Praxis: A Writing Center Journal • Vol. 20, No. 1 (2022)

From the Editors: Growth in the Writing Center

Kiara Walker
The University of Texas at Austin
praxisuwc@gmail.com

Kaitlin Passafiume
The University of Texas at Austin
praxisuwc@gmail.com

Not surprisingly to those of us with our feet firmly planted in writing center work, the theories we produce, the policies we enact, and the very texts we advise, have a far reaching impact beyond the walls of our centers. As consultants or tutors, we might advise a doctoral candidate on their dissertation involving superconductors on a Monday, we may chat with a pre-med writer about application standards on a Tuesday, and we may consult with a music major on carpet weavers’ oral histories on a Wednesday. As administrators, we fight for maximum representation within our consultant pools, we write policies that enjoin our universities to change outdated practices, and we strive to help the writers we serve feel safe in our spaces. We act as a microcosm of the wider educational cosmos, yet the work we do reaches into every nook and cranny of that larger institution. Indeed, our work reaches beyond. 

The immense impact of writing center work may come as a surprise to those who are not involved directly in writing center scholarship and practice. These individuals might view us as a help center, or even a tutoring service. We are certainly these things, but our work is so much more. The articles included in the Fall 2022 edition of Praxis: A Writing Center Journal showcase the diverse accomplishments of writing center work, emphasizing the way in which many writers can consider our service as a compass of sorts, helping learners to be better versions of the inspiring scholars they already are. We are pleased to present you with the current issue, “Growth in the Writing Center.”

In “Helping Undergraduate Tutors Conduct and Disseminate Research: A Practical Guide for Writing Center Administrators,” authors Megan Keaton, Ashley Schoppe, and Daisha Oliver emphasize the importance of undergraduate research. These writers reveal the writing center as the prime hub for young scholars’ investigations, discussing the mutual benefit of devoting time and resources to develop undergraduate writers’ research. They suggest some methods by which this goal can be achieved, and as thorough work usually does, they end by presenting some of the challenges centers might face while undertaking the important work of elevating young scholars’ projects.

In “Center-ing Graduate Writers’ Beliefs, Practices, and Help Seeking Behaviors,” Victoria L. O’Connor, Red D. Douglas, and Sherry Wynn Perdue perform a mixed method study to better understand the particular needs of graduate students. By surveying and interviewing students at Oakland University, the authors gain insight into these graduate students’ perspectives on advisors, resources, and beliefs associated with writing. In the process, the authors assess the graduate programming at their own writing center and also offer strategies and guidance for other writing centers offering graduate support. 

Molly Parsons and Emma K. Brown take writing center alumni research in a new and generative direction in “Tutor Alums Doing Good: A Qualitative Study of the Character Strengths of Writing Tutor Alumni.” Through their alumni research project, the authors address how writing center training and experiences help tutors make a positive impact in post-graduation contexts. The authors offer a heuristic centered on character strengths to analyze tutor alumni work “toward good” as well as to measure the influence of our field.

Salena Sampson Anderson closes the current edition with her thought-provoking piece entitled, “Self-Initiated Writing Center Visits and Writing Development: A First-Year Writing Assessment.” The author offers an empirical study to illustrate improvements she observed between a group of first-year writers’ first and second semesters of study. She examines how these achievements compare to a control group of writers who did not make use of writing center services, thus illustrating the undeniably positive effects that writing center influence can have, by way of quantitative data.

Finally, we here at Praxis want to thank our readers and our review board for their continued support. We are proud to share this collection, and we look forward to the conversations that these pieces will continue or start.