Difficult Tutoring Situations

This section is a work in progress. 

At some time or other, all tutors will find themselves faced with difficult situations in a tutoring session. The following information will provide you with some common categories into which the difficulties may fall and some strategies to help you deal with them. There are no magic answers and no “one technique fits all” strategies. As you gain experience tutoring, you will be able to refine and add to these suggestions. Always feel free to discuss any questions or difficulties with your associate leads, lead tutor, and director.

What Causes Difficult Situations?

It’s important to keep an open mind when faced with a difficult situation. It’s easy to blame it on the writer, who you might call a difficult person or difficult student, but everyone has frustrations and bad times. Remember that you are only seeing a tiny part of a person’s day, just as they’re only seeing a tiny part of yours. You can’t do anything about the many external stressors that influence behavior, but together, you can create a productive and positive break from those stressors.

Within a session, difficulty or conflict is often caused by a difference in expectations. That’s why it’s extremely important to discuss expectations and desired outcomes of a session at the very beginning.

The following lists are examples of signals you might get from a writer that can tell you they’re having trouble, and some suggested tactics to help.

Blocking

What you see

• Low frustration tolerance
• Immobilization/hopelessness/freezing up
• “It’s beyond me.”
• “I’ll never get it.”
• “I’m stuck.”

What you can do

• Determine what the writer does know and discuss that. Show them that they have some foundation.
• Begin from what they know and build, in simple steps, toward increasingly complex material.
• Offer continual support.
• Reinforce success consistently.

Confusion

What you see

• Bafflement/disorientation/disorganization
• Helpless feeling about the class
• “I just don’t know what to do.”
• “I just don’t know what the professor wants.”
• “I worked really hard on my paper and got a D.”
• “I’m not sure where we’re going.”

What you can do

The same as with blocking, and give structure and order to the session. Spend a moment calming the writer down and helping them organize their materials so they can see their work more clearly.

Seeking a miracle

What you see

• Global interest or concern about their writing but with little specificity about what they want to work on.
• Enthusiasm about being with a tutor, but fairly passive in actual tutoring process.
• High (often inappropriate) level of expectation for the session.
• Evasion or inability to concentrate on concrete tasks.
• Talk of limited time, long-range goals versus immediate tasks.

What you can do

• Lay out expectations clearly at the beginning of the session.
• Explain counterproductive nature of being overeager.
• Return focus again and again to the specific task.
• Involve writer continually with questions, problems.
• Explain significance of active participation in the learning process, especially if the student has limited time.

Defensiveness

It’s very important to remember that defensive feelings can happen for many different reasons. A writer may have had poor experiences in the past. You are a stranger, and they may not trust you. Building trust takes time. Try not to take it personally.

What you see

• Variations of sullenness/hostility/passivity/boredom
• Disinterest in class/work/tutor
• Defensive posture (arms crossed, leaned back, avoiding eye contact)
• Anger or frustration without an apparent cause

What you can do

• Allow small amount of time for student to “vent.”
• Spend first session – possibly even second – on building relationship and trust.
• Be pragmatic, yet understanding (for example, “Look, I know might not be your favorite, but you need it to graduate – let’s make the best of it.”)
• Establish your credibility/indicate past successes in similar situations.

Passiveness

What you see

• Noninvolvement/inattention
• Boredom
• Little discussion initiated/few questions
• “I don’t know”

What you can do

• Empathize (for example, “It’s tough to write about something you may not be interested in, isn’t it?” or “Research can feel really overwhelming, can’t it?”), but avoid talking about the class specifically or the teacher. General empathy for a situation, rather talking about a class (“This class is so hard!” or “That teacher is such a hard grader!”).
• Attempt to build a relationship and mobilize the student.
• Utilize as many mobilizing techniques as possible – questions, problems, minitasks to be accomplished by your next session or by the writer’s next class.
• Reinforce all activities and successes.

Evasiveness

Sometimes, writers subtly (or not so subtly) want you to do work for them, or they avoid completing a difficult task for fear of failure. Your job is to remain firm but supportive.

What you see

• Thinking/talking about everything but the task at hand
• Disengagement from the task
• Vague vs. focused comments about the task or the paper
• Global/nonspecific praise of tutor’s skill, course content, and so on

What you can do

• Focus the writer on specific tasks; involve them continually with questions, problems.
• If evasion continues, you should ask, in a non-threatening way, why the writer has come for the tutoring and what they expect from you (for example, “You know, we’ve met several times already, but we haven’t gotten much done – what do you think we should plan for future sessions?” or “My biggest concern is your success in this class; how, specifically can I help you with that?”)

Other Scenarios

This section’s content was created in collaboration with writing consultants Pooja and Nora.

The disinterested student

Some professors require writers/students to attend the Writing Center. Their reasons are good, but the student might not think so; they don’t see the benefit of Writing Center sessions the way we do or the way the professor does.

The writer might…

• Just want the purple sheet
• State that their professor required them to go to the writing center
• Resist having conversations
• Just want to leave
• Show a negative attitude
• Not be engaged in conversation

What you can do

Try to engage the writer by asking them more questions about their paper or about themselves.

Examples:

• What did you mean by….?
• What do you think are some strengths and weaknesses of your paper?
• What part of the assignment is giving you a hard time?
• Give an example from your life and ask them to do the same

The aggressive student writer

This can be a really tough situation. It’s important to note that while you should try to defuse the situation, if you can’t, ask for help. If you feel you are in danger, end the session immediately, notify the shift supervisor, and notify the front desk. You do not (and should not) have to continue a session in which you feel unsafe.

The writer might…

• Disregard your suggestions and say you’re wrong
• Not really give any suggestions or express their ideas.
• Just state a problem and tell you to “fix it”
• Become increasingly frustrated and aggressive as the session continues.
• May have wanted to book a session with someone who is unavailable

What you can do

• Ask them to share their needs for the session. Ask them to explicitly tell you how you can aid them.
• If a writer say that your suggestion is wrong, ask them what their suggestions and ideas are.
• Try to explain the reason for your suggestions by giving handouts, or using online sources.
• If you feel uncomfortable, call the shift supervisor to defuse the situation.

Communication or language problems

English language learners often come into the Writing Center needing help with their language acquisition as well as their writing. We love working with these writers, but a lack of language fluency can create challenges in a session. For more information on tutoring as or with multilingual writers, check out the Multilingual Tutoring page.

The writer might…

• Not have the language to explain their thoughts
• Be very quiet or not talk much
• Think that if they don’t speak, consultants will edit their paper.
• Wait for the tutor to finish all the work.

What you can do

• Ask questions and give the writer time to answer.
• Repeat your statement or question using different words.
• If there is a language barrier, you can refer another tutor who speaks the same language
• BE PATIENT!
• If writer wants you to edit their paper, refer to the Writing Center Policy.

Have something to add?

Email or talk to the director!