Writing Center Employment

Students interested in working in the Writing Center should read through the job description and fill out an application form. To get an application form, see I. Hashimoto (Olin 232, x5699) or pick one up in the Writing Center (Olin 223). (The job takes some knowledge of Whitman, some knowledge of professors, some experience in courses taught by tough-minded professors who make people write well. I give priority to juniors and seniors, but I do hire sophomores, most often in the spring.)

Normally, I hire a few tutors in the spring and a few more in the fall, after I know for sure how many people I will need to fill out the schedule. If you're interested in being a tutor, check with me (I. Hashimoto) a couple of weeks after school starts in the fall, a couple of weeks before Christmas vacation, and a couple of weeks before finals in the spring. I will formally invite applications in the fall--and will broadcast this invitation to all juniors and seniors via e-mail.

[--I. Hashimoto, Director, Whitman College Writing Center]

Job Description

Writing Center tutors work 4-6 hours per week. Their main job is to read student papers and comment on them--giving advice on a wide range of problems (especially problems with organization, syntax, time management, study skills, and word processing).Hashimoto doesn't expect tutors to know everything, to be good at everything--but he does expect them to write well themselves, understand simple problems of organization and have some familiarity with the issues/problems raised in freshman core. All tutors should have excellent interpersonal skills--they must listen well, read well, be able to establish priorities, give non- threatening (but thoughtful, tough, and efficient) advice to people who may or may not want to believe what they say.The job requires conscientious, independent learners and thinkers who can work with a minimum of direct supervision--especially late at night.

 

Job Checklist:

As a tutor, you will have to know the following things (after a few weeks):

1. You will have to know general procedures to

  • Find subs
  • Handle emergency procedures
  • Close the Center at midnight
  • Keep records

2. You will have to know basic word processing in WordPerfect and Word. At a minimum, you ought to be able to:

  • Bring up the help features/template
  • Search and replace
  • Move a text flush right
  • Fix tabs
  • Block text
  • Change fonts
  • Set single and double space
  • Change margins
  • Make foreign characters
  • Suppress page numbers
  • Change screen colors
  • Reveal codes
  • Change margins
  • Save texts in different WP formats and dos format
  • Print texts

3. You don't need to know a lot about the network, but you will have to be able to:

  • Clear a print queue
  • Make directories
  • Delete directories
  • Handle e-mail
  • Load and run the MLA editor
  • Search online
  • Download/print a file off the Internet
  • If you can work with HTML and FTP, so much the better.

4. You will have to know how to work with the printers in the Writing Center. You will have to know how to:

  • print multiple copies of a document
  • print from files
  • change printers
  • trouble-shoot printer problems
  • change print cartridges
  • find and load paper

5. You will have to know how to work with floppy disks--how to:

  • Format a disk (especially small ones)
  • Deal with both low and high density diskettes
  • Work with big and little diskettes in different machines
  • You should know how to check for viruses.

6. You should know how to scan a document and convert it to a text file.

7. You will absolutely how to handle simple problems with tutoring:

  • Priorities
  • Typical academic plans
  • How to make/document quotations in both the humanities and sciences
  • How to recognize sentence fragments, comma splices, and problems of wordiness
  • The rules for punctuating with commas, semicolons, and colons
  • How to use lie and lay