Professor of Music G. Roberts Kolb, who chaired the committee under which the Writing Center took shape 22 years ago, is convinced that there is a dimension to peer tutoring that cannot be captured elsewhere. "There's something intangible but essential to having another student talk to him or her about a paper, and not just a professor," he says. "It's a different kind of learning. It causes the student to come at writing from a different perspective." But while writing tutorials pay dramatic dividends for students, the rewards are not always immediately clear to reluctant professors. On campuses where writing centers languish unused, John O'Neill has noticed, writing classes tend to be old-school composition courses that are locked into English programs; faculty in other departments have little incentive to require students to write or revise. One key to the success of the Writing Center, O'Neill and others believe, is its integration into Hamilton's writing-intensive curriculum. There's nothing magical about it; professors simply have been made stakeholders in the process.
"A colleague teaching a writing-intensive course needs students to take a paper through two or more drafts," O'Neill says. "And either she's going to have to read every draft of that paper, or she can send the students to the Writing Center for a first-draft conference with a peer tutor. After the conference, the students submit the revised paper to her. For faculty who use the Writing Center that way, it lessens the burden considerably. And our experience suggests it improves the outcome."
Kolb, who now relies on the center to help his students through the writing assignments for his From Words to Song proseminar, has long been an advocate. "I don't take any great pleasure in being the first person to see a draft of a paper," he says. "And requiring a writing conference also ensures that the paper will have been through at least two drafts before I see it. So it's a great timesaver for me."
Sharon Williams says that while that kind of faculty support is critical, the center's most important constituents are students themselves -- both tutors and their clients. "We've been able to sustain a high level of student enthusiasm and involvement over 20 years, even though any individual student will be here only four years," she says. "And it's far more important that the students think the process works than that faculty members think it works. If students come in here and have bad experiences, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks."
To many former tutors, working at the Writing Center has in some ways been its own reward, a means of honing their own writing and interpersonal skills in ways that shape them long after graduation. Sean Ryan '97 calls his experience as a tutor "a profound influence on my life and career." Ryan is principal at MarketBridge, a sales and marketing consulting firm in Bethesda, Md. In helping major companies develop strategies and messages, "my current role mirrors my experiences at the center; in fact, sometimes I feel as if I've become a professional writing tutor."
And in a field where the challenges can be daunting -- "Most business writing is appallingly bad," Ryan says -- he finds himself drawing on the whole of his College experience. "During my years in the working world," he says, "I have come to regard Hamilton itself as a 'writing center.'"
"The advice I give my clients is what I learned and shared every day in the Writing Center: A good idea is worthy of the time and effort required to communicate it effectively."
Sean Ryan ’97
"From my Hamilton professors I learned the utility and mechanics of persuasive writing. Sharon and my Writing Center colleagues exposed me to the joys of writing by enabling me to frequently discuss ‘writing’ as expression of ‘self’ or ideas."
Desmond Bailey ’94
"Being connected to the Writing Center is great. Sharon and Dori and the rest of the tutors understand a good pun and appreciate the use of well-placed semicolon, which sounds dorky, but it’s true."
