A Writing Center Journal
What happens when we write? Why do we teach writing the way we do? How does writing education engage with questions of race, gender, accessibility, and cultural difference? How does the writing center function as an interdisciplinary space?
Axis extends the writing center conversation from Praxis, our peer reviewed scholarly journal, into a public forum. Exploratory, experimental, and informative, the blog speaks to questions on the cutting edge of writing center theory and practice. Axis features writing from undergraduate and graduate educators at the University of Texas at Austin, and guest writers from universities across the United States.
An introduction to our new Assistant Editor, Kaitlin Passafiume: Through my work in Diversity and Inclusion, I feel positioned to use these theoretical and practical skills as an editor of Praxis, suggesting that the future of writing centers is a path that incorporates greater representation.
Read MorePraxis’s Summer 2021 issue: Attention and Awareness in the Writing Center is live.
Read MoreLeaders—at least when they’re peer tutors—are also writers, and writing assignments are important ways to encourage reflection. Asking students to reflect on the relationship between peer tutoring scholarship and leadership will allow tutors to consider how leadership skills complement their work as peer tutors and, just as importantly, identify the times leadership doesn’t seem to fit with or describe their work.
Read MoreIt’s easy to understand why we reject the leadership label when it comes to the work of peer tutors. Traditional notions of leadership related to authority, power, and control seem antithetical to the collaborative work of the writing center. A leader achieving an outcome doesn’t seem quite the right model for the recursive, process-based work of writing. We hear leadership and imagine the stick figure on top of the mountain.
Read MoreUnfortunately, many students become hindered in their process by the expectations of writing. A common question that learners lead with is, “Can you check my grammar?” The imposed importance of grammar throughout all education levels can hold a student back in their writing. As sharing with peers, a tutor, or instructor allows for freedom and strength of identity, giving a student more credit for their innate abilities with language allows the same empowerment.
Read MoreThe required Writing Center appointments introduced students to the Center’s location, familiarized them with the software, and helped them build rapport with the staff. The visits themselves helped the students learn necessary skills like time management, responsibility, preparedness, and collaboration. The end result is that the students performed better in the class and learned how to think about their writing, catch mistakes, and apply the necessary skills to plan, organize, develop, and produce better writing.
Read MoreAn update on the special issue in which we called for submissions last fall.
Read MorePraxis’s Spring 2021 issue: Learning from Responses in the Writing Center is live.
Read MoreChallenging the status quo, questioning traditions, crosstalk— none of these things seem natural at a military academy. And yet, most, if not all of the Cadet Writing Fellows I have worked with over the years, have developed the confidence and skills in collaboration needed to question and produce their own scholarship.
Read MoreFor the past three years, I have served as the Senior Postgraduate Writing Fellow in the Mounger Writing Program, a subsection of the West Point Writing Program at the U.S. Military Academy. I joined the ranks, so to speak, of this writing center under the assumption that I would be entering a particular kind of Pratt-esque “contact zone” (or a combat zone) in the most traditional sense of it—one where the program tried to “militarize” writing and consulting in a formulaic, un-embodied way, and then the Cadet Writing Fellows would follow suit.
Read MoreIn the group setting, then, we find it important to not shy away from tutors’ positions of authority, but to use those in productive ways. As tutors are also students themselves, they are more relatable to the students in the group appointments. Thus, the students are more open to listening and opening up to the tutor because they are not teachers, but they still have valuable experiences and knowledge to share.
Read MoreWithin the Writing Center, a relationship between tutor and writer can develop into a deeper connection of learning, sharing, and communication. Within the group tutoring sessions at Grand View, establishing this relationship between tutor and writer early on is integral to creating a successful long-term working environment for both parties.
Read MoreManaging time in a group appointment is a bit different than managing time in a one-on-one appointment. In a group appointment you have to make sure that you have time to answer all the writer’s questions, and not just focus on one. As a tutor, it becomes especially important to set clear time limits. On a practical level, this may mean splitting the time evenly between each writer while still working to make the group appointment feel cohesive.
Read MorePraxis’s Fall 2020 issue: Inclusion in the Writing Center is live.
Read MoreThis final blog outlines the processes we underwent in the days leading up to the event to make sure LNAP was successful for the attendees and the collaborators.
Read MoreThe idea that the writers who visit the writing center must already be literate in academic discourse is an absurd assumption, but it admittedly one many tutors have before they begin tutoring. Yet with the ever-changing, increasingly diverse students that are attending college in today’s age, we must consider what their needs are and how best to equip them with those needed skills. This is why Grand View’s group Writing Center appointment-as-class-credit model came about in the first place.
Read MoreHow have your usage patterns changed since COVID-19? Which writer communities seem particularly engaged in your remote services? Which writer communities might need more outreach? What campus partners or collaborators could help you reach reluctant participants? How could being a part of LNAP outreach help them in return?
Read MoreIn Praxis Vol. 16, no. 1, Sidney Thompson offered us a vision of “Elastic English,” drawing on traditions of mindfulness and also on insights from Transcendentalist literature to consider the power and potential for transformation in the writing consultation. Here, Thompson offers further thoughts on what writers and consultants stand to gain from the experience of consulting and from taking this approach.
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