Writing Center Tutor Invited to Naylor Research Workshop

Wed, 25 Sep 2019 09:42:58 -0400

Congratulations to Ajay Kharkar, Academic Success Center's Writing Center Tutor!

Ajay will attend the Naylor Workshop for Undergraduate Research in Writing Studies this weekend at York College of Pennsylvania.

During the conference, Ajay will work one-on-one with writing researchers to develop his research project.

Ajay writes:

I was brought to the study of writing when I entered a communications arts program in the 9th grade, after being in a STEM program for the three years prior. Once I began studying the humanities I realized just how important writing and communication are to all studies, especially in the STEM fields. While I have continued to study a STEM track (biochemistry), I have tried to put as much of an emphasis on writing as I could. I have taken the writing center internship course at our school and tutor in our writing center. In addition, I tutor literacy for first graders in Baltimore City, because I believe that early literacy is paramount to success in school and any subsequent career.

This kind of research specifically matters to me because, as I mentioned before, I have grown up with ESL learners and have worked with many ESL learners in the writing center. They face challenges that their peers do not have to deal with studying in another language, and they should receive help specific to these challenges. Unfortunately, tutoring ESL students is an area only briefly covered in the overall teaching of writing tutoring, and I feel that there is a great need for additional strategies specific for ESL tutoring. By investigating into a different sort of strategies, those of interpersonal relations and creating a comfortable environment as opposed to the writing-specific strategies almost ubiquitously described in ESL tutoring studies, I feel this goal can be most effectively met.

You can schedule an appointment with Ajay and other Writing Center tutors online:

Writing Center appointment and drop-in tutoring for any writing assignments for any course (1st floor, AOK Library)

You can view tutoring schedules online and book appointments using the ASC scheduling system, TutorTrac.

Click on the ASC Tutor Schedule to check for available tutors and reserve your sessions.

If you want to know more about how to use TutorTrac, download the Student procedures.