How to Be a Good Tutor in the Writing Center
Graduate student Brooke Delp (MA English/Writing, '21) recently spoke with Prof. Al DiCiccio, who teaches the Writing Center Practicum and is coordinator of the Mary G. Walsh Writing Center, located on the first floor of the Berry Library.
DELP: What would you say to someone considering being a tutor?
DECICCIO: Do it. You will not regret it, and you will learn ways to work with people the rest of your life. The rewards of tutoring are many: professional development, knowing you have helped someone complete a difficult task, how to negotiate and converse effectively, and acquiring friendships that will last a lifetime.
DELP: What skills must an aspiring tutor learn?
DECICCIO: Empathy, curiosity, dexterity, respect for writing—that feeling of a power coming all over you when you write and the desire to convey that feeling to others not yet aware of the power they command.
DELP: What is a skill you just can’t teach— but that all tutors should have?
DECICCIO: I can’t teach a tutor’s ethos, or character. I can teach about ethos; I can make the tutor aware of how they project their character. But I can’t teach how one may be reticent, vivacious, patient, calm, etc. A tutor’s ethos belongs to the tutor. I hope, and this is usually the case, that whatever a tutor’s character they evince good will and good sense.
DELP: Which professional journals and organizations best represent the work that writing centers do?
DECICCIO: Journals: the Writing Lab Newsletter; the Writing Center Journal; Praxis.
Organizations: the International Writing Centers Association (IWCA); the Northeast Writing Centers Association (NEWCA); National Conference for Peer Tutors in Writing (NCPTW).
On Life in the Writing Center
DELP: What is the schedule like? Are there busy and slow times, or is the work relatively constant?
DECICCIO: The schedule is built around the most hours we can serve students: 9-8 M-Th; 9-5 F; 9-3 Saturday. It is busiest two to three weeks into the semester; at midterm, and in the final four to five weeks of the semester. There are steady times throughout, especially when professors ask for group tutoring and group presentations. It would be good if at all times there were tutoring sessions taking place.
DELP: How would you describe the working atmosphere?
DECICCIO: We are a community in which everyone can participate and to which everyone can contribute. I love that because I believe all humans want to belong to a community and to engage in an ongoing conversation in that community surrounded by like-minded people.
DELP: What do you like most about being a part of Salem State?
DECICCIO: I love that people are passionate about their work—students, faculty, and staff. I also feel a strong sense of community inheres in the university. When it comes to writing, I think those I work with—from the poet who is Assistant Coordinator of the Writing Center to those creative and academic writers in the English Department and to the delightful writing of the students with whom I have the honor to interact—have shown me the habit of mind to be a writer, something I was not able to practice while an academic administrator. I do not like having to worry about finances, though it is a necessary part of coordinating the Writing Center.
DELP: What are you working on, and what do you hope to accomplish?
DECICCIO: I am hard at work to create a graduate writing place within the Writing Center. I am also hopeful that the Writing Center can establish strong connections to area high schools, helping writers there to understand the writing challenges they will encounter when they enter the university. I am working on helping graduate assistants to have their research published. I am hoping to complete a historical look at my journey in the Writing Center field that is concluding with my work at SSU. And I am interested in having a poetry chapbook and a combined poetry/essay chapbook published. I want to be supportive to Ann, my wife, who is my age and earning her Ph.D. from one of the best Composition Studies program in the country, UNH. And, finally, I hope to be a good grandfather to my seven beautiful grandchildren.