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