Hello and welcome!  I’m looking forward to working with all of you in the coming year, and I think you’ll find that the time you spend here will be personally and professionally rewarding.  The purpose of The George Mason University Writing Center Handbook is to acquaint tutors with the Writing Center’s goals, values, and practices; our varied clientele of students, faculty, and staff at all of our campuses; and the day-to-day procedures involved in running a smooth and effective tutorial program.

This handbook is intended to be a useful supplement to on-the-job training.  While we have tried to anticipate many of the challenges tutors will face as they work with writers with widely diverse abilities and attitudes, nothing can substitute for the actual experience of sitting face to face with a client and talking about his or her writing.

It’s fun, it’s challenging, it’s sometimes draining and frustrating.  But more often than not, I think you will find tutoring writing a satisfying and pleasurable way to spend your time as well as a good introduction to the pedagogy of teaching writing.