ABSTRACT
It is a scene played out at many college campuses. An international student receives feedback from the teacher concerning grammar errors and the general need for revision. This ESL student goes to the college Writing Center for assistance, hoping that the tutor can help fix these grammar errors. However, the student quickly finds that the Writing Center’s policy is to work not on grammar but on higher-order or “global” concerns like organization and content. If the student insists on working on grammar, the tutor helps the student using an indirect, Socratic questioning method. Unfortunately for the ESL student, this style of feedback is unclear and ineffective. Other times the tutor might address the errors more directly, but in doing so, the tutor feels guilty for not following the policy of the Writing Center. What is lost in either case is a common meeting place, a center where both grammar and content concerns are effectively addressed by Writing Center tutors.
