Rod Carew is considered by many to be one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. Over a 19-year career in the Majors, Carew was a 17-time All Star, and had over 3000 hits and a .328 career batting average. He was elected to the MLB Hall of Fame in 1991. Since his retirement in 1985, he has become a very successful hitting coach in and around the league (Carew). He recently compiled a list of “10 Important Keys to Good Hitting.” These are short and simple tips, and many of them can be tweaked to translate into advice for other activities, such as tutoring writing.
Carew’s first key to successful hitting is Do not fear the baseball. He claims that, “You can’t be afraid of being hit by the ball if you want to be a good hitter” (Carew). Writing tutors must also be fearless if they hope to succeed. They cannot be scared of certain topics or papers; they must be aggressive in pursuing and assisting all forms of students and writing, whether it is a freshman in an introductory English class, an ESL student, or a graduate student writing his/her dissertation. This tip goes along with another of Carew’s hitting pointers: Be confident at the plate. We, as tutors, must be confident when we sit down at our desk in the Writing Center. Confidence shows through poise and attitude. Writing tutors must, to quote from Carew, “combine purpose and discipline” to portray themselves as confident and helpful aides, because students will pick up on that and respond to it. This can be done by sitting up straight, smiling, keeping a positive attitude, and being eager and straightforward in each tutorial.
The next key to good hitting (and also tutoring writing), according to Rod Carew, is to stay within yourself. Writing tutors are not machines, they are humans, and they can’t be expected to know every grammatical rule or citation formatting off the top of their head. Every now and then, a student will show up with a citation style that is largely unheard of, or even unique to their particular professor. One should not be afraid to admit that they aren’t sure about a certain question. As Carew suggests, “know your strengths and weaknesses, and play within your ability.” There are sourcebooks and other helpful resources in the Writing Center, and with the Internet, looking up an unknown fact or topic has never been easier or more convenient. A student tutee would much rather have their tutor admit that he/she doesn’t know and look up the solution, than receive incorrect information out of embarrassment.
Carew’s next hitting tips can also be applied to all writing tutors: stay flexible, and hit the ball where it’s pitched. In baseball, a pitcher normally has an entire arsenal of pitches to throw, as well as a unique approach to each hitter. The best thing a hitter can do is to be prepared for anything, because there’s no sure way of knowing what’s coming next. Carew tells his pupils, “learn to hit the ball pitched down the middle through the middle, to pull the inside pitch, to slap the outside pitch the other way” (Carew). Likewise, in the Writing Center, a tutor can never be certain of what each tutorial is going to bring. Each student is different, and each will have a different approach to writing and editing their papers. A tutor needs to go with the flow of the tutorial, to address what the student wants, rather than forcing the tutorial in a different direction tailored to his or her own wants. However, sometimes the situation will call for guidance on the tutor’s part, because students aren’t always aware of their weakest areas of writing. By staying flexible and prepared, writing tutors make themselves much more versatile and able to connect with and assist students in whichever way they need.
Carew’s final important key to good hitting can be applied to almost anything: practice makes perfect. Most writing tutors would agree that tutoring gets easier with practice. Online Writery posts, which start out as hours of work- formatting, coloring, writing, research, double-checking, proofreading, etc.- become much more efficient with practice. Getting comfortable with the program and developing a unique style of responding comes with time and repetition. Furthermore, by spending a lot of time in the Writing Center, and being exposed to a wide variety of students, papers, and situations, a tutor’s face-to-face skills can also improve with practice. Interpersonal communication plays a big role in tutorials, and that can be a difficult skill to master, but it definitely gets easier with practice. Carew insists that you must “work hard to hone your skills, to fine-tune fundamentals” (Carew). After mastering the “fundamentals” of tutoring, a tutor can begin to experiment out of his/her comfort zone, working with students or subjects that may have previously seemed intimidating. The resulting confidence and well-roundedness are crucial characteristics of a successful writing tutor.
Hitting a small baseball zooming in at high velocities, as well as spinning, curving and tailing in different directions, can seem like an impossible task at times. But so can tutoring a student who hasn’t begun their essay that is due in four hours, or who doesn’t know what a "thesis statement" is, or who completely lacks interest in writing. By using some of the same techniques that MLB legend Rod Carew offers for successful hitting, like staying within yourself, being confident, and staying flexible, a writing tutor can make his/her job much more enjoyable and manageable. Success doesn’t come always come easy, but with plenty of practice and a good attitude, being a writing tutor can be a very fun and rewarding experience.
Source
Carew, Rod. "10 Important Keys to Good Hitting." Rod Carew Baseball: Hitting Tips. Web. 18 Nov. 2014. <http://rodcarewbaseball.com/news/hittingtips/ ?article_id=18>
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