National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing"Peer Tutoring Conference Spreads the Word about Collaboration"
Reviewed by Jim Purdy, Penn State University
Bustling about the Alumni Fireside Lounge of the Nittany Lion Inn on an unusually warm October evening, Penn State peer writing tutors and writing center directors, past and present, eagerly awaited the convergence of 360 national and international presenters on the University Park campus. The registration table was set, the last conference T-shirt was folded, and the last pumpkins and gourds were placed to create a festive autumn atmosphere. Months of hard work were about to come to fruition in a weekend of sharing ideas and insights on tutoring programs and practices, writing center administration, and the composing process at the Sixteenth Annual National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing (NCPTW) "Unmasking Writing: A Collaborative Process."
From its modest beginnings at Brown University in 1984, the 1999 NCPTW, held at Penn State from October 29-31, grew to an international event attracting renowned speakers and over fifty participating institutions. It featured more than sixty workshops, presentations, panel discussions, and talks on a variety of topics, including on-line and Internet tutoring, reflections of Bulgarian and South African peer tutors, tutoring English as a second language, and tutoring adult and learning disabled students.
Julie Story, Conference Director and Assistant Director of the Penn State Writing Center, explained the reason for the ongoing draw of such sessions: "Colleges and universities, high schools, and literacy centers with a desire to develop a program in peer tutoring in writing and to improve writing programs search for the diverse programs represented at the conference." Conference participants agreed. In an anonymous evaluation, participants responded that the best part of the conference was the "interaction between writing centers and the exchange of ideas" and the fact that "topics were very applicable to what I do in my profession of having tutors and directing the writing center."
At the center of this interaction is the tutor. With the guidance of Story and Jon Olson, Director of the Center for Excellence in Writing at Penn State, the thirty-five Penn State writing tutors played a major role in developing and presenting the conference. The tutors' work began the spring of 1999 when they brainstormed the conference theme of "Unmasking Writing: A Collaborative Process" and formed hospitality, keynote, program, and social committees, each with a student chair. Writing tutors served in several other important leadership positions for the conference, including program intern, T-shirt designer, and welcoming speakers. Additionally, writing tutors presented workshops ranging from "How Can Being a Tutor Help You Find a Job?" to "Unmasking Writing: The People Behind the Tutor-Tutee Relationship."
Tutors' responses to the conference exemplify the conference's power to influence the development of the writing center and to promote outreach. Keynote Committee Chair Marleah Peabody said her participation in the "When the Mask Falls: Tutoring Creative Writing" workshop helped her "formulate a plan of action for helping creative writers in our Writing Center. Spurred on by the discussion we had in that workshop, the University Park Writing Center will be sponsoring a creative writing workshop starting next semester [spring 2000]." Hospitality Committee Chair Erica Sterzinger echoed this sentiment when she expressed how the conference prompted her to create an outreach program with State College High School: "The one [session] that I did attend concerned outreach. I got a lot of interesting ideas on how to take the writing center beyond the Boucke building."
Tutors benefit from participation in the conference through the opportunity to develop professional and scholarly contacts and to learn what other institutions have to offer in the way of writing, tutoring, and academic programs. Story explained the importance of this facet of the conference: "The NCPTW can lead to new, stronger community outreach programs. This forum is crucial in bringing together peer tutors, faculty, and staff with local high schools and literacy centers."
The NCPTW's goal of faculty supporting students was illustrated by the collaborative keynote presentation entitled "A Tutoring Narrative in Four Part (Dis)Harmony" by Beverly Moss, Melissa Dunbar, Wendy Ake, and Nikole Marzano of the Ohio State University. This group, composed of a professor, a graduate student, and two student peer tutors, engaged in an interactive presentation in which each member shared equally in the performance. These keynote speakers used their varied experiences to address how they negotiated the practical and theoretical demands of a collaborative peer consulting program. Story explained, "The hallmark of this conference is its encouragement of spotlighting undergraduate and graduate peer tutors and putting faculty and staff directors in a supporting role. . . . Hierarchy is based more on the quality of one's ideas than on institutional rank."
The 1999 conference also featured a distinguished speaker from the business community, Nancy Sharkey, Assistant to the Managing Editor of the New York Times, who spoke on the importance of humanizing the editor/writer relationship. Through examples and personal anecdotes, Sharkey outlined the four stages necessary for an editor to establish a collaborative relationship with a new writer. She emphasized how the conference's message has begun to influence the editing field:
Today, in our newsroom of 1,100 people, we have a set of guidelines that I'm particularly proud of. I was on an early committee that helped draft these new rules. They begin with these words: "Editing is a collaborative process. Your job is to help others-particularly reporters-realize the full potential of their work, not to do their work for them."Peabody's response to the speech echoed that of numerous participants: "I would have to say that Nancy Sharkey's speech was my favorite part of the conference. It was entertaining and informative. It gave me the feeling that what we do is even permeating out into the work world; it was just all-around a joy to listen to."The conference also included the presentation of the Ron Maxwell Leadership Award to Molly Wingate from Colorado College. Named for Ron Maxwell, Penn State Professor Emeritus and Director of the Penn State Writing Center from 1986 to 1997, the award is a tribute to his pivotal role in the conference's growth and success. The award was created to recognize a NCPTW professional's exceptional work to promote collaborative learning among peer tutors in writing such as that of Wingate who, as one nominator wrote, "has been the spirit of service-a model in working collaboratively with her own students, a model in collaborating with the rest of us, and a joy to work with in her unending kindness, courtesy, and enthusiasm." The presence of such faculty members, though advisory, was no less essential to the conference's success. Numerous conference participants, including Maxwell himself, cited the sixteenth annual NCPTW as "the best Conference ever."Sound familiar? It should. This reflects your movement. But you know how hard it is to follow this standard. Not to do their work for them. The temptation is to rework the words, not work with the writer. . . . But more and more, we are finding something that you folks have been saying for years: It's the writer, not the story. (© Nancy Sharkey, 1999)
Fifteen years ago a small group of college and university writing tutors and writing center directors started a movement that continues to gain strength: a commitment to promote collaborative learning and to share their experiences and insights in a national forum. This commitment led to the creation of the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing, which, as Penn State's recent conference hosting illustrated, perseveres in its mission. Through the work of Story, Olson, Maxwell, Wingate, and others like them at colleges and universities around the country dedicated to the promotion of collaborative learning, the future of peer tutoring in writing is on the "write" track.