Dear CWCAB, February 2023: Thoughts on ChatGPT
Dear CWCAB, What are your thoughts on ChatGPT and other AI systems that have come out recently? Are writing centers facing an existential threat? Are there ways these technologies can help us? C. Chatterly
Faculty of Health Sciences Writing Lab: University of Cape Town
The Writing Lab was established in 2015, unintentionally coinciding with the rise of student activism movements, #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall. These called strongly for a transformed, decolonial, and Afrocentric approach to economically, culturally, and epistemologically accessible tertiary education in South Africa. Although some experienced this as an attack on academic traditions, for the Writing Lab, it only strengthened our resolve to consciously engage the transformative ideology of the academic literacies approach through socially-just practices (Muna et al., 2019).
E23 – Teaching and Researching Writing in the Middle East
In this episode, we discussed the complexity, constraints, and richness of the writing studies work happening in the Middle East and North African region with three wonderful guests: Dr. Emma Moghabghab, Sahar Mari, and Dr. Rachel Buck. For listening on your mobile devices, find Slow Agency on Anchor, Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.
Rewind & Reset: From STEM to Center: Or What I Learned from Tutoring Engineers
The author, Brandy Ball Blake, shared that she focused on professional writing genres, audience, and rhetorical purposes when it came to tutoring engineering students. Blake also offered a few practical solutions to how to work with engineering (and STEM) students in the writing center.
A Forest in the City: Connecting the Work of the Wits Writing Centre with WI Courses at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
The Wits Writing Centre (WWC) was one of the first writing centres in South Africa, running informally from 1996 and formally established in 2000. We work with a comparatively large consultant group, usually around 25, and seek to use their collective energy to attract other students and draw them into conversations which are anything but remedial.
E22 – WLN Author Kara Wittman on the Writing Center is Not a Place
In this episode, Editor-in-Chief Anna Habib spoke to Kara Wittman who represented her co-authors Jenny Thomas and Ashlee Moreno on their article The Writing Center is Not a Place from the December 2022 issue of WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship. We hope you enjoy it! And don't forget to check out our interview with Sarah Rice on her Tutor's Column article titled Navigating the "New Normal" with Abnormal Discourse also from the December 2022 issue.
E21 – WLN Author Sarah Rice on Navigating the “New Normal” with Abnormal Discourse
In this episode, Weijia Li, Assistant Editor of the blog chatted with Sarah Rice, Writing Tutor from Dickinson College about Sarah's Tutor's Column article titled Navigating the "New Normal" with Abnormal Discourse from the December 2022 issue of WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship. We hope you enjoy it! Also don't forget to check out our interview with Kara Wittman on her co-authored article titled The Writing Center is Not a Place also from the December 202 issue.
E20 – Implementing Antiracist Practices in Writing Centers: A Dear CWCAB Episode
The content of this episode was based on Dear CWCAB, October 2022.
Crafting a Practice of Our Own : A Writing Center in Mexico
I quickly realized that the real challenge involved educating writing tutors so as to infuse a collaborative and horizontal approach to our practice. This ultimately implies a shift in the learning culture with respect to writing in Mexican higher education; here, writing has not traditionally been associated with critical thinking, reflection, and self-positioning. Moreover, writing instruction in Mexico has historically focused more on the product with an emphasis on correction, which makes peer tutoring such a different approach.
Announcements & Upcoming Events
Tutor’s Perspectives
Transitioning from high school to college highlights the disconnect between learned secondary education skills and post-secondary expectations produces anxiety, ruffles insecurity surrounding individual opinions and acceptance, and shames students for their apparent inability to write. As a result, students often swear off writing and any subjects requiring it. Others come in desperation to the writing center, looking for guidance.
Locate our international colleagues from all over the world!
It’s been a learning experience. The writing center community remains tight knit in the online space. We hold hands and provide each other emotional support. Writing camps have gone virtual for now. Let’s keep reflecting upon our collective experiences.
