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S O U T H C E N T R A L WR I T I N G C E N T E R S A S S O C I A T I O N
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February 23-‐25, 2012 Little Rock, Arkansas
Hosted by: Henderson State University Co-‐Chair, Martha Dale Cooley
& The University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Co-‐Chair, Allison Holland
From Rubble to Diamonds: Writing Centers as Sites
of Discovery & Exploration
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C O N F E R E N C E O V E R V I EW
Thursday, 23 February 5:00 ─ 7:00 pm Registration & Conference Sign-‐In 5:30 ─ 6:30 pm SCWCA Executive Board Planning Meeting
EVEN ING FREE
Friday, 24 February 6:30 ─ 10:00 am Breakfast 7:30 ─ 5:00 pm General Registration & Conference Sign-‐In
8:30 ─ 9:30 am Session A 9:45 ─ 10:45 am Session B 11:00 ─ 12:00 pm Session C
12:00 ─ 1:50 pm Luncheon, Speaker, & Awards
*Registration Lunch Voucher Required
2:00 ─ 3:00 pm Session D 3:15 ─ 4:15 pm Session E
EVEN ING FREE
Saturday, 25 February 7:00 ─ 10:30 am Breakfast 7:30 ─ 9:00 am General Registration & Conference Sign-‐In 7:30 ─ 9:00 am SCWCA Annual Business Meeting/Breakfast
9:15 ─ 10:15 am Session F 10:30 ─ 11:30 am Session G
END O F CONFERENCE/HOTEL CHECKOUT
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B A N QU E T A N D ME E T I N G ROOM LA YOU T
Main Entrance
Camp David Restaurant
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H E L P FU L I N F O RMAT I O N
Holiday Inn Presidential Phone Number: 501.375.2100
Hotel Shuttle Service:
• A complimentary shuttle runs from the hotel to the airport and from the hotel to the River Market area downtown.
• The shuttle runs till midnight each day. • To request shuttle pick-‐up, call the hotel’s direct line listed above.
Breakfast:
• A breakfast buffet is available each morning in the Camp David restaurant located on the ground floor of the hotel.
• Two breakfast vouchers included in the registration packets provide a reduced rate of $10 a day for breakfast.
Luncheon: • One voucher included in registration packets covers the cost of Friday’s
luncheon for each registered conference attendee. Voucher must be presented at the Camp David restaurant for Friday’s special luncheon.
• The luncheon is a special all-‐you-‐can eat buffet, featuring seafood. Alternate choices are also available. Special dietary needs? Contact Camp David restaurant prior to the luncheon.
Safety Tips: Although the River Market area is known to be very safe, please exercise caution when touring downtown Little Rock.
• If walking at night, walk in groups. • Stay in well-‐lit areas. • Take advantage of the hotel’s free shuttle service, which will drop off and
pick up in the River Market area for free until midnight each night. If you take your own car to the River Market area, park in designated parking areas.
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KEYNOTE SPEAKER : DR . LE IGH RYAN
Dr. Leigh Ryan has directed the University of Maryland Writing Center since 1982. She is the author of The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors, which is in its 5th edition and is now co-‐authored with Lisa Zimmerelli. Dr. Ryan has won the IWCA’s Muriel Harris Outstanding Service Award, the NCPTW’s Ron Maxwell Award, and the University of Maryland’s
Presidential Medal for Outstanding Service. She works with writing centers locally, nationally, and internationally. She has consulted on writing centers at institutions in the United States, South Africa, and the Netherlands and served as the secretary of the International Writing Centers Association, president of the Maryland Association of Teachers of English, the executive board for the Mid Atlantic Writing Centers Association (MAWCA), and the planning committee for the IWCA/NCPTW 2010 conference. In her spare time, Dr. Ryan volunteers at Riversdale, an historic plantation house museum and does research on Henry Vinton Plummer, the first African American chaplain in the U.S. Army.
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PRESENTAT ION SCHEDULE
Friday, 24 February
Session A: 8:30 – 9:30 am
A.1 OBAMA ROOM
Entering the Mine, Surveying the Field: Retooling the Writing Center at the University of Texas at Arlington (60 min) Tracey-‐Lynn Clough, Michael Brittain, Abigail Allen, & Sean Farrell University of Texas at Arlington
This panel presentation from the University of Texas at Arlington English Writing Center prsents a multi-‐perspective view of working in a college writing center during a significant shift in leadership, philosophy, and vision. Panel members will address the challenges and rewards the writing center faces as it encounters increasing pressure to professionalize its services under the constraints of dwindling financial support and calls to “polish” its image in the academic field, as confidence in its services dwindle. Presenter 1: The Interim Director will discuss the delicate balance needed to maintain confidence among stuff in the wake of the unexpected resignation of the much revered former director. Presenter 2: The Assistant Director will discuss some of the issues of assuming a new administrative role within a vastly changing writing center environment, along with balancing the pedagogical responsibilities of still being graduate teaching assistant. Presenter 3: An experienced consultant will discuss his increasing awareness of the way that the writing center's professionalism has become paramount to clients.
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A.2 BUSH ROOM From Coal to Diamonds: Transforming the TAMU-‐CC Writing Center via Emerging Technology (30 min) Caleb L. Sawyer, Texas A&M University-‐Corpus Christi This presentation provides audience members with a realistic account of how technology can aid writing centers at every level. Through a collaborative discussion, participants will share the different technologies used in their unique writing centers, learn how other writing centers are utilizing technology, share their different implementation processes, and learn from the successes and failures of fellow writing center faculty, directors, and staff. By sharing multiple experiences through a collaborative discussion, participants may discover new ways to use existing technology and gain information about other technologies they may wish to consider. Digging Technology (30 min) Jake Gebhardt, Sam Houston State University
Technology in the peer tutoring environment is not a new thing. However, advancements in portable computing and internet connectivity have given tutors an amazing assortment of tools to better meet student needs. This presentation will help writing centers and peer tutors sift through the rubble of technology to find the gems that can help students utilize technology in the peer tutoring environment, including tablet computing and Internet connectivity Programs, tutoring strategies, and a live demonstration will be utililized in this presentation. Even though it is useful, technology does have drawbacks. As a result, the presentsation also includes a caution list of what tutors should watch out for and how to save a peer tutoring session from technology overload.
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A.3 REAGAN ROOM
Online Pedagogy and Practice: Creating Community Through Social Presence and Multimodal Resources (20 min)
Melody Pickle, Kaplan University
This session explains how social media and multimodal technologies create a real and personalized sense of presence in an online environment. How have writing centers described in 1988 by Muriel Harris as…. having lots of scratch paper around and never taking the pen out of the student’s hand…. moved to writing, meeting, and tutoring in online modalities? How can these dynamic learning experiences create community and situate learning in an online modality? This presentation demonstrates how a powerful online learning environment can be created and invites participants to discussion their experiences with technology and online tutoring.
Dealing with Pedantic Pontificating Prose: Trying to Sell Pyrite as Gold (40 min)
Joshua R. Johnson & Jenny Crelia, University of Little Rock at Arkansas This interactive workshop examines the problems of wordy papers and pedantic prose and how to deal with them, based on three prompts: (1) Students as natural writers: learning to see themselves as diamonds and adapting their writing styles to the academic environment (2) Ken Marjorie’s “English”: flowery language from various discourse communities that erodes communication and how writing centers can polish obtuse writing. (3) Writing center tutors as technical communicators: helping clients write for various discourse communities, trying to avoid situations like Anne Beaufort’s “Negative Learning Transference.”
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Session B: 9:45 – 10:45 am
B.1 OBAMA ROOM The Diamond Miners’ Union: Faculty and Your Writing Center (60 min) David Boutte, Jacob Brown, Paige Duggins, & Graham Oliver Southwestern University
As a writing center at a small liberal arts college, one of our biggest challenges is visibility. With limited resources and limited staffing, and at a university that has abolished college writing requirements outside of the disciplines, how do we integrate ourselves into the writing process of students on campus? Our efforts have provided large rewards in terms of our foot traffic. But, the most efficient advertising methods that really got students walking through our doors weren't aimed at the students at all. They were aimed at our faculty. This panel presentation walks the audience through our efforts by sharing the trials, errors, and successes, leading to a significant increase in traffic, thanks to improved academic relationships and image building aimed at faculty.
B.2 BUSH ROOM Social Networking and the Writing Center: A Study in Marketing (20 min) Suzanne Shedd, Abilene Christian University
In unstable economic times, few positions and offices on college campuses are secure. One of the most significant obstacles for writing centers is student and campus ignorance about writing center services and benefits. To survive, writing centers must market themselves to reach the greatest number of students. This presentation examines how writing centers can utilize popular social media sites to promote their services, with an emphasis on the potential of utilizing Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.
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Excavating and Polishing: Abilene Christian’s Writing Center Commercial (20 min) Christina Johnson, Abilene Christian University This fall, the Writing Center of Abilene Christian University filmed a quality three to five-‐minute commercial to introduce the Writing Center to clients in a comedic and informative way. This presenter oversaw the production, which included composing an informative and comedic script, casting Directors and fellow tutors, and utilizing the ACU Learning Studios quality camera, lighting, and sound equipment to film and edit the commercial. Within a week of adding the YouTube commercial link to our website, Facebook, and Twitter pages, the YouTube commercial received hundreds of hits, and the numbers continue to grow. This presentation demonstrates how other writing centers can create their own commercials to market their services to broader audiences.
B.3 REAGAN ROOM Adding the Myers-‐Briggs to Your Writing Center Tool Belt (20 min) Ellen Birdwell, University of Houston-‐Clear Lake
This workshop gives participants a set of tools to draw on from established scholarship, presents partial research on Myers-‐Briggs types in writing centers, and collects data from participants who are interested in learning more about how Myers-‐Briggs can improve their work with writing center clients. The presentation helps participants recognize the modes of thought and interaction that guide their personal visions of writing and process; helps them identify and understand writing blocks, problems, and strengths as they are associated with each Myers-‐Briggs function; and helps them better recognize and meet the needs of writers across campus.
Rising from the Rubble: Strategies for Managing Difficult Situations (40 min) Kelley Robbins & Amanda Howard, Sam Houston State University
This workshop presentation has several goals: help tutors recognize when they need to employ disaster-‐session-‐management skills; explain which strategies have worked for tutors at Sam Houston Writing Center, as well as those brought up by other tutors at past conferences; provide an immediate opportunity to model the scenarios and practice the skills and strategies discussed; and address audience-‐specific needs. As participants enter the session, they will receive 3x5 cards so they can identifying the least
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productive tutoring sessions they have had-‐-‐the full-‐blown disaster sessions that imploded due to factors unrelated to the academic goal of the session. Participants will then split into groups of three to work through mock sessions based on some of the situations described in the first half of the presentation on the response cards. Following the collabortive activites, participants and presenters will discuss which strategies worked best for each hypothetical scenario.
Session C: 11:00 – 12:00 pm
C.1 OBAMA ROOM The Assistant Director as an Ally Tutor (20 min) Grace Hall, Abilene Christian University This presentation illuminates the importance of writing center Assistant Directors and demonstrates how they serve as bridges between the Director and tutors-‐-‐an ally, whose only concern is the ongoing work of writing centers. From tutoring and staffing the front desk to training and maintaining resources, the Assistant Director has a hand in all major aspects of writing center work, while also serving as an ally tutor, who encounters firsthand the assignments coming through the door, while bringing veteran experience into play. By remaining in the field, the Assistant Directors are valuable resources for writing centers because they have unique perspectives for refining and polishing tutoring strategies, while bringing fresh solutions to the ever-‐evolving needs of writing centers. NaNoWriMo and Re-‐Seeing the Facets of the Writing Center (20 min) Jennifer Deering, University of Central Arkansas This presentation explains the history of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), explores the presenter’s experiences in utilizing it in the classroom, and shares the implications for writing center pedagogy and training by demonstrating how it can be used to promote the writing center as a place where creative people can gather to write and seek informal assistance to polish their own diamonds. Participants will begin developing a concept for next year’s NaNoWriMo by exploring the
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NaNoWriMo web resources, especially those related to writing center work. A Prezi will explain how the presenter’s personal journey led to her own re-‐ seeing of writing center pedagogy, and participants will learn about materials which may help them on their own explorations of the process. Mining Information: Reflections on Writing Center-‐Faculty Communication (20 min) Dean A. Hinnen, Mountain View College As a former director of three different writing centers, this presenter and his writing centers communicated with faculty in a variety of ways, ranging from simple letters to faculty, indicating students had been in the center, to fairly detailed tutoring session narratives given to students, who then determined whether those narratives would be shared with faculty. After leaving his post as a writing center director and seeing writing center communiqués exclusively from a faculty perspective, this presenter began reflecting on whether writing centers should reconsider how they communicate with faculty. This presentation includes examples of writing center forms that share various issues covered in tutoring sessions with faculty, and whether or not narrative accounts of sessions provided useful information about writing center sessions for faculty. The presenter explains the benefits of using open-‐ended narratives rather than self-‐limiting forms, despite the difficulties inherent in training tutors to write effective narratives about tutoring sessions.
C.2 BUSH ROOM Sifting Through the Rubble: Face-‐to-‐Face and Virtual Reality in Reconfiguring the Writing Center Space (60 min) Kirsten Komara, Keisha Bedwell, David Gonzalez, Joanne King, & John Rice Schreiner University As outreach projects, Schreiner University Writing Center tutors developed two methods of student engagement that incorporate two different spaces: a face-‐to-‐face open forum called Stone Soup and an interactive website. These presenters will discuss the face-‐to-‐face open forum group (Stone Soup) designed to encourage students’ intellectual and creative thinking, the building and implementing of an “unofficial” writing center website, and the dynamic of student and tutor voices in a blog. Despite financial and spatial constraints, the SU Writing Center tutors have aspired to polish these diamonds in the rough.
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C.3 REAGAN ROOM Creative Writing Center (20 min) Jessica Banke & Elizabeth Brandeberry, Texas A&M University This session will examine the different ways that writing centers and consultants can creative writers improve their art. Creative writers have different needs and goals than many other writers, and the presenters will explain how writing centers can meet them multiple levels of concern. The presenters will also explore the unique needs of creative writers, how writing center consultants can helpfully respond to them, and what types of programs can be implemented in all writing centers to further develop the creative writer as an artist.
Using Email Marketing Newsletters to Effectively Promote Your Center (40 min) Sarah Miller, University of Arkansas at Little Rock With ten years in the private sector as a brand manager and social media marketing professional, this presenter discovered that email newsletters could engage clients in a dialogue and promote an organization at the same time—a technique that can be useful in helping writing centers improve their images and increase student interest in services. This presentation will walk participants, step by step, through the process of designing a professional e-‐mail marketing newsletter, choosing content to effectively market a writing center on campus, and the nuts and bolts of when, and to whom, the newsletter should be sent. Participants will learn how to distinguish the line between sending “spam” and creating a “dialogue” with multiple audiences and develop strategies to get read and “shared” on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. The presentation will be followed by a mini “workshop” and a question-‐answer session.
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LUNCHEON
12:00 – 1:50 pm
CLINTON ROOM
Buffet Line in Camp David Restaurant Voucher Required
CONFERENCE WELCOME
Martha Dale Cooley, Henderson State University Allison Holland, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
KEY NOTE SPEAKER
Dr. Leigh Ryan, University of Maryland
AWARDS
Valerie Balester, President South Central Writing Centers Association
DOOR PRIZES
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Session D:
2:00 – 3:00 pm
D.1 OBAMA ROOM Community, Civility, and Vulnerability in Writing Center Culture (60 min linked session)
Civil Market Citizens: Economics and the ‘Everyday’ (20 min) Cole Bennett, Abilene Christian University In the final chapter of The Everyday Writing Center, Geller et al appear to be conflicted about the proper stance Directors should take toward their campus executive structures. This presentation offers alternative strategies for writing center administrators that involve reconsidering writing centers’ and their leaders’ roles as citizens of a market-‐based economic system. Instead of eschewing, eliding, or otherwise minimalizing our universities’ economic concerns, this presenter explains how we should embrace them as we create the community practice that the rest of The Everyday Writing Center lauds. By adopting some basic economic theories as we engage those with whom we serve, we are not merely being skillfully rhetorical but are actually being participatory citizens in our community. The Writing Center Way to a Jerk-‐Free Workplace (20 min) Elisabeth Piedmont-‐Marton, Southwestern University Those who work in writing centers are intimately familiar with feral faculty: those who make unreasonable demands on staff, complain by cc-‐ing deans and provosts, and question the ethics and expertise of everyone from peer tutors to senior tenured directors. And yet, the WC itself tends to be a refuge of civility, where people act communally: covering shifts for each other, calming the angry and frustrated, helping the resistant and diffident, and staying the course in the face of criticism and condescension from outside. This presentation considers why the WC is resistant to the forces of crankiness, self-‐interest, and incivility that characterize so much of campus (and especially faculty) culture, and considers the ways in which writing centers might export and reproduce their ethos of basic kindness, mutuality, and respect without retreating to the older “nurturing” idea of a writing center.
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Vulnerability in the Writing Center (20 min) Kevin Davis, East Central University In “The Tyranny of Principles,” Stephen Toulmin argues that many in contemporary society value uniformity over responsiveness. I think we can see this in our one-‐size-‐fits-‐all approaches to education and, in some cases, by our rigid writing center policies. The problem with uniformity, as Toulmin points out, is that single, absolute principles cannot avoid running headlong into other single, equally absolute principles. In “The Power of Vulnerability,” Brene Brown argues that society needs to stop trying to control and predict everything. I think we can see this tendency to control in our regimented approaches to education, our web pages and our software, for example. The value of vulnerability, as Brown describes it, is that we should have the courage of our compassion, that we should not hesitate to let ourselves be seen. This presentation argues against the tyranny of principles and for the power of vulnerability, eventually proposing a Writing Center Ethics of Intimacy.
D.2 BUSH ROOM Sometimes We Find Diamonds in the Rubble: Discovering a Method to Increase the Retention of Underprepared Students (20 min) Carolyn Kinslow, Cameron University
To address a low retention rate among underprepared students, this presenters’ university instituted a new, required one-‐hour course entitled College Writing Skills which was required for any student enrolling in Basic English or Developmental Writing if he or she had withdrawn from or failed either course twice previously and obliged each student to come one hour a week for individual tutoring in the Center for Writers. This presenter explains the theoretical foundation and design of the course, funding sources, requirements established to ensure regular attendance, and the results over the five semesters the course has been offered. Following the presentation, the attendes will divided into small groups discuss their own experiences with or questions about special initiatives aimed at underprepared students.
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Bling It! (20 min) Leigh A. Smith, University of Central Oklahoma Who doesn't like a little bling—a little something shiny that captures people's attention, that adds value and that makes us feel a little more special. Writing Centers can be the bling on your campus. Hopefully not the costume kind but the real thing like those diamonds we all like to acquire; however, neither diamonds nor Writing Centers just fall from the sky. They both take time to form, and each one is unique in its own way. This presentation will use the diamond as an analogy for the formation, operation, and promotion of the University Writing Center.
Breaking New Ground: The Writing Center as Site for Community Engagement (20 min) Rebecca L. Damron, Oklahoma State University Increasingly, writing center folks are engaged in dialogue diversity, as exemplified by recent publications on identity politics (Denny, 2010) and race (Greenfield and Rowan, 2011). This presentation explores writing center activism as it relates to literacy and community engagement. Using Flower’s (2009) community-‐based literacy project to consider ways that university/community collaborations can enact a democratic, civic engagement that leads to transformation, this presenter discusses three projects Oklahoma State University Writing Center has participated in that demonstrate ways writing centers can help community literacy. Participants will be guided through the process of identifying stakeholders, potential avenues for collaboration, and possible projects and will leave the session with an action plan for beginning community engagement.
D.3 REAGAN ROOM Melding the Peer with the Tutor: Turning Apprentice Miners into Master “Diamond Cutters” (20 min) Leanne Moore, Abilene Christian University John Trimbur's 1987 Writing Center Journal article “Peer Tutoring: A Contradiction in Terms?” continues to ask current writing center personnel how they are asking their tutors to negotiate conflicting loyalties to both the institution and their fellow learners. He argues that tutors are a part of two
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worlds somewhere between teacher and student, and that, therefore, they cannot inhabit the terms peer and tutor simultaneously. This presentation questions Trimbur's assumptions about the nature of peers and tutors by arguing that a peer can be a tutor simultaneously—without any need for role shifting—through a reflection on what living abroad taught the presenter about both roles and demonstrates that tutor training is most effective when the guiding principle is teaching tutors how to have a conversation with their clients so both parties are equals, rather than imposing a false sense of shifting loyalties. Collaboration Hierarchies and the Idea of the Writing Center: An Exploration on Working Together (20 min) Dustin Morris, Oklahoma State University In 2007 at the National Conference on Peer Tutoring, Kenneth Bruffee reaffirmed his passionate stance on collaboration as vital to education. Specifically, he insisted that collaboration acts as “interdependence,” or a dynamic force which brings people to realize the “inevitable and necessary dependence on one another” and becomes the space between independence and dependence which “draws people together.” Under the banner of peer tutoring, Bruffee highlights the reasons why collaboration benefits students and educators. Is collaboration beneficial when hierarchies are in place such as a teacher/student binary? When, if ever, is collaboration effective? By examining current and past articles and books, this presenter answers these questions and draws conclusions on collaboration’s effectiveness in the writing process. Diary of a Diamantaire: Experiences and Best Practices When Working with Graduate Students (20 min) Veronica Williams, University of Arkansas at Little Rock Undergraduate writing center interns are sometimes reluctant to conference with graduate student clients. How can interns help students who are their academic seniors? Does an intern have to read an entire paper of 10+ pages in order to conference? Moreover, how can one assess writing in unfamiliar genres, on advanced subject matter, and offer any kind of useful guidance? This presentation shares some best practices for working with writers on graduate-‐level writing assignments and includes tips on interpreting graduate assignments, working from sources, and content revision. Using the writing center as a place of learning for both tutors and clients, the presenter explains how undergraduate writing interns work successfully with graduate clients and gain valuable insight into graduate-‐level writing and studies.
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Session E: 3:15 – 4:15 pm
E.1 OBAMA ROOM Tutoring Globally: Non-‐Native English Speakers as Tutors (30 min) Valerie Balester, Texas A&M University This presentation focuses on the presenter’s experience working with international, non-‐native English speakers as tutors, a group with distinctly different cultural expectations in regards to schooling and literacy (Leki), by explaining how she worked with sixteen such tutors from Serbia, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, China, Japan, and Korea, in majors including Construction Management, Communications, Education, Linguistics, Medical Journalism, and English. The presenter explains how international tutors were instrumental in helping traditional writing center workers understand diversity and in initiating ongoing projects, including the development of a more comprehensive diversity statement, conducting diversity staff training, examining and revising existing tutoring practices, and making diversity a topic in our tutor courses. The presenter also explains the advantages of having international students writing tutors by providing evidence of their effectiveness. A “Facet” Finding Mission (30 min) Jo Lynn Sallee & Chris Cox, Lee College From its initial rough state to its final brilliant cut, a diamond is judged by its ability to reflect light. As a well-‐trained gemologist polishing a rough gem, a writing center theorist and a well-‐trained tutor can overcome language barriers to uncover flashing facets of language brilliance in NNS students. In college writing centers, an alliance between a NNS and a writing tutor can expose facets of brilliant writing that can go un-‐mined by a busy classroom professor. By reconciling the demands of institutional regulations and sound writing center practices, a standard format for success with NNS would include the 4Es. The presenters will share the importance of ease, expectations, encounter and exit goals when working with non-‐native speakers in the writing center.
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E.2 BUSH ROOM Mining Humor in the Writing Center: Comical Misunderstandings as Pathways to Knowledge (20 min) Steve Sherwood, Texas Christian University Comical misunderstandings based on differences in disciplinary language, culture, and levels of knowledge form the heart of humor in writing centers. In a sense, those who work in writing centers are like tourists visiting other disciplines for a short time before returning home. Although the goal of tutorials is, eventually, to achieve a common understanding, comical misunderstandings serve a number of purposes that may lead to this ultimate goal. In the writing center such misunderstandings can lead to the sharing of laughter, which may help tutor and writer bond with one another, open some common ground on which to build further communication, blend ideas from different disciplines in creative ways, and lead to fruitful changes in perspective. This presentation explores the potential for productive humor through initial misunderstanding in the writing center. Min(d)ing the Field Together: Writing Center and Faculty Collaborate on Assignment Guides (20 min) Mary Francine Danis, Our Lady of the Lake University Many faculty members already create clear, thought-‐provoking guides for assignments in their classes. Others simply "assign and hope." Thus, when students visit writing centers, they come equipped with assignment guides that vary widely in their quality and clarity. This presentation tells the story of assembling a workshop based on assignment directions submitted by faculty, outlines best practices for faculty, and highlights the benefits that accrue to students and to faculty when directions are spelled out concisely in writing, preferably with grading rubrics. The presenter also shares feedback received from an October 2011 workshop so participants can see the benefit of analyzing assignments and providing assignment guides to student writers. Even the Hope Diamond Started out as a Lump of Coal (20 min) Chloe Diepenbrock, University of Houston-‐Clear Lake It's the beginning of your shift and you greet your first writer of the day; he places a crumpled paper in front of you, riddled with red and black marks. He says he and his professor are in a war of sorts; the essay in front of you is
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the latest casualty. A second session begins with a writer who has been asked to write about something very personal, and she has great difficulty starting because she becomes emotional and cannot proceed with the kind of reasoned analysis necessary for an academic discussion. Tutors are often challenged to help writers overcome difficulties, but not all difficulties are created equal. When writers bring emotional blocks to their projects, tutors must respond with creativity and flexibility. This presentation shares and discuss techniques for working with students who seem entirely without hope, when they have tried to negotiate with their teachers, but have failed to reach an agreement about what will be acceptable, when they find themselves stuck and unable to produce reasoned academic prose.
E.3 REAGAN ROOM Writing Center Discourse as a Site of Discovery: The <RER> and Writing Center Collaboration (20 min) Melody Denny, Oklahoma State University In response to the general call for research in the field of writing center studies, this presentation explores the discourse in a writing center tutorial to better explain the interaction between tutor and student and how that interaction unfolds. Focusing on one transcribed video consultation and employing conversation analysis as the methodological framework, the researcher discovered there is a collaborative interaction that has not been previously discussed in the literature, an oral revision space that cannot be transcribed as talk or writing. This linguistic phenomenon, labeled the <RER>, is an exemplar of collaborative learning practices and lends support to the current theory of collaboration between participants in writing center tutorials, better linking practice and theory. Polishing Out Language: The Effects of Writing Center Discourse (20 min) Lindsay C. Clark, Oklahoma State University Writing Centers have been called many things—laboratories, “fix-‐it shops,” remedial centers, “grammar garages.” However, the main focus within these facilities has always been the writing process, so writing centers continue to struggle against marginalizing terms that fail to capture the multitude of functions in these unique discourse communities. This presentation explains how the Writing Center at Oklahoma State University has adopted deliberate
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discourse elements for use publically and inside the center with three distinct purposes: an ethical workplace grounded in research and theory, a professional site in which business-‐like practices are valued, and a collaborative space in which consultants and clients share responsibility in improving writing skills. The presenter also explains how the OSU Writing Center performs several specific functions: promoting the ethos of the center’s mission, distinguishing the various roles consultants move between to perform their duties, and enabling a collaborative exchange during client consultations.
What’s a Diamond Without Its Setting: Preparing a Foundation for Effective Tutoring (20 min) Lauren Gentry & Maggie McGriff, University of Arkansas University writing centers are often seen by students as a place to get help proofreading a paper for grammar mistakes and superficial writing errors. However, a writing center is much more than just a destination for one-‐ dimensional corrective action for students. Connections between students must be established, honesty and optimism must be present, and writer confidence must be developed. If writing centers can promote the positive relationships and sustainable connections needed to develop students as capable writers, they have achieved their goal. Grammar mistakes and common writing blunder corrections can be dealt with later, as the relationships are maintained and true writing development occurs. This presentation outlines how components of university writing center tutorials can establish solid foundations for peer relationships and develop more skillful student writers.
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Saturday, 25 February 2012
SCWCA Annual Business Meeting/Breakfast
Clinton Room
7:30 – 9:00 am
Everyone Welcome
Session F: 9:15 – 10:15 am
F.1 Obama Room Breaking Ground with Skype in On-‐Line Tutoring (60 min) Paula Brown, Kasha Ashworth, & Missy Wallace Louisiana Tech University
The first on-‐line writing center was kicked off in 1994 by Purdue University and since then, many other writing centers have gone on-‐line, but Louisiana Tech resisted until the clamor for on-‐line tutoring assistance became too insistent to ignore. The primary reason for resistance was the belief that the intimacy and collaborative give and take of a typical consultation in the writing center would be jeopardized by the asynchronous process of on-‐line tutoring. These presenters share initial concerns about working with Skype: how the tutoring process might degenerate into proofreading or how a high volume of users would mean they would be faced with too many e-‐mailed drafts, when many of the tutors were busy working shifts already filled with traditional tutoring sessions. This presentation demonstrates how a reluctant beginning became a successful experience. The presenters will also explain why Skype works well at Louisiana Tech, how tutors are trained to use Skype, and how appointments can be set up using this technology. This presentation compares Skype conferences to one-‐on-‐one tutoring, and participants are
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encouraged to ask questions and share their own experineces in using Skype or other methods of on-‐line tutorials in writing center work.
F.2 BUSH ROOM The Purpose of a Table: Space and the Ideal Writing Center (30 min) Marie Hendry, University of Louisiana at Lafayette Becoming the Writing Center Director at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette provided an opportunity to consider a new future for the writing center as a learning commons in the library. The option of designing and creating an ideal writing center seems like a dream too good to be true, but budget cuts threatened the evolution of that dream. This presentation explains how a writing center director continues to pursue the concept of the “ideal” learning space without a budget to create the perfect environment for an inviting, yet serious, space for students and tutors to discuss the writing process. The goal of this presentation is to have a discussion of the importance of space (both mental and physical) to the writing center (both ideal and the actual). Discussing meta-‐cognitive practices, multi-‐modal technologies, and Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space will inform the group exploration of the importance of space, and how we “space” is defined in writing centers. Beyond the Standalone Writing Center: Breaking Ground at the Football Academics Center (30 min) Alanna Bitzel, University of Texas at Austin This presentation explains how a traditional writing center professional experienced a career change when she transitioned from Writing Consultant, Group Leader, and Assistant Director at a large and traditional writing center, where students voluntarily visited to receive assistance with writing through one-‐one-‐one consultations, to an Academic Counselor position overseeing reading and writing programs (the Writing Lab) at UT Austin’s Football Academics Center. She explains how they retooled “the rock,” their work as writing center practitioners for non-‐traditional contexts and refined what it meant to be a writing center. Participants will be asked to share how other writing center professionals have broken ground by extending writing center practices beyond stand-‐alone writing centers and to discuss what can be from the collective gems of wisdom of participants by considering how student motivation impacts writing center work, as well the challenges that must be faced when applying writing center practices outside of the standalone writing center settings.
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Multi-Modal Sessions: Helping the Students on Their Time, Their Ways (20 min) Robert Downing, University of Central Arkansas This round table discussion explores problems students face in accessing writing center services and explains how one writing center responds to meet those needs. The presenter shares how the utilization of new technologies, Instant Messaging and Skype Sessions, Texting Sessions, and revamping regular email sessions have increased student accessibility. Issues of feasibility and cost will also be addressed. Exploring new ways to help students access writing center services on their own time with individual modes of communication should be a critical concern for all writing centers because a writing centers face the recurring challenge of expanding their outreach to students across campus.
F.3 Reagan Room Mining for Diamonds with Resistant Clients: An Exploration & Workshop (60 min) Joanne Keith, Kaci Plunkett, Lydia Speake, & Megan Van Eaton East Central University This interactive session consist of four components: 1) a discussion of the kinds of resistant clients writing centers are likely to encounter; 2) a summary of the literature on working with resistant clients; 3) small group problem solving activities to explore strategies for working with different kinds of resistant students; and 4) a whole group discussion and summarization of small group activities leading to strategies for working with resistant clients. F.4 Clinton Room
Reddie, Set, Go! The Facets of Tutoring and Assessment (60 min) Martha Dale Cooley, Negeen Ghasedi, Tara Grieger, Jesse Harness,
Matt Runyan, and Cara Wilsey Henderson State University This panel presentation explores ways of assessing tutors’ and writing center staff members work in the writing center and discusses the differences in the needs of non-‐native English speakers and School of Business students. Format, tone, style, and emotional appeal that accompany the business aesthetic and the unique challenges of communicating and learning when
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tutoring ESL students will be addressed. Four different assessment methodologies will be examined: end-‐ of-‐session surveys by the tutee, surveys by tutors, on-‐the-‐spot peer evaluations, and the anonymous aggregate evaluations based on the tutors' critiques. Given the subjective nature of writing center and tutoring efficacy, is this data quantifiable? This presentation explores various questions to be included on the tutee questionnaires and what facets of tutoring should be evaluated for ideal insight into tutoring sessions and evaluations.
Session G: 10:30 – 11:30 am
G.1 Obama Room Seeking to Polish Our Diamonds in the Rough: Expanding Writing Center Practices to Support Developmental Writers (20 min) Natalie Smith, Baton Rouge Community College This presentation explains why writing centers need to do more to meet the needs of developmental students who are often intimidated they often lack the confidence and the discourse to participate actively in tutoring sessions. Writing Centers must adopt more creative approaches, cross traditional boundaries, and challenge developmental students’ perceptions of tutoring. For Writing Centers, this decision can be gradually and easily implemented by targeting developmental students inside their current learning environments through class visitations, Writing Center sponsored workshops, and tutor integration in developmental English classrooms. Fractured Parallels: Adventures in Cross-‐District Alignment of Writing Center Services (20 min) Maradee Kern, San Jacinto College The three campuses (Central, South, and North) that comprise San Jacinto Community College District in southeast Houston are united by a Strategic Plan that claims a “One-‐College Approach”: Two of the three campuses (Central and South) have writing centers, and all three campuses have “student success” centers (subject tutoring) and math labs. Campus administrators, however, have created two very different sets of policies to guide our writing centers. This presentation examines the challenges faced in consistency, diplomacy, and discretion as the writing centers worked to extract and polish a multi-‐faceted, “aligned” student support service gem, and explains how two centers flourished in spite of conflicting inter-‐campus
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directives. Following the presentation, audience members will share their multi-‐faceted alignment adventures in an informal discussion.
Demystifying the Literature Review: A Lesson for Undergraduates on Structure (20 min) Jonathan Cisco, University of Missouri Literature reviews are the cornerstone of any major research paper in the sciences and humanities. This presentation will demonstrate how a simple, 10 minute lesson can teach that structure. Research has demonstrated that writing centers are ideal locations help students to overcome confusion and difficulties in writing literature reviews. The presenter explains how semi-‐ structured interviews during tutoring sessions helped assess common undergraduate concerns regarding literature reviews and students’ reactions after being taught the 10 minute lesson. The findings show that the literature review lesson left students with a sense of confidence and direction.
G.2 BUSH ROOM Writing Centers as Sites of Social Empowerment (20 min) Chad Meiners, Sam Houston State University
This presentation explores several aspects of writing center theory, including peer collaboration; benefits to teachers, students, peers, and administrators; and writing centers as liminal zones of discourse and centers of writing across the curriculum to prove that writing centers benefit everyone involved and serve as sites of social empowerment because they develop people’s ability to negotiate their writing in a discourse community. The presenter will examine the history and evolution of WCs over time; the benefits students, tutors, teachers, directors, and administrators can gain from WCs; the role of WCs in writing across the curriculum; WCs as a multilingual and liminal zone; and examples of innovative WCs. The goal of the presentation is to emphasize the important role of WCs within their greater academic and professional communities.
Role Playing for Tutors! (40 min) Gabriel Orphe & Devon Bouffard, Sam Houston State University This presentation concerns the various roles that tutors and peer educators can use to better utilize students' distinct learning stlyes for successful
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learning experiences. By drawing correlations between occupational roles and tutoring roles, peer educators can identify characteristics of these roles in themselves in order to fully address the needs of students. This presentation will include a hands-‐on activity, a visual presentation, and a discussion about the topics covered.
G.3 Reagan Room
From Coal to Diamonds: Everything I Learned About Teaching I Learned in the Writing Center (20 min) Gale Lankford, University of Arkansas at Little Rock-‐Benton Center This presentation explores the experiences of a teacher who began college as a first-‐generation, underprepared, nontraditional student and quickly became a writing center client. After an overview of how work in the writing center led to her nomination for a writing center internship, the presenter explains how she continued to doubt her abilities, despite continued encouragement from her peers and mentors, even though she transitioned from a writing center internship to a major in writing and a graduate assistantship in the writing center, that concluded in an MA in Professional and Technical Writing. As a full-‐time composition teacher who frequently teacher non traditional and second language students, this presenter explains how her educational transition gave her first person insights into the way underprepared students view college and how writing center personnel can help them overcome their fears of the writing process. From Rough to Polished: What a Difference a Year Makes In the Life of an Intern (20 min) Allison Holland, University of Arkansas at Little Rock This presentation provides an overview of students’ attitudes before and after experiencing a writing center internship. Working in an environment where there is no money to pay interns, this presentation explains how a 30-‐year old writing center has remained staffed with an average of 23 undergraduate and graduate students each semester. Why would students sign up to receive academic credit to work in a writing center that has clients from across the curriculum, never schedules appointments, and has had over 41,000 visits from clients since 2004? By exploring the unique chemistry that attracts students to serve as writing center interns for 90 hours a semester, who also often stay long beyond their work shifts to assist clients and one another, this presentation explains why writing centers provide
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unique learning opportunities that are often more valuable than any monetary fain. It’s All in the Diamond Cutting Process: Effective Tutoring in Tough Times (20 min) Martha Dale Cooley, Henderson State University This presentation explains how a unique writing center has dealt with changing academic times by training tutors to adapt to the evolving needs of clients over time. Many writing centers face marginalization on their college campuses because their services are sometimes misunderstood as “only remedial.” This presenter explains how perseverance, a positive attitude, campus involvement, a commitment to excellence, and the ability to adapt to the emerging needs of a university are critical for a writing centers’ survival. The key is real collaboration between writing center directors and their staff members who must work together as a team and remain true to writing center values and goals in the work across the curriculum. Attendees will have time to share their own experiences in facing the challenges of leading and working in writing centers.
