Fighting for Peer Tutoring in Writing: Learning How to Respond to Scepticism

Ella Grieshammer University of Göttingen ; Nora Peters University of Göttingen

Abstract

Scepticism about peer tutoring in writing expressed by university members outside the writing centre is a common problem for staff at several European writing centres. Our workshop at the 2009 EATAW conference focused on this issue by testing a short training to prepare writing centre staff for discussions with sceptical faculty members who reject peer tutoring.This article explains the procedure of the workshop and, as a result of the workshop, gives a compilation and categorization of the pro and con arguments and demonstrates possible answers to typical statements of doubt. It is shown that counter-arguments stem from very different levels of argumentation. There are strategies of how to respond to these arguments, though it will be a great challenge to develop guidelines for argumentation that match the very different institutional conditions of different academic cultures, as they were represented in the workshop.

Journal
Journal of Academic Writing
Published
2011-09-01
DOI
10.18552/joaw.v1i1.9
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