I am uncertain what I would do if a student were to show me a paper that said " To me, the biggest turnoff in the world is a woman with a briefcase in her hand." I would most likely follow the same footsteps as Steve Sherwood. I would probably advise the student of the dangers of his "belief." I, one can say, would be censoring him. But I think we do more censoring than we think we do. Sherwood says that, as tutors, "we censor or urge self-censorship in the interest of helping students to adjust and to succeed in the academic world. We want to protect students from the practical and political effects of their words" (131). Besides the fact that we're not "protectors" protecting students from this cruel world, these two sentences make me scrunch my eyes a bit, almost cringe, in fact. Our "helping" of students to "succeed in the academic world" is similar to a censorship. We're prescribing a way of writing and a way of thinking to fit into what one considers "academic," into what one considers "good." And, of course, a good paper must get an "A", so we "help" students get what is already prescribed as "good" --- an "A."

On a similar note, knowing what professors like or dislike can also "censor" one's paper. A tutor can tell a client how to form an argument, essay, thought, or idea to satisfy a teacher's tastes. As Sherwood pointed, censorship is defined as someone who "had the responsibility of the supervision of public morals." Are tutors not "supervising?" I agree at the Writers' Room no one's morals will be on the table but one's papers will be on the table. To a lesser degree, the tutor is censoring a student, holding responsible the tutoring, the helping, the consulting of a client's writing and as a client's future essays. We mustn't forget that the the essay is more than just words on paper. These words are often a client's ideas, beliefs, and thoughts. In "protecting" one's thoughts --- one's ideas, beliefs, and thoughts --- we may also, as Sherwood says, do more harm than good.

"Think about opposing viewpoints" is something I've told myself many times when writing an argumentative paper. It is something all students should do. In the Writers' Room, this is something consultants can do to really strengthen a client's thesis, essay, and/or belief. Among many other things, however, this must be done to a certain degree and being "on the fence" could be bad news. A consultant must remember the motives when helping a client. Though many see tutors as the authorial figure in the tutor/student binary, there are instances where a consultant must be defenseless. A consultant must forget his beliefs when they oppose a student's. A consultant must remember that even if he may be reduced, criticized, ridiculed, or plainly made fun of, he shouldn't intend to defend himself. He must remember that the student needs help with his writing, and it's the student and the his writing that must me the goal of the session, not defending or attacking.

Sherwood, Steve. "Censoring Students, Censoring Ourselves: Constraining Conversations in the Writing Center." The St. Martin's Sourcebook for Writing Tutors 3rd ed. Eds.

When a student walks in, he isn’t a client. The consultant isn’t a consultant. When a student walks in he has the authority. He has the text. He has the brainstorming. He has the ideas. He has the assignment. Once he decides to sit down with someone marks the moment when he decides to collaborate, when he expresses his ideas, when he gives his paper, his brainstorming, his emotions, when he lays himself down to take the role of a client. That is when collaboration begins. Collaboration begins when the student who walks in leaves his Garret Center, his “deep-seated” belief in individual ‘genius,’” when he leaves his individualism (48). Does collaboration really form a hierarchy, though? Co-labor-ate. Co-meaning “together, mutually, jointly.” Labor-meaning work and –ate “to act by making [work] brief.” Especially if we tutor the way Brooks recommends, I believe we can deconstruct the binary of tutor/student.
The Brooks piece really pointed things I believe in. Tutors aren’t editors, though we are often asked to be. Tutors aren’t there just to fix papers. They help fix future papers. They help eliminate problems. The four basic minimalist tutoring strategies he provides are four components I have incorporated in my tutoring. I believe sitting next to the client helps collaborate and eliminate the hierarchy of client/consultant. I’ve always had a pencil but have encouraged the client to write on his paper. Sub-consciously, however, I have always sat on the right (I am right-handed). When asked by a client what he should do, I haven’t bluntly said “I don’t know,” because though I don’t know what should be done, I have ideas. And I collaborate with the client so that he can figure these ideas out on himself. I lead him towards something, never stating what that something is.
Brooks’ first strategy to defensive minimalist tutoring caught me off guard. I don’t think I would be able to do this. I am able to get lazy and not work as hard, but I am not able to “slump back in my chair.” We must remember that we need to be professional in the Writers’ Room. A client’s lack of motivation isn’t a reason for us to be unmotivated as well. Especially in our Writers’ Room (which windows allow those who pass by to look in), consultants are viewed by many, and we can’t allow one student’s lack of motivation reflect our Writers’ Room.

Brooks, Jeff. "Minimalist Tutoring: Making the Student Do All the Work." The St. Martin's Source book for Writing Tutors, 3rd ed. Eds. Christina Murphy and Steve Sherwood. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 168-173
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/co-
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-ate

Of the four observations I’ve had so far, the assignments for three of the observations were due the same day. In fact, one observation was due thirty minutes after the client had arrived to the Writers’ Room. This, I am certain, is a common theme seen by most consultants. I immediately ask myself how students can do this. And, of course, I immediately know the answer. How? Well, I AM that student. I always write essays either the same day or the night before. This is the case for many students. But this is not the case for all students.
In high school I never knew how to get started or how to finish essays. I would hit a brick wall. I would have a brain fart. I would have writer’s block. You name it. I had it. And we must remember that this is the case for many students. This is when tutors should be at their best. As Christina Murphy states, tutors should be like psychotherapists, “awaken[ing] individuals to their potentials and to channel their creative energies toward self-enhancing ends” (Murphy 98). The tutoring, the psychoanalyzing, must provide the client self-awareness and self-actualization.
Whether it is writer’s block, self-doubt, anxiety, negative cognition, or procrastination, students entering a writing center all have one thing in common: they make themselves “vulnerable in opening themselves up to understanding or misunderstanding, judgment or acceptance, approval or disapproval” (97). This is one important thing I hadn’t considered before. Students may feel hurt or even unwilling to get help, and this is when tutors must make certain the clients feel “safe, secure, free from threat, and supporting but not supportive” (Peterson 498). This is when tutors must be psychoTHERAPISTS.

Murphy, Christina and Steve Sherwood. The St. Martin's Sourcebook for Writing Tutors. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. Murphy, Christina. “Freud in the Writing Center: The Psychoanalytics of Tutoring Well.” 95-99.

Peterson, C.H. Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy. 3rd ed. New York: Harper and Row, 1980.