A Tutor’s Guide 2: “What Line? I Didn’t See Any Line” by Molly Wingate

Main Points:

There is an invisible line between productive, useful sessions and sessions where the writer gets nothing useful and ends up relying on or overpowered b y the coach. This article talks about two kinds of line crossing that might not seem as obvious as the ones that most tutors immediately recognize, brainstorming line crosses, and “over” sessions. In “brainstorming” sessions gone wrong, a coach gets too involved in helping a writer develop ideas, and ends up generating ideas along with the writer. This usurps ownership of the paper from the writer and takes away his/her control over the paper. There are also a number of “over” sessions that should be avoided, overempathizing, overwhelming, and taking over the session. When a coach overempathizes, he/she gets too caught up in the writer’s personal problems and does not keep the focus of the session on writing. Sometimes writers need to talk to someone, but a writing coach should be a sympathetic ear without getting too involved. When a coach overwhelms a writer, he/she points out ever mistake in the paper and leaves the writer feeling like his/her paper is useless. When a writer takes over a session or a writer’s work, they get too involved in the subject matter and focuses on product rather than process. When this happens, the coach becomes like a coauthor or editor, trying to wrest control from the writer rather than empowering the writer.

What I Got:

Coaches need to be constantly vigilant against crossing a line that is always different depending on the writer and the situation. In order to do this, a coach must be adept at reading body language, vocal tone, and other social cues in order to tell when the writer is starting to tune out of the session.

Questions:

I have problems reading body language and vocal tone, does that completely hinder my ability to keep from crossing the line while still pushing just enough for the session to be productive, or is it better just to stick to safe ground?

What about the writers who won’t talk at all? It’s hard not to cross the line with a writer like that or it’ll be an hour of awkward silence.

Beginning Coach Needs:

Sessions should always be about the writer and his/her ideas. If it is becoming about the coach, or the coach feels that the writer is starting to tune out or become overdependant, it’s time to reevaluate the way they are going about the session. To a beginning coach, that kind of flexibility may seem strange, and this article emphasizes flexibility heavily.

Best For:

This article was written especially with experienced coaches in mind, and so it assumes that coaches are already good at getting a feel for how a writing session is going. They don’t talk about the kinds of things that show that a session is starting to take a turn for the worse. This also only covers the more covert ways that a tutor can cross the line, rather than the obvious ones, like writing on a student’s paper.