Writing an Informative Abstract: A less brief and more informative example

Informative Abstract

S. Dinitz and J. Kiedaisch article “Creating Theory: Moving tutors to the center” published in the 2003 Spring/Summer edition of the Writing Center Journal suggest tutors write their way out of subordinate roles within the writing center. They encourage tutors to write for conferences and journals for the purposes of collaboration within the scholarly field. The tutors are the ones working in the writing centers on a daily basis, therefore tutors have the most to contribute to the scholarly discourse of what works, what doesn’t work and why.

         Three out of nineteen tutors were selected by Dinitz and Kiedaisch in order to examine tutors experiences as case studies to demonstrate how these tutors have developed tutoring styles that run contrary to theory.

         The first tutor found herself playing the role of being an intellectual meeting another intellectual on an equal playing field. The tutee brings the knowledge and content of their subject and the tutor brings the knowledge of standard written English plus the writing tools. The discussion helps the tutee to practice academic conversation in a setting where they know there are no grades or benchmarks at stake.

         The second tutor is an older student who finds a “big brother” approach helpful. He takes on the role as acting as a consultant and being supportive. He provides guidance to the tutees, especially freshman. With some tutees, no matter how you try to get them to work in a collaborative effort, the tutee does not have the abilities to see the patterns of error.

         The third tutor’s style is a “buddy” relationship and avoids any power struggles. This tutor regularly engages his tutee in small talk at the peer level before they begin the session. This tutor admits his own struggles and pitfalls in writing as he sees them in the tutee’s paper. He makes suggestions of how to overcome those problems to the tutee. The tutor convinces his tutee that he/she is a better writer than they suspect.

         In conclusion Dinitz and Kiedaisch suggest that tutors make sense of tutoring through the theories taught in courses and combine them with their experiences working in the writing center. Tutors develop their own theorized practices which are not necessarily that of scholarly texts within the field and that tutors hybrid theories can add to current knowledge.