Learning and Teaching Cooperative

Preparing for Your Tutoring Session

What to expect when you visit the LT Coop

Expect to participate actively in your tutoring session. Tutoring sessions at the LT Coop are very interactive and are built to lead you in doing the work yourself. Be prepared to take notes, construct outlines, revise paragraphs, try new sentence patterns, debate your ideas or just think out loud. The staff is familiar with many approaches to writing and many resources that enhance learning. If you are open to suggestions and are willing to try new techniques, you will be surprised at what you can accomplish. However, the LT Coop does not work miracles; in the final analysis, it is your effort and willingness to work that will contribute the most to your success.

Expect that the LT Coop's staff will keep all scheduled appointments, arrive on time and conduct sessions professionally. Be open and honest with us when we are not meeting your tutorial needs. If you are dissatisfied for any reason with your tutorial session, or if you have any concerns about the quality of the tutoring, then please speak with Bryan Tomasovich, the Faculty Coordinator, at any time.

Do not expect that the LT Coop will write, proofread or correct/edit your paper for you. Instead, the staff will review your assignment and your paper with you to discover any problems you might be having, and then help you address those problems yourself. The LT Coop is here to help you develop your skills so you can tackle the content and assignments you have problems with more effectively.

Tips for visiting the LT Coop

What you get out of a tutoring session at the LT Coop depends on what you put into it. Sessions are designed not just to help you achieve in your classes, but also to support your continued development as an active learner.

Don't wait until you are overwhelmed by an assignment.

Tutoring works best over time. You will learn the most if you make your first appointment during the first week or two of classes and continue to schedule sessions throughout the term.

Follow through with attending appointments, arrive on time and bring your calendar for scheduling new appointments.

Bring all necessary course materials.

Make sure that you have read class materials before coming to your appointment. Attend class and do the readings. Tutoring cannot substitute for classes not attended or readings not done.

If meeting to discuss long-term tutoring, bring a course syllabus, assignments, texts and class notes with you to the first session and think about what kinds of questions you have about the material or assignments.
If meeting to discuss a specific assignment, bring the assignment and all other relevant materials—including your text, your class notes and any pre-writing—to your appointment.

Bring any work you've done so far.

Come prepared with thoughts, problems, a draft of an essay or whatever is necessary to have a productive session.

Come prepared with thoughts about comments and suggestions that have been made on other papers that you've written. You can significantly cut down your writing and revising workload and can use your session time more efficiently by getting a handle on your instructor's comments.
Come prepared with thoughts about the assignment or a list of some of the characteristics that your paper should have in order to meet the goals of the assignment.
Come prepared with an outline of what you've written so far. Outlining is a good way of rethinking the overall organization of your paper.
Come prepared with marked sections of your draft that you're unsure of and would like to concentrate on. Write down your questions. If you can pinpoint specific sections or sentences in your draft, you won't have to wait for the tutor to find them.

Remember, it's ok if you haven't actually written anything. Bring your ideas or your questions. The LT Coop can help you at any point in the process of writing.

Set your own goals for the session.

Tell the staff exactly what your needs are at the beginning of a session. Think about what kind of help you really want; for example, do you have boatloads of ideas but no boats to arrange them in, or do you want to develop ideas that are already pretty well organized? If you set a rough agenda of items to cover in the session, then you can be sure to get the most out of your time in the LT Coop.

Always ask questions.

Questions help identify and clarify problems and engage you with the learning task at hand.

Bring your laptop if you wish.

Follow through after the tutoring session.

The LT Coop provides insights and support, and will work through problems with you and provide a sounding board for your writing, but ultimately the work has to be yours. An hour's help will have no long-term benefit unless you apply what you have learned to future assignments.