Tutoring Tips

BELOW ARE SOME TIPS WHICH WILL MAKE

YOUR TIME WITH THE TUTORS MORE WORTHWHILE.

• Attempt as much of the written assignments as possible on your own before meeting the tutor. This will help you and the tutor make the best use of your limited tutoring time.

• Mark the parts of your textbook or class notes that need clarification. Try to determine as specifically as possible what you don't understand. Write down specific questions to ask the tutor. Think about how you would like the tutor to assist you (e.g. clarify a concept with examples, check your understanding of the material, help you to organize the material, etc.). Inform the tutor of how you feel you can best be assisted so that the tutor can do his/her best within the Tutoring Program's policy which states that tutors will not do students' work for them.

• Bring your course syllabus, text books, lecture notes, handouts, your completed or attempted assignments, and any other necessary materials and supplies.

• Understand that you must do your own work and that the tutors will try their best to guide you, encourage your participation and efforts, offer suggestions, and explain or demonstrate what is confusing to you so that you can do your own work. Our policy discourages tutors from correcting students' essays, compositions, or homework assignments. Please do not place the tutors in an awkward position by asking them to do these things. The tutor's responsibility is to explain concepts and rules necessary for you to be able to do the assignment and to provide similar examples so that you may understand. If you bring a completed assignment, the tutor will assist you in becoming self-correcting. Remember that your work must show on the assignment.

• UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU USE AN INTERNET-BASED TRANSLATION SERVICE.  When writing a paragraph or an essay, use the vocabulary, grammar, and syntax that you have learned in the classroom for reinforcement.

• Please be patient. The tutors will be doing their best under sometimes trying conditions to answer your questions. The tutors are human like you, so do not expect them to instantly know every answer or solution to all your questions or problems. If a tutor is not specifically addressing your question or problem, politely let him/her know. The tutor may have misinterpreted your question. Feel free to ask the tutor to repeat or clarify when necessary.

• Be courteous to tutors and to other students. Please do not make unreasonable demands for service. If a problem arises, address the issue to Peter Sierra, Modern Language Tutor Coordinator, in Drescher Hall 219B.