ABSTRACT

In this chapter, we present a case study of T9 as she works with three different students in four conferences. Two of these conferences took place in the writing center, where T9 worked as an undergraduate. The conference between T9 and S9 was a first-time meeting. The other writing center conference was a third meeting between T9 and S11 about one essay assignment. The other two confer - ences occurred a few years later, when T9 was a graduate student enrolled in the Master of Technical and Professional Communication program at Auburn University and working as a writing fellow in the BWP of the COB. One of T9’s BWP conferences was the first out of three conferences required for S12’s purchasing course. The other conference was the third meeting between T9 and S12. In this chapter, we examine the differences in the frequencies of T9’s tutoring strategies in the writing center conferences and the BWP conferences. We also examine differences in T9’s conferences with unfamiliar students and familiar students. Unlike Thonus (2002) in her study of discourse features of conference success (125), we found some differences in the tutoring strategies that T9 used in conferences with the unfamiliar and the familiar student writers. Finally, we also examine differences in the make-up of the topic episodes within those conferences.