The other day, I had an appointment with a student who needed help understanding a reading for class because she had to write a response to it. In writing the appointment letter and thinking about it afterward, I couldn’t help but keep thinking about the role of reading in the writing center, or more specifically, at our University Center for Writing-based Learning (UCWbL) here at DePaul. Conversations about helping students with writing are common while discussions on reading, reading skills, and reading comprehension are scarce.
Reading, a Reality
As students and writing tutors, we are constantly reading. Whether it’s reading a student’s paper, the prompt and concerns they submitted, or reading our own written feedback both during and after the session (such as during reflective sessions like tutor talk). The students who come to us are also heavily engaged in reading: reading the texts they are responding to in their papers and reading their own work while revising for example. So, if there is so much reading going on before, during, and after writing sessions, why is there limited writing center scholarship on reading?
This is exactly what Muriel Harris in her article “Writing Centers are also Reading Centers: How Could They Not Be?” (from Patrick Sullivan’s et. al Deep Reading) is asking. Harris argues that reading and writing are closely linked because writing-related issues often derive from under-developed reading skills. After a national survey, she realized that writing centers often do not give due diligence to the role reading plays in writing.
Connecting Reading and Writing
Here are some of the ways reading plays a role in both writing and writing center appointments:
- Reading to Write: Writing in college includes genres such as research papers, analyses, and argumentative papers. These genres are often in response to texts or include other texts. Students who have either not adequately read the sources they use or did not understand the sources due to the vocabulary and terminology often struggle to write using information from the material. In cases where papers seem underdeveloped, unfocused, or uninformed, tutors can students with reading the source material they are using.
- Reading Assignments: Student writers also need to read the assignment prompts and guidelines they writing in response to. Lack of close reading can lead students to inadequately respond to assignment prompts. Tutors can help students understand writing assignments by asking them to define the verbs that are used: analyze vs summarize for example.
While it can be difficult to apply these reading methods in written feedback appointments — where tutors are not provided with the assignment prompt or a works cited page that provides access to the source material used — understanding these connections and needs can help us as tutors leave comments that can lead writers to reconsidering their understanding of the reading and prompt on their own.
Reading to write and reading assignments are not the only connections, however, as the following are further ways that reading is instrumental in the writing process:
- Reading instructor feedback: If students come in with feedback they received from their instructor, tutors may need to help students understand that feedback and apply it effectively to their revisions.
- Reading while composing and while revising: As students write during appointments, tutors can either help students develop their reading skills or use reading skills they already have. When composing, it is important for writers to pause at certain intervals and read what they are writing to ensure that the intended meaning is being conveyed clearly.
Taking the above and considering specific methods that tutors can suggest to writers, I have compiled relevant suggestions from Harris, adapted from Lynn Quitman Troyka and psycholinguistics, which shares two reading strategies: prediction and redundancy.
Prediction
According to Harris, prediction refers to being aware of “what comes next as we read.” If student writers are failing to read while they compose, then they “are not always aware that what they write builds expectations” (236). This can cause writing issues related to organization and a lack of connections within the text. In such situations, tutors can show writers how they would respond to the texts as readers. Comments that start with “as a reader” can be useful in written feedbacks. When tutors are reading students’ work during face-to-face (nowadays called online realtime) appointments, they can pause to tell students what they expect will happen in the next paragraph. If the tutor’s prediction does not connect with what occurs in the text, then the tutor and writer can think about how to create stronger connections within the text or reorganize information.
Redundancy
Another reading strategy is redundancy which “refers to prior knowledge that precedes new knowledge in the structure of a sentence” (237). Issues surrounding clarity often stem from sentences and paragraphs that begin with “new” information and ends with old information (or some other variation such as this). Such issues can be resolved if sentences and paragraphs begin with older information such as information that the reader may already know.
… and Revision
Reading while revising is also essential for making texts clear and conveying our intended meanings as writers. Harris states that writers need to read their drafts multiple times when revising. Tutors can help students read their own writing and think about how another reader may interpret their texts. One way tutors can do this is by reading the students’ texts out loud in face to face appointments.
The Need for Tutor Preparation in Reading
Harris advocates that tutors be more prepared for helping writers with reading skills. I believe this preparation starts with improving one’s own reading skills. “A Writer’s Guide to Mindful Reading” by Ellen C. Carillo is a great resource that is comprised of techniques on reading a variety of texts. Writing centers can also provide tutors with training programs directly designed so that tutors are able to help students acquire reading strategies and skills.
Harris says that such programs can teach students how underdeveloped reading skills can cause writing issues. Such training programs and courses can train tutors to ask students to summarize assignment guidelines and then listen to their summary to see if students understand the assignment. These programs can also train tutors in helping students read their own writing and write reader-based prose.
Reading is inextricably linked with writing and in order to help all tutees, it’s essential to first acknowledge the role reading plays in the writing center. Then we can begin preparing ourselves as tutors and writing centers can train tutors in helping students with reading skills and strategies.
Works Cited
Harris, Muriel. “Writing Centers are also Reading Centers: How Could They Not Be?” Deep Reading: Teaching Reading in the Writing Classroom, edited by Patrick Sullivan et. Al., National Council of Teachers of English. 2017, pp. 227-241.