Promotions

[Todd McCann <MCCANNT@BAYDENOC.CC.MI.US>]

WCenterians,

Last month, during a faculty in-service, I presented a series of 5 short 
skits exaggerating some of the common myths about writing centers.  I 
wrote the one-minute scripts, and sets of faculty volunteers from the 
audience acted them out without rehearsing.  

I got the idea and picked many of the "myths" after reading Michael 
Pemberton's series on writing center ethics in _The Writing Lab 
Newsletter_.  Thank you, Michael.  

Example: the first skit was titled, "Writing Center Tutors Write 
Students' Papers for Them," and it started out like this:

Janet, a WC tutor, and Michelle, a student writing a research paper for a 
political science class, are sitting together in the WC discussing 
Michelle's paper.

M:  I just can't think of anything to write.
J:  (Grabs the pencil from Michelle's hand.)  Well, how about starting off 
with, "The Reagan administration is solely responsible for America's huge 
international debt"?
M:  But I don't know that.  How can I...
J:  Take my word, Reagan messed us up bad.  You want your first sentence 
to really grab the reader and shake him.
M:  But I liked Reagan; I voted for him twice.
J:  (Continues writing.)  Don't let it bother you.  Let's see, how about, 
"Reagan ignored the rising debt while increasing unnecessary defense 
spending."  Sound good?
M:  But my instructor wants us to write our own thoughts and back them up 
with outside sources.
J:  Hey, take it from me.  I know your instructor.  She's a real left-
winger--Birkenstocks, public radio, Green Peace--the whole bit.  You 
better believe she hated Reagan.  You write a paper praising him and 
she'll drill you.

And so on for another half-minute or so.

The faculty group loved the skits, and between each one I stepped in and 
told them "the truth" about our writing center.  My message was delivered 
in a very enjoyable way.  I even got requests to do the skits in classes. 
We do the first one today, with our tutors playing the parts.

Just another promo-info tool to put into your bags of tricks.

Todd McCann
mccannt@baydenoc.cc.mi.us