Training tutors has historically been and continues to be one of the most important, as well as the most labor- and time-intensive needs that directors of writing centers are called to address. As technological advancements have been made, those needs have continued to grow into online areas as well. The Writing Center at the University of…

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…