The Ethics of Tutoring
Pre-College Level Writing
Students
Learning When Being Too
Helpful Is Not a Good
Thing….
Teri Mates
Passaic County Community College
Ethical Components of Tutoring
Key to running a successful tutoring
program is establishing an ethical
foundation so that students learn
skills that will help them to work
autonomously, and no faculty member
can complain that essays that the
student brings to the tutoring center
are 100% better than what the
student is capable of producing in
class. Hence, the conundrum....
Ethical “Commandments”
Thou shall not “fix” errors for students.
Often, students believe that writing
tutors exist to proofread and “fix” their
errors. Occasionally, tutors get a bit
too happy to show off their own skills.
That is not tutoring. The student
learns nothing from watching
“experts” do their work for them.
Authenticity of Authorship
Thou shall never ever write any part,
no matter how small, of a student’s
essay.
No matter how “stuck” a student
claims to be, the best service you can
provide is showing them how to
prewrite to generate ideas and sift
through those to see what works best.
Prewriting in Fast Forward
Determine exact topic about which student is
being asked to write
Establish “working” thesis:
(exact topic + attitude/approach toward
topic)
Take topic through BOO!
*Brainstorming (generating ideas)
*Organizing (grouping similar ideas together)
*Outlining (selecting order of presentation)
Payment for Services Rendered
Thou shall not recruit among tutoring
center students for private tutoring, for
which the student would have to pay.
If your institution offers tutoring free to
enrolled students, you break an
ethical taboo by offering to these
same students more “intense” tutoring
for a fee. At some colleges, this is
grounds for dismissal.
“Sharing” Work
Thou shall not encourage students to use
the same materials or “share” an essay
unless the assignment is a group project.
It’s astounding how, with some
developmental students, “sharing” work is
so built into their academic patterns that it
doesn’t seem wrong or unnatural.
Questionable “sharing” should be logged
and reported to a tutoring center supervisor
and/or the instructor(s) involved.
You Might Be Too Helpful If….
The student simply “follows along” while you
do the work.
Students want to work only with you,
because other tutors “don’t help,” and you
“get” them A’s.
Yours is pretty much the only voice heard
during the tutoring session.
Your students “require” the same level of
help from you the fifth session they work
with you as they did the first.
Useful Advice
Think like an instructor. How much
outside involvement, likely not
acknowledged by the student, would
you want your student to have? Do
not provide more assistance than that
More Useful Advice
To keep the level of help that students
receive appropriate to the stage of the
writing process, it is beneficial to
establish writing center policies that
are clear for all students, tutors, and
faculty. What follows are some
general guidelines that we follow at
Passaic County Community College.
Essays Graded By Instructor
Review essay with student, focusing
primarily on instructor feedback.
Provide supplemental materials to
help student understand problems
that occur most frequently.
Give students strategies for revision,
following instructor guidelines first,
and general principles of good essay
writing.
Essays Instructor Hasn’t Read
Proofread intro carefully with student,
identifying types of problems and
guiding student toward possible
improvements.
With student’s permission, quickly
proofread essay, placing a check
mark in the margin of any line
containing an error.
List types of errors found at bottom of
page.
Ungraded Essays (2)
Let student work independently to
correct as many errors as possible.
Once student has made corrections,
review and help clarify with student any
errors not found.
Note: Essays should represent
student’s actual ability, not yours. If
student cannot write equally well on
his own, this creates ethical conflict
and false expectations.
Works Cited
Boylan, Hunter (1999). “Exploring Alternatives to
Remediation.” Journal of Developmental
Education 22 (3).
Boylan, Hunter (2001). “Making the Case for
Developmental Education.” Research In
Developmental Education 12 (2), 1-4.
Boylan, Hunter (2002). What Works: A Guide to
Research-Based Best Practices in Developmental
Education. A joint project of the Continuous
Quality Improvement Network & the National
Center for Developmental Education.
Elbow, Peter (1973). Writing Without Teachers.
New York: Oxford University Press.