Keywords
Asynchronous critique, Pedagogy, Nondirective feedback, Policies, Theory
First Paragraph
There were thirty-seven broken links on the OWL and several e-mailed papers waiting in the in-box when I arrived as the new writing center coordinator. With only two weeks before the start of fall semester and no staff hired, the OWL was the least of my worries. None of the new staff would know enough about tutoring, let alone online tutoring. to answer OWLS, so I took it upon myself to send replies to submissions. Not wanting to ruffle feathers, I answered the OWL as previously done in the center. This meant inserting into the e-mailed text my comments in all blue caps. I was not an expert in computer communication. but I knew enough to suspect my all-caps responses were equivalent to a tutor standing on a chair with a bullhorn to address the adjacent writer. Also, because of the campus’s open enrollment status, some students’ papers were riddled with errors, and the many patterns of errors were part of what needed to be addressed in the tutorial. It was difficult to see how to help and still provide a learning experience without falling into the editing trap. Again, I found myself textually screaming, shouting out comma rules left and right.
Citation Information
Type of Source: Book Article
Author: Lisa Eastmond Bell
Year of Publication: 2006
Title: “Preserving the Rhetorical Nature of Tutoring When Going Online”
Publication: The Writing Center Director’s Resource Book
Page Range: 351-358