Awareness of audience is of major importance in rhetoric, but most students who come to a writing center need help in recognizing and accommodating an audience for their work. Standard warnings from rhetoric texts and writing instructors not to write for the instructor not withstanding, it is the job of the writing center staff to help the student…

Until recently, the conventional wisdom about the conjunction of peer tutoring and writing in the disciplines was that a tutor unfamiliar with subject matter actually operated at an advantage. In spite of some of the theoretical advantages of ignorance, recent research suggests that it is difficult to ask probing questions and make useful…