Tutoring Freshman in the Writing Center

The transition from high school to college can be incredibly difficult for brand-new college students for a variety of reasons. When coming into college, freshman college students must adjust to new schedules, new expectations, potentially different class sizes, and plenty of other huge life changes all at once. On top of this extreme adjustment, there is the process of being placed for college courses. This can look different for every school; however, it can create similar feelings in college students all over the country.

In a case study done on a college-aged girl named Inez, Christina Saidy found that “This moment [the moment a student is placed in college classes] is also critically important for students transitioning from high school to college writing because it is the moment in which they are institutionally labeled as prepared or underprepared” (Saidy 20). This moment of placement, on top of all the changes that college freshmen go through, can add up to intense feelings of inadequacy.  

In high school, Inez had always received high praise for her writing and high grades as well. However, when reflecting back on taking the ACT, she said “We thought it was a required test. We didn’t know it would affect us in college, so we didn’t really try, or I didn’t. If I could go back I’d probably try” (26). Despite her high grades, her high school seemingly did not prepare its students for the ACT and what it meant for their higher education. As a result, she was placed in a remedial college writing course based on her ACT score (23-25). In her research of Inez’s high school, Saidy found that “…it became evident that even the school’s highest achievers were often labeled at-risk or underprepared when they entered college” (23). Through Inez’s story, it’s easy to see how different high schools prepare their many students for college differently. While high achievers in one high school may still be high achievers in college, that is not the case for everyone.

Even when afforded the access and support needed to succeed in standardized test taking, being placed in upper-level English isn’t always a good thing. AP test scores, along with SAT scores, are used to place freshmen in upper-level English classes, by counting as college credit. Author and teacher John Warner argues that AP tests are overly emphasized, and that placement above standard freshman English classes leaves students at a disadvantage. The structure of AP classes focuses primarily on a narrow set of skills such as timed writing and test-taking rather than revision or feedback skills. This leaves little room for students to develop or discover strategies that work for them, ultimately leaving them unprepared for self-guided writing.

A Chicago public school teacher interviewed by Warner, who chose to remain anonymous, stated, “For kids who are struggling writers, I find myself having to essentially teach them to hack the FRQ [free response] section. They might not have an authentic voice or engaging approach, but if their essay ticks these boxes, they’ll be fine.” As Warner points out, the College Board’s definition of “good writing” shapes the expectations of countless high school students, potentially limiting their exposure to alternative writing experiences that they will encounter in college. Furthermore, the emphasis on standard English in AP exams can marginalize diverse linguistic practices and perspectives, failing students more than helping them.

Aside from placement, the challenges freshmen face can be traced back to early elementary school, due to experiences with feedback and praise that can have lasting effects. Research by Andrei Cimpian on the effects of praise on four-to-five-year-olds’ experiences with failure feedback highlights the significant impact of how feedback is framed. For instance, telling a child “You are a good drawer” versus “You did a good job drawing” can lead to different outcomes. Praise that focuses on people-oriented feedback rather than process-oriented, can result in children enjoying activities less, being less resilient in the face of difficulty, and being less likely to choose the activity again. They may also become more judgmental of themselves and others and generate unproductive narratives to explain their experiences (Johnstone 40). This type of feedback fosters a fixed performance mindset, where children believe their abilities are unchangeable.

Similarly, Melissa Kamis and Carol Dweck’s study on kindergarteners showed that praise such as “I’m proud of you!” can leave children to fill in the blanks and assume that something could also be disappointing, further reinforcing a fixed mindset (Johnstone 36). These early experiences with feedback and failure can significantly influence how students approach challenges all throughout their education, and this makes our role as tutors even more pressing. We may not be able to alter the whole school system, but we can cause more damage by continuing cycles of person-oriented feedback. On the other hand, we hold the power to demonstrate a new way of tackling writing in college.

When giving praise in the Writing Center in any modality, it is important not to make the praise personal. As we can tell, writers already have a lot of feelings about their own skills and success as writers, and we very much have the power to make it better or worse depending on our word choice. The best way to ensure that we are not leaving writers in worse shape than they came in is to give praise about an aspect of their writing and its impact on the writer, not commentary on their skill level or evaluative praise. Johnstone gives us an example of high-quality praise when he writes, “’When you added dialogue to your piece, I really understood how Amy [the character] felt’” (42). In this example, he makes the writer feel praised because they know they did something well, but they are less likely to internalize this praise and come to the understanding that if they don’t get praise next time, they are a bad writer. It leaves the writer understanding what they have done well without making it personal.

It is also important to guide our writers through the various subjects they will deal with, wherever they are in their college writing journey. The Writing Center and its tutors have the potential to foster confidence in writers. This comes down to our methods of praise and feedback, but also through guiding writers. Nordlof tells us that “[Student learning] is a developmental process in which concepts are internalized through social interaction” (56). Wherever students are at with their writing, we can meet them there and guide them through what they are struggling with. We can be a friendly face that will not meet them with judgment, but with understanding. When we give constructive praise and offer a non-judgemental space for writers to talk to us, no matter where they are at in their writing journey, we can help freshman DePaul students better adjust to and feel supported in their college writing journey. 

References

Johnston, P. (2012). Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032681979

Nordlof, John. “Vygotsky, Scaffolding, and the Role of Theory in Writing Center Work.” The Writing Center Journal, vol. 34, no. 1, 2014, pp. 45–64. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43444147. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.

Saidy, Christina. “Inez in Transition: Using Case Study to Explore the Experiences of Underrepresented Students in First-Year Composition.” WPA. Writing Program Administration, vol. 41, no. 2, 2018, pp. 17-34.

Warner, John. “The Biggest Mistake I See College Freshmen Make.” Slate Magazine, 31 Aug. 2022, slate.com/human-interest/2022/08/advice-to-first-year-college-students-on-freshman-comp.html.