Frances Nan published this article in The Writing Center Journal shortly after graduating from Pamona College (2012), where she had been a writing tutor for three years. Although this article focuses on her work with Chinese ELL students, her recommendations are useful when working with other groups of ELL students as well. What follows is a summary of Nan’s main suggestions for improving ELL writing partnerships, with excerpts from her article:

Assess Where Writers Are

A tutor attempting to develop a course of action for a semester long writing partnership should set aside the task of examining individual papers and instead ask the writer how much he or she knows about US academic writing. (56)

Be Direct

Tutors in my writing center are taught that indirectness—e.g., asking leading questions, allowing writers to say what they think rather than tutors thinking for them—will help writers learn better because it allows them to learn from their own mistakes. However, for ELL writers, more initial direction may be necessary. (56)

Be Transparent

ELL writers must know what to expect of the writing consultation dynamic. With explicit direction, tutors must also include their reasons. Instead of beating around the bush, tutors should, depending on their assessment of an individual writer’s reaction, be honest. (57)

Notice Body Language

Transparency is also necessary in the tutor’s body language during a consultation (Belhiah). Because there may be more of a language barrier with ELL writers, they are much more likely to pick up on a tutor’s body language or tone of voice as a substitute for listening to a tutor’s words. They will be able to tell when a tutor is merely being polite or when she or he is consciously trying to speak slowly. (57)

Engage in Meta-talk

One way to make writers comfortable asking questions of the tutor and even begin to direct the consultation is to make them comfortable speaking in the first place, through chitchat and “meta-talk.” De Guerrero and Villamil suggest that “about-task” and “off-task” discourse episodes (i.e., conversations) may encourage writers to feel more comfortable soliciting peer feedback in the writing center (492). (58)

Evaluate

During the consultation, a tutor must evaluate the ELL writer’s comprehension and ensure she understands the suggestions by asking the writer to demonstrate understanding (59).

The article, a copy of which is provided below, is worth reading. Keeping in mind that Nan is not a linguist nor a professional tutor, the advice is useful as it is grounded in real-world experiences in a college writing center