YC Writing Center Comes into its Own

Flourishing Program Offers Students a Great Deal

Nestled in the corner of Furst Hall's second floor, the Yeshiva College Writing Center is a valuable resource for students looking to improve their writing skills. At the Center's heart lies the peer tutoring program, where budding writers receive assistance with their papers from teachers and fellow students. The Writing Center's warm, carpeted atmosphere affords students a comfortable place to write and study. More than just pens, pencils and erasers, the ongoing conferences offer students, despite the sometimes rambunctious environment, the important resources they need to improve their writing skills.

In taking advantage of the peer tutoring program, students may "drop in" during special tutoring hours, or they can sign up for semester-long weekly sessions. These "drop in" conferences help those just beginning an essay as well as those in need of last minute assistance on a paper. The tutors, while critical of the due-in-two-hours, hot-off-the-printer essay, nevertheless make the effort to help no matter what the situation, though they clearly recommend stopping in at draft time. The lesson is clear: prevent students from writing papers the night before they are due, giving them time to integrate their tutor's suggestions into the paper before handing it in.

The weekly appointment system allows the tutor and student to work together over the course of a semester. The goals of these sessions are to develop quality writers, not to specifically improve a paper. A tutor can point out the areas in which a writer needs improvement and focus on each one individually as the student's writing improves. Many times, the tutor and writer will develop friendships that extend beyond the Writing Center's walls.

Both weekly appointments and "drop in" conferences last approximately an hour. Tutors focus on many aspects of an essay including its logical argument, the presentation of evidence and the clarity of the work as it develops ideas. When grammatical problems arise, the tutor will work through the grammatical rules and teach his/her charge how to avoid similar problems in the future.

Similarly, the Writing Center offers all types of help to foreign students for whom English is a second language. Many function as the requisite weekly ESL tutors (English as a Second Language).

Both before and after the biannual "Grammar Test Massacre," the Writing Center floods with Comp I victims. The Center offers practice grammar exams with solutions, and tutors are available to help them when questions arise. Still, most tutors are reluctant to pinch hit for a computer grammar and spell checker; they prefer to explain the rules and to teach students to spot their own errors.

The center is unique in that two tutors will rarely approach a paper in the same way. Not only do writers have their own styles, but tutors also approach writing with individual tutoring techniques. While they encourage writers to find their own style, they are quick to point out the difference between style and incorrect English. For that matter, they will not guarantee an A or any other grade. Tutors will never evaluate a paper and give their own opinion on its prospective grade. Whether their recommendations are useful in raising the grade is up to the individual writer.

Fundamentally, the Writing Center can be said to hold in high regard the halakha of perika-teina, the dictum that a Jew must help a person unload his over-burdened donkey. Still, this applies only where the ox's owner also participates in the unloading. Writing Center tutors will never write or edit a student's paper, a fundamental rule being that the writer always holds the pen. The paper will always be the work of the student; the tutor is simply an advisor and assistant.

A prospective tutor need not achieve an SAT verbal score of 800 or receive an "A" in Freshman Comp. The Writing Center simply seeks students who can carefully read a paper and offer positive suggestions for improving it. While YC pays the tutors a small amount for each session, most tutors work at the Writing Center to give something back to their school. Eddie Djouejati explains that he tutors because "God has blessed me with the ability to write and I'd like to share that talent with others." Not all tutors are born with the innate ability to write, though. Many tutors once used and in some cases continue to use the services of the peer tutoring program.

Miriam Ben-Ezra, a Stern Writing Center tutor describes the personal satisfaction she gets from tutoring. "Last year, one of my classmates from a literature class asked me to tutor her, so that when it came time to write her term paper, she would know what the professor expected. We worked faithfully for half of the semester. When it came time to write the paper, she did not come here [ the Writing Center], for she felt confident enough to write it on her own. She did show me the finished product, and I felt so proud. I had nothing to do with the paper, but she handed me a work that was well done. She wrote well, and if I only helped to give her the confidence to do that, I did my job well."

The Writing Center offers training for its tutors throughout the semester. Dr. Lauren Fitzgerald, the director, and Steven Torres, the assistant director, have introduced many innovative programs to the Writing Center. Tutor staff meetings teach new approaches to reading, analysis, and commenting on students' writing. This semester the Writing Center took part in a special tutoring conference along with Barnard, Stern, and Stony Brook. Additionally, Dr. Fitzgerald was instrumental in creating an e-mail list-serv that allows tutors to discuss tutoring and writing with other tutors.

The Writing Center is always looking for new tutors, and it's not too late to sign up for a weekly appointment for next semester. Those who need help get the obvious assistance of an experienced writer who is looking to help improve their writing. Those who volunteer to work in the Center get the personal satisfaction in addition to the adulation of their fellow students. From Composition to application essays, short essays to creative fiction, the Writing Center has the "write" stuff.