“Tutor experience” research opportunity

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Two graduate students and tutors at the Writing Center at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Lindsay Sabatino and Jessica Showalter, have an exciting research project they will be presenting at the 2011 National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing. Even though this conference focuses on peer tutors, the researchers would also welcome professional tutors to respond to their research call because, “Perhaps looking at professional tutors’ documents can even help us with suggestions about effective ways to market our skills to get jobs after graduation” (J. Showalter, personal communication, September 8, 2011).

Per Sabatino and Showalter’s request on the WCenter listserv:

We are interested in learning how tutors represent their experiences on paper and how they construct their role as tutors. We will be presenting a panel about strategies for defining and marketing our tutoring skills at the upcoming 2011 National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing. As part of our project, we are seeking submissions of résumés, curriculum vitae, and cover letters from current or previous tutors. We will analyze these documents to get a better idea of the various ways in which tutors represent the pedagogical, administrative, and technological skills we learn in our day-to-day experiences in the Writing Center.

If you or the tutors at your writing center are interested in participating in our study, please send your documents as a .doc or .pdf attachment to iupwcresearch@gmail.com. To protect your privacy, we ask that you remove any personal information such as your name and contact information. However, if you are willing, please indicate your hometown and gender in your e-mail.

The deadline for submissions is October 12, 2011.

I’m submitting my materials later this afternoon for sure! I hope you will too. This is an exciting research opportunity.

Cheers,

Michaella Hammond