Tutoring at the Bronx Community College Writing Center is the first job I ever had. One common misconception about writing centers is that they exist to “correct” student papers, similar to how some editing services online operate. Instead, writing center tutors pride themselves in not being editors; they work together with students to improve their academic skills: writing, reading, research methods, and critical thinking. In brief, writing centers exist to help students help themselves. In this way, writing centers are vital to a university.
Firstly, they give students hope, keeping them in school. Students who seek help from a writing center tutor often feel vulnerable; they feel that writing centers are for bad students. One thing they often say when meeting a tutor is, “I’m not a good writer.” They come to a writing center to be taught by someone who “knows.” Rather, a writing center is a place for tutors and students to collaborate. A tutor empowers a student Socratically, building skills and discouraging dependence. This helps students become more confident and self-sufficient, critical qualities for any college student.
Secondly, a writing center is a space for students to go on campus and not be judged. The BCC Writing Center mission statement is to “. . . empower students by providing quality, collaborative tutoring in a nonjudgmental space.” Writing is often intimate. I know this well as a graduate from the City College of New York MFA program, where my creative work was critiqued in workshops by my peers and professor. Someone else could destroy your sense of pride in your own work with their words. In a writing center, students feel similarly exposed: Their thoughts, grammatical errors, misspellings, lack of cohesion or coherence, etc. are out in the open for the expert tutor to see. But no good tutor would laugh at or put a student down for such errors. They will read, listen, understand, ask, and teach, without judgment. It is only in such an environment that progress may be made. Just as in life, it is important to make mistakes, and recognize them, in order to grow. Consistent criticism, especially in the absence of praise, hinders growth, and fosters defensiveness, low self-esteem, and resentment.
And, third, a writing center is a place for students to simply to hang out and be social. The BCC Writing Center, for instance, holds a Poet’s Cafe every semester, where a featured poet shares their art with students and staff. There’s music; food; camaraderie; and, of course, an appreciation of the spoken word, art generally, and good writing. The Center also holds regular workshops throughout the semester, including, but certainly not limited to, such topics as test-taking strategies, essay structure, MLA works cited, introduction, databases, and literary analysis. It is quite common for students to make friends with tutors, who often share similar experiences and identities since they, too, often, were BCC students and/or are from the same community. These academic friendships are enabling to doing better in school; the mentoring tutor shows the mentee where the mentor has trodden and how to avoid the same pitfalls. The mentor shows the mentee: “If I did it, you (with my help) can definitely do it, too!”
I hope this writing serves to advocate for writing centers, their significance to the community and to the university. Writing is a critical aspect of college. Everyone thinks; and everyone writes, even math students, in college. Moreover, a writing center may be the last thing keeping a student in school. That’s because nothing is more powerful than being taught the gift of self-learning, the kernel of which is the idea that you can, in fact, do it. Perhaps that’s why I care about education so much. If there’s anything most important to the success of humanity, it’s the idea that inherent in all of us the ability to move mountains lies.