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The members of the University of Mount Union's Writing Center created this instructional video about writing center tutorials. The video runs through a typical tutorial and could be useful for tutors and students to learn how to prepare for and what to expect from a tutorial.

This article presents three case studies that closely examine various types of inter-actions taking place in writing center tutorials involving newly arrived pre-ma-triculated ESL writers. By learning what strategies tutors commonly use and how successfully the ESL writers negotiate their goals for the visit and the form and meaning of their text through this sample, this study aims to help identify what characterizes successful tutorials and what unique challenges English language learners might face when interacting with tutors. Results from these case studies show that it is not how many corrections tutors make or suggest for the students' papers, but how much the tutors engage their tutees in a meaningful dialogue that brings satisfaction to the ESL students. Findings also suggest that deliber-ate efforts should be made to equip ESL writers with necessary metalanguage to communicate their goals for their visit.

"As student populations in colleges and universities continue to diversify, composition programs do not always meet students' varying needs. English as a Second Language (ESL) students appear to fail mainstream writing courses at higher rates than their traditional counterparts, yet mainstreaming continues to be mandated, often due to budgetary constraints. Many programs offer multicultural writing courses, but these, too, are often ineffective for many students. Meanwhile, as Paul Kei Matsuda shows, there is a decided split between the disciplines of composition and ESL. Since ESL scholars have a much stronger history of working with diverse student populations than composition scholars do, this study aims to look to ESL scholarship, specifically to contrastive rhetoric, to explore more effective methods of teaching writing to students with varying needs. This case study takes an in-depth look at one student's journey writing across cultures. Ming, a Chinese immigrant who has been in the United States for approximately ten years, is a junior at the University of Rhode Island who struggles with writing. Over the course of one semester, three of her projects were studied in depth. Data include transcripts of audiotaped tutorial sessions in the URI Writing Center, Ming's assignments and papers, and the researcher's notes from interviews with Ming following the tutorial sessions. ^ The new contrastive rhetoric (Connor, Kaplan, Purves) insists that external factors such as culture, education, and media influence the rhetorical patterns writers use. Through a lens of contrastive rhetoric, it becomes clear that most of Ming's difficulties when writing stem from a lack of familiarity with the conventions of U.S. academic discourse or of what her reader expects from her text. The source of much of this is cultural. While Ming's experiences are not generalizable, an in-depth look at her experiences foregrounds some of the issues that contrastive rhetoric addresses, making th

The University of Texas Writing Center has these short videos of sample consultations, including samples of bad consultations

crowdsouring a list of tutorials on academic integrity

This page on the Indiana University Southeast Writing center links to a video introducing students to the writing center.

ABSTRACT. This article investigates tutor dominance in academic writing tutorials within the framework of institutional discourse. Tutor gender and tutee gender and language proficiency, as well as the interaction of the three, are considered as exponents of interactant dominance. Pragmatic measures of tutor dominance selected are frequency of directives, directive type, and mitigation strategies. Analysis indicates that these features of tutors' speech remain relatively constant in interactions with male and female tutees or with native and nonnative speakers of English. These results suggest that institutional context outweighs gender and language proficiency in the definition of participant roles and the sanctioning of tutor dominance behaviors.

"An Interactive Guide to Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism" with a quiz, put together by Monmouth University Library

"Birthing a Writing Lab" (advice for new directors starting brand new labs); "The Writing Laboratory at William Carey College: A Tutorial Approach"; mailing list

Basic tutor training video from the Thompson River University Writing Centre. Includes mock tutorial session.

Bell, Diana C., Holly Arnold, and Rebekah Haddock. "Linguistic Politeness in Peer Tutoring." The Learning Assistance Review 14.1 (2009): 36-54. From abstract: "use[s] politeness theory to analyze the developing tutorial relationship between students and peer tutors in a university writing center" (36).

From abstract: ncludes recommendations for "tutor preparation and in-service training" that "emphasize less idealized, more pragmatic conceptualization of tutor roles and actions and focus on behaviors demonstrated as constitutive of success"

This video is a general informational video about the Writing Center at Walden University where various members of the Writing Center talk about the online tutorial process from start to finish, including sends papers to tutors and providing feedback on papers.

Tutor training video that demonstrates best practices. Includes a mock tutorial session.

a report from Cs on materials development; a report from Cs on "Writing Lab Possibilities as the Small College/University; a discussion of staffing (undergrad, grad peers; professional; faculty; self-instruction) for materials-centered vs. student-centered labs (i.e. the difference between teaching more students with fewer staff vs. offering one-on-one support); a 4Cs report on "Setting up a Writing Lab";

Michigan State U. Writing Center's "Quick Guide" podcasts on preparing for your appt.; how to have the best writing center appt.; how to write a paper; what you can do in 30 minutes

discussing the efficacy of such programs

"Are Machines the Answer?" on the benefits on one-on-one human compared to computer interaction; "Evaluation and Instruction"; "Some Tutoring Guidelines," a list of Dos and Don'ts for tutors; mailing list