Category Archives: Theories and Practice

Meet the authors of WLN’s newly released D.E.C. on transfer in the writing center

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D.E.C. Editors, Dana Lynn Driscoll, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, & Bonnie Devet, College of Charleston

Dr. Bonnie Devet contributed this piece. In her previous blog post, she provided an overview of the newly released Digital Edited Collection, Transfer of Learning in the Writing Center, which she co-edited with Dr. Dana L. Driscoll and with Design Editor, Jialei Jiang.  Here, Dr. Devet introduces us to the authors of the collection and their inspirations for researching/studying transfer in the writing center.  

The authors of WLN’s second Digital Edited Collection, Transfer of Learning in the Writing Center, can attest that different sources inspire their scholarship: from faculty comments, being a tutor in a center, conference presentations, and research. In this Digital Edited Collection, they examine the history of transfer in shaping centers, provide detailed scenarios about transfer occurring in tutorials and conclude by moving beyond the center showing that tutors’ skills transfer into careers.

Why do the D.E.C. authors think transfer of learning is vital to centers and how did they become interested in transfer?

Marcus Meade, University of Virginia

Marcus Meade discovered his interest in transfer from assisting student-athletes: “I had conversations with them about what they learned in athletics that might help them as writers and students. That started a long project related to transfer and writing instruction that, in part, focused on how wc work differs from the writing classroom in the conditions that might foster transfer.”

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It’s here! WLN’s 2nd Digital Edited Collection discusses transfer of learning in the writing center

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Editor’s Note: Dr. Bonnie Devet, Professor of English and Director of the Writing Lab at the College of Charleston, contributed this piece. 

It’s finally here! The Digital Edited Collection (D.E.C) Transfer of Learning in the Writing Center (Eds. Bonnie Devet and Dana Driscoll; Design Editor, Jialei Jiang) was just released! It’s the second D.E.C from WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship, and it offers tutors and directors new perspectives into how knowledge is “cued, primed, and guided” (Perkins and Salomon, 1989); that is, how both tutors and their student writers engage in the transfer of learning.

To access the DEC, click this link. The DEC includes videos, graphics, teaching materials, and research data and is accessible to our colleagues around the world.  Continue reading →

Rewind & Reset: Lisa Ede’s “Research on Writing Centers: Some Essential Studies”

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Editor’s note: Every so often, we look through our blog archives to find posts that have a way of centering us as writing center practitioners.

This week, Lisa Ede’s 2016 post “Research on Writing Centers: Some Essential Studies” stood out. Ede provides a comprehensive list of scholars and trends in the writing center research. As we embark on a new year, this list reminds us of our field’s evolution and offers helpful sources to consider for those of us involved in writing-center related research, tutor-training initiatives or starting or expanding our writing centers.

What other publications could you add to this list? What sources have been most valuable to you as you integrate writing center practices and pedagogies in your own local contexts outside of the North American one. Let us know in the comments. Enjoy!

Click on this link to read Ede’s post.

Call for Proposals | AWAC-Sponsored Panel, European Writing Centers Association Conference

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The International Collaborations Committee of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum (https://www.wacassociation.org/) is issuing a call for proposals for an AWAC-sponsored panel at the European Writing Centers Association conference to take place in Graz, Austria, from July 8-11, 2020. Please see the EWCA conference website for more details and information about the overall conference theme, “Writing Centers as Spaces of Empowerment”: https://europeanwritingcenters-2020.uni-graz.at/en/

Please submit proposals as attached Word files via email, with the subject line “AWAC-Sponsored Panel EWCA 2020,” NO LATER THAN JAN. 25, 2020, to:

Chris Anson: chris_anson@ncsu.edu
Federico Navarro: navarro@uoh.cl

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CFP || Join the Twelfth Symposium on Writing Centers in Asia

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Osaka University, Suita Campus – the venue for the 12th Symposium on Writing Centers in Asia.

The Writing Centers Association of Japan is now accepting proposals for its twelfth Symposium on Writing Centers in Asia. The theme for this year’s symposium is “Opportunities and Challenges for Writing and Writing Centers.” This symposium addresses “the role of writing centers in Asian educational institutions as well as the researching, teaching, and learning of writing.”

The Plenary Speaker will be Judy Noguchi (Kobe Gakuin University) presenting “Thoughts on Professional Writing for Mid 21st Century: ESL, DDL, and STEAM”. For more information, please visit “Writing Center Associations of Japan” or click here to download the symposium flyer.

To submit a proposal, click here. To register for the symposium, click here.

Deadline for submitting proposals: January 10, 2010

Symposium date: Sunday February 23, 2020 at Osaka University.

 

“The Art of it All:” Thoughts from IWCA 2019 Conference Presenters from Brazil

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Members of our Writing Center community in Brazil, Thais Cons, Camila Rezende, Janice Nodari, Daniel Persia and others are running the first Writing Center in Brazil, which opened its doors three years ago at Universidade Federal do Paraná (Federal University of Paraná). They will be presenting at this year’s IWCA conference. In this post, they share their thoughts regarding this year’s conference theme as it relates to writing center work internationally. Continue reading →

CFP: Special Issue of WLN – Writing Center & Library Collaborations

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We invite you to submit a proposal to a special issue of the WLN! For this issue, we are calling for papers that offer creative or innovative ideas for collaboration between writing centers and libraries. We are particularly interested in collaboratively-authored articles that involve both writing center and library staff. Continue reading →

Executive Function and Writing: What Does It Mean for Writing Centres? – An Open Discussion

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Amanda M Marshall, CTESL, M.Ed., is the Writing Centre Project Coordinator for the Nova Scotia Community College.

I have often joked that I have three fantasy careers: an astronaut, a neuroscientist, and a brew-master. While my career trajectory has not led me in those directions, I do have a keen interest in brain-based learning and in how to help students. When thinking about my role as Writing Centre Project Coordinator one evening, possibly over a pint, my inner neuroscientist and prior learning got me thinking, and I started to do some research into Executive Function (EF) skills. EF skills, which include “cognitive processes such as reasoning, planning, and judgement” (Bradley-Ruder, 2008), reside in the frontal lobe/prefrontal cortex of the brain. Interestingly, “the prefrontal cortex is one of the last regions of the brain to reach maturation…[and] is not complete until near the age of 25” (Arain et al., 2013, p. 435). Whilst delving more into EF skills, I began to see a significant connection between EF skills development and the development and deployment of writing skills. I would like to explore more of these connections in this blog, as well as make room for discussion on the topic. I hope you will all join in on the conversation.

Amanda Marshall

First, let’s explore Executive Function a bit more. As mentioned, EF includes the ability to develop and reach goals, process and evaluate information, understand cause and effect, and make reasonable inferences (Bradley-Ruder 2008). Residing in the frontal lobe, we also know that this part of the brain is responsible for logic, strategy, working memory, planning, problem-solving, and reasoning skills (Schwaighofer, Buhner, & Fischer, 2017). When a learner faces difficulty in these areas and with these skills, they will likely encounter challenges parsing, sequencing, remembering, evaluating, organizing, manipulating, planning, self-regulating, and with general task follow-through (Zumbrunn, Tadlock, & Roberts, 2011). This can affect both the learner’s interaction within their learning environment(s), as well as with specific program expectations and activities/tasks.

Understanding that the frontal lobe/prefrontal cortex takes a significant amount of time to fully develop, and knowing that EF skills are not innate, post-secondary education is faced with some unique challenges. Much of what we require of our students depends on their ability to organize, critique, remember, reflect, evaluate, plan, and reason (Graham, Karris, & Olinghouse, 2007). If students are coming to us beginning at the age of 18, for example, not only are they still approximately 7 years from having a fully, physiologically-developed frontal lobe, they may also not have had enough exposure and EF training to be fully successful on their own. “Poor executive functioning leads to difficulty with planning, attention, using feedback, and mental inflexibility” (Johnson, Blum, Geidd, 2009, p. 219), which are all critical skills for post-secondary success and employability. With this in mind, it seems increasingly incumbent on adult educators to direct focus, time, and specific practice to help our students engage in and strengthen their EF skills. When discussing EF skills as they relate to adolescents and young adults, Harvard’s Centre for the Developing Child states that “…executive function skills are not yet at adult levels, but the demands placed on these skills often are” (Harvard’s Centre for the Developing Child, 2017). Further, Weinberger, Elvevåg, and Geidd (2005) remind us that while adolescents and young adults are “full of promise, often energetic and caring, capable of making many contributions to their communities, and able to make remarkable spurts in intellectual development and learning…neurologically, they are not [yet] adults. They are…a work in progress” (2005, p. 19) and require support to continue learning and developing the skills required for post-secondary success. Continue reading →

The Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors : An Interview with Lauren Fitzgerald and Melissa Ianetta

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Andrea Rosso Efthymiou, guest contributor 

Devoted to fostering research and conference participation for peer writing tutors, the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing (NCPTW) is gearing up for its 2017 conference at Hofstra University. In this post, NCPTW 2017 Chair, Andrea Rosso Efthymiou, interviews this year’s keynote speakers, Lauren Fitzgerald and Melissa Ianetta, co-authors of The Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors (OGWT). In their interview, Fitzgerald and Ianetta discuss their personal processes as long-time collaborators, the choices they made writing and editing OGWT, and of course, writing center tutoring.

Andrea: Can you describe your writing process as co-authors of this book? How did you work together as co-authors? Did you work on separate sections individually or did you actively write each section together? Or was the process altogether different?

Actually, we used a range of collaborative and individual composing strategies to write The Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors (OGWT). Our approach depended on the stage in the process and the immediate writing goal. Some of these processes were very organic and highly collaborative – with the controlling concept for the book which we articulated for the prospectus, for instance, we worked intensively together for a couple of days. The process was so natural and so focused that we really don’t know any more who came up with what idea.

However, some parts of the process are very individual, so that one of us takes responsibility for a chapter or subsection. We’ll talk through the chapters, then each of us goes away to compose, and we trade drafts. We respond to one another’s work and then the original author responds to the commentary and revision. We’ll then trade again and, at that point, we often have lost track of who wrote what. There was a time, for example, when Melissa praised lavishly a change in a much-revised chapter – she really thought Lauren had taken things in an exciting new direction. And her enthusiasm was only minimally dampened when Lauren told her that the revision was hers –Melissa herself had written the text of which she spoke in such admiring terms.

Melissa Ianetta
Melissa Ianetta
Lauren Fitzgerald
Lauren Fitzgerald

This instance of the composing process, however, is only one part of the larger research process that comprises our professional partnership. We chose to write this book in part because, together, we’ve been writing and talking about writing centers for many years: our first shared work was a set of paired conference reports for Writing Center Journal (WCJ) on the 2005 IWCA conference. And while we published two separate conference accounts, the process we used there laid the groundwork for the process we still use. We talk, draft, respond, revise, and talk again. This is the process we used when working with a large group of collaborators on “Polylog: Are Writing Center Administrators WPAs?” and, most importantly, when co-editing WCJ. Our editorial conversations not only shaped journal issues, but framed our understanding of the field: our two special issues – on peer tutor research and the landmark essays of the field, respectively – lie at the foundation of OGWT. And, finally, we still use that process today –we’re using it right now, as we answer these questions, in fact! Continue reading →

Crossing Borders: Bilingual and Multilingual Writing Centers

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Melanie Doyle is a writing tutor at the Writing House in the College of Nursing and Heath Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She also teaches composition in UMass Boston’s English department while completing her MA.

In 2000, John Trimbur wrote of the importance of bilingualism in writing and called for more writing centers to transform from English-only to multilingual (30). Though many writing centers embrace notions of multiliteracies, some even rebranding themselves as multiliteracy centers, this designation tends to emphasize digital literacies rather than multilingualism or translingualism in the more traditional sense. In other words, despite college campuses becoming increasingly linguistically diverse, the majority of writing centers still operate under a dominant discourse. Indeed, though most (if not all) American college writing centers serve students from diverse language backgrounds, few can serve students in their preferred language. Looking slightly north, Canadian writing centers offer a unique perspective into writing tutoring, bilingually. Though Canada’s contribution to writing center scholarship has been historically small, the field is growing, and the work produced from the Canadian Writing Centres

Melanie Doyle

Association’s (CWCA) annual conferences look to extend the borders of writing research. And with the continuing interest—and current utter importance—of understanding students’ use of language, Canadian institutions are available sites for inquiry.

While Canada as a nation is officially bilingual, each Canadian province chooses its official language: Quebec, for example, is unilingual French, while Ontario, Canada’s largest province, is unilingual English. Still, many of Canada’s higher ed institutions offer francophone writing tutoring or bilingual writing tutoring. Ontario’s University of Ottawa, situated in Canada’s national capital and on the border with Quebec, is currently the largest bilingual university (French-English) in the world, and is thus is an interesting case study to examine bilingual writing tutoring.

To help me understand tutoring practices, pedagogies, and dynamics at the University of Ottawa, I spoke with Amélie from the Academic Writing Help Centre (AWHC), otherwise known as Centre d’aide à la rédaction des travaux universitaires (CARTU). Housed in a bilingual university where courses are taught in French and English, AWHC/CARTU’s mandate is to offer writing support to all students in the official language of their choice in order to fulfill the University’s mission. Indeed, the University of Ottawa is committed to protecting the region’s francophone culture; so in 2015, it obtained designation[1] for its services in French, including student support services like tutoring. In other words, by offering writing tutoring in both French and English, the AWHC/CARTU is doing its part to protect student rights to their own language, using official statutes to ensure protection and access. Ultimately, by supporting francophone students in their studies, the AWHC plays an important role in helping the University of Ottawa achieve its goals regarding the promotion and safeguarding of francophonie. Continue reading →

Two Provosts Later: Establishing a Writing Center Administration Graduate Certificate Program

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Carol Mohrbacher

Carol Mohrbacher is a Professor of English and former Writing Center Director (the Write Place) at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. Carol, using her many years of experience, advice and input from colleagues, as well as research in writing center practice, theory, and pedagogy, planned, developed, and launched a new Writing Center Administration graduate certificate in the Fall of this year. Below is our e-mail interview with Carol.

WLN Blog: What was the progenitor of your idea to set up this program?
Carol: About seven or eight years ago, it occurred to me that I was supervising too many independent studies on the topic of writing center administration and tutor training. Some of our writing center alums who had completed these independent studies were finding jobs as writing center professionals. In 2009, there was a call from our Provost for the development of ideas that might appeal to the local and state community. Funding would be involved. So, never one to overlook an opportunity for funding, I proposed a course on writing center administration. The proposal almost immediately fell into a black hole, as the Provost moved on to another position at another institution, and the initiative disappeared—a situation that anyone who has been in academia for any length of time will recognize.

In 2012-13, a few years and more independent studies—and two Provosts—later, a new Provost called for innovative certificate programs. Simultaneously, administration pushed for more online offerings. I saw this as an opportunity to develop a valuable program—something that would contribute to the international writing center community, as well as to my own institution. My efforts in 2009 had resulted in a syllabus, and a sort of plan for future topics courses in writing center administration. I decided to build off of that early nugget.

WLN Blog: What were the processes and obstacles to developing and implementing the program?
Carol: The first thing I needed was some direction on what a certificate program looked like. No one seemed to know, so I did my research, looking at programs in IT and Education. One note: generally, this kind of project is the result of group or committee efforts. I was on my own, except for the feedback and editing help of my friend, Tim Fountaine.

What I did not expect were the many levels of scrutiny and research that would be required of me from groups and individuals at all levels—the English Department, College of Liberal Arts, SCSU administration, IT, and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities administrative body. Two years later, after 14 levels (I counted them) of permissions and approvals, and after much research and one survey that resulted in 260+ respondents, the program was a go.

The next step was to create the courses that I had proposed and outlined for the various committees and individuals. This semester, I have begun teaching the first 2 courses—Writing Center Theories and Practice, and Issues in Writing Center Administration. So far, so good. I have students from 7 states. They are MA and PhD students and writing center professionals from various institutions from high school to R-1 universities. The engagement and enthusiasm are infectious. I am having a great time working with them.

The final two 2-credit courses for this 10-credit certificate program will be offered at the beginning of summer semester in a 5-week session. They are titled, “Staffing and Training” and “Cases Studies in Writing Center Administration.” Continue reading →