WC in Comm. Coll -Reply

[DILWORTH@smtp.munet.edu]

Hi Bill,

I'm kinda interested in this, too.  I wonder if there really *are*
many non-remedial writing centers in the area--university *or*
community college.  I mean, there are still quite a few people out
there who claim to be non-remedial, but who are really hung-up on
grammar errors and things like the 5-paragraph theme.  In fact, that
was true enough that I ended up writing a paper on "freeing the WC." 
After having read many of the postings here, I'm confused:  People on
the list seem to have some very interesting stances on things like
error correction.  But the colleges in this area--and even many of
the universities, it seems--still seem to focus on grammar. 
Community colleges and open-enrollment schools seem to be the ones
who most stubbornly adhere to that approach.

Anyway, here I am, about to take this stupid paper to conference, and
I'm wondering if I'm not just being redundant as blazes!  So what
really *is* going on out there?

By the way, our WC (small, private university) is *very* different,
it seems.  We have 25 Macintosh computers, and everything is done
on-line.  What I mean is that the center functions as anything from a
typing lab to a full-fledged WC, complete with informed readers and a
staff of people trained in using the gobs and gobs of software we
have.  We even have whole classes that come in and use the center. 
Mostly what we do is teach students to use the electronic and paper
tools we make available to them.  We are changing a little to include
a sort of limited-access OWL.  We'll see how it goes.  But
remediation?  Most students aren't interested.  Neither, it seems,
are most instructors. (That's supposed to be the job of fyc classes.)

Anyway, I'm glad you asked.  I hope you gets lotsa response.

Denise Dilworth
Madonna U.
Livonia, MI
dilworth@smtp.munet.edu