I’m a Music Performance major. When I tell people that I work at the DePaul’s Writing Center as a peer tutor, I’m often met with reactions of surprise and confusion.
“Why?”
“Do you have a second major in English or something?”
“Don’t you need to be using that time to practice?”
I don’t have a second major in any subject, and I suppose I could be using the time that I spend reading over student papers to put in an extra hour or two of practice a day. I currently spend fifteen hours a week at the UCWbL offices doing a job that seems completely unrelated to my course of study.
Why?
Well, I’m here to make the case that working at the Writing Center is especially beneficial if you have an unrelated major like music, acting, finance, or math. If you have even the slightest interest in being a peer tutor, you should apply to work here too!
Here’s why.
Working at the Writing Center allows you to develop an identity outside of what you’re studying
As someone studying music, much of my adolescence was devoted to my instrument to prepare for the high-stakes college auditions I knew I’d have to take in order to further pursue my craft. My weekends were spent in youth orchestra rehearsals and music lessons; the first thing I’d do after classes was practice instead of homework; and my first semester of senior year was defined by learning oboe concertos and orchestral excerpts instead of meticulously editing college essays or retaking the SAT.
Even before I got to college, my identity was closely tied to my musical ability. With all the time I spent learning my instrument, I began to equate my self-worth with my playing ability and see myself as a musician instead of a person who plays music.
When I came to DePaul—and was suddenly surrounded by people with far more experience than me—I had an identity crisis. I had suddenly become a very small fish in a large pond, and my self-worth’s equation to how good of a musician I thought I was meant my confidence quickly deteriorated.
As I struggled with these adjustments, I found myself questioning my own identity. If I wasn’t a “good” musician in comparison to my new peers, what was I good at? Who did that make me?
I applied to the Writing Center because I needed an on-campus job. I had hoped to make some money on the side during my college years, but what I hadn’t expected was for it to give me a sense of self outside of music and repair some of the cracks in my confidence that being a first-year music student had created.
Through my work as a peer tutor, I’ve come to appreciate skills and strengths that I have outside of music like writing and tutoring that allow me to maintain my self-esteem even if I have a particularly bad day at rehearsal.
Using your major to define your identity is something that I think many college students struggle with, and having a job that’s completely unrelated to your coursework can help you to develop a more well-rounded sense of self.
Working at the Writing Center makes you a better writer, which is useful for any major
Being a Writing Center peer tutor makes you a better writer through teaching you how to analyze and critique essays from a third-person point of view.
Before I became a tutor, the only times I edited essays was when I revised my own work. However, editing my own papers meant that I was attached to the draft I’d written, and I often struggled with critiquing it.
Giving feedback on student papers has allowed me to develop my revision skills in an objective manner. My ability to distance myself from my own work and treat it like I’m critiquing another student’s paper has improved dramatically since I began working here, and this has made my revisions much more impactful.
Working for the Writing Center also means that I constantly need to learn about different citation styles and genres to help writers. My knowledge of various aspects of writing increases with each appointment I conduct, which is especially useful when I have to use a different citation style or write in a different genre for a class.
For example, I didn’t know how to cite unusual sources like podcasts or YouTube videos in MLA format until I had an appointment with a writer who specifically asked for help with this. To answer their questions, I consulted a variety of resources, and this knowledge served me well when I later had to cite video and audio sources for an assignment in a World Music class.
Regardless of your major, you’ll be faced with writing at least a handful of papers to graduate. Being a Writing Center tutor makes you more prepared to write by exposing you to revision techniques and new writing skills.
Learning how to be an effective tutor can have applications outside of writing
In order to become a Writing Center tutor, you’re required to take a class on pedagogy and how to effectively conduct appointments. The lessons I learned in this class and developed through hands-on practice have applied to work I’ve done outside of the Writing Center.
Our institutions stress the importance of building rapport with writers at the beginning of appointments so they may feel more comfortable sharing something that can be very personal and vulnerable. I’ve applied this philosophy in my work as a Chicago Quarter Mentor, where I co-teach a “Discover Chicago” class.
This second on-campus job involves meeting with every student in the class one-on-one to discuss how their first quarter of college is going. I’ve found that taking the time to build rapport like the Writing Center taught me makes it easier for students to talk about more personal topics that they may be hesitant to share.
Additionally, tutoring strategies have had applications to even work I’ve done related to my major.
Many musicians teach in addition to pursuing performance opportunities, and I recently had the chance to teach some band students at a high school. I utilized the lessons that the Writing Center taught me about making sure to pair critique with praise and prioritizing certain feedback items to avoid overwhelming students—and I think that this made me a more effective teacher in a musical setting.
Working for the Writing Center allows you to develop tutoring skills that can be applicable to work that you do for any major.
So, what are you waiting for?
I feel extremely lucky for my job at the Writing Center particularly because the work that I do is very far removed from what I study in most of my classes. My experiences as a peer tutor have allowed me to develop skills that are useful to courses in my major as well as develop an identity outside of my course of study.
Do you feel that itch to apply to work at the Writing Center even though you have a seemingly unrelated major growing? Well, you’re in luck! The Writing Center is currently accepting applications for new peer tutors here: https://condor.depaul.edu/writing/about-join-our-staff.html