Freshman and sophomore composition students who are required to write in response to literature frequently find that they are not yet secure enough in their basic writing skills to discuss a literary work. In order to help these students, writing center tutors must be familiar with the assigned writing tasks and what instructors expect from an assignment. If possible, course syllabi, a catalogue of required readings, copies of these texts, and sample or model papers should be kept on file in the writing center. For situations in which the assigned tutor is not familiar with the piece of literature under study, the student can be tutored by a senior literature major, or by a professor/tutor from the English department. Another approach is small group brainstorming or study sessions to discuss the work, during which time the tutor can provide feedback on suggested writing topics. Subsequent individual tutoring sessions can help a student gain a perspective for writing a personal response to a work, or limit a topic to a focused thesis for a critical essay. For the latter, library research skills can also be taught by writing center tutors. (HTH)