In Peter Severino’s “Avoiding Appropriation,” Severino argues that often in writing center, tutors engage in the act of “appropriating” an ESL students’ writing. Appropriating a student's writing is when, “the writer [feels] … a loss of voice, ownership, authorship, or emotional and intellectual connection to the writing and how it was composed (Severino 53).” Tutors will reformulate the writing, choosing to replace the ESL students expression with “correct” idiomatic expression that native English speakers use. I am guilty of appropriating student writing, and I do it because I feel like it’s an extension of correcting grammar. For example, in a session often with an ESL student, I will point to an expression that is familiar to me, but not
