Third Observation

This is my third observation in the writing center and also with a different tutor from my last, and tutoring two students. The tutor introduced me right away to the students and told them that I wouldn't be involved just observing. In this session the tutor was familiar with the students because they took a workshop with him before, so the conversations were more personal and I was a little out of the loop. The tutor first addressed one of the student's paper while the other student just sat there listening doing nothing.  First the tutor read through the guidelines of the paper and then addressed the student's paper. He started off by explaining at length about what a thesis is and how to provide examples. He produced examples to clarify what a thesis is and how to create topic sentences from it. The student was understanding everything he was saying to her but I honestly felt the tutor was talking way to fast and way to much. I felt that he handled the student's paper the correct way, he didn't address LOC's, although told her to proofread from grammar.

After the first student left, he addressed the second student's paper. This student didn't have a paper with them because her problem was she couldn't think of anything to write. First the tutor explained at length what the assignment was about. He would ask her questions, which then he would answer himself without waiting for her to respond. Like with the first student he would do most of the talking about the assignment and explain to them ideas that the paper could be about. The student would just agree and say yes to everything. She would stutter and look like she was confused about what to say after he said some ideas. Then he said she should try to write a thesis with the ideas "they" meaning him came up with. The student was hesitant and look intimidated so he said he would write one with her. At that she relaxed and they both composed a thesis.The tutor continued to talk while they were suppose to be writing. When they were done the tutor read hers and changed some of her words and then told her it was good. After she said she was worried about how to write the actual essay, the tutor gave her an outline of how to write and organize the essay. Overall I think this session was interesting because the tutor addressed only HOC's but at the same time he was talking to much and talking to fast. He would talk about the assignment using his ideas and would interrupt the student and not let them express their thoughts. When the student left he was nice enough to let me ask him questions.This session was completely different than my other two with some good techniques and some bad.