Re: wc's, faculty referral, student resposibility

[Twila.Yates.Papay@Rollins.Edu]

Catherine,
     While the Brown model as you is not currently followed in your Center, 
it has sometimes been promoted by people as the model they wish all 
Centers to use.  A few Writing Centers over the years have adopted the "Brown
Model" of Writing Fellows.  It seems to have served them well.
     I suggest in your own case that the solution is simple--hire some real 
peer tutors: undergraduates.  Your Center dynamics would change dramatically if
you varied your staff.  At Rollins our first peer writing consultants were 
day program (usually age 20-22).  Later I got to hire a few Holt School peer
consultants (older, "nontraditional"), then 3 graduate students; now we also 
have "community volunteers," some being retired professionals.  This has given
us a very diverse staff.  They all take the same training course, 
discovering how much they have to learn from their clients--and each other.
     So all groups benefit from exchanging information--and clients still 
seem to sign up for the most convenient times, rather than checking the 
credentials of the peer consultant.
    
Twila Papay
Rollins College

On Sun, 3 Nov 1996 Catherine_Imbriglio@postoffice.brown.edu wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
>