Participant Observer...really that's the best you could come up with, North?

I have to admit.  When I first started reading Stephen North's description of a writing tutor as a participant observer, I immediately chalked it up to be yet another academic making up his own phrase to sound smart, that in truth makes no sense.  I mean think about it; Participant-Observer.  The two words are literally antonyms, how could that possibly make sense?

Reading further, I actually stopped to think about it.  The consultation requires the tutor to perform two roles (among others), generally speaking they could be divided into direct participation and observation.  Just like each writer, each consultation is unique, thereby requiring a different balance between the two.  The participation part, I feel, is easy to see and understand.  As a consultant we have to interact with both the writer and the paper: facilitate discussion, suggest alternative, teach or reiterate rules of grammar, and so on.  The observation part is not so readily recognized, at least it wasn't to me.  North stresses that each writer is unique, and has a writing process that is just as individual to their own strengths and familiarities.  Among other things, a consultant must observe the individuals whom they are helping, and actively use this knowledge to consult in a manner that is most beneficial to the writer.  After all these consultations are primarily for the benefit of the writer.  This active learning which is reflected in the way a tutor alters their style of "tutoring" is made possible through observation; observation of the writer, their paper, as well as their process.

Another thought that occurred to me, whether North meant this or not, was that this role of a "participant-observer" is a two way street.  Just as the consultant must fill these roles, so to does the writer.  No consultation is ever meant to be a lecture, but rather an active and facilitated conversation.  So then it is clearly essential that the writer participate.  So to does the writer benefit from observing.  Seeing how the consultant reads, analyzes, and looks to improve their paper, exemplifies and instills these strategies into the writer.  This observation is critical for a writer's future work; this first hand observation of how to break-down an essay into it's components of rhetoric, argument, and audience among other things,  aims not towards fixing the paper at hand, but towards forming a better writer.