Yecca Zeng, from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and UVM student Rachel Conrad talk tutoring in a swap designed to deepen the creative strength of their writing centers. (Photo: Sally McCay)

A large open space, one wall painted a pale shade of purple, sleek ergonomic chairs around a few wide circular tables -- it makes an impact on a small group of UVM students spending their spring break at the Fashion Institute of Technology's writing "studio" as part of an intellectual exchange of peer tutors between the schools. The environment is exactly as you might imagine a writing center at a top New York design school.

"It was cool," says senior Sam Wakefield, who had the opportunity to apply his skill there. "I was tutoring at one point, and it was beginning to hum with all the tutoring going on around me."

Students returned to Vermont with a sense of that energy, but this "tutor swap" was actually inspired by UVM's presentation at the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing (NCPTW) that strongly impressed FIT attendees. The student talk focused on the crucial first five minutes of a session, setting a tone that makes the writer feel comfortable and avoids the sense of tutor as authority figure.

According to Brian Fallon, director of FIT's two-year-old writing studio and engineer of the swap, his tutors left the conference rethinking how they use their state-of-the-art space, realizing that their tendency to congregate in the back was unwelcoming to writers walking in. They made an unofficial rule to station themselves around the room, sending a "we're here to work with you" message.

The work of peer writing tutoring is in fact a field of serious scholarship, and the level of students' engagement with both the theory and practice was clearly in evidence when it was FIT's turn to come to Burlington last week to continue the conversation, to tutor and observe the writing center culture on another, very different campus.

Having quickly created a bond in Manhattan, both sets of tutors were talking intently about when ideas on, say, minimalism work and when they don't. "There's a danger in over thinking," says Daniel Phillips of FIT sitting in on a tutor training class. "Use theory as a framework but always use intuition during a session. Then reflect back on the session using theory."

The success of the swap already has Fallon planning for students to present jointly on the experience as a model for other exchanges at next fall's NCPTW.

"Just being in another place," says Susan Dinitz, director of UVM's writing center, "like traveling to another country, enriches our understanding of ourselves. What did you learn about our place from going there, and what did you learn about yourself as a tutor from tutoring there? That will be an ongoing conversation."

Peer point

Our place, UVM's Writing Center, has existed since 1984, and Dinitz is intent on explaining what it is -- and what it isn't. For one, it is wildly different from FIT's startup.

The space, attractive if not utterly hip, is set up for more private tutoring sessions. The needs of writers at a university with a vast range of disciplines create a complexity a specialized school doesn't face. And UVM's tutors receive intensive academic training for a year without pay; FIT tutors are paid from the start with a more trial-by-fire approach, though both institutions meet regularly to process sessions and troubleshoot issues.

The 20 or so new tutors that start here every year (of about 45 in all) must first be recommended by a professor, submit a writing sample and, if chosen, take classes and tutor three hours a week for a year. According to Wakefield, the first semester focuses on the mechanics of writing, and the second on the volumes of writing center theory, to which Dinitz has contributed extensively over her career.

"I feel like the best training is to make it an academic experience because that makes the whole thing intellectual, not just a job," Dinitz says. "I can get them to think more reflectively about what they're doing that whole first year and then that's set into place for the rest of the way. I like the academic flavor of the experience."

Fallon wouldn't so much disagree about the education of tutors but points out the luxury UVM has to facilitate that with an established English department. Dinitz and Fallon have been well acquainted over the years, both sharing an interest in favoring tutors over directors in constructing knowledge and theories about writing centers.

"You're dealing with one of the best in the business there," says Fallon. "I can't think of many people who are respected more than Sue Dinitz. To be able to send a group of my students to work with somebody like Sue is just a tremendous opportunity."

Communicating success

If writing center theory is inside baseball, the broad message is that tutoring at UVM -- or anywhere -- is not about helping bad writers or teaching someone to write.

"Writing centers really exist," says Dinitz, "to take advantage of the idea that writing for many people is a very social activity and people benefit from talking to other writers at different parts in the process. It's collaborative learning; it's two writers talking together that can often help move a project along."

Students can make an appointment at UVM's Writing Center or drop in, come once or several times a semester -- and they do, from freshmen to graduate students. Tutors are selected from a range of disciplines and represent as much diversity as possible, which allows for a lot of perspectives.

For that reason some students appreciate working with different tutors. But an idea the center would like to expand, piloted by Wakefield with great success, is matching up writing partners, someone a tutor would work with consistently over a semester.

"You can build a relationship with someone," says Wakefield over lunch with the FIT group, "and jump right in, have enough time to work on a piece and be a resource for a student to just call when they need writing help."

Dinitz snaps back her perspective: "I saw you take it to a whole different level. I felt like you ended up learning from her and it turned into a real partnership in a way that it can't if you're just tutoring someone for an hour."

Under either scenario it's clear that tutors take away as much as they give. There's the satisfaction of contributing in the moment, but a survey of UVM alumni who had been tutors -- representing careers from physician to teacher, attorney to VP for L'Oreal Paris -- responded overwhelmingly that they attribute much of their problem-solving, diplomatic, leadership, critical thinking and a host of other skills to being a writing tutor.

For writers across campus, Lindsey Gillies, at work on her senior thesis, sums it up: "I wish I'd found the Writing Center a lot earlier."