4 Ben Rafoth’s “Why Visit Your Campus Writing Center?”
Writing Spaces Volume 1
This final chapter provides a series of reflections from writing center tutors describing how students benefit from their writing center consultations. Rafoth describes how students use the process of verbalizing their thoughts to a tutor as a means for clarifying their understanding of the assignment. The section also cites extensive research indicating how writing center visits help students to overcome their fear of sharing writing, and to improve their sense of audience. Most importantly, this chapter offers clear expectations for what a visit to the campus writing center entails, emphasizing its potential to be conversational and generative.
“Tutors seem to understand that writing a good paper is a team effort. The part that tutors contribute as readers is crucial because they draw writers outside of themselves to see the paper as others are likely to see it. This is a hard thing to do on one’s own. We tend to step in and out of our own thoughts. But a tutor stands apart, reading the draft with fresh eyes and pointing out gaps the writer needs to fill so that ideas flow smoothly.”
MLA Citation Examples
Works Cited
Rafoth, Ben. “Why Visit Your Campus Writing Center.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing Volume 1, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, 2010, pp. 146-153.
In-text citation
“Tutors seem to understand that writing a good paper is a team effort. The part that tutors contribute as readers is crucial because they draw writers outside of themselves to see the paper as others are likely to see it. This is a hard thing to do on one’s own. We tend to steep in our own thoughts. But a tutor stands apart, reading the draft with fresh eyes and pointing out the gaps the writer needs to fill so that ideas flow smoothly” (153).
References
Rafoth, B. (2010). Why visit your campus writing center? In Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky (Eds.), Writing spaces: readings on writing, vol. 1 (pp. 146-153). New York: Parlor Press.
In-text citation
“Tutors seem to understand that writing a good paper is a team effort. The part that tutors contribute as readers is crucial because they draw writers outside of themselves to see the paper as others are likely to see it. This is a hard thing to do on one’s own. We tend to steep in our own thoughts. But a tutor stands apart, reading the draft with fresh eyes and pointing out the gaps the writer needs to fill so that ideas flow smoothly” (Rafoth, 2010, p. 153).
Chicago Citation Examples
Bibliography
Rafoth, Ben. “Why Visit Your Campus Writing Center?” in Writing Spaces: Reading on Writing Volume 1, ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemlianksy (New York: Parlor Press, 2011), 146-153.
In-text citation
“Tutors seem to understand that writing a good paper is a team effort. The part that tutors contribute as readers is crucial because they draw writers outside of themselves to see the paper as others are likely to see it. This is a hard thing to do on one’s own. We tend to steep in our own thoughts. But a tutor stands apart, reading the draft with fresh eyes and pointing out the gaps the writer needs to fill so that ideas flow smoothly” (Rafoth, 2010, 153).