Writing Center Best Practices/Best Questions
(Thanks to Montgomery College’s Reading and Writing Center for most of these ideas. Obviously, there
are differences between college and high school writing centers, but these practices also apply to the high
school population.)
The goal of a writing center is to empower the student towards independence, so a writing center
tutor needs to diagnose/address the student’s thinking about writing. Therefore, good tutors
model the questions that good writers ask themselves.
Questions to ask at the beginning of the conference:
There is only so much a student can assimilate in a 10-20 minute conference at the Writing
Center. Therefore, students should identify what it is they want to work on in the
conference.
Ask the student: “What three things would you like to work on in this conference?”
If the teacher has written comments on the paper: “Did you read and understand your teacher’s
comments? Can you read the comments to me?”
“May I see your assignment sheet? Rubric?”
“What does the assignment/rubric say? Let’s look at it. Read it to me.”
“Let’s figure out your purpose.”
“Who is your audience?”
“Tell me what you think a good essay looks like.”
Address formatting issues on their paper. If the paper is formatted weirdly, (ie no paragraphs),
point that out right away, as that might indicate rambling structure/organization, which becomes
an audience issue.
Students will often say they want their paper proofread. We are not a proofreading service, but
we can model some good proofreading skills. One best practice is to share tools with them
(spellcheck, grammar check, thesaurus, dictionary). Another is to have them read their paper
aloud and keep a list of common errors.
Making sure the conference is student-centered:
The student should do 80% of the talking, tutor should do 20%.
How to avoid the temptation of writing on their paper:
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If you feel like you have to have a pencil/pen in your hand, use it to point to things on the
student’s paper.
If you see a recurring issue, model one sentence on a separate sheet of paper and say,
“Here’s what I do to fix this problem in my own writing.”
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On a separate sheet of paper, jot down words as the student speaks and read this back to
them: “This is what you said” --this can be very empowering for students.
Ending the conference:
At the close of the writing conference, ask the student: “What can you do to help yourself
remember this so you won’t forget it the next time you write a paper?” Have them verbalize
what they have learned or write it down.
“Do you want your teacher to know that you came to the center?” (Some teachers will require a
signature)
Remind the student that the Writing Center is open at lunch and after school from 2:10-3:00
To help students with recurring issues: Anne Ehlers has her students look at the teacher
comments on their last paper and write three things they are going to work on at the top of the
current paper.
Good resources:
Owl Purdue https://owl.english.purdue.edu/
Chomp chomp (grammar instruction with attitude) http://www.chompchomp.com/
Writers, Inc. and Write for College http://thewritesource.com/books/handbooks/writers_inc/
Suggestions from Ms. Weis:
“UNC Writing Center http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/
The site is broken into four parts
◦Writing the paper
◦Citation, Style and Sentence Level concerns
◦Specific Writing Assignments/Contexts
◦Writing for Specific Fields
Don’t miss the multimedia writing demonstrations!”
U of Chicago:
This site is great for the upper level students. It details the differences between college and high school
writing.
http://writing-program.uchicago.edu/resources/collegewriting/ “