Reading Beyond the Surface:

Training Writing Tutors to Cultivate Rhetorical Source Use 

Carolyne M. King & Megan Boeshart Burelle

Old Dominion University

KEYWORDS

reading in the writing center; source use and integration; rhetorical reading; instructional feedback / approaches; writing process; writing in the disciplines / writing across the curriculum;

abstract

Too often, attention to reading in writing centers is reduced to questioning if the consultant or the writer will read the text aloud (King, 2018; Macauley, 2004). However, tutors’ reading skills are central to the work of improving writers as tutors draw on reading knowledge as they work across a range of genres and disciplinary styles. Unfortunately, developing tutors’ reading practices has been largely overlooked in tutor training. In this training, we build tutors’ attention to reading through attention to source use. Although source use is an ever-present aspect of academic writing, most attention to source use in tutorials remains merely that of formatting concerns for citation systems. Such practices fail to include attention to how students read and thus how their textual comprehensions impact their intended uses of sources. Accordingly, this training seeks to foster tutors’ metacognitive skills with rhetorical reading and, specifically, with providing greater attention to the rhetorical purpose behind a source’s inclusion in a text. Plans for three training sessions, including activities and brief lecture components, are included. We recommend that administrators use this training after completing a foundational training on citation issues.

This training series is designed to help writing tutors deepen their understanding of reading as a rhetorical skill, and to expand their recognition of reading and source use connections. It engages tutors in interactive activities, guided practice, and reflective discussions to develop tutors’ understanding of reading, genre, and source use, and to increase their comfort with working across disciplines and with advanced writers (e.g., writers in upper division courses and graduate writers). 

CONTENTS

TRAINING DETAILS

LESSON OVERVIEW

LEARNING OBJECTIVES / OUTCOMES

INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN

ASSESSING FOR UNDERSTANDING

RESOURCES, REFERENCES, & PERMISSIONS

AUTHOR INFORMATION

TRAINING DETAILS

TYPES & MODES In-person Synchronous online Discussion Hands-on activity Case study or scenario Application of theory to practice Reflection

TIMING & OCCURENCE  Lesson Time: Multiple sessions, 1-2 hours per session Prep Time: 1-2 hours plus additional reading time Continued education / professional development; located in a later term of experienced tutors' employment

AUDIENCE Novice tutors Experienced tutors   Undergraduate student tutors Graduate student tutors Faculty/ professional tutors In-person tutors Synchronous online tutors Asynchronous online tutors

MATERIALS NEEDED Lesson 1: Reading out of Context Lesson plan overview with administrator scripts “Training #1: Reading Out of Context” PowerPoint, including directions for two activities Example excerpt text (activity 1) in PowerPoint Suggestions for selection of excerpt 2 (activity 2) Lesson 2: Source Use is Rhetorical Reading Lesson plan overview with administrator scripts “Training #2: Source Use is Rhetorical Reading” PowerPoint, including directions for two activities Example Alice/Shirley paper and scripted tutorial Reminder: tutors should bring a source-using paper of their own Lesson 3: Source Use & BEAM Lesson plan overview with administrator scripts “Training #3: Source Use and BEAM” PowerPoint, including directions for activity Example student paper for mock tutorial activity Suggested: Handout on BEAM method for tutors to reference during activity

LESSON OVERVIEW

A central skill that tutors must learn to leverage is reading–in particular, practicing rhetorical reading so as to be productive and active conversationalists in unpacking in-process texts and their nascent generic moves or conventions. Yet the practice of reading in the tutorial and helping develop students as readers remains a peripheral concern in writing center scholarship and training discussions (Carillo, 2017; Greenwell, 2017; King, 2018). Most commonly, reading issues are often subsumed in source integration, with writers and consultants focused upon the conventions of formatting citations or appropriately integrating texts. For example, tutors often receive training on citation conventions, but rarely are they encouraged to consider how citational conventions or stylistic knowledge impacts their reading practices. In addition to understanding disciplinary citation conventions, our tutors must gain familiarity and confidence with metacognitively aware reading strategies, and how to recognize and apply rhetorical knowledge of source integration during tutorials. Forcier & Denny (2024) provide excellent training materials on how disciplinary convention knowledge is integral to successful consultations. Our training materials extend the use of such knowledge to reading contexts. Helping tutors to build broader transferable schemas to approach how sources are used can help tutors develop confidence and intentionality in their work with source integration.This work is especially pressing because tutors often must work across disciplines.

In the following pedagogical materials, we showcase a sequence of trainings designed to help deepen tutors' understanding of reading as a rhetorical skill, and specifically, to consider rhetorical source use. Because tutors often lack confidence in their own abilities as readers (King, 2018), we begin with a training that focuses upon understanding the meta-cognitive cues that enable reading comprehension (Horning, 2018), and the connection between these strategies and rhetorical reading (Brent, 1992; Haas and Flower, 1988). In the second training, we help tutors consider common issues with understanding the role of rhetorical source use in writing using a mock-tutorial activity modeled upon Kantz’s (1990) work. Finally, in training three, we introduce tutors to a heuristic for rhetorical source use (Bizup, 2008), and practice applying it to guide a mock tutorial. 

When we worked with tutors to develop their understanding of rhetorical reading and source integration, our tutors struggled at first. In their own literacy practices, tutors had not explicitly attended to source use as rhetorically determined. Thus, while they could recognize rhetorical moves in their own work upon reflection, it took time to develop a new and explicit way of explaining source integration choices rather than merely characterizing “good” source use as integration that is citationally perfect. This training series encourages metacognitive reading growth in tutors, and can help tutors work with students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. By helping tutors to understand source use as discipline-specific and yet always rhetorical, tutors gain a framework to approach student writing effectively even if it falls outside their genre comfort zone. Shifting focus to why a student chose a source and how it functions in a specific part of the text encourages tutors and students to engage more deeply with genre and disciplinary conventions, moving beyond a superficial focus on citation formats.

This training series is designed to help writing tutors deepen their understanding of reading as a rhetorical skill, and to expand their recognition of reading and source use connections. It engages tutors in interactive activities, guided practice, and reflective discussions to develop tutors’ understanding of reading, genre, and source use, and to increase their comfort with working across disciplines and with advanced writers (e.g., writers in upper division courses and graduate writers). 

REFERENCES

• Bizup, J. (2008). BEAM: A rhetorical vocabulary for teaching research-based writing. Rhetoric Review, 27(1), 72–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/07350190701738858  
• Brent, D. (1992). Reading as rhetorical invention: knowledge, persuasion, and the teaching of research-based writing. NCTE.
• Carillo, E. C. (2017). Reading and writing centers: A primer for writing center professionals. Writing Center Journal, 36(2), 117–145. https://doi.org/10.7771/2832-9414.1829 
• Forcier, E., & Denny, M. (2024). Understanding citation through disciplinary values. Center Moves: A Peer-Reviewed Archive of Tutor Training Materials, 2(1). https://rmwca.wildapricot.org/page-18239 
• Greenwell, A. M. (2017). Rhetorical reading guides, readerly experiences, and WID in the writing center. Writing Lab Newsletter, 41(7/8), 9–16. https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/wln/v41n7/greenwell.pdf 
• Haas, C., & Flower, L. (1988).  Rhetorical reading strategies and the construction of meaning. College Composition and Communication, 39(2), 167–183. https://doi.org/10.2307/358026 
• Horning, A. (2018). Neuroscience of reading: Developing expertises in reading and writing. In P. Portanova, M. Rigenburg, & D.H. Roen (Eds.), Contemporary perspectives on cognition and writing, (pp. 79–94), WAC Clearinghouse. https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/cognition/ 
• King, C. M. (2018). Tutors as readers: Reprising the role of reading in the writing center. Praxis,16(1). https://www.praxisuwc.com/161-king  
• Kantz, M. (1990). Helping students use textual sources persuasively. College English, 52(1), 74–91. https://doi.org/10.2307/377413 
• Macauley, W. J. (2004). Paying attention to learning styles in writing center epistemology, tutor training, and writing tutorials. Writing Lab Newsletter, 28(9), 1–5. https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/wln/v28/28.9.pdf 

LEARNING OUTCOMES/OBJECTIVES

By the end of this training sequence, tutors will:

• Understand reading as a rhetorical act, shaped by context and purpose. 
• Be able to help writers explore source use beyond surface-level formatting and isolated quoting/paraphrasing; tutors will help students learn to make strategic rhetorical choices about how to use their sources and how to synthesize sources into a cohesive argument.
• Be able to reflect on their own disciplinary backgrounds and assumptions about common ways to use sources; tutors will understand how their experiences shape their values as writers and tutors, thus fostering a more critical awareness of their role in collaborative writing sessions. 

INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN

This training sequence emphasizes activity and reflections to ensure that tutors have myriad opportunities to think about themselves as writers, to make connections to their work as tutors, and to practice applying knowledge and skills in mock-tutorial activities. In general, the sequence moves from a lecture and self-assessment reading activity towards more personalized learning and direct applicability in mock-tutorial situations. Thus, its overall organization funnels from conceptual to practical application. 

We want to emphasize that most tutors will have had very little prior opportunity to deeply interrogate their own source integration, especially their metacognitive reading awareness in relationship to sources. Much of disciplinary acclimatization occurs through trial and error; thus, making disciplinary values explicit is something that even disciplinary experts struggle with (Adler-Kassner and Wardle, 2022; Glotfelter, et al., 2022). It is important to provide adequate time for tutors to critically examine their own practices before being asked to think about how they can ‘do this’ with students in consultations.  

TRAINING 1: READING OUT OF CONTEXT

Access Lesson 1: Reading Out of Context (with all materials)

Tutors will learn how reading comprehension is built on foundational “meta” awarenesses about texts (Horning, 2018). Tutors will be given several opportunities to develop awareness of the metacognitive strategies they use as they read so as to create a meaningful context for their reading work. Tutors will be guided in considering how rhetorical reading–a practice useful in guiding their work in tutorials–also draws upon these foundational meta-awarenesses of texts. 

• Provided: Lesson plan with description of the training, including administrators’ scripts
• Provided: Example PowerPoint with activity directions
• You will also need to prepare an accessible text for the second activity (see notes in lesson plan on text selection)

TRAINING 2: SOURCE USE IS RHETORICAL READING

Access Lesson 2: Source Use is Rhetorical Reading (with all materials)

Tutors will reflect on how they learned to use sources, and on their own tendencies in source use. Building upon their growing awareness of how rhetorically reading a text for its context and purpose also requires foundational meta-awarenesses of how texts work, tutors are guided in making explicit their understanding and expectations of the contexts in which academics use sources. Tutors will be guided through a mock-tutorial activity focusing upon source uses.

• Provided: Lesson plan with description of the training, including administrators’ scripts
• Provided: Example PowerPoint with activity directions
• Provided: Example text for mock tutorial using Shirley excerpt

TRAINING 3: SOURCE USE AND BEAM

Access Lesson 3: Source Use and BEAM (with all materials) 

Tutors will learn how to analyze sources for their rhetorical purpose following Bizup’s BEAM heuristic. Tutors will reflect on their own strategies for source use and how the BEAM strategy emphasizes purpose more exactly. They will practice identifying the purpose of source integration in a model paper and work towards potential feedback on source use via the BEAM method in a mock-tutorial activity. 

• Provided: Lesson plan with description of the training, including administrators’ scripts
• Provided: Example PowerPoint with activity directions
• Provided: Example text for mock tutorial from “Jane”
• Provided: Example handout with explanation of BEAM heuristic

ASSESSING FOR UNDERSTANDING

Across the lessons, these are some of the ways that we encourage assessing tutor learning:

• Exit tickets
• Participation in discussions and activities

In general, we encourage administrators to assess for understanding during each lesson (by evaluating how well students are participating), and by slowing down to fully discuss and debrief activities. We also encourage exit tickets or other reflective writing completed at the end, or shortly after the training, that will allow the tutors to both summarize what they've learned and to ask any questions that they still have, as well as help administrators prepare for the next training in the sequence. 

EXTENSIONS AND ADAPTATIONS

Across the lessons, we’ve provided more individualized places for where you can extend, adapt, or condense the lesson for your center’s context and time of training. These include things like these:

• Providing copies of reading and activities ahead of time, to allow for readers to read at their own pace.
• Preparing accessible handouts and readings that allow for read-aloud devices or the use of other reading support software.
• Considering time and your center’s needs. These trainings and their activities can easily be broken apart to focus upon a particular skill, or to provide a less complex training arc. 
• Including multiple forms of participation in the training, including through verbal, written, and other participatory frames.

Administrators should be prepared to extend the trainings to better support tutor development. Trainings can easily be “repeated” with different examples used so that tutors can practice the learning goals that each activity supports. Administrators should also consider how to adapt materials and learning for their center. For instance, providing examples ahead of time can help students feel more comfortable with focusing more specifically on aspects of the example. Additionally, as this training series requires PowerPoints and other handouts for students, we suggest a range of accessible options for tutors to use during the training. Administrators should be prepared by having printed and digital versions available and encouraging tutors to use a variety of writing implements and highlighting options for deeper engagement. 

As part of consideration, please also consider additional accessibility measures. As the training utilizes discussion, having either a white board/chalk board or other large-group note-taking format available to record for in-person training (or using a Google Doc or other format for synchronous training) will provide options for recording the group discussion.

RESOURCES, REFERENCES, & PERMISSIONS

RESOURCES

We would recommend Greenwell’s Writing Lab Newsletter article on building rhetorical reading guides in writing centers. This offers an alternative focus to support both tutor and student understanding of different disciplinary genres, and draws upon many of the same rhetorical reading strategies that our lesson plan practices. This can be assigned as a reading, or used as an alternative to guide more individualized activities by administrators. 

If you, like us, are working with primarily a tutorial population of graduate students, you might consider the Supporting the Growth of Graduate Writers (film series). Particularly, the emphasis on how graduate tutors can manage “not knowing” about different disciplinary areas as well as the overview of literature reviews and meta-analyses, may be useful to most tutors.

REFERENCES
Each lesson plan's references are listed on that lesson plan. 

PERMISSIONS

As the authors, we attest that we have secured all permissions for reproducing this work and supporting materials in the final submission.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would thank the tutors of the ODU Writing Center for their generosity and good will as they “tested out” our training approach. Their feedback and enthusiasm for learning were instrumental in refining this development series. 

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Carolyne M. King & Megan Boeshart Burelle

Old Dominion University

Carolyne M. King is an assistant professor (English-Writing Studies) and also the director of WAC/WID and STEM Initiatives for the Writing Center. Her research focuses upon the reading-writing connection, specifically, seeking to understand how students read and work with sources as they write source-based papers. She particularly encourages attention to making reading perceivable—using methods like screen-casts of reading behaviors in action—to explore texts' materiality as part of reading. 

Megan Boeshart Burelle is a senior lecturer and Writing Center director at Old Dominion University. She teaches general education writing courses. Her research interests include writing centers, online tutoring, and multimodal feedback. She is currently working on her PhD in English and her dissertation is about online writing tutoring and asynchronous screencasting feedback.

King & Boeshart Burelle, Center Moves, no. 4, 2025.