By Anne Meyers

A Writing Center can be an intimidating place for first timers, and it has been my experience as a tutor that many students resent being forced to visit the second floor of Elliot. Occasionally that resentment comes out in the session, and through experience tutors learn to counter aloof expressions with amiable smiles. If all goes well, by the time the student leaves, paper in hand, the grudging requirement has been turned into a worthwhile exercise in the writing process. Everyone is happy: students improve their writing and thinking skills (as well as their grades!), the red pens of professors are spared some ink, and the tutor watches and waits hopefully for the student to return with the next paper, the next question, the next piece in the on-going puzzle of learning to write. Sometimes they return, sometimes they don't, but we wait.

Fortunately, I was spared this interlude for one, precious semester by being given the chance to be a Writing Fellow in an upper-level psychology class. No more waiting: these students were required to come back for three major writing assignments, and I swore that I would try my hardest to make the Writing Center a less intimidating and more effective educational tool.

The proper groundwork was laid, the meetings scheduled. I wasn't quite sure what to expect-I didn't really know the professor, and it had been a while since Psych 101-was I really going to be able to help these people? At our first meeting, Dr. Baker surprised me: instead of handing me cold copies of the assignments and a list of students, I was given time to interact with the person who had designed the assignment, to think it through and ask direct questions about her specific expectations for each and general ideas about writing. This was one of the most useful elements of the fellowship for me because I gained intimate knowledge of the assignment and the person behind it, which helped me to be a more effective critical reader. I walked into Dr. Baker's classroom on that first day confident that she respected my judgment and that these students would view me as an asset, not an impediment.

As the semester wore on and the first set of appointments came and went, I found myself slipping into the inevitable void: I waited--but, not for long. One afternoon in the Center I picked up the phone to hear the timid voice of a woman who had an appointment the following day. Immediately, I began to flip through the scheduling book, because I assumed that she wanted to reschedule. Instead, she politely asked if I thought we'd have time to look at a paper for another course in addition to her required psychology assignment. I stopped flipping the pages, smiled, and crossed off my half-an-hour break, just in case. The next day she came in prepared, and she had already done some thinking about the trouble spots I'd pointed out during her last session.

By the end of my experience as a Writing Fellow, many of these students could predict my major comments and had therefore begun to recognize their patterns, as well as utilize the strategies and interventions we'd discussed. The focus of the sessions became their writing in general, instead of the specific essay before us, and this shift illustrated significant progress in my tutoring and in the writing I saw. As my rapport with students improved, so did my communication with Dr. Baker, which continued throughout the semester via e-mail, written session summaries, and occasional meetings. The results of the Writing Fellow partnership were immeasurable for me as a tutor, but for Dr. Baker, they were more tangible: after collecting the final group of papers, she commented to me that it was the best set of papers she had ever received. This, I believe, would not have been possible without the sustained relationship of the Writing Fellow Program. During the course of the semester, I improved as a tutor and future educator, established relationships with many diverse members of the campus community, and helped fellow students view peer commenting as a way to improve their writing holistically, instead of on a singular basis. In my opinion, the Writing Fellows Program has succeeded in its goal to give the writing process and its improved results a more prominent role in the classroom across the academic disciplines.