-Reply

[The Writing Center <WRCENTER@irn.pdx.edu>]

Hi Jenny,

Sorry for the late reply--just got back to WCENTER after a fews days
hiatus.

I can't speak for all our tutors here, but perhaps a few
generalizations won't unduly mischaraterize our efforts here.

You ask:
>I was wondering if, in your writing centers, do you concentrate more
on
>the form or grammar of a piece or how its content brings out the
voice of
>the student?

In my experience, most tutors here take their cues from the writer
about what to concentrate in any given piece of writing.  In the
absence of such cues (or failure to recognize such cues), most of us
start with the big picture (HOCs):  What class, what assignment,
questions about what the writer thinks about the material/assignment
(perhaps here is where voice initially comes in), audience
considerations , issues of structure and organization (these last two
also IMO have much to do with voice as well as with discipline spcific
conventions--form?).

As I alluded to above, not all sessions follow this pattern. 
Sometimes a writer will ask to focus on LOCs: grammar, puncutuation,
mechanics, proofreading.  And so this becomes the tutor's starting
point though I think more often than not, the tutor will ask the
writer to at least briefly revisit the HOCs (all of this, of course,
depends on the relationship between the writer and tutor--that is,
whether the tutor and writer have worked together before, how aware
the writer is his or her own writing, and so on).

There, now I guess I've refused to come down on one side or the
other, but if push comes to shove, I'll concentrate on voice--on
inviting the writer into the academic conversation, discipline
specific or not--on encouraging the writer to engage in exploration
and discussion--on assuring the writer that he or she is
entitled/needed to participate in such exploratins and discussions.

OK, off my soap bottle (much more precarious than the proverbial soap
box!).  Hope some of this answers your question.

Cliff Barnett
PSU Writing Center