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TUTORGUIDE

The Writing StudioThompson Writing Program

Duke University

Fall 2013

Quick Reference Sheet

Contact InformationVicki Russell: [email protected] Home Phone: 967-9650, Work Phone: 668-0900, Cell: 919-260-1271

Jim Berkey: [email protected] Phone: 660-4391, Cell: 812-320-1924

Art Building Contact: 660-4368 (goes to Melissa Pascoe, Vanessa Turnier, or Jennie Saia in the TWP)Lilly Library Contact: Reference Desk at 660-5995Perkins Library Contact: 684-6796

Writing Studio Websitehttp://twp.duke.edu/writing-studio

Tutor’s Assistant Main Manuhttps://appointments.twp.duke.edu/cgi-bin/tutormenu.pl

Accessing the Writing Studio Sakai Site in a Web BrowserGo to https://sakai.duke.edu/. Login with your Net ID and password. Personal folders and shared files can be found in Resources.

https://sakai.duke.edu/

https://appointments.twp.duke.edu/cgi-bin/tutormenu.pl

http://twp.duke.edu/writing-studio

mailto:[email protected]

Writing Studio Philosophy

Table of Contents

Quick Reference Sheet.........................................................................................2Table of Contents.................................................................................................3Writing Studio Philosophy...................................................................................7What You Can Expect at the Writing Studio.......................................................7The Director’s Expectations.................................................................................8Writing Studio Locations.....................................................................................8

I. 106 Art Building (Daytime / East Campus)....................................................................9A. Around the 1st floor................................................................................................9B. Finding What You Need.........................................................................................9

II. 2nd Floor Lilly Library (Evening / East Campus)..........................................................10III. 112 Perkins Library (Daytime & Evening / West Campus).......................................10

Writing Studio Procedures.................................................................................10I. 106 Art Building.............................................................................................................11

A. Opening.................................................................................................................11B. Printer Location.....................................................................................................11C. Checking Email.....................................................................................................11D. Closing..................................................................................................................11E. Emergency Contacts.............................................................................................11

II. 112 Perkins Library........................................................................................................12A. Opening.................................................................................................................12B. Printer Location.....................................................................................................12C. Checking Email.....................................................................................................12D. Closing..................................................................................................................12E. Emergency Contacts.............................................................................................12

III. 2nd Floor of Lilly Library.............................................................................................12A. Opening.................................................................................................................12B. Printer Location.....................................................................................................13C. Checking Email.....................................................................................................13D. Closing..................................................................................................................13E. Emergency Contacts.............................................................................................13

IV. Severe Weather Procedures.........................................................................................13V. Payroll.............................................................................................................................14

Data Management at the Writing Studio............................................................14

Tutor Guide

I. The Tutor’s Assistant Main Menu..................................................................................14A. Check Your Appointments....................................................................................16B. Find Student Records............................................................................................18C. Add a No-Show.....................................................................................................19D. Find Conference Summaries.................................................................................19E. Add a Conference Summary.................................................................................19F. Find Student Questionnaires.................................................................................19G. Add a Student Questionnaire................................................................................20H. Find Tutor Notes...................................................................................................20I. Add a Tutor Note..................................................................................................20J. View All Students’ Self-Assessments...................................................................21K. View a Shift Log...................................................................................................22L. View All Tutors’ Appointments, by Month..........................................................22M. View Writing Studio Statistics..............................................................................24N. Go to the Writing Studio Web Site.......................................................................24O. Go to Director’s Screen.........................................................................................24P. Go to Tutor Blog...................................................................................................24Q. Log Out.................................................................................................................25

II. Session Protocol..............................................................................................................25A. Getting Started......................................................................................................25B. Student Information Screen..................................................................................26C. Student Goals Screen............................................................................................28D. Conference Summaries.........................................................................................30E. Student Questionnaires.........................................................................................31F. Tutor Notes...........................................................................................................32

III. Using The Tutor’s Assistant To Update Information.................................................33A. Editing Appointment Information.........................................................................33B. Editing Instructor Information..............................................................................33C. Editing Tutor Notes...............................................................................................34D. Undoing a Mistaken No-Show..............................................................................34

Behind the Scenes: From a Writer’s Perspective..............................................35A. Making an Appointment.......................................................................................35B. E-Mail Notices......................................................................................................35

Advice for Tutors...............................................................................................38I. Managing the Face-to-Face Tutorial Session.................................................................38II. A Tutor’s Short Guide to Face-to-Face Tutoring...........................................................40


A. Getting Started: The First Five Minutes...............................................................40B. The Editing Session..............................................................................................42C. The Brainstorming Session...................................................................................42D. The Main Claim/Thesis Session...........................................................................43E. The Organization Session.....................................................................................44

III. A Tutor’s Short Guide to E-Tutoring..........................................................................45A. Overview...............................................................................................................45B. Writer Use Profile.................................................................................................45C. The Essential Steps of the E-Tutor System...........................................................46D. Subbing for an E-Tutor Appointment...................................................................50E. Effective E-Tutor Feedback..................................................................................50F. Closing Comments................................................................................................58

IV. Writing Workshops.....................................................................................................58A. Guidelines for Leading Workshops...........................................................................58B. Sample Lesson Plans..................................................................................................60

V. Important: Participating in Other Writing Studio Tutor Activities................................74A. Training and Mentoring........................................................................................74B. Making Tutor Class Visits....................................................................................77C. Attending Staff Meetings and Special Events.......................................................77D. Ongoing Projects and Activities...........................................................................77E. Using Sakai...........................................................................................................78F. Enhancing Resources............................................................................................79G. Supporting the Undergraduate Writing Tutor (UWT) and Partner (UWP)

Programs...............................................................................................................79H. Working on Job Jar Projects.................................................................................80

Professional Resources for Tutors......................................................................81I. Methodology and Tutoring Resources............................................................................81II. Information on the Field.................................................................................................81III. Newsletters, Journals, Publications.............................................................................82IV. Conferences and Professional Organizations..............................................................84

Writing Studio Policies......................................................................................84I. Community Use Policy...................................................................................................84II. Suspected Plagiarism Policy...........................................................................................85III. Help with Take-Home Exams Policy..........................................................................85IV. Student Access Policy.................................................................................................85V. Private Tutoring Policy...................................................................................................86

Tutor Guide

VI. Severe Weather and Other Emergency Policies..........................................................86VII. Hours Bank..................................................................................................................87

Writing Studio Use Statistics.............................................................................882013-2014 Staff Contact Information................................................................88Beyond the Writing Studio: Resources for Duke Students...............................90Writing Studio Calendar for 2013-14.................................................................91Appendix: Technology Guide............................................................................93

I. Account Information.......................................................................................................93A. Obtaining a Net ID................................................................................................93B. Obtaining a Sakai Account...................................................................................93C. Obtaining Access to the Shared Mailbox..............................................................93D. Obtaining a DukeCard (Duke ID Card)................................................................93

II. Logon Procedures...........................................................................................................94III. Accessing Writing Studio files....................................................................................94IV. Flip Video Camera......................................................................................................94

A. Using the Camera for Recording and Playback....................................................94B. Transferring Recordings from the Camera to a Computer...................................95

V. Loaner Laptops and iPads...............................................................................................95VI. Using Google Docs.....................................................................................................96

A. Getting Access......................................................................................................96B. Sharing Documents with Others...........................................................................96C. Editing and Presenting with Others in Real-Time................................................97D. Tracking changes..................................................................................................98

VII. Social Networking........................................................................................................98A. WordPress Blog (http://dukewrites.wordpress.com/)................................................98B. Twitter (http://twitter.com/).......................................................................................99C. Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/).....................................................................99D. Tutor Musings Blog (http://sites.duke.edu/duketutormusings/)................................99

Troubleshooting...............................................................................................100Who Counts as an International Graduate Student?..........................................................100How to Add a New Student to the System in the Case of a Drop-in Appointment by a

First-Time Student...................................................................................................100E-Tutor Situations..............................................................................................................100



The passage below is the mission statement we share through our website, posters, and information cards.

"The Writing Studio promotes excellence in writing by providing tutoring services for Duke undergraduates and international graduate students. Other members of the Duke community are welcome to use our services under our Community Use Policy. We help with all types of writing—including academic essays, memos, reports, honors theses, and personal statements. We assist with all stages of writing—from brainstorming and researching to drafting, revising, and polishing a final draft.

The Writing Studio features an on-line appointment calendar, E-Tutor and face-to-face appointments, East and West campus locations, daytime and evening hours, 50-minute individual sessions, writing workshops and writing groups, a non-circulating library, and extensive on-line resources."

What You Can Expect at the Writing Studio

This document describes our philosophy and practices so that students, faculty, and administrators will have a realistic idea of what our services entail. This statement is found on our website and appears on students' computer screens when they log in to schedule their first tutoring session.

"We promote excellence in writing. Our goal is to improve writers, not just individual pieces of writing:

We don’t tell you how or what to write. We do suggest strategies, offer encouragement, and provide information to help you move forward with your work. We expect writers to take responsibility for their choices with regard to their own writing.

We don’t know all the answers. We do try to show you how to explore possibilities and will refer you to reference tools for specific issues.

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Tutor Guide

We don’t have the time in a 50-minute session to address every issue in a piece of writing.We do help you set priorities based on your current needs, identifying points of revision that

are possible within a particular time frame.

We don’t write for you. We do encourage writers to write and take notes during their conference.

We don’t promote a particular style of writing. We do help students analyze assignments from different disciplines and cope with a variety of academic writing conventions.

We don’t speculate about the grade a piece of writing might receive. We do act as an audience and give feedback about how a reader might interpret what is presented.

We don’t ensure whether or not student writing violates the Duke Community Standard. We do guide and train writers in proper scholarly procedures."

The Director’s Expectations

A short guide:Act professionally at all times.Work on WS projects and NOT personal work during assigned shifts. If you don’t have a

project, check the Job Jar in the Writing Studio Sakai site.Arrive 15 minutes before your shift begins.Greet writers and answer the phone as needed.Check your appointment schedule online. Refresh often as the schedule can change in a

second.Read the conference notes of each writer before she/he arrives.Greet the writer by name.Tidy up the work space when you leave.

Writing Studio Locations

The Writing Studio has three locations: 112 Perkins Library, 2nd floor Lilly Library, and 106

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Art Building. We share some of these spaces with the Undergraduate Writing Tutors (UWTs). The Director’s main office is in 107 Art Building.

I. 106 ART BUILDING (DAYTIME / EAST CAMPUS)

The Art Building houses the administrative staff and the faculty for the Thompson Writing Program. The two classrooms on the first floor are used for Writing 101 classes. The front door of the building is open from 7:30 AM to 5 PM Monday – Friday, with card access around the right side of the building after hours. The Writing Studio in the Art Building has three tutoring spaces, one small group space, and a work-study space in the back left corner. Each tutoring space has a computer and whiteboard, desk, and two chairs. The room has a communal library and a wall file with a laminated copy of all the main WS handouts.

A. Around the 1st floorIt is useful to know what other offices are near our space, both to help lost students find their way and to be neighborly with the people with whom we share space and amenities.

In the First Floor OfficesTWP Administrators and Staff: Kristen Neuschel, Director of the TWP; Denise Comer, Director of First Year Writing; Cary Moskovitz, Director of Writing in the Disciplines; Vicki Russell, Director of the Writing Studio; Marcia Rego, Director of Faculty Development and Assessment; Vanessa Turnier, Assistant to the Director of First-Year Writing and Payroll Clerk; Jennie Saia, Program Coordinator; and Melissa Pascoe, Business/Program Manager.

In the Second Floor OfficesMost TWP Fellows’ offices are on the second floor.

B. Finding What You Need

1st FloorCoffee and Office Supplies: Down the hall in Art 114, the small room on the right with the

copier and printerWater Cooler and E-Print Station: In the front reception areaBathrooms: Gender-specific bathrooms down the hall on the right Recycling Bins: Located

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Tutor Guide

by the department mailboxes. Recycling bins are also outside the building, next to nearby Bivins Hall

2 nd Floor Food/Drink: Coffee and tea maker in the 2nd-floor loungeKitchen: Microwave, toaster, and refrigerator; water cooler; napkins, plates, and so on. Recycling Bin: In the 2nd-floor lounge. Recycling bins are also outside the building.

II. 2ND FLOOR LILLY LIBRARY (EVENING / EAST CAMPUS)

There are two Writing Studio stations set up at Lilly Library, both on the second floor. One is located on one side of the stacks next to the bathrooms; the other is on the opposite side of the stacks next to the elevator. There is a computer at each station, white board, table space, and two chairs. The space by the elevator has a rolling chair. If it has rolled away, please retrieve it and roll it back. Both Writing Studio tutoring spaces have signs indicating that they are reserved for the Writing Studio during our evening sessions (Sunday through Thursday, from 7 to 10 PM). Be assertive about asking students to move from our reserved tables, as no other space on the second floor has our workstation computers or is acoustically conducive for tutoring sessions.

III. 112 PERKINS LIBRARY (DAYTIME & EVENING / WEST CAMPUS)

Our West campus space is on the first floor of Perkins. We have three tutoring stations, an area for workshops, and a small library. There is also a printer, small library, recycling bins, and a coffee and tea maker. Office supplies are stored in a cabinet.

Writing Studio Procedures

This section details various non-conference-related procedures you will need to follow when you come to your sessions. It is divided by location (Art Building, Perkins, and Lilly).

General comments first: We might have work-study students, the Director, or the Associate

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Director at any of the three daytime locations during the week, Monday – Thursday. If they are working while you are there, they will need access to the back space in 106 Art Building or the back left computer in Perkins. Please use one of the other computers to check e-mail and writer histories and enter conference notes.

I. 106 ART BUILDING

A. Opening Replenish needed supplies (pens and legal pads, etc.) from the supply cabinets in the small

room down the hall on the right (Art 114). Fifth-appointment pens are in the box on top of the filing cabinet.

Log on to the computer by pressing the Ctrl/Alt/Delete buttons, then by entering your Net ID and password.

The work station in the very back is reserved for the TWP/WS work-study students. UWT students also use the tutoring carrels for tutoring appointments.

B. Printer LocationOur printer is located down the hall on the right side in the supplies/copier space. Use your Duke unique id number to log in, without the first zero. Also, you can print to the E-Print station located in the front reception area on the first floor.

C. Checking EmailPlease feel free to check e-mail during your shift but do not spend more than 5-10 minutes doing so during the time you are scheduled to be working on WS projects.

D. ClosingLog off computer.Discard any trash you or the writers might have brought in and tidy up the space.Close door.

E. Emergency ContactsIn the event of an emergency that will cause you to be late or need to cancel your shift, call the Thompson Writing Program (660-4368, which will go to Melissa Pascoe, Vanessa Turnier, or Jennie Saia) and Vicki (Home: 967-9650, Work: 668-0900; Cell: 919-260-1271) to let them know the situation.

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Tutor Guide

II. 112 PERKINS LIBRARY

A. Opening Log on to the computer.

B. Printer LocationOur printer is located in the left tutoring station.

C. Checking EmailPlease feel free to check e-mail during your shift but do not spend more than 5-10 minutes doing so during the time you are scheduled to be working on WS projects.

D. ClosingLog off the computer.Discard any trash you or the writers might have brought in and tidy up the space. There are

recycling bins near the bookshelves.

E. Emergency ContactsIn the event of an emergency that will cause you to be late or need to cancel your shift, call the 112 Perkins phone (684-6796) and Vicki (Home: 967-9650, Work: 668-0900; Cell: 919-260-1271) to let them know the situation.

III. 2ND FLOOR OF LILLY LIBRARY

A. OpeningMake sure ethernet cables are present and plugged in properly.If you need to replace a light bulb in one of the lamps, check for a replacement bulb in one of

the supply boxes. If you don’t find one, ask for assistance from a Lilly librarian, either Lauren Crowell or Kelley Lawton.

Log on to the computer.A box of reference tools and supplies is stored underneath the table in the space next to the

bathroom.

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B. Printer LocationOur Lilly printer is located in the right side WS location. If you have difficulty printing, check to make sure the cables are plugged in, and if they are, try turning the printer off and then on again. You can also print to the E-Print stations on the first floor.

C. Checking EmailFeel free to check e-mail during your shift but do not spend more than 5-10 minutes doing so during the time you are scheduled to be working in the Writing Studio.

D. ClosingLog off from the computer.Turn off lamp.Discard any trash that you, writers, or other tutors have left behind.

E. Emergency ContactsIn the event of an emergency that will cause you to be late or need to cancel your shift, call the Reference Desk librarian (Lilly: 660-5995) and Vicki (Home: 967-9650; Work: 668-0900; Cell: 919-260-1271) to let them know the situation. The Lilly spaces do not have their own phones.

IV. SEVERE WEATHER PROCEDURES

The Duke number to call for info on campus closures is 684-4636. If Trinity College cancels classes due to severe weather, the Writing Studio automatically closes, too. If, however, the weather is severe and classes are not canceled, the decision to try to make it to campus is up to you.

If you decide you cannot get to campus safely, first notify Vicki and Jim. If another scheduled tutor cannot fill in for you, you will need to e-mail the writers who have signed up or phone them and cancel the appointment slots on the calendar to make sure no one else signs up. In your e-mail and phone message, offer the writers the option of 1) canceling and rescheduling on-line for another time or 2) sending their drafts via e-mail to you. If they choose the latter, you need to send them the E-Tutor submission form questions to answer to guide your response. E-mail Vicki and Jim to let them know if you decide to cancel any appointments.

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Tutor Guide

Cancel the appointments in the Tutor’s Assistant by going to “View and Update Appointments” for yourself and deleting the name and e-mail of the student by hitting the backspace key. Then click the “delete” box and then the “submit” button at the bottom of the page. Be sure to do this correctly or the system becomes fouled up. Writing Studio administrators will freeze appointment slots in the case of weather closings or other emergencies.

V. PAYROLL

Pay for each semester is distributed in four equal amounts, on the 25 th of each month, spanning Sept.-Dec. for the Fall, and Jan.-April for the Spring. New tutors receive their $400 stipend for attending the August training session in two equal parts: $200 in Sept. and Dec. for Fall tutors, and $200 in Sept. and April for Spring tutors. If you would like to sign up for direct deposit, the direct deposit request form is available at http://www.payroll.duke.edu/dds.php#sc1221. Any additional questions about Writing Studio payroll should be directed to Melissa Pascoe (668-2689, 109 Art Building).

Data Management at the Writing Studio

The “Paperless” Writing Studio: At the Writing Studio, all information about appointments, writers, and conferences is managed online. Writers make and cancel both face-to-face and E-Tutor appointments online, and we send writers email reminders of their appointments. We also input, manage, and track all appointment and conference data online.

Tutors use one main online source to input and access information about appointments and sessions: The Tutor’s Assistant Main Menu. This is what tutors use to manage their individual appointments, individual writer records, day or monthly schedule at all locations, and other data. In this section of the Tutor Guide, all screens are in bold and italics. We have bolded and placed carats (< >) around all Tutor’s Assistant Main Menu buttons. All buttons on lower layers are <bolded and italicized>.

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http://www.payroll.duke.edu/dds.php#sc1221


I. THE TUTOR’S ASSISTANT MAIN MENU

The Tutor’s Assistant (TA) is designed to make web pages in the program easily accessible from one main menu. Links back to the Tutor’s Assistant Main Menu, as well as many other pages described in this Tutor Guide, can also be found on the bottom of most screens in the Tutor’s Assistant. The goal of this section is to help you become familiar with the screen names and get a sense of how to navigate the system.

To log in to the system with your Duke Net ID and password, go to https://appointments.twp.duke.edu/cgi-bin/tutormenu.pl. Your Net ID is usually a combination of letters and numbers, not your alias. This URL is also bookmarked as “The Tutor’s Assistant” on all Writing Studio computers. If you plan to check your schedule and/or fill out your tutoring conference notes from home, you will want to bookmark the TA web page on your home computer. The Tutor’s Assistant is also available from the Writing Studio Sakai site.

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Tutor Guide

A. Check Your AppointmentsClick on Check Your Appointments to access the list of all your scheduled appointments for the month. Once you click on that button, you’ll notice that on the left side of the screen, the “View and Update Appointments” button is highlighted; this is actual name of this screen, which is set for each tutor by name. The template is called the Administrative Calendar and is used by a number of different units at Duke for similar purposes. We do not use the <Sign Up for Event> and <Show Event Sign-Ups> buttons but they are part of the Duke template.

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This is the basic navigation screen for most sessions, since it lists only your appointments and lists them in order. Clicking on the <Tutor Link> for an appointment will send you to a list of all appointments for that writer. Note the “ET” designation for all E-Tutor appointments on the far right side of each row.

Viewing Your Appointments The View and Update Appointments page generates a list of all your appointments for a given month, with the date and time of each appointment, as well as the names and email addresses of the writers.

Always check your appointments at the beginning of your shift. Appointments are subject to change before the start (or even during the middle!) of your shift: writers may sign up for empty slots or cancel even right before the appointment time.

You can use the Administrative Calendar to maneuver through quite a bit of information. For instance, when you’re on the View and Update Appointments page, you can select any individual writer from the resulting screen. You can see all the appointments that writer has scheduled in the past and the future, as well as all the associated goals, summaries, and

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conference notes. This is a handy way to familiarize yourself with someone’s writing history, preparing you for possible issues that may come up.

New writers will show up with their future appointment dates and no information.

Canceling or Creating AppointmentsWhile you can assist a writer with making or canceling appointments from the main “Writing Studio” web page (the writer will need to provide his or her Net ID), the View and Update Appointments page also allows you to make such changes without the need of a writer’s password. The best scenario is for writers to add or cancel appointments themselves, as their individual records will then reflect these changes. From the View and Update Appointments screen, you can make the following changes:To cancel an appointment, go in and erase the writer’s name and email address by hitting the

backspace button, not the <Delete> function. Hitting <Delete> will erase the entire appointment slot. Click on <Update> and then go to the bottom of the page and click <Submit>.

To cancel an appointment slot if no writer has signed up, check “Delete” and then go to the bottom of the page and click <Submit>.

To create an appointment for a writer, access this screen and type in the writer’s name and email address, check <Update>, and then click on <Submit>. Do this in special cases only, as writers will only receive reminder emails if they use their own Net ID to schedule appointments.

Email Addresses and Net IDsNote that writers’ email addresses are not always their Net IDs, because some writers use alternate email addresses, both inside and outside of the Duke email system. If you need a writer’s Net ID—say, to fill out a “no-show” form or to find out more about the writer’s prior appointments at the Writing Studio—you can find their Net ID in the Net ID column on the View and Update Appointments page.

B. Find Student RecordsYou can access any writer’s records by using this button. The Student Search Screen allows you to either enter the writer’s Net ID or partial or complete name in a text box. Enter the information you wish to use for the search and hit return, or click on the button at the bottom of the search screen. If the record comes up blank, that writer has not been to the Writing

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Studio before. Once you find the writer, click on the name and this will take you to the Student Information Screen.

C. Add a No-ShowThis button on the Administrative Calendar is out-of-date and should not be used because it will create a duplicate meeting in the system. Instead, to indicate a no-show, choose “No-Show” from the drop-down menu on the Student Goals Screen for the scheduled appointment.

NOTE: For a face-to-face appointment, wait until half past the hour, just in case the writer shows up late. For an E-Tutor appointment, the system will not allow late submissions after 5 minutes past the top of the hour. If you accidentally enter a “No Show” and need to delete it, see “Updating Information / Undoing a Mistaken No Show.”

D. Find Conference SummariesClick this button if you want to review past conference summaries. From the Student Search Screen, you will get a list of past summaries. Click on the appropriate appointment, and you will be shown the letter as it appears to the instructor. These are the summaries that are emailed to professors, most of the time for face-to-face appointments (writers can choose) and always for E-Tutor. The exceptions are when the writing is not for a course but rather, for example, a personal statement for graduate school. The summaries will give you an idea of the specific areas each session covered.

E. Add a Conference SummaryClick this button to create a new conference summary at the end of an appointment. Most often, you will be able to access the Conference Summary screen from the Student Goals Screen, but this button can be a useful shortcut if you left that screen or closed your browser during the appointment.

F. Find Student QuestionnairesClick this button if you want to view the evaluations of your sessions. Evaluations are listed under your name, and are listed by date with the most recent ones listed first. We ask all E-Tutor writers to fill out a questionnaire each time, although we can’t control the response rate.

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Tutor Guide

There are four fields on the questionnaire that can only be used by administrators or tutors:1. TUTOR READ: Check this if you have read the questionnaire.2. TUTOR SAVE: Check if you want to save this particular questionnaire for

future reference or affirmation.3. ADMIN READ: The administrator may check the questionnaire as read.4. ADMIN COMMENTS: Here, an administrator can add a comment on the

questionnaire.

From this screen, you can update your evaluations or return to the Questionnaire Screen upstream listing all of your student questionnaires.

G. Add a Student QuestionnaireThis button allows you to set up a new questionnaire for a writer to complete. This screen can also be accessed from the Conference Summary Screen. See the section on this screen (under Session Protocol) for instructions.

H. Find Tutor NotesReviewing and writing tutor notes are essential and required components of each session. Before meeting with a writer face-to-face or in an E-Tutor appointment, you should read about previous sessions with that writer. Clicking this button will bring you to a Student Search Screen. The search will bring up the list of the writer’s previous appointments. Click on each appointment you wish to review.

You can also view tutor notes for a particular writer from the View and Update Appointments screen by clicking on Tutor Link in the right-hand column, next to the name of the writer whose records you want to see The screen that pops up will include all past tutor notes (both comments from face-to-face sessions and E-Tutor detailed comments), conference summaries, appointment dates, and the names of the tutors with whom the writer has previously met.

I. Add a Tutor NoteIt’s far easier to add a Tutor Note in the Student Goals page right after the session; however, you can also use this button to add a Tutor Note after an appointment. It will take you to a Student Search Screen, where you can enter the writer’s Net ID or name to access a list of all the writer’s tutor notes and appointments. Choose the “Add or Update” link on the left of

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the appropriate appointment to go to the Student Goals Screen for that appointment.

J. View All Students’ Self-AssessmentsWhen students schedule their fifth appointment on-line, they will be unable to continue and select a tutoring slot until they complete the fifth appointment assessment form. This button displays a summary of all self-assessments organized by Net ID. You can click on the Net ID to see the complete form, including questions. If you have an appointment with a writer who has just completed a 5th, 10th, 15th, or 20th appointment assessment, be sure to spend a few minutes discussing their reflections.

“No shows” do not count toward the writer’s total number of appointments for purposes of self-assessment. For example, if a writer has scheduled seven appointments with the Writing Studio but has been entered as a “No Show” for two of them, the computer will not ask him/her to fill out a self-assessment until Appointment #7.

Typical questions to ask about the self-assessments are listed below:1. What are you learning about yourself as a writer? What comes more easily to

you and what is still difficult?2. What have you learned about your writing process?3. What would you like to work on in future Writing Studio appointments?

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Tutor Guide

K. View a Shift LogClick this button to review the shift log at the end of your shift. Make sure that any information you entered during your shift appears where and as it should. This is the only screen that gives an actual representation of all appointments that actually took place. It accounts for no-shows and drop-ins, something the View and Update Appointments and This Month’s Appointments screens do not do. It also catches mistakes you might have inadvertently made; for example, selecting the location for a drop-in appointment.

L. View All Tutors’ Appointments, by MonthThis button will take you to the This Month’s Appointments screen of the Administrative Calendar. From this screen, you can find out when and where other tutors are working and if there are any open slots in their schedules, in case you’re full and get a drop-in. All locations are listed on this screen. This screen does not indicate whether or not a slot is an E-Tutor appointment. To find this out, you need to click on a specific date.

Once you have accessed the Administrative Calendar, you are presented with a number of options (see below).

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Tutors will frequently use <View and Update Appointments> and <This Month’s Appointments>. The “Event” buttons are for special Writing Studio activities, such as a social gathering with UNC tutors or end-of-semester parties, and <User Maintenance> is for Vicki to enter tutor names and shift schedules into the system.

Accessing Up-to-Date InformationIf you click on any date in the calendar, you will see a more detailed list of that day’s appointments, indicating the tutor, date, time, place, name of writer, and writer’s email address. Note that you will need to click “Refresh” on the browser toolbar in order to get the most up-to-date information, as information can change.

One way to tell if the list of the day’s appointments needs refreshing: Does the number of appointments on the particular day under the “Monthly Calendar” match the number you have on the list when you click on that date? Still, this is not a foolproof method; writers will often cancel their appointments and others will take the empty slots, and the list will not reflect those changes unless you refresh the view.

Why This Is a Useful Page to CheckThe calendar lets you see at a glance the time and tutor for each scheduled appointment. Knowing where tutors will be at what times can be useful if you want to know who will be working at a particular place just before or after your shift. In addition, if a writer shows up for an appointment at the right time but the wrong location, or vice versa, you can look here

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to quickly direct him or her to the right spot and contact the other tutor about the mix-up. You can also use this information to help writers who drop in and want to know when and where we have open slots. (Writers can also use the main Writing Studio website’s “Schedule an Appointment” feature to find out this information. This will list only available appointments.)

M. View Writing Studio StatisticsIf you are interested in Writing Studio statistics, this is the place for you. This page allows you to tally numbers of Writing Studio appointments by date, location, tutor, time-slot, department, instructor, writer data, and other variables. For example, you can use it to count how many E-Tutor appointments you had in a given month or year, or you can analyze which hours are typically busier than others. This page also allows you to count no-shows, drop-ins, cancellations and scheduled appointments.

HINT: If you want to conduct successive queries with some of the same constants, hit the “Back” button on your browser rather than selecting <Another Query>. (<Another Query> erases all the information you have previously entered and you will have to start over.) Be sure to select the dates you want at the very top of the page.

N. Go to the Writing Studio Web SiteThis link provides easy access to resources and the student appointment calendar. If writers want to schedule their next appointment at the end of a session, they will need to log in with their own Net ID.

O. Go to Director’s ScreenMost tutors will not need to access this button, as it takes you to <Question Maintenance>, <Banner Maintenance>, and <Edit Instructor List>, three administrative features of the Writing Studio web site. The last one is the only one tutors might occasionally use.

P. Go to Tutor BlogThe Tutor Musings Blog is a forum for discussion and communication among the tutors in the Writing Program: Writing Studio tutors, Undergraduate Writing Tutors, and Undergraduate Writing Partners.

Log on with your Net ID and password. In addition to the main blog page, there’s also a page

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with general guidelines and another with the posting schedule.

Q. Log OutAs both a security measure and a courtesy to your fellow tutors, be sure to log out at the end of your shift.

II. SESSION PROTOCOL

During each appointment, tutors go through a series of interactions with the writers they’re working with from the following screens:

Student Information Screen: Personal information about each writer. This information should be filled out at the writer’s first appointment, and updated at least once a year.

Student Goals Screen: Contains data for tracking appointments. Used as a tool to establish the particular goals of the conference. This screen also contains the Tutor Notes for the appointment.

Conference Summary: An email that is sent to each writer’s professor. Student Questionnaire: Feedback from the writer about how the session went.

A. Getting StartedBefore a session starts, there are several ways to find the writer’s record. For a scheduled appointment, begin at the View and Update Appointments page. (To get there, click <Check My Appointments> on the Tutor’s Assistant Main Menu.) From there, click on the link on the right column of the relevant appointment. This will show you all appointments for the writer. Click on the writer’s name to go to the Student Information Screen, or click the Appt # on the left to get to the Student Goals Screen.

For a walk-in, click the <Find Student Records> button on the Tutor’s Assistant Main Menu to get to the Student Information Screen.

At the writer’s fifth session, "pen" the writer by giving him or her a Writing Studio pen. If their fifth appointment is an E-Tutor appointment, pen the writer the next time he or she comes in person. This is a little moment of celebration honoring the fact the writer has been working hard to improve as a writer. Pens are located on top of the filing cabinet in the Writing Studio in the Art Building, in the Lilly supply boxes, and in the cabinet of office

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Tutor Guide

supplies in 112 Perkins. If we are running low, please notify Vicki so that we can replenish them.

B. Student Information Screen

1. Once you’ve clicked on the writer’s name from the Student Goals page, the Student Information Screen will appear. On a first visit, some of the form will be filled out automatically from Duke's directory. In a face-to-face appointment, ask the writer to verify the information and then ask the few remaining questions needed for them to complete the form. For an E-Tutor appointment, fill in as much as you can from the writer’s submission form information box. On subsequent visits, check whether it has been longer than a semester since the writer’s last visit. If so, verify the information and update it if necessary. The computer will not automatically update a writer’s information once it is in our system, so we need to do it manually; we don't want seniors listed as freshmen, which would confound our usage statistics.

PLEASE, PLEASE be vigilant with the Student Information Screen. If the student year is off, for example, it throws our end-of-year/annual report statistics off, too. Furthermore, if we need to contact the student to cancel an appointment, we need to have a current phone number readily accessible.

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2. Ask writers to list their cell phone numbers in the phone number field. If they don’t have a cell phone, list their dorm phone number.

3. The <Internat’l Grad> and <MEM/MF Grad> options are for specific graduate school programs. These designations give writers wider access to Writing Studio services than the basic <Graduate> option. Be sure to check the correct box for international writers! The “International Graduate Student” designation is ONLY for students in the Graduate School, NOT for visiting scholars, postdocs, or students in the Law, Business, Nursing, Medical, or other professional schools or in the Medical Center. For those writers, click “Other.” For graduate students who are not international students, click “Graduate.”

4. Ask each writer, "Is English your first language?" If the answer is no, ask, "What is your native language?" If the writer is not a native English speaker, note his or her native language. Many writers at Duke are bilingual or multilingual. In a face-to-face appointment, if they hesitate, ask them if they consider themselves bilingual. One way to note this is as follows:

a. "Is English your first language?" <mark no> b. "What is your native language?" Bilingual: Chinese

5. Ask the writer the following “consent” questions and record his or her responses:a. “Do you agree to your tutor using an electronic device to record face-to-face

sessions for internal teaching/tutoring use?” You may need to explain the use we make of the recordings, both in and out of the appointments. If the writer is comfortable, this is a good time to start recording.

b. “Do you agree to someone else occasionally observing your session?” Again, explaining that the observations are for the purposes of tutor training and that the observer will be watching the tutor, not the writer, can help alleviate anxiety.

c. “Would you like to receive e-mails about Writing Studio workshops/events?” We keep a listserv of writers who check yes here. Vicki sends an email about once a week letting them know about events such as the monthly events and workshops we are offering that week.

6. If information is entered or changed, click <Update Information>. 7. From this screen you can also review information from previous sessions with this writer.

<View All Appointments> shows the goals of previous sessions. <View Conference Summaries> shows previous session summaries. If writers have completed a “Self-Assessment,” a link to their responses will also appear on this screen.

8. Once you have updated information, click on <Create Today's Goals>. This will send 27

Tutor Guide

you to the Student Goals Screen.C. Student Goals Screen

Tutors and writers fill this page out together for each face-to-face appointment. As you fill out the boxes, you will learn valuable information you can use to structure the session. In an E-Tutor appointment you will need to fill in most of the information yourself from the student’s submission form. If for some reason you flip to a new screen while entering data, just hit the back arrow on your browser. The information you entered will still be there.

There are two ways to enter information on the Student Goals page:1. Drop-down menus: Click on the “v” at the right of the box to see the options. Select the

appropriate option from the menu. You can also type the first few letters of the entry to

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get to the appropriate selection quickly.3. Text box: Type whatever text you like and then hit “Tab” to move to another field.

This screen also allows you to access conference summaries <View Conference Summaries> and tutor notes <View All Appointments for Student> to prepare for each conference.

Entering Information in the Student Goals Screen1. Starting at the top of the form, the computer automatically fills out the appointment

number, scheduled vs. drop-in, location, tutor, and time and date. (On the drop-in form, you need to enter some of this information.)

2. Paper Due Date can be entered in any standard date format. 3. Instructor is a drop-down menu. Choose the name of the faculty member who created

the assignment. If the writer is working most closely with the TA, enter the TA’s name in this space. The list of faculty is frequently incomplete. If you need to add a faculty member, see “Updating a Missing Instructor” at the end of this section.

4. Dept./Course is a drop-down menu. If the writing project is not for a course, select the appropriate N/A category (alphabetized under “N”). Application essays are the most popular N/A type.

5. Writing goals or primary concerns about your paper is a text box. In a face-to-face appointment, talk with the writer about this and enter the broad goals of the session here. For E-Tutor appointments, get the information from the submission form.

6. Once the form is complete, hit <Update Information> to record the information. The computer will note that "Goals have been updated!" and let you know the time of the update in two places on the screen. If you accidentally hit one of the other buttons before you hit update, you can back up with the browser and try to recover the data.

7. If you are meeting with varsity athletes, they will tell you or indicate this on the E-Tutor submission form. Click <Confirm Varsity Athlete Appt.> to send an automated message to the Athletics Department. The same goes for the <Confirm International Grad Student Appt.> and <Confirm Nicholas MEM/MF Student Appt.> buttons. But again, in the case of the International Grad Students (IGS), be sure the writer is an international graduate student in the Graduate School, not in a professional school. It’s very important to choose the correct category for each grad student, because we only receive funding for IGS and Nicholas grad students, and we need to keep our usage statistics accurate.

8. Use the goals you entered as a reference while meeting with the writer. Once your face-to-face or E-Tutor session is complete, click <Continue to Conference Summary> to move to the end-of-session wrap-up. If you close the browser window during your

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session, you can still get to the conference summary and evaluation by going to the Tutor’s Assistant Main Menu and clicking on the <Add Conference Summary> and <Add Student Questionnaire> buttons.

Updating a Missing InstructorThe space for entering a new instructor is immediately below the instructor box on the Student Goals Screen. To enter a new instructor, you need the correct spelling of the instructor's name and email. Many writers have this information on the syllabus sheet they received at the beginning of the semester, or it may be on the course Sakai site. First ask and see if the writer has this information. (If the writer doesn’t have the instructor’s email, look up the instructor in the online directory. See the “Using the Tutor’s Assistant to Update Information” section.) E-Tutor forms should list the instructor if it is an academic assignment (but see the Troubleshooting section if it’s for a course and the writer provides no or inadequate instructor information).

D. Conference SummariesA conference summary is an email that goes to a writer’s instructor; it gives a brief overview of what was discussed in person or listed on the E-Tutor submission form and accomplished in the conference. While writers meeting face-to-face are not required to send these to their instructors, we strongly encourage them to do so because the summaries indicate that students are taking their writing seriously. Once writers understand that instructors are likely to regard their work at the Writing Studio favorably, most are eager to send a conference summary email. We send a conference summary with each E-Tutor appointment.

NOTE: If the writer brings a take-home midterm or final exam to the Writing Studio, you must send a conference summary to the instructor. Be sure to tell the writer this as soon as you realize it’s an exam, as some writers will not want the professor notified and will choose not to continue the session.

Filling Out the SummaryMake sure the correct instructor’s name appears on the email. If not, use the handy drop- down menu to try and locate the professor.In collaboration with the writer in a face-to-face appointment, click on boxes corresponding

to the areas you both feel you covered during the session. For an E-Tutor session, you need to decide on your own.

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Face-to-face protocol: Ask the writer what he/she feels was accomplished in the session. Then, in collaboration with the writer, type a few sentences communicating what happened in the session in the space provided. (Be sure to identify the assignment.) Ask the writer to affirm and help proofread the comments. Hit <Save Summary Information>. Once the Summary Information has been saved, the screen displays a note that "Summary Information Has Been Added.”

You now have several options:1. If writer would like to email the summary to their professor, click <Send Email>. In an

E-Tutor session, the email also goes automatically to the writer.2. Once the letter has been added and/or sent, you can send the email to additional recipients

by typing email addresses separated by commas into the text box and clicking <Update Summary> and then clicking <Email Letter Again>. In face-to-face sessions, ask the writers if they would also like the summary, and if so, add their email addresses.

3. If the writer wants to make another appointment, click on the pink <Appointment Calendar> link.

4. To continue to the Student Questionnaire Screen, hit <Student Questionnaire>.

For more tips on what to write in this section, see the notes part of “Managing the Tutorial Session” (under “Advice for Tutors”).

NOTE: If you worked with the writer on papers for different instructors and need a conference summary sent to each instructor, you need to treat work on the paper for the second instructor as a separate appointment. Fill out an additional “Student Goals” page with all the necessary information. Some information will be the same as the first session (day and time of appointment, location, and tutor), but some will necessarily be different (instructor, course, due date, and session goals). The system will not accept a duplicate second appointment, so you will need to select drop in and a different time than the first.

E. Student QuestionnairesThese are anonymous student evaluations of the tutoring session, and are a useful source of feedback about the things that worked well (or not so well) in the appointment. Ask writers for whom this is a first time visit to the Writing Studio or the first time they have met with you if they have time to fill out a Student Questionnaire.

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Before the writer fills out the form, choose your name from the drop-down menu to make sure it will go to the correct tutor. Remind the writer to click <Submit> at the end. Leave the area while the writer fills out the evaluation.

F. Tutor NotesOnce you have finished an appointment, return to the Student Goals Screen to enter your notes on the session. To get there, you can re-enter the appointment you just completed or use <Add Tutor Notes> from the Tutor’s Assistant Main Menu. Type your notes in the text box marked “Tutor Notes.” Be sure to hit <Update Information> after completing your entry.

Instead of typing your E-Tutor comments directly into the Tutor Notes field, it works much better to use Word, and then cut and paste the document into the Tutor Notes field.

What should be in the Tutor Notes?The notes you enter after each session serve as a record of what was done, or attempted, during each session. Your notes should not be much longer than the visible area of the text box and should provide information that will be useful to you or another tutor when the student returns for another visit. Notes about the writer’s project, progress, and emotional state have proven useful in the past. You might also want to include anything noteworthy about writer/tutor dynamics (e.g., was the writer particularly resistant to, or overly dependent on, the tutor’s interventions?). Include any handouts, websites, or books you suggested to the writer as additional resources. In the unlikely event a writer might ask to see these notes, be sure to include only comments you would feel comfortable sharing.

Here is an example:Jane brought in her senior thesis on a Latino center in Durham where she has volunteered for several years.

Many of her introductory paragraphs seemed to have the same subject--the needs of the Latino community and

the failure of government services to fulfill these needs. We reverse outlined her first 10 pages, and in several

places she inserted introductory sentences that explained the paragraph’s central idea. These sentences

improved the flow of her introduction and revealed the logic behind her organization. She also converted

introspective statements such as "I reflected on the lack of service" to stronger statements such as "State and

local governments have not adequately served this population." We also discussed active and passive voice,

and I showed her the link to the appropriate handout on our website.

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Ideally, notes should be entered immediately after the end of each session. If you have back-to-back appointments, give yourself enough time between sessions to enter notes on the last writer before working with the next one. This is another reason to be careful appointments don’t run longer than 50 minutes past the hour. If you find yourself short on time between sessions, you can enter notes at the end of your shift or shortly thereafter. The <View Shift Log> button is useful for this. (But be careful not to put yourself in the position of having to enter notes for numerous sessions at one sitting. It’s easy to forget the pertinent details or to run them all together.) See the E-Tutor section for guidelines for written E-Tutor comments.

III. USING THE TUTOR’S ASSISTANT TO UPDATE INFORMATION

A. Editing Appointment InformationIt is easy to change information about an appointment if you accidentally enter incorrect information. If, for example, at the end of your shift, you click on <View Shift Log> and see that, for a drop-in appointment, you accidentally said you were in Perkins when you actually met in Lilly, follow the following protocol to fix the mistake. This protocol is true for any information on the Student Goals Screen:1. Go to the main menu and click <Find Student Records>.2. At the student search window, search for the writer you met with when you made the

mistake.3. Click <View All Appointments for Student>.4. Select the appointment you wish to change.5. Change the information.6. Click <Update Information>.

B. Editing Instructor InformationIf you cannot find a writer’s instructor and are in the middle of a session at the Student Goals Screen, try the following protocol:1. To open a new window, either hit <control> T, or using the browser menu bar, go to

"file" and select "New" "Window."2. In the new window, click on the link to the Duke directory.3. Look up the instructor in the Duke directory.4. Copy the correct name and email into the appropriate boxes in the other window. Use

"Tab" to move between fields.

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6. Use "Tab" to move on to the rest of the form. The information will be updated when you complete the form and select <Update>.

If you cannot find the writer’s instructor in the directory and the writer wishes to send an email to their instructor, go ahead with your session and then try to find the information between sessions. Once you’ve located the instructor information, you can add it on the Student Goals Screen.

If you had to update the instructor information between sessions and the writer asked that a conference summary be sent to their instructor, do so now following this protocol:1. Return to the Tutor’s Assistant Main Menu and click <Find Student Records>.2. Click <View All Appointments for Student>.3. Select the appointment you need to create the summary for.4. On the Student Goals Screen, add the correct instructor.5. Click <Update Information>.6. Click <Continue to Conference Summary>

Click this button if the writer’s instructor does not appear on the pull down list on the Student Goals page, and you now have the information you need to add the instructor. Enter the appropriate information and click <Add Instructor>. See the Updating a Missing Instructor section a few pages earlier for more information.

C. Editing Tutor Notes If you’ve saved your notes about a session and decide you would like to return and add on or edit what you said, you can access the notes by returning to the Student Goals Screen for the appointment. Simply edit your old notes and hit <Submit> again.

D. Undoing a Mistaken No-ShowGo to <Add a No-Show> and select <View last 100 No-Shows>. Delete the no-show writer record.

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Behind the Scenes: From a Writer’s Perspective

A. Making an AppointmentWhen writers sign up for an appointment, “What to Expect When You Visit the Writing Studio” shows up on the screen. They are directed to read this before they continue on to sign up for an E-Tutor or Face-to-Face appointment. In addition to the bulleted list of what we do and do not do, this screen contains the additional notice listed below.

Writing Studio Submission Limit PolicyDue to our desire to serve as many students as possible, the Writing Studio limits the number of times writers can meet face-to-face or have E-tutor appointments on the same piece of writing. Writers can have no more than four appointments (face-to-face or E-Tutor) on a single writing project with the exception of honors theses, master’s theses, articles for publication, and dissertations.

Writers then select either “Face-to-Face Appointment” or “E-Tutor Appointment” and go on to the scheduling screen, where they can view and select available appointments by tutor, date, and time. Once an appointment is selected, a reservation screen will appear indicating that they have successfully scheduled the appointment. If it is an E-Tutor appointment, they will be given the option to submit a draft at this time. They can do this upon making the appointment, or any time up to 5 minutes after the start of the actual session. They can also submit a draft and later supersede it with a revised draft any time up to 5 minutes after the start of the session.

B. E-Mail NoticesAfter writers sign up for an appointment, they receive an e-mail confirming their appointment. They will receive a reminder e-mail. When writers cancel an appointment, they receive an e-mail notice that varies in content according to how far in advance they cancel. When writers sign up for a workshop or group, they also receive a confirmation e-mail and a reminder e-mail. Despite all these reminders, we still average about 5% no-shows!

Here are samples of the e-mails writers receive for face-to-face appointments. Emails for E-Tutor appointments are basically the same, with some changes in wording.

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Tutor Guide

Initial Face-To-Face Appt. Confirmation Your tutoring appointment is on Tuesday, April 13 at 11 AM at *MAIN WRITING STUDIO*. The Writing

Studio is located on the first floor of the Art Building on East Campus, in Room 106.

Pay close attention to date, time, and location.

Please try to be on time. Bring a copy of the assignment you are working on and any drafts you have written. If

you are in the beginning stages of a writing project, no draft is necessary.

What if you need to cancel an appointment? Go to the 'Calendar Login' page at

http://aaswebsv.aas.duke.edu/calendar/writing.html, select 'Show My Appointments,' and follow the prompt.

DON'T BE A NO-SHOW! If you can't make your appointment, please be considerate and cancel at least

TWELVE hours ahead of time.

Reminder Face-To-Face Appt. E-Mail (This e-mail is currently sent manually.)Hi - I am sending this email to remind you of your appointment today at the Writing Studio. For a face-to-face appointment, check the time and location and for E-Tutor submit the form and draft by your scheduled time. Go online to twp.duke.edu/writing-studio.

"CANCELING TOO CLOSE TO THE TIME OR NO-SHOWING: Due to the busyness of the end of the semester, if you cancel closer than three hours before your appointment or no-show your future WS privileges will be suspended until further notice."

Be sure to cancel right away if you are unable to make it. Please help us avoid last minute cancellations or no-shows.

For First Time Users: A Few Things to Expect

* We don't tell you how or what to write. We do suggest strategies, offer encouragement, and provide information to help you move forward with your work. We expect students to take responsibility for their choices with regard to their own writing.

* We don't have the time in a 50-minute session to address every issue in a piece of writing. We do help you set priorities based on your current needs, identifying points of revision that are possible within a particular time frame.

To learn more about "What You Can Expect at the Writing Studio," click here: http://twp.duke.edu/writing-studio/what-to-expect

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http://twp.duke.edu/writing-studio/what-to-expect

http://twp.duke.edu/writing-studio/what-to-expect


http://aaswebsv.aas.duke.edu/calendar/writing.html


Thank you!

Cancellation within 6 HoursYou have successfully cancelled your appointment with Claire Kramer at Thursday, April 15, at 11AM.

In the future, if you need to cancel your Writing Studio appointment, PLEASE do so as far in advance as

possible. Appointments are in high demand, and we want to make sure other students are able to take advantage

of any openings we have. Canceling so close to the appointment time makes this difficult.

Thanks for your help with this!

Cancellation within 12 HoursYou have successfully canceled your appointment with Claire Kramer at Thursday, April 15, at 11AM.

In the future, please try to plan more carefully, and if you do need to cancel do so as far in advance as possible.

Thanks for your help with this!

Cancellation more than 12 Hours in AdvanceYou have successfully canceled your appointment with Claire Kramer at Thursday, April 15, at 11AM.

Workshop/Group Sign-Up Confirmation(This e-mail is currently sent manually.)

Thank you for your interest in the Writing Workshops and/or Groups offered by the Writing Studio. You have

signed up for the Avoiding Plagiarism and Practicing Paraphrasing workshop. It will meet Thursday, April 15 at

3 PM – 4 PM in Perkins Library 118.

Vicki Russell/Director, Writing Studio

Interest Confirmation for Unscheduled Workshops or GroupsThank you for your interest in a Writing Workshop and/or Group offered by the Writing Studio. Once we have

the minimum number of interested students to move forward, I will e-mail you and the other students to arrange

a convenient date, time, and place to meet.

We require a minimum of five students for a workshop and three students for a group, so encourage your

friends and classmates to let us know if they are also interested.

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Vicki Russell/Director, Writing Studio

Persistent No-Show WarningIf a writer persistently misses appointments and gets two to three no-show appointments within a short time, Vicki will block him or her from signing up for appointments. She, then, will send the writer an email, explaining the situation and requesting a meeting regarding the no-shows. Once they have clarified matters, Vicki will then decide whether or not to unblock the writer.

Advice for Tutors

The following three sections offer different kinds of advice. The first section offers insights on such things as pacing, demeanor, and so forth. The second section describes the four most common types of sessions you’re likely to encounter at the Writing Studio. The third section describes the process and particular approach of E-Tutor.

I. MANAGING THE FACE-TO-FACE TUTORIAL SESSION

Tutorial sessions are 50 minutes. This is not a lot of time to introduce yourself, establish rapport, develop a working relationship, provide practical feedback, fill out three forms, and write a short conference summary. While there is no one-size-fits-all checklist for either writers or tutors, there are methods to limit digression and distraction from our central purpose of helping students become better writers.

Pre-session: Check the data login page to see if the writer is here for the first time or is a returning Studio veteran. Look over the Student Goals, Tutor Notes, and Conference Summaries to get an idea of what has happened in previous sessions. Is your appointment an ESL writer? A regular visitor? Here for the fifth time?

Greeting: For first-time users: Tell them a little about the Studio and our various sites, and be sure to ask if they have any questions about the “What You Can Expect at the Writing Studio” statement. Hopefully, they will understand that we are not proofreaders or one-

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time paper fixers. Emphasize the process; mention the goal of long-term improvement in efficiency and effectiveness. For returning writers: know their history from Tutor Notes and Conference Summaries. Welcome them back. Inquire about their progress/recent projects if you have previously tutored them.

Approach: Put writers at ease. Develop some strategies for small talk related to the task at hand. Lead the writer to the appropriate room/space. You may inquire in general terms about what they are working on today. (This comes up specifically during the login process, but the redundancy is minor, and it may focus the writer’s attention on concrete writing issues.)

Login: For first-time visitors, you can point out some of the material pertinent to our mission. For returnees, follow the prompts. The biggest variable is identifying and listing main concerns. Remember that this is the writer’s responsibility. Be sure to provide guidance, but encourage writers to articulate their own issues before steering them to more specific terminology. If this is the writer’s fifth visit, then “pen” him/her. (See Session Protocol – Getting Started)

Session: Seek to situate both the writer and his/her text in the proper frame. Our goals include being the writer’s advocate and providing practical guidance, not proofreading, predicting grades, or getting pulled into any classroom dynamics that may have prompted the visit. Ask the writer about his/her typical writing process and whether he or she feels he or she is a strong writer. Consider the assignment; look over the prompt, if possible. What are the writer’s main concerns? Has the individual received any feedback regarding this assignment? What audience concerns can be anticipated? Don’t assume responsibility for providing all the direction in the tutorial. Ask writers if there are particular sections of the paper they want to consider or anything else they wish to cover. Be comfortable with a little silence.

Wrap-up: Fifty minutes can pass quickly. Keep an eye on the clock and develop some strategies for closure. For example, note when there are 10 or 15 minutes left in the session and ask the writer what she or he wants to work on in that time. In the last few minutes you may work together to create a plan for what the writer will do next on the writing project. If the session has gone well, don’t feel obligated to use the entire time period. If there is more to do, see if the writer wishes to set up another appointment.

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Conference Summary: Collaborate with the writer on the “Conference Summary” email. Note the work that has been done. The checklist is another avenue to help the writer learn more about the process of writing. Use concrete language in the email. Emphasize third-person constructions; ask yourself, what did the writer do? Keep the “we” to a minimum to maintain focus on the writer’s role in the process. Ask the writer if there are further questions and encourage a follow-up appointment, if appropriate. Ask the writer if he or she is interested in signing up for a workshop.

Parting: End on a note of encouragement or well wishing. Revision is work and often time-consuming, but remind writers of the work they have already completed, note the strengths of their paper. If this is your first time with the writer, she or he typically fills out an evaluation. After you select your name in the pull-down menu of the evaluation form—to insure accuracy in our records—leave open the possibility for future consultations, by parting with a “Hope to see you next time.”

II. A TUTOR’S SHORT GUIDE TO FACE-TO-FACE TUTORING

The situations into which you, as a tutor, will be thrown are many and varied, so there is no way to provide a comprehensive guide to the tutoring process. There are, of course, a number of important pieces of information you can convey in every session (speaking about the research process, discussing academic conventions, pointing out web-based resources). Much of your “tutor education,” however, will be accumulated as you move through the semester. That said, this short guide offers some practical suggestions for four recurring face-to-face situations you will face in your work at the Writing Studio.

A. Getting Started: The First Five MinutesSome writers may be upfront and assertive, others may be more reserved and timid, and others are somewhere in between. The first five minutes of a session is a good place to assess where on the spectrum a particular writer might be and adjust how directive you will be accordingly.

A First TimerSome writers will linger around the area until they are approached. Walk up to them with a smile and ask if they are looking for the Writing Studio. It is important to assure them that

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this is a safe environment: welcome them into the space, introduce yourself, get their name, and proceed to the computer. While filling out the general information, try to get them to speak more about themselves: What is the title of the class? How do they like the class/professor? Is this their first year at Duke? How well are they getting through the semester? Feel free to explain a bit about yourself: your field/program, the year you are in, why you are tutoring, etc.

Make sure they understand that you are on their side: you are a friendly, interested reader willing to provide constructive criticism. Maintain eye contact throughout a session, repeat writers’ names when asking them questions, sit side by side, make sure they have a pen or pencil, and keep them (and yourself!) engaged by asking them questions.

If they haven’t been to the Studio before, explain how a session usually functions. Explain that we work in a collaborative way and ask lots of questions and our goal is to address both their specific concerns and help them grow as writers. Explain that there will be some initial paperwork to fill out. Depending on the length of the draft, writers usually read their paper aloud or if they prefer the tutor can read it aloud. The session will need to stop fifteen minutes before the end of the hour, and the writer will have the opportunity to email the professor and/or complete an evaluation.

Let the writers know they are free to stop the session at any time to ask a question, change direction, address a problem they just noticed, or focus on an aspect they feel is more relevant. A Returning WriterReturning writers may be more prepared and know what their concerns are. Before the appointment, check their history by clicking on the writer’s name and spend one or two minutes prior to the session reviewing summaries of their past meetings. Asking these writers about their progress, past assignments with the professor, or thoughts on the subject help focus the session on them as writers, and not just the assignment they are working on.

All WritersYou also may find some hidden frustrations a writer may have about the class. Getting them

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to talk about the problems will help you figure out what the writer’s real concerns are. Sometimes the writer needs studying or research advice, a new revision strategy, or encouragement to set up an office hour with the professor.

Many writers will want to read through the entire paper. While this is a thorough method—depending on the length of the paper—always ask them how they want to set the agenda. Is there a particular paragraph or section that is giving them trouble? Perhaps the introduction and conclusion? If they mention an organization problem, have them reverse outline their paper for you. Before you actually look at the essay together, get them to explain their topic and argument, as some writers would rather just bounce ideas off you.

B. The Editing SessionThis is, by far, the most common of the possible sessions. Writers will ask you to read their papers for clarity, word choice, and grammar. They want to be assured that their writing makes sense, is free of repetition, and is grammatically sound. As you know from your training, detailed, line-by-line editing is not your job. The key to this session is working out a compromise with writers. Let them know that it’s not particularly profitable for you to read their paper while they watch or do other work. Instead, offer to read sections of the paper with them—or, more specifically, offer to look on while they read parts of the paper aloud. Explain that when students read their work aloud, they’re often able to catch their own mistakes. Make sure they have a pen or pencil in hand for this exercise (and, really, this applies to any session you have). Ask writers to pick two or three paragraphs to focus on. Work on the first paragraph together and then encourage them to move to the next paragraph by themselves, keeping in mind what they learned from the work you just did. Feel free to point out things they might miss in this second paragraph; when they get to the third paragraph, they should have picked up a number of editing tools that they’ll be able to use even when you’re not around.

C. The Brainstorming SessionQuite often, you’ll have a session with a writer who is getting started on writing a paper. A writer might start out by telling you that she or he has just received an assignment and would like to brainstorm possible ways to answer the prompt. Or a writer might need to complete a draft but isn’t quite sure how to do so. Finally, a writer might have a draft that needs to be substantially revised. This final case is the most difficult because the student might not know that the draft needs to be revised and/or might not know how to revise the draft.

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Start each of these sessions by asking the writer to tell you about the assignment. It is best if he or she shows you the prompt and goes through it piece by piece. At this point, you can deal with any problems that might arise (e.g., “I don’t know what’s being asked here”). Once the writer has explained the assignment, discuss which brainstorming techniques to try.

A helpful way to get writers brainstorming is just to talk about the question being asked of them. Find out why they think they’re being asked the question and/or how the question relates to the topic(s) they’ve been studying. With this information in hand (and, perhaps, on paper or a whiteboard), you can move to a discussion of how they think they might answer the question. Get out as many ideas as possible before narrowing the focus at all. Make sure, though, not to lose sight of the question as you go. Asking questions tends to be a handy way of staying on track; it is also a useful way to keep students moving forward if they get stuck. You may find, also, that giving writers time to free-write (or make a list or a concept map) proves beneficial. Feel free to get up and give writers some time alone during a session like this. Quite often, you’ll find that brainstorming sessions are the easiest and most enjoyable: the students do almost all of the work and leave having really accomplished something during their session.

D. The Main Claim/Thesis SessionIt is not uncommon for a writer to come to a session with a completed draft that is entirely lacking a main claim/thesis statement. This is most often the case with first-year undergraduates, but it can be the case with others, too. The key to this type of session is to determine whether or not the writer actually has a thesis anywhere in the paper. One way to begin sessions is by asking what the writer’s argument is or, to be more general, the main point of the paper. Ask them just to talk about it. The tutor can take notes and write down what they say. Once the writer has finished talking, ask him or her to find what he or she has just said in the paper, if possible. (This is not always possible!) If the writer is able to do so, you can move on to other concerns. If he or she cannot, you might explain the importance of having an argument or main claim, as well as the importance of actually stating that main claim rather than simply surprising the reader at the end of the paper. In order to help writers come up with a main claim, you might ask that they do a simple exercise and let them know that they’re not restricted to the form the exercise imposes on them once the exercise is over. Write the following on a piece of paper:

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In this paper, I will argue:__________________________________________

Then ask the writer to fill in the blank in one or two sentences. You can get up and leave the space, giving the writer a few minutes to work this out. You are welcome to use this exercise or come up with your own.

E. The Organization SessionLastly, you can expect writers to arrive at the Writing Studio in search of organizational tools. Drafts may lack a coherent structure and jump from claim to claim, often in no particular order. First establish what the writer wants to argue in the paper. Once the paper’s thesis is clear, ask writers to look over the paper for a few moments and make some notes about the content of each paragraph. Once they’ve finished, ask them to walk you through the paper; as they explain each paragraph, take notes. Then look over the notes to see how the various paragraphs fit together to support the thesis. More often than not, this technique enables writers to see organizational problems for themselves. This often leads to a discussion about moving paragraphs around and/or finding useful ways to transition from one paragraph to another. This in turn can often take you back into a brainstorming session. Sessions on organization can provide writers with a useful structural test to apply to future papers. A similar strategy for working on organization is to teach the reverse outline strategy (see WS handout at http://twp.duke.edu/uploads/media_items/reverse-outline.original.pdf). Work with the writer to create a reverse outline for the paper, and then discuss the order and flow of ideas.

This has been a quick look at four different session types. While there is no way to comprehensively prepare you for everything you’ll be confronted with in the coming weeks and months, I hope this short guide helps you feel a little more at home as a Writing Studio tutor.

NOTE: Writer confidentiality is sacrosanct. You are not to discuss the session or the writer’s work with anyone outside of the Writing Studio staff.

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http://twp.duke.edu/uploads/media_items/reverse-outline.original.pdf


III. A TUTOR’S SHORT GUIDE TO E-TUTORING

A. OverviewA pilot program in Spring 2007, the Writing Studio's E-Tutor service has quickly become an integral part of our tutoring work with writers. E-Tutor appointments make up between 20-25% of our total appointments. With E-Tutor, we serve writers whom we might not otherwise see and provide written feedback about their writing that they can refer to any time they wish. While online tutoring lacks the direct, real-time interaction with writers characteristic of face-to-face sessions, it offers other advantages.

B. Writer Use Profile Some writers may use E-Tutor to supplement face-to-face appointments, whereas others may strongly prefer the online environment and use this service exclusively. While we strongly encourage all writers to try a face-to-face appointment at least once, this option does not work for everyone. Writers who prefer E-Tutor may want to have more time to reflect on a response, may not enjoy meeting with a tutor one-on-one, or may have a schedule that makes it hard for them to find time for a face-to-face appointment. Some may be non-native English speakers who feel more comfortable with written comments. Some may be studying abroad or at an off-campus Duke program.

The following FAQ is included on the Writing Studio website:

What is E-Tutoring?Rather than signing up for a face-to-face appointment, you sign up for E-Tutoring, complete a submission form, submit your draft electronically, and receive written tutor feedback right after the scheduled appointment time. The tutor uses the 50-minute time slot to read your submission form and comment on your draft.

How do I decide whether to schedule a Face-to-Face or E-Tutor appointment?Reasons vary. You might strongly prefer written comments--something you can read over a few times if you want. Or, you might like the relative anonymity of an E-Tutor appointment. Or, your schedule might allow you the 15-20 minutes to fill out the questionnaire you will submit with your draft but not the hour for a face-to-face appointment. Or, the E-Tutor appointment might be a follow-up to a face-to-face appointment on the same writing project.

Do I have to submit a draft?Yes, and the more complete the draft, the better. The nature of E-Tutoring is that it does not lend itself, for example, to a brainstorming session nor to concerns you have about your writing that would require a question and answer give and take between you and your tutor.

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Do I have to submit a draft at the same time I make an appointment?No. You can submit a draft up until the time of your appointment by going to "Show/Cancel My Appointments" and clicking on the "Submit Draft" button. Before your appointment, you can also go back and update your submission form and submit a revised draft. The new information will automatically replace the previous submission.

What kind of writing can I submit to the E-Tutor?Tutors will respond to any type of writing you submit--from academic essays to creative writing, honors theses, personal statements, etc.

Are there any restrictions on the length of a draft or the number of times I can schedule an E-Tutor appointment?Due to tutor time constraints, you are restricted to a maximum of 10 pages of text. An E-Tutor appointment counts in the Writing Studio policy of a maximum of one appointment a day and two appointments a week.

What is the turnaround time?When you schedule an E-Tutor appointment, you choose a day and time and a tutor preference, just as you do for a face-to-face appointment. In contrast to a face-to-face appointment, though, the location is not important. Your tutor will use the 50-minute appointment time slot you reserve to read your submission form, read your draft, and respond to your questions and/or concerns. Once the hour is up, you will receive an email with the tutor’s comments attached.

If I submit a draft for a class assignment, will the tutor send a conference summary to the professor letting him/her know I took advantage of E-Tutoring?Yes. The tutor will include your stated concerns/questions and the advice the tutor has provided in a conference summary, which will be sent to your professor and you. The tutor will access the name and email of your professor from the submission form.

Do I need to keep a copy of the tutor comments?Only if you want to. Tutor written comments for all your E-Tutor appointments are archived on your "Show/Cancel Appointments" page on the Writing Studio web site

C. The Essential Steps of the E-Tutor SystemThis section outlines the steps of the E-Tutor process and includes screen shots that will reveal the perspectives of both writer and tutor. A later section will discuss guidelines and strategies for tutor comments.

The Writer’s Steps:1. Writers reserve an E-Tutor appointment and have the option of completing the

submission form and attaching their draft at the time they make the appointment or at a later time. We encourage writers to submit their draft no later than one hour prior to their scheduled appointments, although the system will accept drafts up until the appointment

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time. The system will not, however, allow a draft to be submitted more than 5 minutes after the appointment hour has begun; users who try will receive a “too late to submit” notice.

2. Before filling out the E-tutor submission form, writers agree to our “What to Expect at the Writing Studio” guidelines and select one of two submission types: academic writing or non-academic writing.

3. In the submission form, certain boxes have a minimum character requirement so that the writer will offer enough information to guide the tutor. If the character requirement is not met, the writer will be notified and asked to include more information. All writers encounter a notice that if the information they provide on the submission forms is not sufficient, the tutor may ask them to resubmit the draft in a later appointment with a more complete submission form. For the writer’s reference, we offer links to models of completed submission forms, one of each type.

4. After completing the relevant submission form and attaching a draft, writers have

completed their part of the process. They can then expect to receive an email at the end

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of their reserved hour, alerting them that the tutor’s comments are ready and including the attached comments. The email also encourages writers to fill out an evaluation of the session by returning to the E-Tutor system via the Writing Studio webpage.

The Tutor’s Steps:1. The tutor-specific appointment calendar alerts the tutor to an E-Tutor appointment by

including an “ET” alongside the typical appointment data for each individual tutor. The “ET” designation does not show up on the This Month’s Appointments screen.

Writers can reserve an E-Tutor appointment up until the time the appointment begins, so refresh the appointment page just after the start of each hour. To initiate the appointment, click to the relevant Student Goals Screen. For an E-Tutor appointment, the Student Goals Screen will include three additional links: <View E-Tutor Submission Form>, <View E-Tutor Draft>, and <Send E-Tutor Email to Student>. Click and open both the submission form and the attached draft; you can also print out a copy of the writer’s submission. If the attachment does not open, go to the Writing Studio shared mailbox at [email protected]); the writer is asked to submit a draft here as a backup. Based on the information provided on the submission form, complete the relevant portions of the Student Goals page. Click on <Update Information> to save the entries. Then, aware of the writer’s specific questions and concerns, read the draft, taking brief notes when necessary.

2. After reviewing the submission form and reading the draft, begin typing comments in the E-Tutor template in Microsoft Word; the comments should be saved regularly. Once the comments are complete, paste a copy of the comments in the “Tutor Notes” box on the Student Goals Screen. This preserves a copy of the comments for our records. Be sure to click <Update Information> to save the comments – otherwise they will be lost when you go to the next screen.

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3. Next, click <Send E-Tutor Email to Student> to inform the writer that the comments are ready. The system will go to the following page (see screen shot below), where you attach the file of your comments completed in the E-Tutor template. Once the attachments are selected, click <Send Email Now>. A message will confirm that the email was sent and the comments were attached successfully.

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4. Finally, proceed to the conference summary by clicking <Continue to Conference Summary>. After composing the conference summary, confirm the instructor’s email address, then send the email. The writer automatically receives the conference summary, too, when it’s an E-Tutor appointment.

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D. Subbing for an E-Tutor AppointmentEach E-Tutor appointment is linked with a specific tutor’s name. If you take on another tutor’s shift that includes an E-Tutor appointment, you need to select your name from the tutor drop-down menu and update the information in order to view the submission. After you have submitted your comments and sent the notification message, you must change the form back to the original tutor’s name in order for the writer to be able to access the information related to their appointment.

E. Effective E-Tutor FeedbackAs noted above, for each E-Tutor appointment, a writer will submit a draft and detailed responses to an online submission form. The form will provide the writing context and the writer’s concerns about this draft. An individual writer’s goals should always drive our online responses. To gain a clear sense of the writer’s writing history with E-Tutor appointments, it is particularly important to pay close attention to the student record of any repeat user of the WS services. Look for patterns in terms of the type of help the writer has sought in the past and what strategies previous tutors have recommended.

One of the advantages of E-Tutoring is that you have a little more time to read the paper and reflect on your reactions. Look for patterns, review what you have questions about, re-read the assignment and the writer’s concerns, and read over your own response. You will not have much time to polish your response, but do try to check for spelling and any egregious errors.

1. Guidelines for Written Comments Tone: Be mindful of your tone as you write your comments. “Hi, Sarah. My name is Vicki, and I'll be your writing tutor today. I hope that these comments will be helpful to you and that your revisions go smoothly. I am impressed by.... I have read your submission form carefully and will try to respond to as many of your concerns as possible. It seems to me that the concerns you list that will most likely affect the overall quality of your essay are ….. I will first address these and, if I have time, other things I might notice that I think would be helpful to you in the time you have to revise this draft.”

There’s certainly no need to go overboard with niceties, but consider integrating a couple of positive comments for things that seem to be working well: “I like how you…,” “I’m impressed by…” Essentially, think about ways to achieve something like the balance

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between professionalism and congeniality that you’d aim for in a face-to-face session.

You might consider crafting and saving a general written introduction for your E-Tutor responses, which you can tailor to the specifics of each session.

Organization: Also, consider outlining or clearly grouping your comments: For example, “First I’ll make some suggestions related to your organization. Second, I will discuss ways you might make your claims more effective. Finally, since you asked about commas, I will point out a few places where you make the same error and include a link to a handout that should help.”

Consider options when organizing content, realizing that a certain approach may work well in one instance, but not necessarily another. For instance, you may organize your comments by first addressing the writer’s concerns (in an orderly way) and then moving on to additional issue(s) you noticed. This approach prioritizes the writer’s concerns. On the other hand, if the writer’s concerns are lower order and/or simply do not end up being the major issues, then it may be better to emphasize other, more significant concerns, at the beginning of your feedback. If you go this route, explain why, so the writer will understand: “I know you’re concerned about commas, but I noticed another issue that’s even more important, so I wanted to address it first.” Even simple visual strategies – bullet points, boldface headings, and the like – can make a difference in keeping the content clear and accessible for the writer.

Language Choices: Because the writer isn't with you and you can't see his/her reactions, be sure to write in a respectful and fairly neutral style. As in face-to-face sessions, it’s important to avoid evaluative claims; instead of saying, “your paper is really successful,” it would be more appropriate to say, “after seeing your presentation of the evidence, I was convinced of your argument.” With the E-Tutor written comments, all the writer has to go on is your written response, so be especially careful about anything that might sound overly harsh, offensive, or patronizing. Also, be sure to define any key terms you use (reverse outlining, roadmap, transitions, etc.) and resist the temptation to sound too “academic” or write in the same style you might use in your discipline. The writer may not be familiar with terminology that seems perfectly ordinary to you. In short, strive for clarity.

Sample Introduction

Hi, I’m [name], your E-Tutor today. I’ve completed my written feedback on your submission. I hope you find

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it helpful. I do my best to be responsive to the issues indicated on the submission form. Please keep in mind that, as with any Writing Studio appointment, my comments and suggestions reflect the view of just one reader.

2. Strategies for Written Comments Time management: At the beginning of your work as a tutor, managing the time within the session can be difficult. As you gain experience with E-tutoring, you will begin to develop strategies for effectively dealing with the different rhythm of online vs. face-to-face sessions. A few strategies that may help:Consider holding off on writing comments until you’ve read through the whole paper,

especially with short drafts. This allows you to get a sense of the overall writing, to make sure your comments focus on the real issues, and may save you having to go back and amend earlier comments. Take brief notes as you read, which can help you arrange and prioritize your written comments.

Consider letting the writer’s stated concerns/goals guide how you organize your commentary. This gives you a focus while reading, as well as a set of topics on which to center your comments. (Of course, if you identify issues that you perceive to be of more concern than those the writer raises, such as meeting the prompt and documenting sources, you should certainly comment on those.) At the same time, realize that, in most cases, you will not be able to tackle every issue that catches your eye.

Consider cutting and pasting discrete parts of your previous written responses into a new set of comments. A standard introductory or closing comment, for example, might work well, or a general explanation of a particular writing strategy such as reverse outlining or roadmaps. Just be sure to edit the comments, if necessary, to fit with the particulars of the current paper.

Consider strategies such as reverse outlining when working with lengthy drafts close to the 10 page maximum. Don’t feel you need to comment on each page.

Limitations: As in a face-to-face session, there are limits to what you can address in an E-Tutor session. It may be easy to forget this. You have the whole paper, 50 minutes in which to think and write, and the freedom to make a list of everything you've noticed (or to mark on the paper). Perhaps you type faster than you talk and feel confident that you can explain a great deal. But keep in mind that the writer may be overwhelmed (and dismayed) if presented with a list of fifteen things to look at or work on. Be careful not to overwhelm either yourself or the writer with too many suggestions. Different tutors will, of course, produce responses of different lengths, but your suggestions should always be manageable. Carefully select a few items to address, do a good job on them, and end the session, just as you would for a

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face-to-face appointment.

When a writer submits a long paper (10 pages is the maximum we state we will look over), plan your strategy very carefully. If organization is, for example, an issue, creating a reverse outline of the essay is a good approach. If the writer is concerned about style and/or grammar, focusing on a page or two of the essay to evaluate will work just fine. You might let the writer know that, while we accept up to 10 pages, we are necessarily limited in dealing with a longer submission. This can also be an opportunity to remind the writer that detailed answers on the submission form can help tutors focus their feedback.

Questions: It can also be very helpful to ask the writer a long string of questions, just as you might do in a face-to-face session. For example, you might ask, "What in the readings or evidence prompted your focus in this thesis? Why are you interested in this aspect of the war? How does the evidence support your claim? How many pieces of evidence do you have? Do you have others that aren't included in this draft?" It may be helpful for the writers to reflect on these questions. It's effective to insert questions about the context into your response. You could say, for example, “In your opening paragraph, I wonder about the word 'bellicose.' When I read this word, I think of someone who is aggressive and warlike; is that what you meant? You might want to double check this word in the dictionary to be sure it's the one you want.” Questions can also be used to set up options for the students, which help maintain their control over the final product.

Focus on the process, not the product: As always, our goal is to teach the skills that writers can use both now and in the future. When the paper is right there in front of you and the writer is nowhere to be seen, it can be very tempting to focus on the paper rather than on the writer. But the E-Tutor environment offers you a great opportunity to teach new skills by explaining and modeling them.

For example, you can explain how to do a reverse outline, make up a claim and illustrate how it gradually could be made more complex, or discuss what comma splices are and show an example of how to correct one. You can include a number of questions that you would ask if the writer were talking with you; this shows writers how getting feedback can be helpful and illustrates the sort of questions they might want to ask themselves when writing. In short, although you can’t “show” writers new techniques and watch them practice, you can “tell” them how to employ these techniques and offer suggestions about how to practice them.

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Look for patterns: When addressing sentence-level issues, look for patterns of error, rather than going through the draft and pointing out errors in the order in which they occur. If you notice wordiness, see how often it occurs; if you see one transition that troubles you, check out the others. You can then try to offer the writer new ideas about this general issue, instead of just commenting on one sentence here and another one there.

Advocate our additional resources: Offering links to online resources, including Writing Studio handouts, is a great way to supplement your written feedback. For instance, you might suggest reverse outlining an essay; rather than taking the time to explain the process in your own words, you can include the link to the handout in your feedback. References to our handouts can also serve as a quick way to deal with lower order concerns. Point out several places in the essay where the error occurs, and then let the writer try to resolve the issue from the link to the handout you provide. When referencing handouts, let students know why you are recommending a certain handout, perhaps by noting which aspect of the handout you see as relevant to their project.

If relevant, you might also highlight the benefits of a face-to-face appointment. If you notice something about the essay that might be easier to handle through conversation, you could encourage the writer to make a face-to-face appointment.

Beware of taking over: Because the writer isn't there with you, you may feel more of a temptation to "take over.” You do decide what to include in your response, what to spend the most time on, how to explain things, and so forth. But the paper is still the writer’s; he/she is the one who must make choices about what to include and exclude, what words to use, and so forth. Thus, you should avoid the following, easy and tempting as they may be:Do not revise the writer’s thesisDo not present new evidence for the writer to includeDo not rewrite individual sentencesDo not tell the writer to use a different word (and suggest what the new word should be)Do not tell the writer to remove a paragraph or to move it to a specific place

So how can you respond to, say, an odd word choice? Ask why the writer chose the word; tell what the word means to you and why it seems odd to you in this context; recommend the writer to look it up; suggest techniques for rewriting a sentence (like explaining out loud what you mean and then writing that down); offer a series of words that might fit, allowing the writer to decide. How might you help a writer learn to revise a sentence without changing

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it? Make up a similar sentence and carry out your revisions on it, explaining what the problem is, what options there are for revising it, and why you chose the option you did. Offer several different options, not just one, so that the writer sees that he/she has many choices.

If the writer needs more evidence, you can say that you would like to hear more about something or that you didn't understand a certain point and think that additional research might be helpful. If you think a certain paragraph doesn't belong, you can describe your response as a reader; for example, "When I got to this paragraph, I wondered what it was doing here—it seemed like you had been talking about A, but all of a sudden, here's this paragraph about B! Can you help your reader understand how this paragraph should fit in?" The writer may need better transitions, or may have left out something important that will clarify matters—or he or she may see that the paragraph doesn't really belong. But it isn't for us to say, "Take that one out!" The decision belongs to the writer.

Emphasize you are just one reader: Keep in mind for yourself, and emphasize for the writer, that you are just one a reader; consider prefacing your comments with phrases such as, “As one reader,” or “From my perspective.” You are not offering the definitive summary of what does and does not work in the paper; other readers will be coming to the paper from different contexts and with different information (for example, the professor will know what was said and read in class) and might have different responses. When writers receive a written response from an anonymous "expert," they may be inclined to take it even more seriously than they would take comments we make in person; we need to be clear that we are responding as fellow writers and as neutral readers, not as all-knowing authorities.

Remember it's in print: The fact that there is a printed record of our online advice to writers does introduce some complications. Writers can save your comments and refer to them later, as many times as they want (which is usually good), but they can also print them and show them to others, or forward them by email. Here are some things to keep an eye on:Do watch your spelling and grammar. As noted above, it is a good idea to compose your

comment in Word so that you can not only save, but also spellcheck your comments before pasting them into the Tutor Comments box. Don’t expect your response to be perfect, but do your best to model good prose.

Do not criticize the assignment, class, or instructor.Do not say that something is a "rule" unless you're quite sure about that. Take the time to

look up anything you are presenting in this way.56


Do respect the writer’s ownership of the text. If you rewrite a sentence or write a long and well written summary of an idea you have about the writers’ topics or arguments, it's easy for them to incorporate your words into their paper, and they may not realize that this wouldn't be a good idea. This would be a violation of the Duke Community Standard.

3. Some Language You May Consider Using Here are some examples of language or ideas you may consider including in some of your E-Tutor comments.

First-time E-Tutor Users:

E-Tutor works best when you take the time to fill out a detailed submission form. Without you and me being able to talk in person, all I have to go by is what you include on the form. So, please always be as thoughtful and as complete as possible.

Before scheduling your next Writing Studio appointment, you will want to consider whether E-Tutor or a Face-to-Face appointment is better suited to the writing project you are working on, your schedule, and your learning style. Although certainly more convenient, depending on the situation E-Tutor might not always be the better choice. If you need help, for example, with getting started or have questions about documentation style or grammar, you should definitely schedule a Face-to-Face appointment.

If you are pleased with the quality of the feedback I provide, please consider making your next appointment with me – either Face-to-Face or with E-Tutor. In terms of feedback on your writing and your development as a stronger writer, it will work better if you develop a working relationship with the same tutor.

I have only a few things more to tell you: We ask that, whenever possible, you schedule any future E-Tutor appointments for a daytime slot. Our evening appointment slots are, as you can imagine, very popular with students and we would like to keep them free for Face-to-Face appointments.

You will also notice the written comments are in the form of end comments rather than comments on the draft itself. With 50 minutes to work on each E-Tutor submission, we find this a more efficient and effective practice – one that we hope will provide you with the most substantive feedback in the available time. This will help me focus on the larger concerns you might have in more depth.

Please go ahead and read the written comments and once you are finished, I would really appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to fill out the conference evaluation form. The link is included on this email. We really appreciate feedback!

Repeat E-Tutor Users:

Welcome back to E-Tutor! I am pleased to see that you are using our service againLet me remind you that Face-to-Face appointments can also be quite effective and serve as a nice complement to the E-Tutor experience. As you begin your next writing project, consider making a Face-to-Face

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appointment for the early stage of the writing process, perhaps even before you start a draft. I, or another tutor, could assist you with brainstorming, outlining, argument development, or any aspect of getting a paper started. Then, you might follow up that appointment with an E-Tutor session in which you submit your draft.

Also, please recall that we encourage writers to schedule E-Tutor appointments during the day, whenever possible. Our evening hours are limited, so we like to reserve them for Face-to-Face appointments.

After you have read your comments, please take a few minutes to fill out the online conference evaluation. I appreciate your feedback!

First-Time ESL E-Tutor Users Who Have Requested Help With Grammar:

At the Writing Studio, we try to tailor our comments according to the specific needs of each writer. For you to gain the most from my comments, both in terms of this writing project and projects in the future, I would like to explain a few things about our approach:

I see from your submission form that you are a non-native speaker of English and have requested help with grammar. Although I’m not able to line edit your paper for you, I am happy to identify the patterns of error most common in your writing and point out a specific example of each, explain the rule, and make the correction for you. I can also let you know when your meaning might be unclear and offer suggestions related to word choice and clarity.

Composition research indicates the best way for a person to learn to write in a different language is to practice that skill and not have someone else write for them. This involves having someone point out the error, explain the error, and model the correction. Editing your entire essay would also violate the Duke Community Standard, something we at the Writing Studio take very seriously. So, if you have listed grammar as one of your concerns, this is the type of help you can expect to receive. In addition, while grammar may be an issue in your writing, it is often not the most immediate issue. As your tutor, I will let you know if I notice bigger issues that might hinder the effectiveness of your writing. This might help you prioritize your revisions.

After you have read my written comments, please think carefully about whether or not E-Tutor or a Face-to-Face appointment might be more helpful to you in the future. You might find that E-Tutor is not the best way for you to receive the most helpful feedback. For example, you don’t have the opportunity to ask questions about anything you might not understand, the way you could with a Face-to-Face appointment. Or, you might find that you work better with the written feedback E-Tutor offers. Or, you might discover that a Face-to-Face appointment followed up with an E-Tutor appointment with the same tutor on the same piece of writing is a better approach. The Writing Studio is here to help, and we want to make sure you receive help that is tailored to your specific needs.

For this appointment, after you have read your comments, please take a few minutes to fill out the online conference evaluations. We appreciate your feedback!

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F. Closing CommentsWriters value and appreciate your online work with them. Writing centers with online services report that writers often save tutor comments and refer to them again and again as they write new papers. Many writers will submit multiple times during the semester, and most will probably say that they love the online service and are delighted to have access to it. So although you may not hear their thanks or see the relief on their faces as they realize that they can get help with their writing, you can be confident that writers value your online help.

IV. WRITING WORKSHOPS

We have 2 series of 10 different workshops that we offer weekly on a regular basis throughout the semester. Writers are encouraged to sign up in advance online, but we also accept drop-ins. Attendance at a workshop does not count as part of a maximum of two appointments each week policy.

Our website contains workshop resources in the form of PowerPoint presentations and handouts. Please familiarize yourself with these materials, as certain material included in the workshops could be beneficial as resources for individual sessions. In addition, Margaret Swezey has created the following general workshop guidelines and lesson plans for some of our most popular workshops.

A. Guidelines for Leading WorkshopsWhen you sign up to do a workshop, you’ll need to gather some logistical information. The faculty member communicates with Margaret, who lines up tutors to give the workshops; she’ll let you know the logistical information contained in the initial email(s). Once you receive this information from Margaret, please send a follow-up confirmation email to the faculty member. Be sure to ask at this time for any additional information you feel you might need.

Required Workshop Information1. Day, time (starting and ending), and location of workshop. (Note that if the class meets in

a locked dorm, you’ll need to arrive early in order to be let in by a student or the professor.)

2. Number of students. (If it’s Writing 101, there will be 12 students.)3. Topic of workshop (e.g., 4 C’s.).

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4. What writing project the students are working on and the stage at which they’ll be on the day of the workshop. Workshops are most successful when they’re hands-on and the students can workshop their writing and practice what they’ve learned in the workshop. Therefore, it’s best if students can bring their current drafts to the workshop. If for some reason they can’t bring their current drafts, try to work with the instructor to come up with another way for them to work on student writing in the workshop. For example, maybe they could bring one paragraph of their current draft, or their most recent draft. You could, for example, use a paragraph from Deliberations, which you can look at together and discuss in terms of working with sources.

5. They don’t need to bring a current draft for a workshop on prewriting, organizing a research project, or personal statements.

6. Ask if the faculty member will be there. 7. If you’ll be writing on the board, ask if it’s a blackboard or whiteboard. (Bring chalk or

whiteboard markers with you, just in case.)8. If you plan to use technology, check with the instructor to make sure the room has the

appropriate technology and that it works. It is always a good idea to have a backup plan, in case the technology fails.

Sample EmailHi, Dr. XXX,I’m writing to let you know I’ll be leading the 4C’s writing workshop in your class on March 18. Thanks for inviting us to give a workshop in your class. I understand the class meets at 11:55 in West Duke 108A. Is that right? Also, can you confirm the time the class ends? Is it a 50-minute or 75-minute class? And will you be there for the workshop? I’ve found that workshops work best when they’re hands-on and the students can work on their own writing to apply what they’ve learned in the workshop. Will the class have writing to work with on the day of the workshop? If so, please send me the assignment prompt, as it would be so helpful to see what you’re doing. Thank you!I’m looking forward to the workshop,XXX

Before the WorkshopMake sure you know where the building and room are. If you’ve never been there before, go by to confirm its location and how long it will take you to get there. If the class meets in Bivins (the building to the southwest of the Art Building, across the driveway; it has the radio station in it), ask the instructor which door to go in; it’s a difficult building to get around in, and knowing this info up front will make things much easier.

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If you’re going to be in a room where there’s any question about whether or not the technology works (the instructor can’t confirm that it works, e.g.), check it out beforehand to make sure it works for you. If you need to, call Duke OIT Classroom Support (660-3088) and make an appointment for someone to show you how to use the equipment. Unforeseen events arise, so make a backup plan in case the technology doesn’t work when you go to lead the workshop. Copy any handouts you’re going to distribute. You can use the copier in the Art Building; the copy code is your Duke unique id (located on the back of your Duke Card). Take chalk or whiteboard markers if you’re going to be writing on the board. Take a notepad if the instructor is going to be absent and wants you to circulate a signup sheet for attendance. Put the sheet in the professor’s box on the first floor of the Art Building afterward.

During the WorkshopAfter you introduce yourself (or the instructor introduces you), if it’s a small class (W101, e.g.), ask for everyone’s name. It makes it a little more personal and you can call them by name in the workshop.

It’s best if the workshops include an interactive element. All the workshop lesson plans that follow include an interactive element.

B. Sample Lesson PlansHere are Margaret Swezey’s sample lesson plans for the most popular workshops, for you to use when you lead workshops. Feel free to use them in their entirety or in part – whatever works best for you. The lesson plans all reference the relevant handouts available on our website and suitable for distribution in the workshops.

Improving Your Writing Style: 2 C’s and 4 C’s50 minutes provides enough time to cover the 2 C’s (clarity and conciseness); a 75-minute class is enough to cover the 4 C’s (clarity, conciseness, coherence, and cohesion).

For either the 2C’s or 4C’s, I arrive 10 minutes before class starts and put several sentences on the board (see below).

In my introductory comments, I explain that clarity, conciseness, cohesion, and coherence are

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aspects of writing style, particularly having to do with the level of the sentence or passage. I may ask the class to brainstorm what kinds of things make for good writing style at the sentence level, and I write on the board what they come up in their brainstorming. Then I’ll star the items that have to do with either the 2C’s or 4C’s workshop and say that’s what we’ll be talking about today. I’ll mention that revision is part of the writing process, and that it’s best to address the 2C’s or 4C’s at the end, once they’re happy with the big stuff like organization and argument.

2 C’s Workshop: Clarity and Conciseness1. Then we move on to the sentences on the board. Doing one sentence at a time, I ask the

class how to improve them, and I mark the changes to the sentences on the board as the students come up with them.

2. As they revise each sentence, I create a list of revision principles on the board, drawn from the revisions made to each sentence; e.g., omit strings of prepositions, avoid passive voice, cut out unnecessary words. [This list appears on the Clarity and Conciseness handout, too.]

3. Here are some sentences I use, and the revision principles I draw from them. (Note that the class may come up with other revision strategies that may not be listed or may not use all of these.) The Clarity and Conciseness handout includes some other sentences, and you may have some other sentences you prefer to use. I find it best to use 4-5 sentences for a 50-minute 2C’s workshop, 4 sentences for the 4C’s workshops.

There were five factors. Together, they created the conditions for revolt.[Combine shorter sentences into longer ones; Avoid expletive constructions]

A revision of the program will result in increases in our efficiency in the serving of our customers.[Cut out strings of prepositional phrases; Avoid nominalizations/express action in verbs rather than nouns; Omit unnecessary words]

The enthalpy of hydrogen bond formation was determined by direct measurement.[From a peer-reviewed scientific journal article] [This is a good opportunity to talk about what passive voice is and when active or passive voice may be more appropriate.]

Of the areas of science important to our future, few are more promising than genetic engineering, which is a way of manipulating the elemental structural units of life itself, which are the genes and chromosomes that tell our cells how to reproduce to become the parts that constitute our bodies. [Use this or the next one, not both.] [Omit unnecessary words, phrases, and ideas.]

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I was told by my eleventh-grade English teacher that failing was the best resource to develop my writing abilities because in order to figure out how to do better the next time, I needed to see and learn what my weaknesses were the first time. [From a W101 paper, BTW; passive voice, chronological order/logical order to present information, omit unnecessary words, phrases, and ideas]

4. At the end, we look at the list of principles on the board, and I talk about how to use these principles to revise their drafts for greater clarity and conciseness. Then they get out their drafts and start revising. It’s easier to see these kinds of issues in someone else’s writing, not your own, so I tell them to exchange papers with someone.

5. If there’s time, in a 50-minute 2C’s workshop I ask for 1-2 volunteers to put a sentence from their current draft that they want help with on the board, and we workshop them the way we did the previous sentences. Those model sentences were created to illustrate revision principles, and these volunteer sentences are generally more interesting and challenging. (This is where the animal-predator sentence came from.)

6. I distribute the Clarity and Conciseness handout at the end, so as not to distract students from the workshop or give away the principles beforehand. They’re more likely to internalize and remember these ideas if they figure them out on their own than if they read them off a handout, but the handout reinforces what we’ve done in the workshop. If the 2C’s is part of the longer 4C’s workshop. I wait to distribute the 2C’s handout until the end of the 75-minute workshop.

4C’s Workshop : Cohesion and CoherenceAfter covering the 2C’s of Clarity and Conciseness, I explain that cohesion and coherence also improve clarity and organization and help develop the argument in a clear way.

1. I use these points to explain (first) cohesion and (then) coherence; the points are drawn from our handout on Cohesion and Coherence.

Cohesion refers to the sense of sentence-by-sentence flow by which the reader moves easily through a passage. Cohesion allows us to make multiple references to people, things, and events without reintroducing them at each turn

Order of Information

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We expect old info, or generally accepted info, to come first. It’s familiar and provides a context for the new info that comes later. We expect new info to come at the end.

Topic and StressThe beginning of your sentence is called the topic position: it’s the place to put what the sentence is about.The end of the sentence is called the stress position: it’s the place to put what’s most important about the sentence, what you want to draw particular attention to, to stress.

2. I write these words on the board:Beginning of sentence -- TopicEnd of sentence -- Stress

The First Principle of Cohesion: Old FirstBegin your sentences with information familiar to your readers. This can be information you’ve recently introduced within the text or anything assumed to be part of the audience’s general knowledge.

The Second Principle of Cohesion: New LastEnd your sentences with information your readers cannot anticipate – the new information you want to convey.

3. Next we look at the two Black Hole passages (I put these in a handout and ask the class to read each version. I ask which one they think is more cohesive and why):

Version ASome astonishing questions about the nature of the universe have been raised by scientists studying black holes in space. The collapse of a dead star into a point perhaps no larger than a marble creates a black hole. So much matter compressed into so little volume changes the fabric of space around it in puzzling ways.

Version BSome astonishing questions about the nature of the universe have been raised by scientists studying black holes in space. A black hole is created by the collapse of a dead star into a point perhaps no larger than a marble. So much matter compressed into so little volume changes the fabric of space around it in puzzling ways.

The passages can generate interesting discussion. Only the middle sentence varies in the passages. Generally the students prefer Version B, which does offer better cohesion, in

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that the middle sentence starts with the just-mentioned information (black holes), then ends with the new, interesting information (the size of the black hole, which becomes the topic of the next sentence). Often someone will object to the use of passive voice in Version B’s middle sentence, and this point provides an opportunity to discuss the writer’s choice: when can it be stylistically appropriate?

4. Then we move on to CoherenceCoherence refers to the overall sense of unity in a passage. Coherence focuses the reader’s attention on the specific people, things, and events you are writing about

5. Next we look at the passage about Uncle Chester, which is from our Cohesion and Coherence handout (I often use a handout with the black hole and Uncle Chester passages, and then distribute the Cohesion and Coherence handout at the end). I ask someone to read the passage aloud.

As a reminder, please promptly return the lecture notes you borrowed. Slide the notes under my door if I am not there. I may become agitated if you are late, much like my uncle Chester after several egg nogs on Christmas Eve. Most Christmases I liked to stay up and open my stockings after midnight. Staying up late was exciting and would be repeated a week later at New Year’s. So would Uncle Chester’s disgraceful behavior.

6. I ask: What do you notice about this passage? The reply is that it’s disorganized and

random. I ask about the issue of cohesion, the sentence-to-sentence flow, which leads into the next point:

Cohesion vs. CoherenceThe previous example is cohesive. Each sentence connects with the next and the previous. Sentences begin with familiar information and end with new information.

But the previous example is incoherent. The topic of each sentence is different from the previous. Thus, the paragraph lacks focus.

Coherence is Established in Two Waysa. Readers identify the topics of individual sentences clearly.b. Topics of sentences come in a paragraph: a coherent group of sentences all

clearly related to one point.

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A paragraph is much more than a group of sentences set off by an indentation. If you can’t quickly and succinctly say what a paragraph’s main point is, it lacks coherence.

7. I distribute the handouts on Cohesion and Coherence, and then the students start working on their drafts. Before they get them out, I ask how they’re going to apply the principles we’ve been working on to their drafts. This provides a chance to reiterate the main points of the workshop (either by the students or by me).

Getting In: Writing Personal Statements This lesson plan is geared toward personal statements for medical school and some law schools, which are different from graduate school application essays. I often note at the beginning of the workshop that writing personal statements presents certain specific challenges: it’s an unfamiliar genre, we have to talk about ourselves, and there are often significant length restrictions. Then I say this workshop will give them some tips and strategies to help them succeed at writing personal statements.

I use our PowerPoint on writing personal statements, “Getting In.” It’s available on our website, under Handouts and Resources, then Workshop Resources. If you use the PowerPoint, you may not want to use all the slides; feel free to use just the ones you want. There is also a handout under Workshop Resources, which I distribute at the beginning of the workshop.

It’s important to include interactive elements in the workshop:

1. I bring in a sample prompt to discuss. I generally get the samples off the internet; here’s an example:

In no more than 5300 characters, explain why you want to go to medical school.

Discuss: What is this committee asking for? What do they want the writer to address/focus on? Is there a length requirement? This gives them some practice at reading prompts with some care and at paying attention to the length restrictions.

2. The PowerPoint includes 2 exercises:a. Brainstorm a list of 2 or 3 experiences you feel have shaped who you are. b. Write down 2 or 3 significant problems you have faced and how you solved

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them.

3. After they’ve completed the exercises, I ask them to look for patterns and give them some time to work through this on their own. Some questions to ask (from the PowerPoint):

a. What values keep appearing?b. What interests?c. What strengths and skills?

4. Next, I explain how to move from this—values, etc.—to drafting an essay. We discuss ways to structure the essay around 1-2 values, strengths, etc. from the exercise, using examples from their exercise to illustrate options.

5. I also bring in a few sample excerpts from personal statements. Although it’s probably most useful to look at several full statements, there’s not enough time in the workshop to do that, and there’s the danger that focusing on only one or two complete personal statements may close off ideas for writers: they may take a statement as a model and just follow that instead of creating a unique statement that best represents them. So when I do the workshop, we look at a few excerpts. The PowerPoint provides resources, including places to find some complete statements; I encourage them to look at several of them, to help them think about different options instead of falling into the trap of using one as a template.

Here’s one essay beginning:

At the age of sixteen, I was hired as an intern in the city hospital’s Pediatrics Program. I had the opportunity to

observe surgeries and births, to watch doctors taking histories, and to shadow medical residents through five

departments of a medical center… No matter how much time I had spent in the hospital, however, nothing

could have prepared me for my first true introduction to medicine. While I was working in the Pediatric

Emergency Room, doctors asked me to help calm a girl as they evaluated the eight-inch laceration running

down her leg.

I wanted to get her mind off the pain, so I took her hand and started talking. We spoke of everything, from “The

Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” to her feelings on starting the first grade. She had just had her sixth birthday,

pizza was her favorite food, and she loved the color blue. As we got to know each other, the child slowly

dropped her defenses, allowing the anxious doctors to examine her wounded leg. Then the exam room filled

with the sound of incomprehensible medical terminology and the commotion of nurses rushing in and out. Our

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link was suddenly broken. She sat up and saw a nightmare of suturing needles and scissors playing out in front

of her. The nurses hurried to restrain the girl as she jerked violently and began helplessly flailing her arms. I

grasped hold of her hand and spoke calmly into her ear. Finally, tired from the struggle, she surrendered to the

sound of my voice. We were once again connected. The doctors continued to work while we fell back into our

conversation of toys and ice cream.

Within those few moments, a six-year-old showed me medicine’s capacity for compassion. I was stunned…

Before joining the Pediatrics Program, I had far underestimated the significance of patient contact. [Now]… my

heart directed me toward a career in medicine…

A complete statement:

My home has been a place of healing for many broken hearts, both literally and figuratively. My younger sister

had two open-heart operations before the age of two. I was three years old, and I tried to be the best big sister in

the world. I thought that if I loved her enough, her heart would heal itself. My brother was three and thirteen

when he had his heart surgeries. This time, I was older and much more fearful, but my brother is the proud new

owner of Vinny the Pulmonary Valve. Thus, two hearts have healed quite literally in my home.

The figurative healing in my home sets it apart from many others. I have learned the importance of love and

support in the face of trouble by watching my mother, the backbone of a local parent support group. Families

need to know they are not alone, that I, too, was scared to see my brother gasp for breath after running up a

flight of stairs.

I have seen more aspects of the personal side of medicine than many people my age. I understand first hand the

comforting effect a friendly smile and reassuring confidence from a doctor has on both patients and families.

My family history is what sparked my interest in medicine, but my own experience has held my attention in

recent years.

Eager to gain hands-on experience after high school, I volunteered at Strong Memorial Hospital conducting a

clinical study of patient referral patterns and shadowing a pediatric cardiologist. I watched a child's fearful face

turn to an expression of amazement as he listened to the sound of his own heart. The little boy was so fascinated

that he hardly noticed as Dr. Harris completed the check-up, expertly assessing reflexes, color, peripheral

pulses, and responsiveness in the moments before the novelty of the sound wore off. Stethoscope in hand, I

searched gingerly for the sound of the boy's leaking valve but was not in time. The smile faded, and I lost my

chance. I felt an immediate sense of awe at Dr. Harris's swiftness, skill, and compassion toward the fearful little

boy.

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The following summer I was a University of Rochester Summer Research Program scholar, doing my first

laboratory research. I studied surface deformations of the chick embryo myocardium during normal and

experimentally altered ventricular growth, learning the frustration of research obstacles and working to

overcome them. I was rewarded by having my work included in the final report.

The program also gave me the chance to attend rounds, shadow physicians, attend conferences and lectures. The

most fascinating afternoon of the summer was an autopsy conference of a stillborn baby. The pathologist

explained the procedure he went through to determine how they baby died. He worked slowly and meticulously,

showing us how he pieced together the puzzle that lay before him. As I watched, I realized that the problem

solving and analytical thinking skills I have learned as a physics major will help me greatly in future medical

work.

I have spent a lot of time working with and learning to communicate with young kids because of my interest in

a career with children. For two full summers, I worked as a camp counselor at an overnight camp for ages 7-15.

In the two-week sessions I became their surrogate mother guiding, teaching, and enjoying the spirit of my

campers. Throughout high school, I worked with children as a dance teacher at a local ballet school.

My love of dance led me to compete in collegiate level ballroom dancing starting in the fall of my freshmen

year at Carnegie Mellon University. Ballroom dancing is one of the few areas of dance in which partnership and

working together are keys to success. Though I have become very good at following the lead of my dance

partner, I sharpened my own leadership skills while serving as vice-president of the Carnegie Mellon Ballroom

Dance Club.

In college, my desire for a career in medicine has grown stronger. The fear I felt just two days before my

brother's surgery, taught me to be strong. I was miles away from my family, yet I had one last exam before I

could join them. When I was finally by their side, it was three hours into his surgery, and all we could do was

share our feeling of helplessness. Now, when I lean my ear against my brother's chest, the 'lupp-swish' of Vinny

the Valve reminds me of the fear I felt that day, but the fear is far from over; Vinny will need replacement

within the next ten years.

Medicine has always been a part of my life, and I am exhilarated that the chance for it to play a new role has

finally arrived. In the seventeen years since my sister's first surgery, I have learned that love alone is not enough

to heal a heart, and I am eagerly awaiting the chance to learn the rest.

And another complete statement:69

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"Call 911!" I shouted to my friend as I sprinted down the street. The young Caucasian male had been thrown

fifteen yards from the site of impact and surprisingly was still conscious upon my arrival. "My name is Michael.

Can you tell me your name?" In his late twenties, he gasped in response, as his eyes searched desperately in

every direction for help, for comfort, for assurance, for loved ones, for death, until his eyes met mine. "Flail

chest", I thought to myself as I unbuttoned his shirt and placed my backpack upon his right side. "Pulse 98,

respiration 28 short and quick. Help is on the way. Hang in there, buddy." I urged. After assessing the patient,

the gravity of the situation struck me with sobriety. The adrenaline was no longer running through my veins —

this was real. His right leg was mangled with a compound fracture, and his left leg was also obviously broken.

The tow-truck that had hit him looked as though it had run into a telephone pole. Traffic had ceased on the six-

lane road, and a large crowd had gathered. However, no one was by my side to help. "Get me some blankets

from that motel!" I yelled to a bystander and three people immediately fled. I was in charge. The patient was no

longer conscious; his pulse was faint and respiration was low. "Stay with me, man!" I yelled. "15 to 1, 15 to 1",

I thought as I rehearsed CPR in my mind. Suddenly he stopped breathing. Without hesitation, I removed my T-

shirt and created a makeshift barrier between his mouth and mine through which I proceeded to administer two

breaths. No response. And furthermore, there was no pulse. I began CPR. I continued for approximately five

minutes until the paramedics arrived, but it was too late. I had lost my first patient.

Medicine. I had always imagined it as saving lives, curing ailments, alleviating pain, overall making life better

for everyone. However, as I watched the paramedics pull the sheets over the victim's head, I began to tremble. I

had learned my first lesson of medicine: for all its power, medicine cannot always prevail. I had experienced

one of the most disheartening and demoralizing aspects of medicine and faced it. I also demonstrated then that I

know how to cope with a life and death emergency with confidence, a confidence instilled in me by my

certification as an Emergency Medical Technician, a confidence that I had the ability to take charge of a

desperate situation and help someone in critical need. This pivotal incident confirmed my decision to pursue

medicine as a career.

Of course healing, curing and saving is much more rewarding than trying and failing. As an EMT I was exposed

to these satisfying aspects of medicine in a setting very new to me — urban medicine. I spent most of a summer

doing ride-a-longs with the Ambulance Company in Houston. Every call we received dealt with Latino patients

either speaking only Spanish or very little broken English. I suddenly realized the importance of understanding

a foreign culture and language in the practice of medicine, particularly when serving an under-served majority.

In transporting patients from the field to the hospitals I saw the community’s reduced access to medical care due

to a lack of physicians able to communicate with and understand their patients. I decided to minor in Spanish.

Having almost completed my minor, I have not only expanded my academic horizons, I have gained a cultural

awareness I feel is indispensable in today's diverse society.

Throughout my undergraduate years at Berkeley I have combined my scientific interests with my passion for

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the Hispanic culture and language. I have even blended the two with my interests in medicine. During my

sophomore year I volunteered at a medical clinic in the rural town of Chacala, Mexico. In Mexico for one

month I shadowed a doctor in the clinic and was concurrently enrolled in classes for medical Spanish. It was in

Chacala, hundreds of miles away from home, that I witnessed medicine practiced as I imagined it should be.

Seeing the doctor treat his patients with skill and compassion as fellow human beings rather than simply

diseases to be outsmarted, I realized he was truly helping the people of Chacala in a manner unique to medicine.

Fascinated by this exposure to clinical medicine, I saw medicine’s ability to make a difference in people’s lives.

For me the disciplines of Spanish and science have become inseparable, and I plan to pursue a career in urban

medicine that allows me to integrate them.

Having seen medicine’s different sides, I view medicine as a multi-faceted profession. I have witnessed its

power as a healing agent in rural Chacala, and I have seen its weakness when I met death face-to-face as an

EMT. Inspired by the Latino community of Houston, I realize the benefits of viewing it from a holistic,

culturally aware perspective. And whatever the outcome of the cry, "Call 911!" I look forward as a physician to

experiencing the satisfaction of saving lives, curing ailments, alleviating pain, and overall making life better for

my patients.

The students read the essays or essay beginnings, and then I ask them what they noticed. I may ask some follow-up questions, such as: How is it different from an academic essay? Did you get a good sense of the author as a person? Why (or why not)? How was it structured? Does the writer tell a story or make a claim? If make a claim, what kinds of evidence does s/he provide? What are some other ways you might begin a personal statement?

6. A caveat: The PowerPoint is for all kinds of personal statements, but especially for fellowship applications (and law school too, as those are similar). For application essays, you may want to look at our two handouts on writing application essays for graduate school and possibly include some information from them, hand them out, and/or refer the participants to them. There's a lot of overlap between personal statements for fellowships, grad school, professional school, internships, etc. Our handouts are on our website under Handouts and Resources, then Genres of Writing, which has an alphabetical list: look at Personal Statements. There’s one on Humanities (http://twp.duke.edu/uploads/media_items/personal-statement-humanities.original.pdf) and one on Professional School/Scholarships (http://twp.duke.edu/uploads/media_items/personal-statement-professional.original.pdf).

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Working with Sources and Avoiding PlagiarismI introduce the topic of the workshop and often ask what specific concerns the students have about these issues. Sometimes they’ll mention particular things, which I’ll take note of and address during the workshop.

1. Start by asking why we cite or document sources. (The following are usually the answers; I also explain to them and / or ask the student who mentions one to explain more.)

a. To give credit b. To allow a reader to follow up with any of the sourcesc. To situate what you say in a scholarly conversation

2. Then I ask the class to brainstorm a list of what kinds of things constitute plagiarism. [Some ideas: Copying word for word from published sources without adequate documentation; using language and/or ideas from sources without adequate documentation; purchasing a pre-written paper; letting or paying someone else to write a paper for you; paraphrasing a source without attributing credit; and submitting someone else’s unpublished work as your own.]

3. I ask what kinds of things need to be cited and list them on the board:a. Ideas, including terms others have created b. Discoveriesc. Language

4. Often there’s confusion about the difference between summary and paraphrase and quotation, so I explain them:

a. Summary (an overview of the original ideas; shorter than the original)b. Paraphrase (restates the original material in different words; unlike a

summary, it’s about as long as the original)c. Quotation (contains the exact words of the source and is indicated by

quotation marks)

5. As a class, we look at some paraphrases. I ask the class to read the original and then each paraphrase, and to underline the words that are the same in the original and in each paraphrase (I’ve found this helps ground our conversation about plagiarism in the passages. If the students underline the words in common, they’re better able to readily identify instances of plagiarism in the passage and also the passage that’s an appropriate

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paraphrase. Here are the passages I use (from the Purdue OWL website: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/print/28/12/33/):

OriginalOf the more than 1,000 bicycling deaths each year, three-fourths are caused by head injuries. Half of those killed are school-age children. One study concluded that wearing a bike helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by 85%. In an accident, a bike helmet absorbs the shock and cushions the head. From “Bike Helmets: Unused Lifesavers” Consumer Reports (May 1990): 348.

Paraphrase OneThere are over 1,000 deaths of bike-riders every year, and 75% of them are caused by head injuries. Fifty percent of those killed are schoolchildren. One study showed that wearing a helmet can decrease the risk of head injury by 85%, since a helmet absorbs the shock and provides cushioning for the head (“Bike Helmets”).

Paraphrase Two The use of a helmet is the key to reducing bicycling fatalities, which are due to head injuries 75% of the time. By cushioning the head upon impact, a helmet can reduce accidental injury by as much as 85%, saving the lives of hundreds of victims annually, half of whom are children (“Bike Helmets”).

6. Once the class has underlined the words in the passages that are the same as the original, I ask what they noticed and we discuss it. [Paraphrase One is plagiarized because it’s too close to the original, and Paraphrase Two is a legitimate paraphrase.] I point out that for a legitimate paraphrase, it’s important to change BOTH the word choice AND syntax.

7. I offer a strategy for paraphrasing:a. Try NOT to memorize; instead, try to understand the idea.b. Cover the text and say/write in your own words.c. Compare your wording to the original: Are the words different enough? Is the

syntax different? d. Use quotations and paraphrases selectively – only what’s important – cut out

what you don’t need.

8. I give them an opportunity to practice paraphrasing. Offer a short sample passage, have the class write their own paraphrased version, and then come back together to discuss a volunteer’s text.

9. Documenting sources (in-text citations or footnotes, a Works Cited or References page, and sometimes attribution, which isn’t really a part of documentation but adds credibility

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to the use of sources – some disciplines don’t use attribution or don’t use it very often). I bring in a couple examples from different disciplines from Deliberations to illustrate, so there are representatives of at least 2 formats (MLA, APA, CSE, etc.). We discuss how the passages use sources, how they integrate them, use attribution (or not), in-text citations, etc. Here’s an example:

Passage from Benjamin James Lebow, “A Look beneath the Surface of Hetch Hetchy: The Early Environmental Movement and the Hydraulic History of the American West,” Deliberations Spring 2000: 65-69 (66).

In their fight over the future of the valley, both sides had different perspectives on the issue and argued according to the logic behind their differing views. The preservationists were primarily concerned with preserving the valley for its natural wonders, arguing that its aesthetic beauty and location within the park made it an unsuitable location for a city reservoir. Christine Orave claims that the preservationists based “the arguments for the Hetch Hetchy Valley upon the ‘national’ interest,” and primarily looked for support on a national level (445). The preservationists were successful in getting their opinions out into the national media, specifically major newspapers and magazines, and historian Roderick Nash felt this was “evidence of ‘overwhelming national sentiment in favor of keeping Hetch Hetchy wild’” (qtd. in Long 23).

10. I also recommend some overall strategies for avoiding plagiarism when working on a project:

a. Allow time for reading – time crunch is a major factor in plagiarismb. Keep a working bibliography and take precise, organized notes on your

sourcesc. Be careful to distinguish between quotations, paraphrases, summary, and your

own ideasd. Identify general and field-specific common knowledge

General Common Knowledge: Factual information in the public domain, such as birth and death dates of well-known figures, and generally accepted dates of important historical events. If you can find the information in a number of standard, general reference works, it can be considered common knowledge.Field-specific Common Knowledge: This information is common only within a particular field, including facts, theories, or methods that are familiar to members of a discipline. If you’re very sure the information is widely known within a field, so that your readers will surely know it, then you don’t need to cite the source.

11. You can also explore (if you can project from a computer), or at least recommend, some

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additional resources:a. Writing Studio – Handouts and Resources – Working with Sources: Go there

and point to particularly relevant resources: http://twp.duke.edu/writing-studio. Diana Hacker’s site has info on the different formats and also sample papers in different formats: http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/.

b. Citation format – go to the Duke Libraries site and show the examples it provides of in-text documentation AND References. It also shows whether in-text citations or footnotes are appropriate for which style: http://library.duke.edu/ (click on How Do I… Cite sources?).

c. Duke librarians are available in person at Lilly or Perkins, by phone, or via online chat.

V. IMPORTANT: PARTICIPATING IN OTHER WRITING STUDIO TUTOR ACTIVITIES

As a Writing Studio tutor, you will have various responsibilities above and beyond the tutoring session. Since your tutoring schedule will not always be full, you can fulfill many of these responsibilities gradually, during the semester, when you have a free hour or two on a given day. In general, you will work not only with writers but also with Vicki and your fellow tutors to support, build, and promote the role that the Writing Studio plays on campus. These responsibilities include: participating in training; making visits to classes at the beginning of each semester to introduce students to the Writing Studio; mentoring new tutors, EDU 255 students, and UWT tutors; attending staff meetings and special educational events; and helping build Writing Studio resources.

Each tutor should always have an ongoing project to work on, whether self-selected, assigned by Vicki, or from the “Job Jar” (located on the Writing Studio Sakai Site under Resources). We have begun editing Writing Studio documents online through Google Docs. You can find more information about how to use Google Docs in the Technology Guide.

A. Training and MentoringBefore the semester starts, you’ll participate in a week of training that prepares new tutors and allows experienced tutors to share their expertise. If you’re a new tutor, you’ll be asked early in the semester to observe a tutoring session conducted by an experienced tutor. As an observer, you will be asked to follow “Guidelines for Peer Observation” and take some notes

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Tutor Guide

during the process. The experienced tutor may be given some questions to reflect on afterwards (“Questions for Tutor after Observation Session”) or fill out a “Tutoring Self-Assessment Questions” sheet. (See all these forms below.) A bit later, an experienced tutor, Vicki, and/or one of the Associate/Assistant Directors will observe one of your tutoring sessions and give you pointers. This training, mentoring, and sharing of information continues throughout the semester during weekly required 75-minute-long staff meetings.

Guidelines for Peer Observation1. Pair up with someone with whom you’ll enjoy exchanging insights.2. Schedule time for each observation. Besides the observation itself, that schedule should

also include: 5 or 10 minutes prep-time before each observation during which the tutor being observed

can direct the observer’s attention to matters of greater interest, on which she or he particularly wants comment.

30 minutes after the observation to reflect on what has been observed.3. The tutor should secure the writer’s permission to conduct the observation. Set the writer

at ease by telling him or her that they are not the subject being observed.4. The tutor should begin the session by asking the writer to read aloud the text being

discussed. This will ensure that the observer is well acquainted with the writing.5. When conducting an observation, try to be as unobtrusive as possible. Do not comment or

ask questions while the session is going on. Take careful notes. You may wish to take notes on what you observe, but be sure to attend to the tutor’s concerns expressed before the observation.

6. During the follow-up discussion, assume that the tutor who has been observed will lead the discussion. Observers should respond to what they have been asked to pay attention to, and they should go beyond those matters only when requested to do so.

7. Register what you have learned as both the observed and the observer, and be prepared to contribute to staff meeting discussion of these experiences. This discussion is not a time for observers to criticize their colleagues, but is rather a time for observers to identify what they have learned (or relearned) and for the observed to describe how being observed affected them and their practice as tutors. (These guidelines are taken from the Penn State Writing Center website.)

Questions for Tutor after an Observation Session1. In what ways was this conference representative and/or unrepresentative of what you

think of as your usual tutoring style?76


2. What were your perceptions of this individual as a writer? As a learner?3. Did you role-switch during the conference? If so, what “characters” did you play and

why?4. What was the writer’s goal for the conference?5. What was your goal for the conference?6. What do you think went well during the session in terms of rapport with the writer?7. What do you think went well during the session in terms of progress on the

paper/assignment/writing process?8. What were you uncomfortable with during this session?9. Is there anything else you would like to add or any other thoughts you have about this

particular session?

Tutoring Self-Assessment Questions1. What type of tutoring went on in the session? (Brainstorming, work on a first draft, final

draft, or some other type?)2. Was the writer able to articulate the kinds of help he or she needed before the session

began? Or during the session?3. Did you and the writer establish a good rapport?4. What is the proportion of tutor talk? What kind of talking did you do?

Interpretive paraphrase?Directive questions?Open-ended questions?Advisory directives?Content-clarifying questions?Opposition-based questions?Some other type of talking?

5. Was the writer asking good questions of the text, too?6. Did you ever find yourself interrupting the writer, or did you listen and then wait a

second before joining in?7. Did you encourage and/or praise the writer’s work?8. Did you allow digressions when appropriate? Were you able to get the discussion back on

track? Did you finish the session on time?9. Was the writer critical of the instructor, the assignment, or grades? What kind of tone did

you and the writer set for this discussion?10. Did the writer try to get you to do the writing? How did you get around that?11. Did the writer seem to be able to step outside the paper and analyze it (the structure, for

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example, or the audience or the purpose)? Did you model that kind of analysis?12. Afterward, did you help the writer to see what had gone on in the session?13. Did you ask what his or her plans were for moving the project forward?14. What do you think the writer got out of the session?15. What was most positive for you in the session?16. What would you do differently if you had more time?

B. Making Tutor Class VisitsDuring the first few days of each semester, you will visit a number of Writing 101 and “Writing in the Disciplines” classes and give an enthusiastic, high-energy, five-minute description of the Writing Studio, explaining what kinds of regular writing help it offers, how to make appointments, and what other Writing Studio events students can participate in. During your training at the beginning of the semester, you’ll receive information about what to say and Writing Studio information cards and stickers to hand out. Tutors work especially closely with Writing 101 instructors and with other professors of writing-intensive courses. Tutors will visit all the Writing 101 classes and a number of “Writing in the Disciplines” classes.

C. Attending Staff Meetings and Special EventsAs noted above, tutors are expected to attend weekly staff meetings. The meetings are a time for tutors to bring up common problems they’re facing and share strategies for dealing with them. It’s a time Vicki can share information about feedback from the professors of writers tutors have worked with, Writing Studio workshops being offered, new resource materials, special events, and a number of other things. Tutors are also expected to attend occasional special events, including guest lectures by well-known scholars in the field and social events with Writing 101 professors or UNC writing tutors.

D. Ongoing Projects and ActivitiesSome tutors will volunteer for ongoing work to help with projects to maintain or expand the work of the Writing Studio on campus. Activities and projects may vary from year to year, but generally tutors will help in certain predictable areas: updating Writing Studio computer programs or websites, publicizing Writing Studio activities, keeping the Writing Studio library well organized and cataloguing new books, revising and updating Writing Studio handouts, and planning for monthly events. Generally, tutors do this work during hours they are scheduled to be available for tutoring but have no writers signed up.

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E. Using SakaiSakai is an efficient way for the tutors and Studio staff to stay in touch, share ideas, and learn more about the tutoring process. All tutors and staff with a Net ID and password are granted access to the Studio’s Sakai site while they are employed.

To access the site:1. Go the following URL: https://sakai.duke.edu/.2. Select “Duke Sakai Login” in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. This will take

you to the login screen.3. When the login screen appears, enter your Net ID and password.4. Click-on the “Org-Writing Studio” tab or the “My Active Sites” tab to find the Writing

Studio site (which is listed as “Org-Writing Studio”).5. Welcome to the Writing Studio Sakai site!

Tutors and staff can access core Writing Studio documents through Sakai as well as post to and view discussion threads on various Studio-related topics. There are also links to other writing studios and on-line writing journals across the country.

Sakai is very user-friendly: by using the tabs arranged on the left-hand side of the screen, tutors can access Sakai’s menu of possibilities. Many of these tabs are self-explanatory and provide links to important Writing Studio sites (e.g. Tutor’s Assistant). Personal folders, shared files, and other important Writing Studio material can be found in “Resources” under the following folders:Under “WS_Personal Folders,” tutors will find a personal folder to store ongoing work they

are doing for the Writing Studio.Under “Handouts and Resources,” tutors can find Writing Studio handouts, articles on

writing and tutoring, a link to Deliberations: A Journal of First-Year Writing, and also a collection of PowerPoint presentations for one-on-one workshops with students.

Under “Information,” tutors will find background information about the Writing Studio staff, basic contact info, and current shift schedules.

Under “Job Jar,” tutors will find information about ongoing tutor projects assigned during the semester.

Under “Tutor Guide,” tutors can find the Tutor Guide and other training materials. Under “Hours Bank,” tutors will find a link to the Hours Bank Google Doc.

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Many instructors use their Sakai sites as “virtual classrooms.” Instructors frequently use their sites for chats, posting assignments and other administrative tasks. If a writer doesn’t have the assignment prompt or professor’s name with them, they may be able to look it up on Sakai. Sakai also has a wide range of uses for the Writing Studio. Each semester Vicki will choose a Sakai site administrator. This individual will be the primary contact for the site’s upkeep and content. When new additions are made to the site, the site administrator will let you know by email.

F. Enhancing ResourcesTutors learn a lot from working closely with a variety of writers and often can suggest handouts, books, or other resource materials that writers could benefit from that are not available on the Writing Studio website or in its library. In addition, they may simply know of books or articles they find especially interesting or useful about the writing process. Vicki welcomes suggestions for new materials and encourages tutors to be on the lookout for them. The Writing Studio has a limited annual budget for expanding its resources.

G. Supporting the Undergraduate Writing Tutor (UWT) and Partner (UWP) Programs

The Thompson Writing Program sponsors two programs for undergraduates who are interested in working as writing tutors: the UWT and Partner programs. Each UWT student has completed Writing 101 and has trained as an undergraduate writing tutor in EDU 255, the “Literacy, Writing, and Tutoring” course that Vicki teaches each fall and spring. The EDU course requires each student to be tutored, observe Writing Studio tutoring sessions, and individually tutor several Writing 101 students. The class centers on theory and practice and offers opportunities for students to research a particular writing and tutoring issue of their choice as part of a final research project. Students are required to have a tutoring session at the WS early in the semester and to observe at least one tutoring session.

At the end of the EDU course, students are evaluated to ensure they have the necessary skills to be effective tutors. Each tutor works a total of 30 hours each semester through two cycles of drafts with approximately 12 Writing 101 students and is paid a $320 stipend. UWTs use the Lilly space when regular WS tutoring is not scheduled, as well as 106 Art. On West campus, they make their own space arrangements, including sometimes Perkins 112. The Partner program is now in its third year. Each year, approximately 8 to 10 students go

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through a rigorous selection process, first nominated by their W101 instructor for writing and peer review excellence, and then screened by a selection committee. They undergo tutor training at the beginning of each semester, work a maximum of 30 hours each semester, and tutor undergraduate writers on a drop-in basis. The Partners offer drop-in tutoring on West Campus in Perkins 112 and at an East Campus location several evenings a week from 8 to 10 PM. Jim Berkey is the Associate Director of the Writing Studio in charge of this program.

For regular tutors who are working during times when UWTs or Partners are also present, you will have opportunities to interact, including observing sessions, being observed, and sharing resources. We encourage you to share your expertise with them as needed.

H. Working on Job Jar ProjectsThe Job Jar is housed on the Writing Studio Sakai site under “Resources” (for location and log-in information, see Using Sakai above) and is available to tutors when you are not tutoring or otherwise working on other projects.

Job Jar Protocol1. Select a job. Many of the Job Jar projects are handouts, but not all. New tutors, please

discuss current jobs that need work with Vicki and the associate directors. They may have suggestions regarding which jobs need to be completed first, or possible new projects that may better suit your interests.

2. Once you have selected a job, look through its folder thoroughly. Some of the first drafts are located in folders within folders. Some of the drafts are in pdf form. If so, save them as text, convert them to a Word document, and then begin your revisions.

3. Make your revisions, but if you have questions, comments, concerns, etc., make a comment or use track changes to note these concerns. This way, the next person to work on the project will pay particular attention to those areas of the project.

4. Always save the draft you originally started with, along with the draft you’ve just completed. Save your newest changes using the following format: Date_ProjectName_ YourInitials.doc. So, for instance, if Heidi Giusto worked on a handout named “Prepositions” on July 30, 2009, she would save the documents as: “7-30-09_Prepositions_HG.doc”. Saving the documents in this manner will ensure that tutors

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will be able to identify the newest version of the project quickly and easily.

5. Once you (and anyone else who might be working on the project) believe the project is complete, email it to Vicki for her comments. Once Vicki approves the final version, move the project’s folder in the Job Jar to the Job Jar Archive folder in the Writing Studio Sakai site (also located under “Resources”). Doing so will ensure that tutors won’t inadvertently work on a project that has already been finished.

Professional Resources for Tutors

I. METHODOLOGY AND TUTORING RESOURCES

Duke University Libraries Reference and Research Serviceshttp://library.duke.edu/about/depts/reference/Library information to help tutors help writers locate relevant, scholarly materials.

The McGraw Hill Teaching Composition websitehttp:www.mhhe.com/socscience/english/tc/Features interesting, informative essays relevant to all who are part of the first-year composition community. It offers special resources for teachers of online composition courses. One can subscribe to its listserv.

“Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices”http://www.wpacouncil.org/positions/WPAplagiarism.pdfThe Council of Writing Program Administrators’ January 2003 statement on plagiarism. This document presents useful strategies for combating plagiarism.

II. INFORMATION ON THE FIELD

The Writing Centers Research Project at the University of Arkansas, Little Rockhttp://casebuilder.rhet.ualr.edu/wcrp/Conducts and supports research on writing center theory and practice and maintains a research archive of materials related to Writing Center Studies.

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International Writing Centers Associationhttp://writingcenters.org/index.phpContains online articles, professional organization and conference information, job postings, and miscellaneous research materials.

CompPilehttp://comppile.org/search/comppile_main_search.php A database of composition-related articles, searchable using a keywords feature.

The WAC Clearinghousehttp://wac.colostate.edu A recently improved site that provides access to six journals, seven book series, and a wide range of resources for writing, speaking, and communicating across the curriculum.

III. NEWSLETTERS, JOURNALS, PUBLICATIONS

The Bedford Bibliography for Teachers of Writing http://bb.bedfordstmartins.com/An introduction to the field of rhetoric and composition, providing a convenient resource for instructors and graduate students who want to familiarize themselves with the growing body of scholarship or to acquire an overview of the discipline quickly. A brief history of writing instruction, with cross-references to entries in the bibliography, outlines the development of the discipline from classical rhetoric to composition and rhetoric studies through the 1990s. Approximately 400 bibliographic entries, each consisting of publication information and a brief descriptive paragraph, provide access to materials helpful for teachers of writing. Selected for their practicability, the works cited—books, journal articles, periodicals, and bibliographies—represent the theoretical and pedagogical concerns most prevalent in composition studies today.

The Writing Lab Newsletterhttp://writinglabnewsletter.orgBack issues (from 1976 up to the current issue) are available online. Use the search index to find the volume numbers of articles that interest you. Then use the index of volumes to locate the ones you need. Or browse the archives.

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WCenterArchiveshttp://lyris.ttu.edu/read/?forum=wcenter A list-serv for those interested in writing center theory and practice. Subscribe by emailing [email protected] and requesting delivery in the form of digest or postings as they come. Archives searchable by subject, date, and author, available to list members only.

Across the Disciplines (journal)http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/A forum for debates concerning interdisciplinarity, situated discourse communities, and writing across the curriculum programs.

Computers and Composition: An International Journal for Teachers of Writinghttp://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/home.htmLinks to archived and current articles, numerous professional organizations, conferences, calls for papers, among other things.

The INBOX Newsletterhttp://www.ncte.org/newsletterFrom the National Council of Teachers of English, a free, monthly email service to help you stay in touch with English language arts news, teaching ideas, and new resources for English teachers at all levels.

The Dangling Modifierhttp://sites.psu.edu/thedanglingmodifier/An international peer-tutoring newsletter from the Penn State University, in association with the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing, The Dangling Modifier offers articles about a number of topics, such as announcements of upcoming writing conferences, and various kinds of advice for working with undergraduate, graduate and ESL writers.

Praxis: A Writing Center Journalhttp://praxis.uwc.utexas.edu/index.php/praxisPraxis is a biannual electronic publication published by the University of Texas Undergraduate Writing Center.

The Chronicle of Higher Education (available through Lexis-Nexis) 84

http://praxis.uwc.utexas.edu/index.php/praxis

http://sites.psu.edu/thedanglingmodifier/

http://www.ncte.org/newsletter

http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/home.htm

http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/


http://lyris.ttu.edu/read/?forum=wcenter


http://chronicle.com/section/Home/5

IV. CONFERENCES AND PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

National Council of Teachers of Englishhttp://www.ncte.org/

International Writing Centers Association Conferenceshttp://writingcenters.org/Link to information about writing center conferences, including regional conferences, is located in the lower left-hand column.

International Writing Centers Association Listservhttp://www.writingcenters.org/board/index.phpDiscussion board link. To join, just click on the "register" link on the main page.

Writing Studio Policies

I. COMMUNITY USE POLICY

Our first priority at the Writing Studio is to provide support to Duke undergraduate writers, although we are happy to meet with Duke faculty, graduate students, and staff on a space-available basis. To ensure that undergraduate students have first access to appointments, we must ask that all other users of the Writing Studio wait until the day of the desired appointment to sign up on-line. The only exception to this policy is the International Graduate students (NOT including professional school students in Business, Sanford, Nursing, etc.), and Nicholas School graduate students. The total numbers of appointments allowed for this group (International students in the Graduate School and Nicholas School graduate students) is limited to 18/week.

II. SUSPECTED PLAGIARISM POLICY

Insofar as we usually work with writers on incomplete drafts and not graded essays, our

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policy is to educate them in proper documentation strategies before they turn in work for a grade. Our responsibility is to help them understand that using sources without proper acknowledgement will most likely be considered plagiarism once they hand in a finished draft. Tutors should not be reticent to explore the topic of intentional or unintentional plagiarism with a student. Direct questions about the source(s) used and a simple Google search are often sufficient to discover the original source. Students need to understand the possible consequences of such actions with respect to the Duke Community Standard. In the unlikely case that a tutor suspects plagiarism when working with a student on revising a written assignment that has already been graded, the tutor should notify the Director about the situation.

III. HELP WITH TAKE-HOME EXAMS POLICY

For take-home exams, some instructors specify whether students may or may not bring their work to the Writing Studio. We suggest if students have any questions about whether it is appropriate to get feedback from the Writing Studio on take-home exams, they ask their instructor before they bring in their paper. If they have not done so and feel confident it is okay with the instructor, you can work with the student under the caveat that they MUST agree to send a conference summary to their instructor at the end of the conference.

IV. STUDENT ACCESS POLICY

Duke undergraduate writers are allowed to sign up for two Writing Studio appointments per week and not more than one each day. The online appointment calendar blocks them if they try to sign up for more than this. Our emphasis is to encourage students to become strong, independent writers—not to help certain writers with each and every writing assignment. We want our resources to be available to a wide spectrum of students. Nonetheless, despite this “two appointment per week” policy, Duke undergraduates may sign up for more appointments in a given week by e-mailing Vicki directly and explaining their situations to her. If there are open slots, Vicki can override the system to meet an individual student’s needs. We do not make exceptions for the one appointment per day policy. This means that we do not extend a session into the next session even though we might have an open slot.

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V. PRIVATE TUTORING POLICY

Writing Studio tutors have the opportunity from time to time to work as private tutors, assisting Duke undergraduate or graduate students with writing projects outside the regular operating hours of the Writing Studio. This situation most often occurs at the end of a grading period when all available Writing Studio slots become filled and, consequently, a small number of students wish to hire tutors by the hour. Writing Studio tutors may add on these extra assignments as long as they continue to work during their regular shifts and meet these students some place other than at the Writing Studio. The same policy applies to private tutoring of non-Duke students. It is recommended that tutors charge $25 to $30 an hour, but the rate is ultimately up to you.

VI. SEVERE WEATHER AND OTHER EMERGENCY POLICIES

Duke University classes occasionally will be cancelled as a result of severe weather and, obviously, Writing Studio tutors, like other teaching staff, will not be expected to come to work. However, when classes are not cancelled, some weather situations require tutors to determine for themselves whether or not they can safely drive to campus. If a tutor decides he or she cannot make it to campus for any reason during hours that Duke remains open (family emergency, etc.), the tutor should contact Vicki or Jim if at all possible. Vicki can try to rearrange the schedule so that other tutors will cover the tutor’s scheduled appointments. If she cannot do so, she will expect the tutor to contact the writers they are scheduled to work with by both e-mail and phone as indicated in the section: “Severe Weather Procedures.” The tutor should also contact the appropriate person in the Writing Studio or at Lilly or Perkins to ask that he or she put a sign up or let the other tutor on duty know the situation. See “Emergency Contacts” information under “Writing Studio Procedures” near the beginning of the Tutor Guide.

If a tutor is unable to work during his or her shift hours when Duke remains open, he/she generally will owe those hours to the Writing Studio and should record them as missed hours in the “Hours Bank” (see below). This, however, is not an inflexible rule simply because individual circumstances vary enormously. When in doubt as to whether or not you, as a tutor, “owe” hours to the Writing Studio, simply consult with Vicki about it. She is willing and able to make decisions regarding owed hours on a case-by-case basis.

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VII.HOURS BANK

The Hours Bank allows us to keep track of tutor hours to ensure that you neither work more nor less than your contract requires. Every now and then you might need to miss a shift, weekly staff meeting, or training session. When this happens, you “owe” those hours to the “Hours Bank.” Alternatively, you can earn “extra” hours by working on a special project outside of your tutoring hours or taking on an extra shift. The goal is to have a zero balance at the end of each semester.

To Cancel a ShiftIf you are working a shift by yourself, you MUST try to find a substitute. Writing Studio

policy is to have at least one tutor on duty at all times. The further in advance you plan for this, the greater the likelihood of success in finding someone to take your place. The best way is to let Jim know, ask at a staff meeting, and send out an e-mail to the Writing Studio listserv.

If you are working the same shift as another tutor at the same location, it is possible Jim can cancel your shift, if the other tutor can take your appointments. You do not need to find a substitute unless the other tutor is not able to fit any previously scheduled writer appointments into her/his schedule.

If you need to miss part of a shift, let Jim know, and he will try to work out an arrangement.If an emergency comes up at the last minute and you are unable to cover your shift, you need

to notify Jim right away so that he can try to contact the writers and let them know they need to reschedule. For obvious reasons, this is a scenario we try to avoid if at all possible.

Please note that Vicki or Jim will make the necessary changes to the administrative calendar. Do not attempt to do this yourself!

To Miss a Staff Meeting or Training SessionBe sure to let Vicki know if you are not able to attend these “required” events. You will “owe” the Hours Bank for the hours missed.

To Use the Hours Bank The bank is a Google spreadsheet linked through the Resources folder on the WS Sakai site

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(you should receive an email invitation sharing the Hours Bank Google Doc before the training session). At the beginning of the semester, before the August week of training, each tutor begins with a zero balance. Hours you work beyond your contractual weekly 12 hours of tutoring and a staff meeting count as hours earned. Any missed August training time, shifts or parts of shift, and staff meetings, count as hours owed. Please update your totals as changes occur. If you are unable to update your hours in the Google doc, give your hours update to Jim during staff meeting or by email.

Writing Studio Use Statistics

The Writing Studio experienced an increase in the usage rate from 86% in 2010-11 to 93% in 2011-12. The distinct number of students served remains about the same as last year, but the number of frequent appointments increased, with 608 students having more than one appointment, 75 having 6-10 appointments, 20 having 11-20 appointments, and 15 over 21 appointments each. Our average monthly usage rate (number of appointment slots compared to actual appointments) of 93% consistently runs high throughout the entirety of each semester.

2013-2014 Staff Contact Information

PLEASE NOTE: All returning staff names are bolded, and all full year staff names are in italics.

DirectorVicki Russell [email protected] Office: 107 Art BuildingH: 967-9650 / W: 668-0900 / Cell and Text: 260-1271 / FAX: 681-0637

Associate DirectorJim Berkey [email protected]: 200-A Art BuildingW: 660-4391 / Cell: 812-320-1924

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Tutor Guide

ESL SpecialistRene Caputo [email protected] Office: 223 Academic AdvisingHome: 929-3471 Cell: 360-1805

Tutors (bolded: returning; italics: fall and spring)Lynn Badia (fall and spring) [email protected] Browne (fall) [email protected] Davidson (fall) [email protected] Kita Douglas (fall) [email protected] Giusto (fall and spring) [email protected] Goocey (fall) [email protected] Greenlee-Donnell (fall and spring)[email protected] Beth Long (fall and spring) [email protected] Marina Magloire (spring) [email protected] Martell (spring) [email protected] Mullendore (fall) [email protected] Ramos (fall) [email protected] Ross (spring) [email protected] Swezey (fall and spring) [email protected] Valnes (fall and spring) [email protected] Vernon (fall and spring) [email protected]

Other112 Perkins: 684-6796Art Building: 660-4368 (Melissa Pascoe, Vanessa Turnier, or Jennie Saia)Lilly Library Reference Desk: 660-5995 (will deliver message to tutors upstairs)Payroll: Melissa Pascoe: 112 Art / [email protected] 668-2689

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Beyond the Writing Studio: Resources for Duke Students

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)CAPS offers free counseling services for Duke students. Many students find CAPS a helpful resource, with approximately 11% of Duke students using CAPS in some way. CAPS services include individual, couples, and group therapy as well as psychiatric evaluation. In addition to counseling services, CAPS offers a range of activities, events, and self-help guides that address issues such as managing stress, adjusting to college, dealing with depression, understanding disordered eating, and engaging in conflict.

Appointments can be made over the phone or in person.

Web: twwp://studentaffairs.duke.edu/capsLocation: 214 Page Building (Chapel Quad, West Campus)Phone: (919) 660-1000Hours: Monday-Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Academic Resource Center (ARC)The Academic Resource Center provides services through three programs: the Academic Skills Instructional Program (ASIP), the Peer Tutoring Program (PTP), and the Program for Students with Disabilities (PSD). ASIP helps students develop efficient academic skills and strategies, including time

management, note-taking, study and test-taking strategy, and approaches to science and math study. According to the ARC, time management skills during the first year of college are the best indicators of G.P.A. at the end of the last year of college.

PTP provides students with up to twelve hours of free tutoring each semester. Duke students enrolled in select introductory courses (mostly math and science) are eligible for Peer Tutoring. Tutors are undergraduate students who have been highly successful in the courses in which they tutor. Students can schedule peer tutoring sessions weekly.

PSD is a support service for students with learning disabilities or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The PSD is there to work with students who might benefit from accommodations for a learning disability.

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To make an appointment with the ARC, call (919) 684-5917.

Web: duke.edu/arcLocation: Academic Advising Building (East Campus), 2nd floor Phone: (919) 684-5917Hours: Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM-4:30 PMEmail: [email protected]

Writing Studio Calendar for 2013-14

FALL

Aug. 19, 21, 22, and 23 Tutor Training Aug. 26 Classes startAug. 26 and 27 Work parties (Aug. 26: 10 to noon or Aug. 27: 2 to 4 PM)Aug. 28 Class visits startSept. 2 Labor Day. Classes in session, WS closedSept. 4 WS opens for appointmentsOct. 12-15 Fall Break. WS closed Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday (daytime) Nov. 27-Dec. 1 Thanksgiving Break. WS closedDec. 6 Classes endDec. 12 WS closes for the semester at 10 PM

SPRING

Jan. 8 Classes begin

Jan. 13 Class visits startJan. 20 MLK Holiday. Classes cancelled, WS not yet open for semesterJan. 21 WS opens for appointmentsMar. 8-16 Spring Break. WS closedApr. 23 Classes endMay 1 WS closes for semester at 10 PM

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Appendix: Technology Guide

I. ACCOUNT INFORMATION

A. Obtaining a Net IDAll Duke faculty, staff, and students have assigned Net IDs. If you are a new tutor and not a Duke student, OIT will generate a Duke Net ID and a Duke unique ID number for you, once you are hired. You need to contact OIT (919-684-2200) to set up your Duke email and Net ID password. You’ll need both your Net ID and password to log in to the Writing Studio computers.

B. Obtaining a Sakai AccountIf you are a student at Duke, then you should already have a Sakai account. If you are not Duke student, once you have a Net ID, you will automatically gain access to Sakai as well.

C. Obtaining Access to the Shared MailboxWe now have a shared electronic mailbox ([email protected]). To access the shared email account, go to www.gmail.com and log on with the following information:Username: etwritingstudioPassword: writingtutoretVicki will secure permission for each tutor to access the shared mailbox. When writers submit a draft to E-Tutor they are asked to submit their draft to the shared mailbox, too, as a backup, in case there’s a problem with their first draft not attaching. All tutors need access to the shared mailbox, so everyone will be able to download the backup draft in case the first one didn’t attach to the E-Tutor.

If you're NOT a Duke grad student, there's an additional step: you need to contact OIT (919-684-2200) individually and ask them to set up an Exchange account for you so you can access the shared mailbox. Tell them you want your primary account to be your sunmail (Duke email) account, instead of the Exchange account. Please take care of this a week before the Writing Studio opens in the fall.

D. Obtaining a DukeCard (Duke ID Card)All tutors who are Duke graduate students have Duke ID cards, but tutors who are not Duke students can also get Duke ID cards. The TWP Program/ Business Manager (Melissa Pascoe) will initiate the process for ID cards, and you will receive an email about what to do. Among

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tel:(919-684-2200

tel:(919-684-2200

http://www.gmail.com/

Tutor Guide

other benefits, the ID cards provide access to the gated lots behind the Allen Building in the evening, for those who work at night in Perkins, and in the one next to the tennis courts behind Lilly on East Campus, for those who work at night in Lilly.

II. LOGON PROCEDURES

To log on to Writing Studio computers, press the Ctrl/Alt/Delete buttons, then enter your Net ID and password.

Printing in Lilly LibraryBoth Writing Studio computers can print to the HP LaserJet 4000 networked to the Writing Studio computer on the right side, near the bathrooms. If you encounter difficulty printing, first make sure the printer is plugged in. Next, turn the printer off, then on again. You can also print to the E-Print station on the first floor.

III. ACCESSING WRITING STUDIO FILES

Shared files and personal folders for Studio documents are accessible from any computer with internet access. Go to https://sakai.duke.edu/. Once you have logged into Sakai with your Net ID and password, click on the Writing Studio’s tab (Org-Writing Studio). Personal folders and shared files will be located in Resources. To modify files, download them, save the changes locally, and then upload the revised version. For more information about using Sakai, see “Using Sakai” above.

IV. FLIP VIDEO CAMERA

A. Using the Camera for Recording and PlaybackBefore recording a session with a writer, make sure you have his or her consent. If you intend to distribute or replay the video, you will need to have the subject fill out a release form. Forms are available on the WS Sakai site.

Recording a Tutoring Session or Video ClipTurn camera on with button on the right side

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Check to make sure you have enough battery power and record time remainingPosition using preview screenHit the red button to start and stop recording

Replaying RecordingsPress the Play/Pause buttonUse the arrow buttons to select the desired recordingUse the + and – buttons to adjust the volume

B. Transferring Recordings from the Camera to a Computer

Flip Video Software (FlipShare)All of the Writing Studio computers already have Flip Video software installed or pre-

installed. If the software has not been set up yet, go to “Application Explorer” “Duke University” “EndUser Apps” “FlipShare Installer.”

If you are using a home computer, you can simply plug the camera into a USB port and follow the instructions for installation.

Transferring RecordingsPress the button on the left side of the camera to open the USB port, and plug the camera into

the computerFlipShare will open automatically

If it does not open, you may need to install the software using the directions aboveGo to “Camcorder” on the left menu and select the video you want to saveRight-click on the video, and select “Export to…”Navigate to the folder where you would like to store the video, and click “OK”

Note: The video will save as an AVI fileGo to the folder, and rename the video for easy identificationReturn to FlipShare and right-click on the video to delete it from the camera and free up

memory for further recordings

V. LOANER LAPTOPS AND IPADS

Loaner laptops are available from the OIT Service Desk in the Link for Studio-related uses, such as writing workshops. A loaner iPad is also available in the TWP from Vanessa Turnier

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and another one from Vicki.

VI. USING GOOGLE DOCS

Google Docs allows tutors to revise Writing Studio documents online. It is easy to access from any computer with internet access, and allows for collaborative revision in real-time. This section describes the basics of how to set up access and edit Studio documents online.

A. Getting AccessEmail [email protected] to join the Writing Studio tutors’ list. If you don’t have a Google account yet, email with your other account to get an invitation to Gmail. Create a Google account and log onto http://docs.google.com. After your Google ID is registered to the Writing Studio tutors’ list, you will be able to read and revise documents shared with Dukewstutor. You can also share your own project with other tutors via Google Docs.

B. Sharing Documents with Others To share your own document with others, click the <Share> tab on the upper right side and type in account information of the collaborators you wish to invite. Anyone you've invited to either edit or view your document, spreadsheet, or presentation can access it as soon as they sign in.

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http://docs.google.com/



C. Editing and Presenting with Others in Real-TimeMore than one writer can view and make changes simultaneously. There is an on-screen chat window for spreadsheets, and document revisions show you exactly who changed what, and when.

DocumentsIf you and another collaborator are editing the same document at the same time, a box at the bottom left of the screen will appear, telling you the name of the collaborator(s) you're working with.

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SpreadsheetsIf multiple people are editing or viewing the same spreadsheet at the same time, the <Discuss> tab will open and you will see the names of those people listed. From here, you can chat with these people about changes being made to the spreadsheet, or anything else you'd like. Up to 50 people total can edit or view any single spreadsheet at one time.

PresentationsIf more than one person is editing a presentation at once, the names of your simultaneous collaborators will be displayed in the bottom-right corner.

D. Tracking changesYou can compare two versions of one document—a simplified form of the Microsoft Word track changes function. The changes made will appear as highlighted. Check two boxes you would like to compare under the <Revisions> tab.

VII. SOCIAL NETWORKING

A. WordPress Blog (http://dukewrites.wordpress.com/)DukeWrites, the Writing Studio blog, is aimed at both the Duke community and people outside of Duke. It is intended to promote our activities and the work of the WS, introduce the WS tutors and UWTs, feature writing studio/TWP events, and highlight WS resources.

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http://dukewrites.wordpress.com/


To access, go to: http://dukewrites.wordpress.com/wp-admin Username: dukewritesPassword: edu155

B. Twitter (http://twitter.com/)Our Twitter account targets people outside of Duke and non-student Duke community.It offers a quick way to highlight (and potentially link to) writing-related articles, tips, news, events, etc.

To access, go to: http://twitter.com Username: dukewritesPassword: writingstudio

C. Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/)Our Facebook page is intended for the Duke community and, more specifically, Duke (undergraduate) students. We use it to promote events, invite group members to activities/events, and promote conversations about writing.

Anyone with a Facebook account can join the group and post to the wall.To access, join the “Duke Writing Studio” group.

D. Tutor Musings Blog (http://sites.duke.edu/duketutormusings/)The Tutor Musings blog is an internal, rather than public, site, to facilitate discussion among all tutors in the Thompson Writing Program: Writing Studio tutors, Undergraduate Writing Tutors, Undergraduate Writing Partners, and EDU 255 students. It’s a chance to share tutoring-related reflections, experiences, successes, issues, difficulties, and ideas. This blog began in the spring of 2012 and has sparked some thoughtful and interesting posts and responses.

Log on with your Net ID and password. In addition to the main blog page, there’s also a page with general guidelines and another with the posting schedule.

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http://sites.duke.edu/duketutormusings/

http://www.facebook.com/

http://twitter.com/

http://twitter.com/

http://dukewrites.wordpress.com/wp-admin

Tutor Guide

Troubleshooting

WHO COUNTS AS AN INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE STUDENT?

The Graduate School provides funding to tutor international graduate students (IGS) and any students in the Nicholas School of the Environment. International students in the professional schools (Law, Business, Nursing, Divinity) do NOT count as IGS, nor do visiting scholars or those from the Medical Center. These should be listed as “Other.” Don’t assume that someone from another country is an International Graduate Student; ask what program they are in so you’ll know whether to click “IGS” or “Other.” Nicholas School students get their own button on both the Student Information screen and the Student Goals page.

HOW TO ADD A NEW STUDENT TO THE SYSTEM IN THE CASE OF A DROP-IN APPOINTMENT BY A FIRST-

TIME STUDENT

1. Go to "Find Student Records."2. Enter student's Net ID.3. If no record appears, the student is not yet in the system. Then click on "New Student?" and proceed from there to enter the necessary information.4. Once you create a record, you can then fill in the information for the first appointment.

E-TUTOR SITUATIONS

A. If there’s a submission form, even a blank one, but no draft, check the shared mailbox; the writer is required to submit a backup draft there.

B. If the paper is for a class (e.g., not an application essay) but the submission form doesn’t include the instructor’s name, email the writer for the necessary information, e.g.:

Hello, Johnny,You signed up for an E-Tutor appointment with me at the Writing Studio today. I

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noticed that you left out the name and email address for the instructor on the submission form. Writing Studio policy is to email a conference summary for every E-Tutor session (and you'll receive a copy as well). I am not able to send the comments on your draft until you let me know your instructor's information -- you can just reply to this email and let me know.Thanks,XXX XXXXWriting Studio Tutor

NB! Do NOT wait to hear from the writer! Read and respond to the draft, and even save your comments in the Tutor Notes field, just don’t send them to the writer until you’ve learned the professor’s information.

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