John was right on the money in regards to using a student's interests to help him or her with writing. Just this morning, I had a tutee come in who had some major organizational problems. His outline was pretty much just one big mess of quotes and factual statements.
While I didn't use this student's interest to help tutor him in writing, I did use a metaphor which he was familiar with: building a house. I explained to him that the thesis (which he didn 't have) was the foundation of a house-that no matter the how sturdy the rest of his materials were, it wouldn't stand without the foundation. The great thing about this whole process is that I was explaining concepts to him in very straight-forward, concise manner (this is big for me, since my inability to do this is my biggest weakness).
Another benefit of incorporating the tutee's interest is that it allows us to personally connect to the student. Establishing that connnection is especially beneficial, considering most of the students that will be walking through our doors are going to be feeling very very insecure about their academic abilities. Establishing a rapport can alleviate a lot of that anxiety, and provide a substantial amount of support in so little time.
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I like the house metaphor a lot. I also use a related "real estate" metaphor to get them to understand that the space on the page has value and should be planned out and used for greatest efficiency.
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