It’s About Building Rapport and Trusting the Process

by Kelvin Nuñez ’24

AFTER MY FINAL CONFERENCE on a frosty February evening, I slid my classic W.B. Mason notepad back into the cabinet and grooved my way to the back table. As I sat down, fellow Writing Center tutor Max Gersch ’23 turned to me with a raised eyebrow and a smile.

“You always seem to have so much fun during your sessions. What do you guys talk about?” he asked.

Initially, my thoughts stalled as in, “Well, the usual … it’s writing.” But then I realized it was more than that. The icebreakers, jokes, and rapport with my peers are built on something genuine and go beyond just helping them improve their writing. Max’s observation made me reflect on how my time as a writing tutor changed me and my perceptions of the effort we put into communicating with each other.

I came into my junior year at Hamilton a bit nervous and feeling alone. My social networks were limited, so I set a goal of meeting more people. I see myself as goofy and caring, but I often default to shyness and hesitation when presented with new interactions on campus.

The Writing Center allows me to connect with other students and get to know them while also leaving an impact. The opportunity to make a difference at this one-on-one, highly personal level reminds me that my efforts to share writing knowledge contribute to a larger purpose beyond myself. Yet, at the same time, I have taken steps to improve my own technical writing and interpersonal skills. The Writing Center has made me a much stronger communicator and listener.

The first in-person conference I participated in was as a shadow tutor in training. As I sat in one of Sophie Rubenfeld’s ’23 first meetings of the fall semester, I could not help but be impressed by how she navigated, communicated, and taught throughout the session. The first-year student was receptive to her enthusiasm and appreciated her guidance. I appreciated watching how she empowered the student to drive the conference.

Sophie stoked the sparks of his intellect and encouraged him to trust his intuition. This conference broke down the tutoring process for me in a nutshell — a student-driven process where the exchange of ideas is honest and balanced. Ideas turned into body paragraphs, body paragraphs into topic sentences (the Answer-Cite-Explain paragraph structuring method Sophie introduced blew my mind!), and all that work helped the student refine his thesis for the direction the paper would become.

As tutors, we are privileged to help writers on the sentence-level with general advice on how to structure, analyze, and incorporate key ideas in their writing process. Ultimately we work to develop students’ confidence in their ability to communicate effectively. When students come in bashing their own writing, it does not communicate weakness to me but a desire to improve. Writers need to trust themselves to be in a mindset that embraces mistakes. The first attempt, the first draft, rarely resembles the best version of their thoughts. From the beginning of the conference, I strive to set a positive and helpful space. I smile and often find myself sharpening my wit and jokes, or so I hope.

Some of my favorite ice breakers come from the topics of the papers that pile in. Since we have required conferences for specific courses, I have absorbed so much knowledge about Plato’s Republic and Russian history that I cannot help but smile when I meet another person tackling those topics.

My experience as a writing tutor has dramatically shifted my perspective on the writing process. I no longer think of writing as an isolating activity but as one requiring an engaged, positive mindset of communication. As a tutor, I sharpen and learn new skills as a writer and connector as I try to improve everyone’s experience with the writing process.

The Writing Center has taught me to truly love the effort we put into communicating with one another, and I hope we can all be a little kinder to ourselves and feel free to laugh throughout the writing process. n