a chore to be done but as a collaborative process. Instead of viewing peers’ feedback as more time that needs to be spent fixing a paper, I see these comments as an opportunity to hone my writing skills. 

Not only is my writing better because I spend more time working on it, but because I have learned to ask questions instead of correcting errors. Though turning in an assignment moments before the deadline provides a rush of adrenaline, my now-slower process provides me with more satisfaction and less stress. 

By decelerating my writing process, I have found the joy that can come from putting pen to paper or the more relaxed pace of my fingers typing on a keyboard. This new approach has allowed me to find joy in my writing and has even led me to pursue an English minor. 

So, next time you have a paper or want to stop in and chat over a cup of coffee, come to the Farnham Writers’ Center. Visiting the Writing Center will most likely not lead to a miraculous love of writing, but we would still love to see all of your masked smiling faces.

~Tara Goday `24