[Englmajors] ENGL 474: Writing Center Theory and Practice

[Melissa Wensel]

Students interested in tutoring in the English Department Writing Center 
or in learning more about writing center theory should check out the 
following description for ENGL 474:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Here's the real one!
Date: 	Thu, 08 May 2008 10:17:24 -0700
From: 	Louisa Peck <peckl at u.washington.edu>

ENGL 474:  Special Topics in English for Teachers: Writing Center Theory 
and Practice
Autumn Quarter 2008
MW 2:30 pm. -4:20 p.m.
SLN:  13126


What lies at the heart of teaching students to write or to improve their
writing?  Is it as simple as showing them how to impose order on their
ideas by explaining the mainstays of expository writing, or do we delve
into the genesis of those ideas themselves, unraveling the draft’s
fabric and upending what seemed settled in search of deeper, more
defined insights?   Or both?  If writing evolves from an interior
dialogue of question and response, can writers profit from revisiting
that process with an interested and probing conversation partner?

The method of writing center tutoring known as “non-directive” answers
/yes /to the last two questions.   Over the past 40 years, scholars of
Writing Center Theory have wrestled with issues of authority, agency,
and collaboration as they are played out in writing center work.   ENGL
474, /Writing// Center// Theory and Practice/, is at once a hands-on
practicum of how to best tutor writing and a survey of landmark essays
through which this method evolved.   Required of all tutors who work at
the English Department Writing Center, the course is open to all
students interested in the dynamics of writing instruction and peer
tutoring.

ENGL 474 runs fall quarter only, M/W 2:30 – 4:30.  Enrollment requires
an add code from the instructor, Louisa Peck.  Contact at:
peckl at u.washington.edu

* *

*Topics Covered *



Ø      *Conference dynamics*

o  goals and benefits of tutoring

o  methods of engaging with and responding to students

o  basics of non-directive tutoring

o  questioning, observing, assessing and diagnosing

o  directive vs non-directive input – continuums and tutor choices



Ø      *The experience of tutoring*

o  contrasted with teaching and editing

o  anxiety, ego, and self-assessment

o  observing, critiquing, and reviewing sessions

o  initial tutoring experiences: debriefing and discussion



Ø      *Defining the Writing Center: history and purpose*

o  Steven North: /The Idea of a Writing Center/ – defining the writing
center’s role historically in the academic community

o  writing as internalized dialogue externalized; tutoring as an
extension of the writing process; knowledge as a social artifact (among
knowledgeable peers)

o  minimalist tutoring: keeping the onus on the writer

o  collaborative tutoring: modeling and acquisition in the zone of
proximal development

o  evolving models of knowledge (external and individually held vs
contextual and socially constructed) and their implications for writing
centers (storehouse and garret models vs Burkean Parlor)



Ø      *Focus areas*

o  reading and writing: assessing and modeling reading skills

o  identifying and developing writers’ strategies/analyses/metacognitive
skills

o  Toulmin’s components of argument: claim, evidence, warrant, and
qualifications

o  ESL writers: global versus local error, continuums of directiveness

o  ESL language acquisition theories: behaviorist, innatist,
cognitivist, and interactionist

o  Significance and usefulness of error in beginning writer's texts



Ø      *Power, authority, hegemony, and the Writing Center*

o  peer tutoring: contradiction or complement?

o  power dynamics: stepping back, keeping the session alive

o  appropriate applications of tutor knowledge/authority

o  social models of literacy, tapping cultural conflicts

o  respecting student voices, intentions, and texts

o  critiquing the academic establishment: writing centers as
intellectual loci of change

o  knowledge vs acculturation: toward a post-colonial writing center



/Toward the end of the quarter, teams of students present review jams on
parts of speech, common grammatical errors, and punctuation.   We also
review such style issues as conciseness, strong verbs, and sentence
variety./

****************************************
Louisa Peck
Administrative Director
English Department Writing Center
Padelford B-12    Box # 354330
206-685-2876
http://depts.washington.edu/wcenter
****************************************