EWP’s peer tutoring programs—Senior Tutors in the Writing Center, course-based Writing Tutors in the College of Arts and Science, and Writing Partners for multilingual students and others who want weekly support in Washington Square and at the Tandon School of Engineering—are committed to providing specialized, inclusive, and collaborative spaces for NYU student writers to develop their writing and ideas. We believe that all writers can benefit from discussing their writing processes and revising their works-in-progress in light of careful, informed peer feedback. The tutors help their peers brainstorm and develop ideas, engage more rigorously with the sources and arguments of others, express themselves more clearly, and build confidence. They understand firsthand the challenges of university writing and are committed to cultivating an approach to tutoring that honors writers’ voices and encourages growth and a sense of peer belonging and community.
The faculty mentors of our various peer-tutoring programs are professors in the Expository Writing Program with particular expertise in writing center pedagogy, disciplinary writing, and mentoring undergraduate tutors. The mentors work with roughly 55 undergraduate tutors each year, meeting regularly with a small cohort of tutors and educating them in a pedagogy that values empathy, careful feedback, constructive questioning, and reflective practice. They teach tutors to take a writer-centered approach to their conferences, to honor writers’ voices, doubts, and goals, and to help students develop their writing with imagination, insight, and rigor. Mentors also collaborate with the peer tutors to develop and present workshops and panels at national and regional Writing Center conferences, encouraging the tutors to share their ideas and research with a larger audience.