Brooks Shamoon, & Burns

The Brooks article reminded me of North's article except he was a lot calmer and made more sense. I agreed with everything he had to say up until the Defensive Minimalist Tutoring.  Yeah, the paper is ultimately the student's responsibility. But if the student is the "only active agent in improving the paper" (173) and the tutor doesn't have a very active role in the session, then what is the purpose of going to the writing center? I would hope that the tutor would want to facilitate learning in any way possible. No, the tutor shouldn't sit there and correct every mistake, but I also don't think it's fair of the tutor to say, "I don't know - it's your paper" (172). If a student asks what they should do with a certain part of the paper, I think that the tutor should do something to get some ideas flowing like having the student making a list of ideas, etc. I realize that he's using this approach for uncooperative students, but if that's the case, why can't you just tell them you aren't going to edit their paper instead of beating around the bush? 

I like that Shamoon & Burns recognize that different tutoring approaches work for different people. I think that the directive approach is interesting and could be beneficial for the "uncooperative students" that Brooks talks about. I like the idea that tutoring is hierarchical and that everyone has different skills that can be passed down. I think that the nondirective approach seems to suggest that everyone is on the same playing field, which isn't really accurate. So I guess what I'm saying is that I agree with this article. I think that if everyone were to beat around the bush rather than be blunt about what needs to change, no one would become a better writer.