Consultants or Tutors?

Essay: Writing Centers and the Idea of Consultancy by William McCall

This article essentially covers the pros and cons of using the term tutor versus using the term consultant. I find this idea to be very interesting namely because I’m at myself have been thinking about which term to use when writing up my essay on the writing center observations. I’m feeling myself using consultant rather tudor due to the fact that my previous understandings of both words align to better with the idea of the member of the writing center being a consultant. I found it particularly interesting that McCall decided to include a chart of connotations with each word, which line with my views of each word. I am rather glad that he decided to address this issue because as someone who does not use the writing center, I find the idea of using the term consultant to be more approachable then tutor simply for the fact that tutor implies wrongdoing or inadequacy. This is another thing that McCall talks about in his essay. With my limited experience of observing consultations in the UNL Writing Center, I believe that the word consultant fits the environment and approach of the members of the writing center.