Re: wc's, faculty referral, student resposibility

[Catherine_Imbriglio@postoffice.brown.edu]

Beth:

I'd just like to clarify that the "Brown" model is for our Writing Fellows
Program.  It is _not_ the model we follow at our Writing Center.    Though
the Center is staffed from people from various disciplines, we read
whatever paper a writer brings in.   We don't ordinarily match people up by
discipline.

Even so, the list's recent discussions on "knowledge" and "authority" in
conference dynamics seems especially apt for our Center.  One of the things
I've been wrestling with is how to deal with the advantages and
disadvantages that come from the hierarchical relationships that develop in
our conferences simply because our Center's staff members are all graduate
students (mostly doctoral candidates, plus me, a Ph.D. in English and
American Lit).      Most of the literature on WC conferencing that I'm
aware of doesn't seem to address specifically the kind of "built-in"
structural disparities that result simply because of the experience and
maturity level that graduate students bring to their conferences.   Is
there anything out there that I'm missing?

Catherine

>
>In the model which Christina Murphy called "the wave of the future"
>(though I'm not clear on how it differs from the Brown model, which
>has been debated for at least the last 12 years), tutors are assigned
>to "cover" specific classes.  So tutors have the edge on the tutees
>both in terms of status (they get a special title, pay, etc.) and in
>terms of knowledge (tutors are assigned to work with classes
>in their own disciplines, so they know at least as much about the
>subject as the tutee).  The tutee would rarely get to "change roles"
>with the tutor, because the tutor knows the subject alcready (though
>I suppose the tutor could pretend not to know something, so as to test
>the tutee's grasp of a concept).
>
>So if we accept what Christina Murphy said about the need for
>role changing and acceptance of difference between consultant
>and client, what's the advantage of the Brown model?
>
>Christina Murphy also said that writing center directors need to face
>the fact that there is no "content" to writing outside of a
>discipline; good writing is discipline-specific.  But again, it seems
>students would best learn that when they have an opportunity to see
>writing in different disciplines.  Otherwise, they fall prey to the
>same misguided assumptions about writing that faculty do when they
>boast that "Writing in history [philosophy, chemistry, business] is
>not like writing in philosophy [history, chemistry, business] because
>we have to [be precise, support our claims, avoid wordiness]."
>
>The experience of working with writers in different disciplines,
>rather than being stuck in one discipline, is what attracts many of us
>(students and faculty) to work in writing centers to begin with.
>
>Dr. Beth Rapp Young
>U of Alabama in Huntsville
>YoungBR@email.uah.edu
>


Catherine Imbriglio
Coordinator of the Writing Center
Box 1852 English
Brown University
Providence RI 02912