Face-to-face appointments allow tutors to collaborate with writers in person. Face-to-face appointments are conversations with the flexibility to use elements of the space as resources, for instance, getting up and using the whiteboard or cutting up a print-out of the draft to experiment with the organization.
🗺️ Appointment Overview
Face-to-face appointments give peer writing tutors an opportunity to “use a process approach, to serve as an audience for [writers], and to familiarize [writers] with the conventions of academic discourse” (Shamoon & Burns, 1995, p. 135). Additionally, because each writer and each writing exigence is different, peer writing tutors should use these appointments to “attend to the individual concerns of every writer who walks in the door” for a face-to-face appointment (Harris & Silva, 1993, p. 525).
🪜 Appointment Steps
- Introduce yourself to the writer and spend time building rapport
- Discuss expectations and assumptions about how appointments operate
- Collaboratively set an initial agenda with the writer
- Read through the writer’s draft if they bring one
- Revisit the agenda after reading the draft in case you or the writer notice anything to add to, remove from, or reprioritize within your agenda
- Use
Synchronous Appointment Strategies to help you achieve whatever goals you collaboratively set on the agenda
- Set aside time at the end of the appointment to help the writer define their next steps
- Write
Appointment Letters that summarize your work with the writer
- Send the appointment letter to the writer and anyone else the writer requests that you do
📝 How to Prepare
Before every appointment check WCOnline and read through any information the writer has provided to you about...
- themselves, including their preferred name, pronouns, and learning support information
- the project they are bringing in
- their goals for their scheduled appointment
If you have time, look at previous letters in the writer’s profile to help you understand more about the writer and their past experiences at the Writing Center.
At times, you may have appointments that focus on aspects of writing that you’re not as knowledgeable about as you would like to be. For example, you may encounter a specific discipline, genre, style, or grammatical convention that is new to you. If you find yourself preparing for an appointment where this situation arises you can
- Consult online resources like those in our Resources database, #resources slack channel, or print resources available at both the LPC and Loop offices. You may end up finding resources or examples you can share with the writer
- Talk to other Writing Center tutors who may be more familiar with the contexts, genres, or conventions
- Ask the Receptionist for suggestions or resource recommendations