Lesley has been a tutor at the Writing Center for one year. Imagine going to another country where very few people speak your language. This is a daunting task, but thousands of people successfully accomplish it, through effort and determination. Tutors who work with non-native speakers of English should first try to understand what these determined people go through to succeed in college. Then, the tutors should help these students help themselves.
Some background can help tutors understand non-native speakers writing patterns.
We all have logical and linguistic patterns which have shaped how we think and express ourselves since we began learning how to speak. In addition, our schools teach us culturally standard ways to organize our thoughts in writing. Academic writing in English can be characterized as direct and is usually organized hierarchically, with a short introduction, a thesis near the beginning and general statements followed by specific evidence. It can be composed mostly of details or of statements that evoke ideas to the members of that particular culture, leaving the readers to infer the conclusions. Good writers may be the ones who give specifics before they produce any general statements, or who don t even state their main idea but communicate it between the lines, with style, grace, and humor.