Writing Center Pedagogy Response

When started my first day of being a writing center tutor in Edinboro University, I was a fish in a new pond. A very new pond. In Edinboro, our own writing center had been defunct for three years due to poor administration, and it had restarted under a new professor with provisional funding. I knew I wanted to help people with their papers -- show them that anyone can be a good writer, etc. -- but I wasn’t sure of all of my responsibilities. That uncertainty was answered in my first two appointments. The first was a freshman student who merely wanted surface-level proofreading, and I did so gladly. It was over in less than twenty minutes. My next walk-in was a forty year old ex-hell’s angel member that had gone back to college to get his degree. He sat down in front of me and said he hadn’t written anything longer than a grocery list in over twenty years. He wanted me to explain to him what exactly an essay was, and how he can make “good ones.” After a brief pause, I introduced to the three main parts of an essay, and spent the entire hour with him on what each of them needs. Those two sessions defined for me what a writing center was without ever looking into a procedural manual (we didn’t have one at the time). We polished, we help draft, and everything in between.

The wide birth of responsibilities and codes each writing center makes them one of the most organic and flexible tutoring services available for students. While our credos normally line up perfectly -- make better writers, just not better writing -- it’s amazing how much each center can differ on its language and culture, as mentioned in the essay. When I first came to IUPUI, I was surprised to learn that I couldn’t call my self a “writing consultant” (a title I took pride in, distinguishing me from tutors of other subjects), but a “tutor.” The writers were no longer my “clients,” they were my “tutees.” My “appointments” were now “sessions.” For me, my old language brought up images of professionalism for the student; they weren’t just being tutored, they were a writers having a meeting over their work. IUPUI, while having a much more organized heirachy, resources, and scheduling system, wished for their language to have a more relaxed, collaborative atmosphere.

Eric Hobson discusses how as well as giving individualized instruction, most writing centers get saddled with across-the-board problems in writing. We work with undergrads, graduates, and faculty. We help people with their chemistry proposals and their job résumés. We help people from Chicago and people from Thailand. And there’s nothing wrong with any of that. “Bring it on,” is the answer you’ll get from virtually all writing centers. What I noticed from the essay is that though writing centers are the go-to panacea for issues most classes can’t give more time and resources to, not much is said about proper support structures for unique problems these groups may have. For instance, in my old college, I would work with graduate students from Korea, but I would struggle with explaining to them what the word “the” was and how it could be used in every instance. IUPUI keeps students such of these out of the reach of Mavens (new tutors) and relegate them to faculty or English as a Second Language (ESL) veterans, but I don’t think this solves the issue entirely. As colleges across America become more diverse nationally and internationally, I would like to see more funding, or at least training, for specialty tutors to work with ESL students and specific disciplines. Many hiring practices in writing centers reflect this level of thinking, but I’d also like to see more training options available for the future.

Also, as mentioned in both this essay and the previous WAC one, writing centers are a key component to teaching writing across the disciplines, but I believe effective communication between the departments is key here. Every writing center I know has some form of telling a professor that their student visited the center. It keeps the professor up-to-date on their progress, and it creates more accountability for the student’s work. What I’d like to see in the future is to have writing centers reach out even more to professors of other disciplines, and there are a myriad of ways to do this. By embracing more WAC thinking, writing centers could hold annual workshops to discuss common problems in different departments, and how the writing center could adapt to their expected formats in academic writing. Next semester the IUPUI UWC is going to hold an open house for the departments for this very reason. If getting representatives from all the departments is too much of an issue, a simple letter or survey could bring similar results.

To keep up with expected writing styles across the curriculum, it’s also not uncommon for writing centers to bring in other majors to work with students. The essay mentions how writing centers work very well with secondary education teachers, but in Edinboro our tutoring staff also consisted of marketing, chemistry, philosophy, and history majors. With their specialties posted above the public schedule, people could match their subject with the strongest tutor. If a department feels neglected by the local writing center, volunteering a graduate student or a faculty member could add to the experience and culture of the center.

While this essay helped me formulate a wish list of sorts for what I’d like to see in more writing centers, I can’t say the technology section particularly interested me. For me, the core of a good tutoring session is very un-technological. We sit together at a table with a hard copy of the essay, and we hammer away at the writer’s complaints until the time is up. I have worked on papers on computers before -- some students even prefer it -- but I find it’s inefficient for me. Many of my co-workers agree that it’s hard to see the big picture on a computer screen, and I encourage my tutees to just print it out.

Technology’s real home in the writing center seems to be as a support function. Purdue’s OWL system is famous, and IUPUI’s own UWC website helps students get quick citing references and rules for common grammar and punctuation problems. These worksheets have been great time savers in the past for me, and I’d like to see this library grow.

Eric Hobson’s essay did more than just bring me to a greater awareness of writing center purposes and issues. It also made me want to become a greater part of the academic community of the writing center. I’d like to become a member of the NWCA, as well as read more articles from the Writing Center Resource Manual. As I progress and find my niches in the Rhetoric and Composition field, I know that the writing center has shaped me into the teacher I am today. I hope to continue this recursive definition in the years to come.