Anxiety over Non-traditional Students in the Writing Center

As an undergraduate starting my career in the writing center next semester, Gardner addressed my anxiety over tutoring the “non-traditional” student. It is only natural for consultants to feel intimidated when someone who could be there mother or father, as Gardner puts it, asks for assistance on a paper. Though Gardner warns against stereotyping, a large age difference is impossible to ignore. Rather than trying to apply one approach to the non-traditional older student, tutors should cater to the needs of each individual person who enters the doors of the writing center.

Gardner’s approach to the difficult question regarding the dynamics of non-traditional writing consultations is incredibly effective. She creates a conversation between two different perspectives on the issue using Lyman, a “non-traditional” student, and McLean, a younger writing consultant. Lyman writes about her experience back at a school, saying, “academic jargon was like a foreign language to me” (Gardner, 8). She is opposite of the stereotypical older student often labeled as intimidating or pretentious. Lyman requires an approach similar to a more traditional student, emphasizing the point that writing consultants cannot make assumptions about the needs of a student until they talk with them.   

The dynamics of a session would naturally change when dealing with a person like Bea, a mother of two children in her forties attending college. Many of the techniques we have reviewed in class, like the templates in Graff and Birkenstein’s They Say I Say, may not be appropriate for older students. It seems elementary to do exercises reviewing transition words and introducing quotations with older students like Bea who are pressed for time. Other methods, like asking leading questions, seem appropriate and effective for all types of students. McLean mentions that time is more “precious” for older students, but time is precious for all students and tutors in the writing center. The job of the consultant is to assess the intentions of each student upon entering, and make a realistic goal for the session.

The consultant must adapt sessions to what the student wants. If a person like Bea walks in, it only makes sense to cater to what she is looking for. I suggest that every writing consultant begin the session asking the student what he or she wishes to accomplish. Rather than jumping into the consultation based on assumptions and stereotypes, tutors should simply ask them how they can help. Deciding how directive to approach a session should be based on the needs that the student identifies in the beginning of the session (or ideally emails before a consultation). The anxiety tutors like McLean express over finding a balance of power with an older student would disappear if the tutor just asked them what brought them to the writing center in the first place.