Bridge the Gap: Introducing ALORA

By: Beach Keenan

For my tutoring inquiry project, I decided to focus on how to observe and address obstructive behavioral patterns writers may have when scheduling and attending an appointment. An obstructive behavior is defined as, “behaviors intended to hinder an employee from performing their job or the organization from accomplishing its objectives” (McBride, 2018). That makes sense, but what does this mean for us in the Writing Center? Let’s get into it.

Understanding how a writer is feeling can be difficult, but also immensely beneficial. As peer tutors, the way we react and handle these difficult situations is important; especially when dealing with writers who are apprehensive about the appointment! We as writers know that we need to watch our actions/feelings during an appointment as it can influence the writer negatively and that is immensely destructive for the relationship we are trying to build. However, writers themselves can often affect an appointment with their own feelings/energy. It is our job as tutors to recognize these patterns and work around them to provide the best peer-tutoring session we can. The goal of this post is to give insight regarding how to watch out for several different obstructive behaviors writers may have when scheduling and attending an appointment, as well as how to address them in a manner that upholds the respect, dignity, and confidence of all involved. There are three main obstructive patterns I’m focusing on: nervous and avoidant behaviors, defensive and submissive behaviors, as well as bored and unwilling behaviors (Parvez, 2024).

First up are the nervous and avoidant writers. A writer who is nervous and/or avoidant in the Writing Center refers to their being uncomfortable in the space or feeling the need to avoid direct contact with the peer tutor. A few social cues to pick up on when dealing with nervous and avoidant behaviors are writers who tend to avoid eye contact, leg bounce, fidget, or repeatedly use “uptalk.” Uptalk refers to how normally people’s pitch changes at the end of a question; however, anxious people tend to raise their pitch at the end of all sentences, which phrases the statement as a question.

Defensive and submissive behaviors are categorized by writers who distance themselves, partake in hiding behavior, and tend to look down. This usually means that the writer feels like a secondary party, thus they will be “submissive” and take the back seat during the appointment. Regarding the cues, distancing themselves is usually the act of putting space between you the peer-tutor, and them the writer. Hiding refers to the tendency to shrink down oneself when uncomfortable, this can be seen by crossing the legs, hugging the arms, or raising the shoulders to hug the head. Finally, looking down when in addition to the other cues, may indicate the writer is uncomfortable making eye contact with anyone in the room, not just the tutor.

The final behavioral pattern, and arguably the most difficult to deal with, is writers who are bored and unwilling. A writer who feels bored and/or unwilling will often take a back seat during the appointment or may even forgo their position as a writer completely and leave the details to you the peer tutor. This can be hard for us to maintain that line between working with the writer and working for the writer, which is essential in our line of work. A few quick cues to pick up on are writers who look away, are unfocused, and/or passive. It is usually safe to assume that someone passive and unfocused probably had to come to the Writing Center as required by some classes, especially since passivity is a key sign of an uncaring psyche.

For all the behavioral patterns listed, one of the best ways to work around these issues is to take a step back and begin focusing on rapport building since most of these obstructive behaviors revolve around the writer being uncomfortable, (Thompson, 1994). However, that doesn’t always work, and you might need more specific steps. So, allow me to introduce A.L.O.R.A. ALORA stands for: Acting in Empathy, Listening Actively, Observing Vigilantly, Remaining Flexible, and Acknowledging the Whole. Using ALORA allows for a more comprehensive and targeted approach to address these obstructive patterns. Specifically, acting in empathy allows you to view the writer as a person who just like everyone else, will at some point feel annoyed, nervous, bored, etc. Listening actively and observing vigilantly will give you a better sense of the writer’s mood and behavior as well as the best way to move forward. Remaining flexible is important to restructure/reframe the appointment as needed to accommodate the writer’s needs. And finally, acknowledging the whole will tie the whole process together by doing exactly as it states, acknowledging the whole. Every individual is unique but also the same, and to realize that is what makes ALORA work.

In conclusion, when working with writers, especially in synchronous appointments, using ALORA will help you as a peer tutor determine which obstructive behavior type a writer may be exhibiting, as well as how to address them in a manner that upholds the dignity, respect, and confidence of all involved. It is our duty as peer tutors to help the writer as best we can, however, sometimes we can’t bridge that gap and that’s okay. What’s important is helping the writer the most we can and acknowledging that we are all just people with our own struggles and intersecting identities and that is okay too.

References

McBride, M., Edwards, B., Kutner, S., & Thoms, A. (2018, November 30). Responding to the Whole Person: Using Empathic Listening and Responding in the Writing Center. The Peer Review. https://thepeerreview-iwca.org/issues/issue-2/responding-to-the-whole-person-using-empathic-listening-and-responding-in-the-writing-center/

Medway, F. J., & Muse, V. U. (1991). A Social Psychological Analysis of Peer Tutoring. Journal of Developmental Education, 15(1), 20–32. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42785272

Murphy, C. (1989). Freud in the writing center: The Psychoanalytics of Tutoring well. Writing  Center Journal, 10(1), 13–18. https://doi.org/10.7771/2832-9414.1195

Parvez, H. (2024, July 13). Nervous Body Language Signs (A Complete List). Psych Mechanics. https://www.psychmechanics.com/nervous-body-language/

Thompson, T. C. (1994). Personality Preferences, Tutoring Styles, and Implications for Tutor Training. The Writing Center Journal, 14(2), 136–149. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43441951