Response to Jeanne Simpson’s Article

As I was reading Simpson’s article, I was really intrigued by her ideas.  I liked the way she opened the piece by utilizing different people’s perceptions of the writing center.  She included a lot of interesting points such as: “We need to accept a simple principle: people’s perceptions come from their legitimate experiences and reference points, even if they lead to conclusions we don’t share.  Just as we do in tutoring, we need to find out what people actually know, how they know it, and what they believe about their knowledge.” I think this point serves as a great reminder that there is no uniform opinion/ perception of the writing center.  It is important to understand why people feel the way they do about certain institutions, and also understand how to work with those with different opinions. 

Simpson further develops her article by including anecdotes about students’ suggestions for improving the writing center.  One idea that really intrigued me was about incorporating a buddy system.  “A student asked why we don’t set up a buddy system, so that writers have someone from the writing center asking them about progress on their assignments, providing a little accountability.”  Initially, I thought this was a brilliant idea.  It’s easy to feel a sense of disconnect after you leave the writing center.  The writer may forget what was discussed, what specific flaws were addressed, or the writer may feel unmotivated to perfect the paper.  Having the “buddy system” for students would be a great way to build peer-tutor relationships, and promote conversation outside of the writing center.  Of course, it could turn into a conversation where the writer asks the tutor more specific questions, and their may be a greater potential for plagiarism.  This resource could also initiate conversation out of the center that could interfere with the tutor’s and writer’s time.  It would be more of a voluntary act on the tutor’s part, unless they were required to send/reply to messages during scheduled work hours.  Otherwise, tutors would be putting in extra time without payment.  Moreover, this program may have more negative outcomes because more blame could hypothetically be placed on the tutor.  If the student made the recommended changes in a paper and received an unsatisfactory grade, the student may be more inclined to blame the grade on the tutor’s lack of knowledge/input, etc. 

In all honesty, I have not come to a conclusion about incorporating the “buddy system” in the writing center.  What are your ideas??